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Sankara's Vedantic doctrine. Colonel Jacob
says: "It may be admitted that if the impossi-
ble task of reconciling the contradictions of the
Upanishads and reducing them to a harmonious
and consistent whole is to be attempted at all,
Sankara's system is about the only one that
could do it. But more than this it would seem
impossible to concede." Dr. Thibaut writes as
follows:-"Sankara's method enables him to
recognise existing differences which other
systematisers are intent on obliterating. And
there has yet to be made a further and even
more important admission in favour of his
system. It is not only more pliable, more cap-
able of amalgamating heterogeneous material
than other systems, but its fundamental doctrines
are manifestly in greater harmony with the
essential teaching of the Upanishads than those
of other Vedantic systems." Sankara's aim was
to formulate and to systematise the teaching of
the Sruti without reading into his doctrine any
sort of un- Vedic tradition, however venerable or
popular. The aim of the Veda is not to put
forth a systematically connected and formulated
view of the facts of the universe, but to explain
Sankara's Vedantic doctrine. Colonel Jacob
says: "It may be admitted that if the impossi-
ble task of reconciling the contradictions of the
Upanishads and reducing them to a harmonious
and consistent whole is to be attempted at all,
Sankara's system is about the only one that
could do it. But more than this it would seem
impossible to concede." Dr. Thibaut writes as
follows:-"Sankara's method enables him to
recognise existing differences which other
systematisers are intent on obliterating. And
there has yet to be made a further and even
more important admission in favour of his
system. It is not only more pliable, more cap-
able of amalgamating heterogeneous material
than other systems, but its fundamental doctrines
are manifestly in greater harmony with the
essential teaching of the Upanishads than those
of other Vedantic systems." Sankara's aim was
to formulate and to systematise the teaching of
the Sruti without reading into his doctrine any
sort of un- Vedic tradition, however venerable or
popular. The aim of the Veda is not to put
forth a systematically connected and formulated
view of the facts of the universe, but to explain