2023-03-01 15:21:56 by ambuda-bot
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lxix
Dr. Thibaut himself grants that there is in the
different Upanishads "an apparent uniformity
of leading conceptions." No doubt he says
immediately after that "there runs throughout
divergence in details, and very often not unim-
portant details." If these seeming divergences
can be reconciled, uniformity will remain
throughout, and Dr. Thibaut's idea that the
Upanishads do not teach a consistent system of
doctrine will have to be abandoned. For
instance, he thinks that the account of
creation given in Brihadaranyaka-Upanishad
(I, 4, 1) cannot be reconciled with what he
calls the account of creation given in the second
khanda of the sixth adhyaya of the Chhandogya-
Upanishad. He says that the former speaks of
the "atman-purushavidhah, the self in the shape
of a person which is as large as man and woman
together, and then splits into two halves from
which cows,
horses asses, goats, &c. are
produced in succession." In the latter, on the
other hand, it is said that "in the beginning there
existed nothing but the sat, that which is' and
that, feeling a desire of being many, it emitted
out of itself ether, and then all the other
6
Dr. Thibaut himself grants that there is in the
different Upanishads "an apparent uniformity
of leading conceptions." No doubt he says
immediately after that "there runs throughout
divergence in details, and very often not unim-
portant details." If these seeming divergences
can be reconciled, uniformity will remain
throughout, and Dr. Thibaut's idea that the
Upanishads do not teach a consistent system of
doctrine will have to be abandoned. For
instance, he thinks that the account of
creation given in Brihadaranyaka-Upanishad
(I, 4, 1) cannot be reconciled with what he
calls the account of creation given in the second
khanda of the sixth adhyaya of the Chhandogya-
Upanishad. He says that the former speaks of
the "atman-purushavidhah, the self in the shape
of a person which is as large as man and woman
together, and then splits into two halves from
which cows,
horses asses, goats, &c. are
produced in succession." In the latter, on the
other hand, it is said that "in the beginning there
existed nothing but the sat, that which is' and
that, feeling a desire of being many, it emitted
out of itself ether, and then all the other
6