2023-03-01 15:21:56 by ambuda-bot
This page has not been fully proofread.
lxxi
and point of view in approaching the subject.
The Upanishads sometimes supplement each
other; at other times they contain matter more
or less similar; always their aim is the same,
viz., to state the nature of the Infinite as the
supreme goal and destiny of man's life and the
various stages of the road leading to it. There
is nothing in them which cannot be reconciled;
and it is difficult to understand Thibaut's sneer
when he says that "none but an Indian Com-
mentator would be inclined and sufficiently
courageous to attempt the proof" which will
show that the accounts given in the different
Upanishads can be reconciled. As regards the
particular instance referred to by Dr. Thibaut of
the so-called divergence between the accounts of
creation as given in the two Upanishads just
mentioned, he says that the identification by
Sankara of the atman purushavidhah with Viraj
or Virat-purusha or what he calls one special
form of Isvara is "the ingenious shift of an
orthodox commentator in difficulties and no
more." But no one who knows the Vedantic
doctrine as given in the Mandukya- Upanishad
or the Vedantic doctrine of the successive deve-
and point of view in approaching the subject.
The Upanishads sometimes supplement each
other; at other times they contain matter more
or less similar; always their aim is the same,
viz., to state the nature of the Infinite as the
supreme goal and destiny of man's life and the
various stages of the road leading to it. There
is nothing in them which cannot be reconciled;
and it is difficult to understand Thibaut's sneer
when he says that "none but an Indian Com-
mentator would be inclined and sufficiently
courageous to attempt the proof" which will
show that the accounts given in the different
Upanishads can be reconciled. As regards the
particular instance referred to by Dr. Thibaut of
the so-called divergence between the accounts of
creation as given in the two Upanishads just
mentioned, he says that the identification by
Sankara of the atman purushavidhah with Viraj
or Virat-purusha or what he calls one special
form of Isvara is "the ingenious shift of an
orthodox commentator in difficulties and no
more." But no one who knows the Vedantic
doctrine as given in the Mandukya- Upanishad
or the Vedantic doctrine of the successive deve-