Samayasara

SR No.: 006764
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1989
Total Pages: 370
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Agam, & Canon
File Size: 20 MB

Page 47

INTRODUCTION
difficult question to settle whether the Upanisadic thinkers borrowed this doctrine from non-Aryans or the Egyptians. Probably the truth is that they borrowed from non-Áryans who were living in the land at the time of the Áryan invasion. They were evidently having a higher form of culture. and thus they were champions of a more satisfactory doctrine of Self. The (value of any theory depends upon its offering satisfaction to intelletual curiosity. Any theory of creation, any philosophy that retains the importance of human personality and maintains it to be an eternal principle will be forced not only to look forward to an infinite future but also to trace back to an infinite past. The human personality that is associated with the short span of the present, must somehow be related to a hoary past as well as a glorious future, making the present but a step in this spiritual evolution. It is this process of spiritual development that is the inner meaning of the doctrine of transmigration. It is because of the Truth of this principle of spiritual progress that the Indian mind persists in tenaciously clinging to that doctrine. If this is remembered then we can very well understand that the attitude of Gough and others is more guided by inborn prejudice than by an endeavour to intellectual appreciation. Upanisadic thought is not the babbling of a primitive race but it marks an important stage in the philosophic development of Indian culture. Associated with this doctrine of metempsychosis is the doctrine of Karma. Samsara, the cycle of births and deaths is supposed to be the result of Karma-as a man soweth So doth he reap. Samsara for the Upanisadic thinker meant a meaningless chain of births and deaths heralding a gloomy prospect. The summum bonum of life for the Upanisadic thinker therefore consisted in liberation from this chain. The very term Mokşa implies "Deliverance", "Liberation." Pessimistic aversion may be present with an inborn optimism of the future, the inherent evil of Samsara and the implied possibility of Mokşa. These constitute the correlative doctrine to that of Brahman which together form the message of Upanisadic thought. All the latter Indian systems in spite of their mutual differences are permanently based upon these ideas. This fact stands as an evidence of the unity of their origin, i.e. all the Indian systems are born of the Upanisadic speculations.
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The Upanisads and the Western thinkers-The first knowledge of the Upanisads gained by European scholars is an interesting historical fact. A Mogul prince, one of Shah Jehan's sons, evidently influenced by Akbar's dream of universal religion attempted to bring about a union between Hinduism and Islam. With this purpose he translated the Upanisads into Persian for the benefit of his coreligionists. A copy of this Persian translation was presented to a French scholar who was interested in the study of Zoroastrianism. This French scholar translated the Upanisads from Persian to Latin. This Latin version fell into the hands of Schopenhauer, who by personal temperament and philosophic tradition was eminently fit to appreciate the philosophy of the Upanisads. It was he who first popularised its study among German students. He himself