tman_and_moksa

SR No.: 020053
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G N Joshi
Publisher: Gujarat University
Publication Year: 1965
Total Pages: 901
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 57

The Vedas
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
25
sacrifices. They deal with the nature and performance of the various sacrificial rites to be undertaken for the attainment of heaven, after death. They serve as the Karmakända of the Vedas. They contain less of philosophy in them. However, the Aitare'ya Aranyaka makes a passing reference to Atman. The Aitare'ya Aranyaka inquires into the nature of the soul in the following manner and attempts to explain it in its own way. "What is the soul that we may worship him? Which is the soul? Is it that by which a man sees? by which he hears? by which he smells odours? by which he utters speech? by which he discriminates a pleasant or unpleasant taste? Is it the heart (or understanding)? or the mind or will? Is it sensation? or retention? or attention? or application? or haste? (or pain)? or memory? or assent? or determination? or animal action? or wish or desire?" Attempts were made to understand the soul in terms of the various psychic modes either by identifying the former with them or by projecting some agent behind them. The questions aim at understanding whether there is any entity like the Atman behind all these mental phenomena which controls and regulates their activities.
In reply to these questions the philosopher of the Aitare'ya Aranyaka proceeds thus-"All those are only various names of apprehension. But this (Soul, consisting in the faculty of apprehension) is Brahmā;
For Private And Personal
1 Colebrooke H. T.: Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus, p. 29.