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BRAHMANISM
ing, dynamic sphere of cogency and penetrating to the One-without-a-second.
The force of the conceptions and paradoxes of Advaita Vedānta in the life and history of the Hindu consciousness, and even today in the civilization of modern India, is simply immeasurable. As Richard Garbe states: “Nearly all educated Hindus in modern India, except in so far as they have embraced European idcas, are adherents of the Vedānta; and three fourths of these accept Sankara's interpretation of the Brahmasūtras, while the rest are divided among the varying explanations of the system offered by one or other of the remaining commentators." 228
"Among the commentators who dissent from Sankara's interpretation of the Vedānta," Garbe proceeds to say, “and who represent one or other of the philosophical and religious standpoints of various sects, the most renowned is Rāmānuja, who lived in the nth century after Christ. Rāmānuja in his exposition ... introduces ... views which are nearly related to the Christian standpoint, but are alien to the true Vedānta doctrine. In his view the individual souls are not identical with the supreme soul, i.c., as he represents it, with God, but are separate and distinct as in the Sankhya-Yoga.220 The cause of their earthly existence is not 'ignorance,' but unbelief; and deliverance is union with God, to be gained not by 'knowledge, but by believing love (bhakti) towards God.” 227 Garbe points out that this point of view approximates to that of the lower knowledge and preliminary understanding described in the Advaita Vedānta of Sankara. It is also that of many of the popular forms of Buddhist worship and belief.
It is interesting to observe that Garbe compares the modified
220 Richard Garbe, “Vedānta,” in Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. XII. p. 597.
226 For a discussion of Sãňkhya and Yoga, cf. supra, pp. 280-832. 227 Garbe, loc. cit., p. 598,
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