DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0041
Philosophical Brahmanism. 29
good or bad, lead to consequences, and these consequences
must have their adequate rewards or punishments. It is on
this account that the spirit must of necessity be removed
to temporary heavens or hells. Thence it must migrate into
higher, intermediate, and lower corporeal forms, according
to its various degrees of merit or demerit, till it attains the
great end—entire emancipation from the bondage of repeated
bodily existence, and reabsorption into the one Spirit of the
Universe.
With regard to the external world, it is a fixed dogma of
every Hindu philosopher that ex nihilo nihil fit—nothing
is produced out of nothing. Therefore, the external world is
eternal. But according to one view, the external world is
evolved out of an eternally existing productive germ united to
eternally existing individual Spirits. According to another, it
is evolved out of the Illusion which overspreads the one
eternal Spirit, and becomes one with it, though having no real
existence. These two theories in regard to the creation of the
world—the first represented in the Sarikhya system, the second
in the Vedanta system—are both of great antiquity.
The first shadowing forth of the mystery of the creation of
male and female, and of the living world through their union,
is traceable in some of the Vedic hymns. The well-known
hymn of the Rig-veda (X. 129, 4), already quoted, asserts that
first ' in that One Being arose Desire, which was the primal
germ of Mind, and which the wise, searching out in their
thoughts, discovered to be the subtle bond connecting Entity
with Non-entity.'
Again, the Satapatha-Brahmana (XIV. 4. a. 4, etc.) and
Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad (I. 3) declare that 'the Supreme
Being was not happy, being alone. He wished for a second.
He caused his own self to fall in twain, and thus became
husband and wife. He approached her, and thus were human
beings produced' (see p. 182).
In this latter passage is the first clear statement of a duality
good or bad, lead to consequences, and these consequences
must have their adequate rewards or punishments. It is on
this account that the spirit must of necessity be removed
to temporary heavens or hells. Thence it must migrate into
higher, intermediate, and lower corporeal forms, according
to its various degrees of merit or demerit, till it attains the
great end—entire emancipation from the bondage of repeated
bodily existence, and reabsorption into the one Spirit of the
Universe.
With regard to the external world, it is a fixed dogma of
every Hindu philosopher that ex nihilo nihil fit—nothing
is produced out of nothing. Therefore, the external world is
eternal. But according to one view, the external world is
evolved out of an eternally existing productive germ united to
eternally existing individual Spirits. According to another, it
is evolved out of the Illusion which overspreads the one
eternal Spirit, and becomes one with it, though having no real
existence. These two theories in regard to the creation of the
world—the first represented in the Sarikhya system, the second
in the Vedanta system—are both of great antiquity.
The first shadowing forth of the mystery of the creation of
male and female, and of the living world through their union,
is traceable in some of the Vedic hymns. The well-known
hymn of the Rig-veda (X. 129, 4), already quoted, asserts that
first ' in that One Being arose Desire, which was the primal
germ of Mind, and which the wise, searching out in their
thoughts, discovered to be the subtle bond connecting Entity
with Non-entity.'
Again, the Satapatha-Brahmana (XIV. 4. a. 4, etc.) and
Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad (I. 3) declare that 'the Supreme
Being was not happy, being alone. He wished for a second.
He caused his own self to fall in twain, and thus became
husband and wife. He approached her, and thus were human
beings produced' (see p. 182).
In this latter passage is the first clear statement of a duality