DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0046
34 Philosophical Brahmanism.
words (from the Chandogya Upanishad) used as a creed in
the present day by Indian Theistic as well as Pantheistic
sects—Ekam eva advitlyam, 'there is but one Being, no
second.' Nothing really exists but the one impersonal Spirit,
called Atma or Brahma (=Purusha). From him is everything
born; in him it breathes; in him it is dissolved (tajjalan).
He, in the illusion that overspreads him, is to the external
world what yarn is to cloth, what milk to curds, what clay to
a jar; but only in that illusion \ As ether contained in
various vessels and as the sun reflected on various mirrors is
one but apparently many, so is the spirit one and many. As
the potter by the help of clay makes a pot, so the Spirit itself
causes its various births. As an actor paints his body with
colours and assumes various forms, so the Spirit assumes the
bodies caused by its deeds. This eternal impersonal Atma
or Brahma is absolutely One (unlike the Sankhyan Spirit or
Purusha, which is multitudinous); yet it is made up of a
trinity of co-eternal essences—to wit, pure unconscious Ex-
istence (Sat), pure Thought (Cit)2, and pure Bliss (Ananda).
And here let me observe that more than one Christian
writer has pointed out how remarkably this tri-unity of
Entities corresponds with the Trinitarian doctrine of God
the Father, who is the Author of all Existence; God the Son,
who is the Source of all Wisdom and Knowledge; and God
the Holy Spirit, who is the Source of all Joy. But we must
bear in mind that, with the Vedantist, Brahma is only Exist-
ence in the negation of non-existence, only Thought in the
negation of non-thought, only Bliss in the negation of non-
bliss and of all the miseries of transmigration.
When this impersonal unconscious Spirit assumes con-
1 He is not the actual material cause of the world as clay of a jar, but
the illusory material cause as a rope might be of a snake ; see p. 37,1. 7.
2 Cit,' pure unconscious thought' alone, or its equivalent £aitanya, is
often used for Brahma. Brahma is also described in the Upanishads as
Truth, Knowledge, Infinity.
words (from the Chandogya Upanishad) used as a creed in
the present day by Indian Theistic as well as Pantheistic
sects—Ekam eva advitlyam, 'there is but one Being, no
second.' Nothing really exists but the one impersonal Spirit,
called Atma or Brahma (=Purusha). From him is everything
born; in him it breathes; in him it is dissolved (tajjalan).
He, in the illusion that overspreads him, is to the external
world what yarn is to cloth, what milk to curds, what clay to
a jar; but only in that illusion \ As ether contained in
various vessels and as the sun reflected on various mirrors is
one but apparently many, so is the spirit one and many. As
the potter by the help of clay makes a pot, so the Spirit itself
causes its various births. As an actor paints his body with
colours and assumes various forms, so the Spirit assumes the
bodies caused by its deeds. This eternal impersonal Atma
or Brahma is absolutely One (unlike the Sankhyan Spirit or
Purusha, which is multitudinous); yet it is made up of a
trinity of co-eternal essences—to wit, pure unconscious Ex-
istence (Sat), pure Thought (Cit)2, and pure Bliss (Ananda).
And here let me observe that more than one Christian
writer has pointed out how remarkably this tri-unity of
Entities corresponds with the Trinitarian doctrine of God
the Father, who is the Author of all Existence; God the Son,
who is the Source of all Wisdom and Knowledge; and God
the Holy Spirit, who is the Source of all Joy. But we must
bear in mind that, with the Vedantist, Brahma is only Exist-
ence in the negation of non-existence, only Thought in the
negation of non-thought, only Bliss in the negation of non-
bliss and of all the miseries of transmigration.
When this impersonal unconscious Spirit assumes con-
1 He is not the actual material cause of the world as clay of a jar, but
the illusory material cause as a rope might be of a snake ; see p. 37,1. 7.
2 Cit,' pure unconscious thought' alone, or its equivalent £aitanya, is
often used for Brahma. Brahma is also described in the Upanishads as
Truth, Knowledge, Infinity.