the illusions subjective or objective which could make any
knowledge, action, or feeling possible for him. Such a man is
called _jivanmukta_, i.e. emancipated while living. For him all
world-appearance has ceased. He is the one light burning alone
in himself where everything else has vanished for ever from the
stage [Footnote ref 1].
Vedanta and other Indian Systems.
Vedanta is distinctly antagonistic to Nyaya, and most of
its powerful dialectic criticism is generally directed against it.
S'a@nkara himself had begun it by showing contradictions and
inconsistencies in many of the Nyaya conceptions, such as the
theory of causation, conception of the atom, the relation of samavaya,
the conception of jati, etc [Footnote ref 2]. His followers carried it to
still greater lengths as is fully demonstrated by the labours of
S'rihar@sa, Citsukha, Madhusudana, etc. It was opposed to Mima@msa so
far as this admitted the Nyaya-Vais'e@sika categories, but agreed
with it generally as regards the prama@nas of anumana, upamiti,
arthapatti, s'abda, and anupalabdhi. It also found a great supporter
in Mima@msa with its doctrine of the self-validity and self-manifesting
power of knowledge. But it differed from Mima@msa
in the field of practical duties and entered into many elaborate
discussions to prove that the duties of the Vedas referred only to
ordinary men, whereas men of higher order had no Vedic duties
to perform but were to rise above them and attain the highest
knowledge, and that a man should perform the Vedic duties
only so long as he was not fit for Vedanta instruction and
studies.
With Sa@mkhya and Yoga the relation of Vedanta seems to
be very close. We have already seen that Vedanta had accepted
all the special means of self-purification, meditation, etc., that
were advocated by Yoga. The main difference between Vedanta
and Sa@mkhya was this that Sa@mkhya believed, that the stuff of
which the world consisted was a reality side by side with the
puru@sas. In later times Vedanta had compromised so far with
Sa@mkhya that it also sometimes described maya as being made
up of sattva, rajas, and tamas. Vedanta also held that according
to these three characteristics were formed diverse modifications
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[Footnote 1: See _Pancadas'i_.]
[Footnote 2: See S'a@nkara's refutation of Nyaya, _S'a@nkara-bha@sya_, II.
ii.]
493
of the maya. Thus Is'vara is be
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