-i6 Mr. H. T, CoLEBROOKE on the Philosophy of the Hindus. 



A third school, denominated Paurdnica sdnc'hya, considers nature as an 

 illusion : conforming upon most other points to the doctrine of Patanjali, 

 and upon many, to that of Capila. In several of the Purdnas, as the 

 Matsya, Cdrma and Vishnu, in particular, the cosmogony, wliich is an essen- 

 tial part of an Indian theogony, is delivered consonantly to this system. 

 That, which is found at the beginning of Menu's institutes of law, is not 

 irreconcileable to it.* 



Doctrine of the Sdnc'hya. 



The professed design of all the schools of the Sdnc'hya, theistical, atheis- 

 tical, and mythological, as of other Indian systems of philosophy, is to teach 

 the means by which eternal beatitude may be attained after death, if not 

 before it. 



In a passage of the Vedas, it is said, " Soul is to be known, it is to be 

 discriminated from nature : thus it does not come again ; it does not come 

 again."! Consonantly to this, and to numberless other passages of a like 

 import, the whole scope of the Veddnta is to teach a doctrine, by the know 

 ledge of which, an exemption from metempsychosis shall be attainable ; and 

 to inculcate that as the grand object to be sought, by means indicated. 



Even in the aphorisms of the NydyaX the same is proposed as the reward 

 of a thorough acquaintance with that philosophical arrangement. 



In like manner tlie Grecian philosophers, and Pythagoras and Plato in 

 particular, taught tliat " the end of philosophy is to free the mind from 

 incumbrances which hinder its progress towards perfection, and to raise it 

 to the contemplation of immutable truth," and " to disengage it from all 

 animal passions, that it may rise above sensible objects to the contemplation 

 of the world of intelligence."§ 



In all systems of the Sdnc'hya the same purpose is propounded. " Future 

 pain/' says Patanjali, " is to be prevented. A clear knowledge of discri- 

 minate truth is the way of its prevention."!! 



It is true knowledge, as Capila and his followers insist, If that alone can 

 secure entire and permanent deliverance from evil : whereas temporal 

 means, whether for exciting pleasure, or for relieving mental and bodily 



* Menu, 1. 14—19. f Gaud, on Car. t Got. sutr. 



§ Enfield's Hist, of Phil. 1. 382 and 233. ]| Pat. 2. 16 and 26. f Cap. 1. 1. Car. 1. 



