DUALISM OF BRAHMANICAL AND ZOROASTRIAN PHILOSOPHERS. 7 
“Get rid of ignorance,” says the Vedantist; “all the evils 
and sufferings of life arise from your not knowing that you 
are God (Brihma).” 
Confessedly, at any rate, the Advaita or Non-duality of the 
Vedantist amounts practically (that is, in the vydvaharika or 
practical world) to a kind of Dvaita or Duality. 
It is commonly said that Sankara, the great Vedanutist 
Teacher of the 8th century of our era, was a stern wpholder 
of the Non-duality creed against the Dvaita, or Duality 
creed. 
On the other hand it is commonly alleged that the chief 
teacher of the Duality (Dvaita) doctrine was the great 
Vaishnava teacher Madhva, who is believed to have lived in 
the 13th century. 
Strictly speaking, however, the only difference between the 
teaching of these two eminent philosophers was that Sankara 
taught that the separate spirits of men were the product of 
an eternal Illusion united from all eternity with the one 
Spiritual Essence, while Madhva taught that the spirits of 
men had a real eternal existence of their own. 
It is a question, indeed, whether one form of Dualism, which 
ultimately became formulated in the Sankhya system of 
philosophy, was uot a more ancient belief in India than 
Advaita or Non-duality. 
The idea of a second principle, as necessary to the act of 
creation, is vaguely implied in a text of the well-known hymn 
of the Rig-veda (x, 129), thus translatable :— 
“Then in the beginning in that one Being arose Desire, 
which was the primal germ of Mind, and the subtle bond of 
connection between Entity and Nullity.” 
Again, in an ancient Brahmana (Satapathabrahmana xiv, 4, 
24), as well as in an ancient Upanishad (Brihad-aranyaka i, 3), 
it is affirmed that the “ One 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.” 
A still older idea was the supposed marriage of a 
Heavenly Father (Dyo or Dyans) with Mother Earth (Prithivi) 
for the creation of gods, men, and all creatures, 
When the Sankhya philosophy was formulated its dis- 
tinctive characteristic was the assertion of the eternal existence 
of two principles: 
1. A Producer or creative germ, named Prakriti (but also 
called Maya or “Tllusion”), and 
2. A Spirit (Purusha). 
