VEDANTA. 



tention, affirms that it is not poffible to fpcak in too high 

 terms of fo excellent a work ; and that until an accurate 

 tranflation of it (hall appear in fome European language, 

 the general hillory of philofophy mud remain incomplete. 

 See MlMANSA. 



The elegant author whom we have already named, touch- 

 ing on the Indian metaphyfics of naliiral ior/ii-s, according 

 to the moil celebrated of the Afiatic fchools, from which 

 the Pythagoreans are fuppofed to have borrowed many of 

 their opinions, remarks, that as the old fages of Europe 

 . hid, as we learn from Cicero, an idea of centripetal force, 

 and a principle of univerfal gravitation, which indeed they 

 never attempted to demonftrate ; fo he would venture to 

 affirm, without meaning to pluck a leaf from the never- 

 fading laurels of our immortal Newton, that the whole of 

 his theology, and part of his philofophy, may be found in 

 the Vedas, and even in the works of the Sufis. ( See SuKl. ) 

 That mo/l fiiblih fpirit, which he fufpefted to pervade na- 

 tural bodies, and, lying concealed in them, to caufe attrac- 

 tion and repulfion ; the emiffion, refledtion, and refraftion 

 of light ; eleftricity ; calefaftion ; fenfation and mufcular 

 motion, is defcribed by the Hindoos as a ^fth element, and 

 endued with thofe very powers. The Vedas abound with 

 allufions to a force univerfally attraftive, which they chiefly 

 ufcribe to the fun, thence called " Aditya," or the At- 

 traHor. 



Sir W. Jones, in his inftruftive elTay on the philofophy 

 of the Afiatics, proceeds to obferve, that from all the pro- 

 perties of men and of nature, from all the various branches 

 of fcience, from all the deductions of human reafon, the 

 general corollary admitted by Hindoos, Arabs, and Tar- 

 tars, by Perfians and by Chinefe, is the fupremacy of an 

 all-creating and ail-prcferving fpirit, infinitely wife, good, 

 and powerful, but infinitely removed from the compre- 

 henlion of his moft exalted creatures. Nor are there in any 

 language (the ancient Hebrew always excepted) more pious 

 and fublime addreffes to the Being of beings, more fplendid 

 enumerations of his attributes, or more beautiful defcrip- 

 tions of his vifible works, than in Arabic, Perfian, and 

 Sanfcrit, efpecially in the four Vedas, and in many parts of 

 the Puranas. But fupplication and praife would not fatisfy 

 the boundlefs imagination of the Vedanti and Sufi theo- 

 logills ; who, blending uncertain metaphyfics with un- 

 doubted principles of religion, have prefumed to reafon 

 confidently on the very nature and eflence of the Divine 

 Spirit, and aiTerted in a very remote age, what multitudes 

 of Hindoos and MulTulmans affert at this hour, tliat all 

 fpirit is homogeneous ; that the fpirit of God is i[i kind the 

 fame with that of man, though differing from it infinitely in 

 degne ; and that, as material fubftance is mere illufion, there 

 exills in this univerfe only one generic fpiritual fubftance, 

 the fole primary caufe, efficient, fubllantial, and formal, of 

 all fecondary caufes, and of all appearances whatever ; but 

 endued, in its highell degree, with a fublime providential 

 wifdom, and proceeding by ways incomprehenfible to the 

 fpirits which emanate from it. 



This doftrine, as it is grounded on the behef of an im- 

 material Creator fupremely wife, and a conftant preferver 

 fuprjmely benevolent, differs widely from the pantheifm of 

 Spinoza and Toland. Our limits will not allow our en- 

 larging on the principles of the Vedanta philofophy. 



We have already noticed the admirable commentary by 

 Sankaracharya on the Vedanta dodrines of Vyafa. In 

 Bengal this work is highly eftecmed ; but on the weftern 

 fide of India, it is rivalled, in the ellimation of the learned, 

 by a more concife glofs, entitled Panchadalhi, thought to 

 be not mfenor in clearnefs and accuracy to the Balhea of 

 Sankara. 

 Vol. XXXVI. 



From a ftatement of the fundamental dotlrine maintained 

 by the difciples of the Vedanta fchool, it has been irferred 

 that their philofophy is founded on the contemplation of 

 one mfinite Being, exifting under two Rates or modifica- 

 tions. The firft is that of a pure, fimple, abftraft Eflence, 

 immovable and quiefcent ; the fecond is that of a Being 

 difplaying motion or aftive qualities. Under the firft modi- 

 fication he is called Brimh, or the Great Being, and Ku- 

 talth, or He who fitteth on high ; under the fecond, he is 

 named Ee(h, the Lord, or Jiv, the Soul : or we may fay, 

 that Brimh is Being in its ilate of fimple en"ence ; Ee(h is 

 Bemg exerting energy, and caufing the phenomena of the 

 material univerfe ; Kutafth is Being exilling in fenfitive 

 creatures in its pure fimple Hate; and Jiv is Being in a 

 fentient adive Itate. 



It is rare to find in Vedanta works any attempt to efta- 

 bhfli Its doftrines by any procefs of reafoning. The authors 

 announce the principles of their fed in a dogmatical autho- 

 ritative (lylc, as indubitable truths ; or oftabliih their alfer- 

 tions by the authority of the facrod text alone, and attribute 

 diibehef to paffion and ignorance. Sometimes, indeed, we 

 do perceive an appearance of reafoning and argument, in 

 fupport of the denial of a material world. 



It will be perceived by thofe whorinveftigate the Vedanta 

 philofopliy, that it does not correfpond clofely either with 

 the Berkeleian, or with any other fyftem known in the 

 weftern world. ( See Berkeley.) It does not teach that 

 the Supreme Being is the foul of the univerfe, as was taught 

 by Virgil (fee Maya); that animate beings are fepavite 

 detached portions of his effence, or that the vifible extended 

 material frame of things is God ; but it affirms that the 

 world is one living, unextended, indivifible Being, who pats 

 fortli his energy, and excites in himfelf the phenomena of 

 fenfible things, as well as of fenfation, paffion, &c. In 

 explaining this fyftem, however, the writers frequently 

 make ufe of fuch figures as may hiiflead one who reads only 

 detached paffages of Vedanta works, without examining 

 clofely the nature of their dodrines. Hence the Vedantas 

 have been fuppofed to teach the dodrine of emanations ; and 

 It muft be admitted that pafl"agea occur, even in the Vedas, 

 apparently countenancing this fuppofition. ( See MuRTV. ) 

 In the fourth or Atharva Veda it is faid, that " as the 

 fparks proceed from fire, fo various kinds of animate and 

 inanimate beings proceed from the incorruptible Being." 

 But the beft commentators fay, that thefe expreffions do not 

 mean tiiat thefe are feparate individual beings, but only 

 whatever is beheld or perceived is the Divine ElTence. The 

 Vedanta opinions cannot be reprefented by any figure ; 

 they muft be deduced from plain and fimple declarations. 



The Vedanta philofophy will be found to correfpond with 

 the Berkeleian in this important particular : both deny a 

 material world, referring fenfible things to the energy of 

 a living Being, But the analogy appears to extend no 

 farther. In another important particular they are llrongly 

 oppofed : in maintaining and denying the exiilence of fepa- 

 rate beings, upon whom this energy operates, exciting in 

 their minds the ideas of external things. See more on this 

 fubjed under our articles Mystical Poetry, and Sufi. 



Having offered this flcetch of the Vedanta theory, the 

 pradical maxims of tliis very extended fed will be eafily 

 underftood. They teach that perf^-dion confifts in reft ; 

 that motion or adion is the origin of the moral diftindions 

 of good and evil, both of which muft be renounced, as they 

 involve and imply each other. To the attainment of this 

 fubhme ilaie, it is required that the adive faculties be anni- 

 hilated, and the paffions and affedions fubdued ; that thi: 

 individual be totally indifferent to external things, animate 

 and inanimate, to parents, wives, children, relations, goods,. 

 4 Q or 



