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.journal ft. a. s, (oeylon). [Vol. VIL, Pt, III. 



Upanishads sought spiritual bliss by controlling his passions, 

 and checking his aspirations.* The one felt that bliss, repose, 

 or tranquility was out in the objects he sought — it was objective : 

 the A'charya of the Upanishad period felt that tranquility was 

 in himself — it was subjective. The first is systematized in the 

 Purva Mimansa philosophy : the last in the Yoga doctrine. 



V. The cardinal principle of Yoga and the cardinal doctrine 

 of Gautama Buddha, — " Oh ! man, control thyself" was the 

 principle which Buddha emphatically propounded and incul- 

 cated on his followers. f The Yoga starts and ends with this 

 same statement. $ Nibbuti is thus opposed to Pabatti : 

 attachment to life and its pleasures was opposed to asceticism. 

 This is the first view of Nirvana — the view of moderate reform- 

 ing A'eharyas who, still revering the Yedic polity, aspired 

 beyond it. Their utterances seek to reconcile sacrifices with 

 spirituality, exclusion with absorption. Influenced by the 

 narrowminded, but glorious, past, they rose superior to them- 

 selves, and, ascetically disposed and spiritually moved, looked 

 into a future of universal benevolence. § 



Yl. The Naimisya forest and its ascetics. — Either prevented 

 from living in towns or determined to enjoy his ecstatic trance 

 in the solitude of the wilds, the Kshatriya philosopher or the 

 Sudra, fired with spiritual aspirations, retired into the Naimisya 

 forest, and passed his life there, meditating on the essence of 

 all he saw in external nature or of all he felt within himself. 

 He characterized this conduct as Departure or Pravrajya. He 

 earnestly sought the noumenon which underlies and constitutes 

 all phenomena or tatva. Yarious were the conjectures of 

 such philosophers and ascetics. Some fixed upon air || as 



* The Brihat Aranyaka Upanishad. 



-j- I Compare Virmanassa Nirodhena etth' etam uparajjhadi — a dic- 

 tum of Buddha Gautama and Yogastu Chitta-Vritti-Nirodhah— the Yoga 

 Sutra (I. 2.) 



§ This is the spirit of the Upanishad literature. The distinction between 

 Para and Apara Vidya deserves attention (Murid. I. I. 5.) See again the 

 Mundaka Upanishad (1 2. 2.) 



|| Samvarga Vidya Chhandogya Upanishad (IV. 3, 1.) 



