Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
194the Brahminical sacrifice. The second is a degree of influence from contemporary
sramanic thinking, that is, the thinking of those like the Buddhists, Jains, and
others who practiced a degree of austerity and wit hdrawal from t he world in order
to gain release from the round of rebirth. In c onnec tion with the first, the texts
identify the one Reality as Brahman, a non-personal power on the whole, but
sometimes seen as personal Lord and creator. The Reality is also ident ified wit h t he
atman or inner self. Later Vedanta disc ussed whether this means stric t identity (so
there is only one Self) or merely some kind of union or c ommunion. The doc trine is
expressed in a number of great sayings, notably in Chandogya Upanisad, VI.viii. 7,
tat tvam asi or ‘that art thou.’
In the somewhat later Bhagavadgita (but note: early Indian dating is highly
speculative), a more personal picture of God is presented, in the context of the
warrior hero Arjuna’s dilemma before bat t le of having his duty to fight, though in
c onflic t with relatives. The notion is presented of the need to c arry on with one’s
duty or dharma, despite its c onsequenc es: one will not reap the bad fruits of karma
if one c arries it out without selfishness and for the love of God. This more theistic
pic t ure c ame t o be vit al in lat er Vedant a. Meanwhile t he six sc hools of ort hodox
Indian philosophy were forming. In some ways the most basic was Samkhya.
It saw the world as c onsisting on the one hand of prakrti or nature and
innumerable souls or purusas which were, as it were, embedded in nature. Since
t he nat ure of reinc arnat ed exist enc e is basic ally painful, t he aim of a soul is t o
attain liberation from rebirth and the world. The Samkhya system c ame to be
c onjoined to that of Yoga, and it is by prac tic ing c ontemplation through various
tec hniques that the individual soul c omes to see that its essenc e is different from
that of the subtle and gross matter that makes up the world and the psyc hophysic al
organism (often in Indian philosophy c onsc iousness is thought of as transc ending
t he biologic al and psyc hologic al fac t ors whic h make up an individual human being).
While t he Samkhya and Y oga c osmologies are very similar, Y oga does posit a Lord
or God, who is actually not so muc h c reator as the one soul who has never been
immersed in the round of rebirth, and so serves as an inspiration to the
c ont emplat ive individual who is seeking liberat ion. T he basic Samkhya c osmology
was used by Vaishnava forms of t heism for explic at ing the way God evolves the
world. The system posits three gunas or ingredient s in mat t er whic h in differing
blends help to explain the nature of things and of individuals.
In Samkhya and Yoga, as with virtually all Indian systems of thought, the
cosmos pulsat es, t hat is, it evolves from a quiesc ent st at e before ult imat ely lapsing
bac k int o sleep. But t he Mimamsa viewpoint holds rigidly t o t he idea t hat revelat ion
is unc reated and eternal, and so denies both God and the pulsation of the universe.
Its attention is fixed on rit ual: and so t he Vedic hymns are t reat ed simply as a set
of injunc tions. Even the gods turn out to be mere mentions. Mimamsa is paired
with Vedanta, though its presuppositions are so very different. We shall return to
Vedanta later. Meanwhile t he Logic Sc hool (Nyaya) is usually grouped wit h
Vaisesika or at omism. Nyaya set s fort h anc ient Indian logic (lat er logic is known as
Navya-Nyaya or new logic ). Vaisesika exhibit s an at omist ic c osmology, wit h a
presiding God. Nyaya was host to the most famous work on the proof of God’s
existenc e (the Kusumanali of Udayana, 10th c entury CE).