Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
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may be due ent irely t o God’s grac e, espec ially in t he Qualified Non-Dualist ic sc hool
known as the Cat Sc hool, sinc e God transports the soul to salvation as a cat
transports her kitten from A to B, by the sc ruff of the nec k. In the sramanic sc hools
and in Samkhya, salvation is as it were dictated by the state of one’s karma; while
the theistic traditions treat karma as administered (so to speak) by God, and
indeed it becomes itself an expression of God’s grace. In Madhva’s system karma is
int rinsic t o t he life of t he individual: God simply works out his dest iny. T his has an
analogy t o Calvinist predest inat ion... In some t radit ions ‘living liberat ion’ is possible,
in whic h a saint reac hes a kind of perfec t ion and c omplet e serenit y. Most ly t heist ic
liberat ion is post mort em...
T he t ypic al assumpt ion in t he Hindu t radit ion is t hat every living body is
mat c hed by a soul (somet imes c alled atman a n d s o me t imes purusa, or else c it or
consciousness). However, in Advaita Vedanta the identity between the Divine Being
and the Self is taken strictly. Consequently we all, so to speak, share the same
Self. It is our limit ed view or projec t ion whic h c auses us t o see separate selves. It is
like a light seen t hrough a c olander. It looks like many light s when it is in fac t only
one. Advaita in this way shows an affinity to Buddhism, in that the latter has many
individual c onsc iousnesses but none are permanent; so at the lower or empiric al
level of truth we have a host of transmigrating individuals, lac king permanenc e.
Apart from t he karmic linkage bet ween lives, it is assumed t hat yogis c an by
t he proc ess of purifying t heir c onsc iousness remembe r previous lives. Spirit ual
leaders are held also to have other paranormal powers, such as telepathy and the
ability to read others’ minds. In regard to rebirth, arguments other than appeal to
put at ive memory are used, most ly empiric al — notably the oc c urrenc e of c hild
geniuses, apparently paranormal rec ognitions, and so on.
T he most import ant ont ologic al divide in t he Indian t radit ion is bet ween t he
permanent and the imperma nent. Advait ins int erest ingly define t he illusory as t hat
whic h is impermane nt. But even the rest of the tradition whic h takes the
impermanent to be real, sees the distinction to be vital. This introduces a difference
from Western distinc tions. It means that in the Hindu sc hools the c onsc iousness or
self, whic h is permanent, is sharply distinguished from the psyc hophysic al
organism. Consequently suc h entities as buddhi and the ahamkara or individuat ing
fac t or, lit erally t he ‘I-maker,’ are composed of subtle matter. In short, the mind—
body distinc tion is drawn rather differently in the Hindu tradition. Moreover, the
psyc hic geography differs: there is nothing c orresponding to the will or to reason.
(There is of c ourse suc h a notion as reasoning or t arka.)
Indian epist emology plays a role in philosophy of religion, of c ourse. T he
various systems have lists of pramanas or sourc es of knowledge, suc h as
perc eption and inferenc e. Though inferenc e is c onc eived differently in relation to
st yles of syllogism used c ompared wit h t he West , t he basic not ion of inferenc e is
similar. But perc ept ion is oft en t aken t o inc lude yogic perc ept ion or (roughly)
religious experienc e, or perhaps more narrowly c ont emplat ive or myst ic al
experience... A third sourc e is ac knowledged in most Hindu sc hools, namely
testimony or sabda. T his refers not just t o empiric al t est imony but also
transc endental t est imony, ie revelat ion... Hindu sc hools are tec hnic ally known as
ast ika. Lit erally t his means ‘t here is—ish’: this refers to the existence of revelation
(c onc eived as a Brahminic al oral tradition). The notion of testimony as a sourc e of
knowledge is an interesting one, little treated in the West.