Читать книгу The Rise of Wisdom Moon - Krishna mishra - Страница 27

introduction

Upanishad relates that she first dwelt among foolish persons, who understood nothing of what she had to say. She encountered the traditions of Vedic ritual and thought that she might stay with them, but was able to find only a temporary accommodation based on the mistaken assumption that the Self of which she spoke was the ritual agent. Eventually, these traditions, personified as Sacrificial Science, found her to be a bad influence and so asked her to leave. Meeting then Hermeneutics, the Mimansaka school, her experience with Sacrificial Science was about to be repeated, when the famed Mimansaka teacher Kumarila intervened to introduce the notion of the dual nature of the Self: the aspect of which Upanishad spoke was, he thought, quite distinct from a second dimension, the agent invoked in the ritual traditions. Intuition interrupts her narrative at this point to praise Kumarila’s good sense.

Upanishad continues her story, recounting her experiences with the philosophical systems of Vaisheshika, Nyaya, and Sankhya, all of whom derided her teaching of the absolute Brahman in favor of cosmologies based on atoms or prime matter, and eventually condemned her as a nihilist. Fleeing, therefore, from philosophical arguments and speculations, she wandered until she found a safe haven in the ashram of her daughter Gita.

Her travails now exposed, the Inner Man engages both her and Intuition in dialogue to discover the true meaning of her teaching, whereby the great affirmations (mahavakya) of the Upanishads—such as the famous saying “thou art that”—are introduced. As their conversation advances, Contemplation joins them, carrying a message from Hail ________

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