This doctrine was not altogether new, as it • had already been foreshadowed in the earlier texts. Just as Sankara emphasized the aspect of absorption in Brahman, which was also indi cated in the Sruti, so Ramanuja emphasized the doctrine of individuality.
The third school is known as the Dwaita, or dualism, the founder of which was Madhava, who lived in South India about the 14th century. Madhava regarded Brahman, or the all-pervad ing soul, and the individual soul as distinct en tities. Salvation, according to him, was the attainment of eternal bliss by the individual soul, with the aid of Brahman. Excepting this modification, his teachings were no more than a medley of the two prior schools of Vedanta. He made his thought popular by appealing to the masses.
Besides the above three principal schools of Vedantic thought, there have been numerous other systems, which have exercised local in fluence — the only ones worth mentioning be ing the systems of Nilakanta and Ramananda.
As has already been mentioned, Vedanta is not pure speculation. Being a theistic system of philosophy, it is inextricably connected with cosmogony as well as practical conduct of life. Ethics is not specially emphasized in any system of Hindu philosophy, because ethical conduct is an axiom, which inevitably follows from the ac ceptance of Veda as revelation and the founda tion of knowledge. None but the pure can study the Vedas; and none but those conversant with the Vedas can be students of Vedanta. Enquiry into the origin and processes of existence are motivated by the need of the in dividual to attain salvation. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge has no place in the systems of philosophy built up by the Hindus; and knowledge for any other purpose but salvation is anathematized. Therefore, Vedanta had to work up a rule of conduct for life, aiding to ward the attainment of salvation. In the earlier stages of Hindu evolution, great stress was laid on ceremonial rites and the paraphernalia of sacrificial offering to the deities. The Vedant ists rejected this rule altogether as tending to ward the lowering of the soul; preached the doctrine that salvation was to be attained by contemplation. Once again, they omitted all references to ethics, because they took it as axiomatic that only these that are pure in thought, word and deed are fit for meditation. The aspirant to salvation must constantly meditate on Brahman, until he attains freedom from the bondage of existence.
The belief in metempsychosis or transmigra tion of souls plays a great part in Vedanta. This philosophy, or the elaboration of it, owes its existence to Buddhism. Buddha revolted against ceremonial Hinduism, and emphasized ethical conduct and contemplation. He frankly held that life was synonymous with misery and bondage, and that humanity must forever seek to emerge from the bondage in order to attain salvation. He took the text of the Vedas, enunciating the oneness of life and nature, to promulgate his doctrine of transmigration. The soul had to have a sheath in order to be part and parcel of existence. What difference did it make if it was in the hide of an elephant or the epidermis of a man? The idea was fur ther developed in order to form gradations of life. A hierarchy was formed. The soul was said to pass through every stage of life from rocks and vegetables to fish and animals, before it was allowed to be born in a human garb. He emphasized the necessity for ethical conduct by offering a higher form of existence as reward for virtue and a lower one as punishment for vice. Escape from existence was salvation, and
only by pure life, austere deeds and contempla tion was a soul enabled to throw off the sheath altogether, and attain Nirvana, or eternal bliss. Hinduism had to take this doctrine and incor porate it within itself in order to fight the spread of Buddhism in the country. It was not averse to do so either, because it easily found sanction for it in the Vedas. Moreover, this offered the best explanation for the inequalities of life, and gave hope to all sentient creatures of attaining salvation some day.
Vedanta took this thought up cheerfully, and elaborated it. The inquiry into the fundamen tals and motives for existence was facilitated by the belief in metempsychosis. It disposed of the question: Where is the need for salvation? There was, however, a slight modification of the doctrine, as recognized by Vedanta. It did not agree with Buddhism that life was misery; it was certainly bondage, but a bondage which was consistent with the eternal law and will of Brahman. The supreme law or will of the Divine enjoined a constant process of evolution and dissolution. Brahman, overspread with il lusion, manifests itself as Isvara, who allots to transmigrating spirits their several bodies and spheres of fruition, in accordance with the law of retribution, i.e., the spirits obtain the bodies they have merited by their own acts. Every thing that exists, elements, sentiency, soul and sheaths has ever existed. There is no creation. It is the will of Brahman that at the end of each Manvantara or cycle, all differentiation vanishes, and souls and elements become one with him. Brahman retracts them all unto him self at the dissolution of the axon.
The individual soul, however, can extricate itself from metempsychosis, and be above the law as the Brahman itself. To do so it must receive its proper nature; the man must purify his intellect, by passing through several lives. eNot he that has not ceased from evil, not he that rests not from sensations, not he that is not concentrated, not he whose faculties are not quiescent, can reach that self by the intui tion" attainable through Vedanta. By contin uous contemplation, the aspirant to salvation works against the order of evolution until he attains to the Brahma. He then becomes extri cated from bodies, but lives and becomes a livanmukta. When he attains this stage, he is untouched by merit or demerit. The body then falls away, and the spirit is freed for ever with undifferentiated existence, undifferentiated in telligence and perfect beatitude.
The Vedantic doctrine of ethics is different to that of ritualistic or popular Hinduism; as a matter of fact, it is different from those of all known religions. Vice and virtue, in their essence, are purely relative; to the adept they do not exist at all. The manifestation of Brah man comprises all attributes of existence; all that exists, therefore, is in accordance with divine purpose. To the being that is untram meled by the bondage of existence, the differ entiation becomes unreal.
Colebrook, on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus' (Lon don 1858); Defissen, P., (Vedanta' (Berlin 1898) ; Dvivedi, Manilal, (Mandukya Upani shad) (Calcutta 1891); Holdrich, Sir T. H., (Oxford and London 1904); Loti, Pierre, (London 1906) ; Muller, Max, Systems of Indian Philosophy) (Oxford 1901) ; id., (The Sacred Books of the East' (Oxford 1879-1910) ; Onian, J. C., (The Mys tics, Ascetics and Saints of India) (London 1903) ; Rangachirya, M., Bashyam) (Madras 1903).