Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/446

43° The Sahkara School of Vedanta [ ClI. chapter we shall limit ourselves to the exposition of the Vedanta philosophy as elaborated by Satikara and his followers. In San- kara's work (the commentaries on the Brahma-siUra and the ten Upaniads) many ideas have been briefly incorporated which as found in Sankara do not appear to be sufficiently clear, but are more intelligible as elaborated by his followers. It is therefore better to take up the Vedanta system, not as we find it in Sankara, but as elaborated by his followers, all of whom openly declare that they are true to their master's philosophy. For the other Hindu systems of thought, the sutras (Jaimini szUra, Nyiiya szUra, etc.) are the only original treatises, and no foundation other than these is available. In the case of the Vedanta however the original source is the U pani!?ads, and the sutras are but an extremely condensed summary in a systematic form. Satikara did not claim to be the inventor or expounder of an original system, but interpreted the sutras and the U paniads in order to show that there existed a connected and systematic philosophy in the U paniads which was also enunciated in the sutras of Badarayal)a. The U pani!?ads were a part of the Vedas and were thus regarded as infallible by the Hindus. If Sankara could only show that his exposition of them was the right one, then his philosophy being founded upon the highest authority would be accepted by all Hindus. The most formidable opponents in the way of accomplishing his task were the lHmarpsists, who held that the Vedas did not preach any philosophy, for whatever there was in the Vedas was to be interpreted as issuing commands to us for performing this or that action. They held that if the U paniads spoke of Brahman and demonstrated the nature of its pure essence, these were mere exaggerations intended to put the commandment of performing some kind of worship of Brahman into a more attractive form. Sallkara could not deny that the purport of the Vedas as found in the Brahmaas was explicitly of a mandatory nature as de- clared by the Mlmarpsa, but he sought to prove that such could not be the purport of the U paniads, which spoke of the truest and the highest knowledge of the Absolute by which the wise could attain salvation. He said that in the karmaka9a-the (sacrificial injunctions) Brahmaas of the Vedas-the purport of the Vedas was certainly of a mandatory nature, as it was intended fur ordinary people who were anxious for this or that pleasure,