Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 447

THE VEDANTA SCHOOL
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possessing form, with a view to shape and animate the
world, whose atoms, although eternal, are nevertheless,
without His presence, motionless and lifeless.
Man, according to them, is composed of one body and
two souls, the one supreme, called Paramatma, which is
nothing else than God Himself
the other animal or vital,
known by the name of Jivatma, which is in us the sentient
Some hold that this is
principle of pleasure and pain.
spiritual, others that it is material.
In order to attain supreme wisdom and perfect happiness
its complete
this sentient principle must be extinguished
extinction leading to union with Paramatma. The various
gradations by which this union is attained will be spoken
It begins with contemplation of, and ends in
of later on.
The process of metem-
perfect identity with, God Himself.
psychosis continues in the meantime, the soul never ceasing
its transmigrations from one body to another.
It must here be remarked that by the word Soul the
learned mean the Will or else the Ego, the consciousness
;
;
of Self.
The Vedanta school, founded by the celebrated Sankara
Acharya, is distinguished from the rest by its metaphysics,
and, we may add, by the obscurity of its dogmas. Most
of the Brahmins of the present day who wish to pass them-
selves off as learned men, blindly embrace its principles
without understanding them. True sannyasis are nowa-
days not to be found except in this school, which is founded
on the system of Adwaita.
The characteristic feature of this sect is the belief in
the simple unity of the being, who is none other than the
Ego, that is to say, the Soul. Nothing exists except the
Ego, yet this Ego in its simple and absolute unity is, so
to speak, a trinity {trinus) by (1) its existence, (2) its
infinite wisdom, and (3) its supreme happiness.
But as the consciousness of Self is not at all in accord-
ance with the sublime notions of this school, they admit
another purely negative principle, which, in consequence,
has no actual existence.
This is the Maya of the Ego,
error or illusion.
For instance, I believe I am now
but I am mistaken.
writing to you about the Vedanta
It is true, indeed, I am Ego, I do actually exist ; but you
i.e.
;