| Essence Of Hinduism |
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HINDU PHILOSOPHY |
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| It is difficult to
say how this changing, finite world of ours first came into existence, and how exactly it
is related to the unchanging infinite God. As a wise man once said, the way of ascent from
the world to God is revealed to us, and that is enough for our purpose. We need not bother
ourselves with the way of descent from God to the world, which is not revealed to us.
Scriptures are intended to be guides to a diviner life and not to be textbooks of science
dealing with the origin of life and matter. To understand the world around us we are endowed with senses and reason. It is, therefore, to under stand God, and not the world, that we require the help of scriptures. Accordingly, exercising their own reason, different Indian thinkers have put forward different theories of creation. The most important of these are the so-called Arambha-vada, Parinama-vada and Vivarta-vada. The theory of the Nyaya-Vaisesika school of philosophers is known as Arambha-veda. According to it, at the beginning of a kalpa or a eon invisible and intangible atoms of different kinds unite under the influence of the will of God and the destiny of souls to form the various objects of the world differing in their qualities from the atoms themselves. Thus the effect produced is entirely different from the cause. A new object comes into existence as a result of the combination, just as a piece of cloth comes into existence when threads are put together the atoms continue their combination through out the cosmic period giving rise to the various objects of the world, and at the end they again separate, so that the whole effect collapses and the world is destroyed. |
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| About Hindu Philosophy |
