Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/66

 5° The Ea'rlier Upaniads [CH. But in spite of this apparent theistic tendency and the occa- sional use of the word lsa or lfiina, there seems to be no doubt that theism in its true sense was never prominent, and this acknow- ledgement of a supreme Lord was also an offshoot of the exalted position of the atman as the supreme principle. Thus we read in Kauitaki U paniad 3. 9, "He is not great by good deeds nor low by evil deeds, but it is he makes one do good deeds whom he wants to raise, and makes him commit bad deeds whom he wants to lower down. He is the protector of the universe, he is the master of the world and the lord of all; he is my soul (iitman)." Thus the lord in spite of his greatness is still my oul. There are again other passages which regard Brahman as being at once immanent and transcendent. Thus it is said that there is that eternally existing tree whose roots grow upward and whose branches grow downward. All the universes are supported in it and no one can transcend it. This is that, " ... from its fear the fire burns, the sun shines, and from its fear Indra, Vayu and Death the fifth (with the other two) run on I." If we overlook the different shades in the development of the conception of Brahman in the U paniads and look to the main currents, we find that the strongest current of thought which has found expression in the majority of the texts is this that the Atman or the Brahman is the only reality and that besides this everything else is unreal. The other current of thought which is to be found in many of the texts is the pantheistic creed that identifies the universe with the Atman or Brahman. The third current is that of theism which looks upon Brahman as the Lord controlling the world. I t is because these ideas were still in the melting pot, in which none of them were systematically worked out, that the later exponents of Vedanta, Satikara, Rarnanuja, and others quarrelled over the meanings of texts in order to develop a consistent systematic philosophy out of them. Thus it is that the doctrine of Maya which is slightly hinted at once in Brhadaral)yaka and thrice in Svetasvatara, becomes the founda- tion of Sai1kara's philosophy of the Vedanta in which Brahman alone is real and all else beside him is unreal 2 . I Ka!ha II. 6. [ and 3. 2 Br h . II. 5. 19, Svet. I. 10, IV. 9, 10.