Page:Ramakrishna - His Life and Sayings.djvu/98

80 of the word, as being with Brahman and becoming the origin of the world, too closely to the Greek conception of the Logos, I subjoin a literal translation of a passage in Sutfkara's commentary (p. 96, i). He holds that Brah- man is pure intelligence, and when the opponent remarks that intelligence is possible only if there are objects of in- telligence, he replies: 'As the sun would shine even if there were no objects to illuminate, Brahman would be intelli- gence even if there were no objects on which to exercise his intelligence. Such an object, however, exists even before the creation, namely, Nama-rftpa, the names and forms, as yet undeveloped, but striving for development (avy&bTte, vy&fcikirshite), that is the words of the Veda living in the mind of the creator even before the creation V Might not this have been written by Plato himself?

rv&di creourifo

We may try now another door for an entrance into the VedSnta-philosophy, which may help in bringing the Ved&nta nearer to ourselves, or ourselves nearer to the Veddnta, so that it may be looked upon not simply as a strange and curious system, but as a system of thought with which we can sympathise, nay, which, with certain modifications, we can appropriate for our own purposes 3.

One of the most ancient commands of Greek philosophy was the famous Tv&6i owvrfv, know thyself. Here the Hindu philosopher would step in at once and say that

1 See Denssen, Das System des Vednta, pp. 75, 147. 1 Cf. Deussen, 1. c. p. 60 seq.