A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c13.6

c13.6

† The Hindu goal of life, mokṣa or nirvāṇa, may be thought to present a parallel to the Stoic or the Augustinian conception of a spiritual city embracing universal humanity. But this apparent likeness really masks fundamental differences. The Hindu view involves not merely the idea of communion or fellowship on the basis of absolute equality but that of complete identity, and it posits the unit of cosmic creation, not merely of cosmic humanity, conceived as the manifestation of the Absolute. Furthermore, it is not based on the notion of a sharp antithesis between the city of Cecrops and the city of God, but it holds the latter to be the crown and completion of the former. Thirdly and lastly, the Hindu idea, differing in this respect from the idea of St. Augustine but resembling the notions of the Stoics, is not represented by a visible symbol on earth, but is realised in the inner nature of man.