History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s1.32

v7.c96.s1.32

III. Working on the doctrine that there is only one Essence or Godhead, the sages of the Upaniṣads arrived at the conclusion that the individual self is non-different from the one Essence, that all manifoldness is only apparent, that even fishermen, slaves, gamblers and the inanimate world are non-different from it. This Vedānta doctrine is one of the most characteristic features of Hinduism and is India's great contribution to the spiritual development of man, though there are sporadic instances of this doctrine having been held by some ancient philosophers in other lands. This idea of one in the many and many in one is the very core or centre of Vedānta. This has been dealt with above (vide pp. 1499-1500 notes 2451-52 and pp. 1509-10). In Europe the study of philosophy is an end in itself. In ancient India this idea of the unity in diversity was made the basis of education and sociology and it was held that the realization of this unity in one's life was the highest freedom (moksa).