The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s2.77

v2.c40.s2.77

There is, of course, much that contrasts strangely with the Platonic dialogue. An element of grave risk enters into such discussions, as we have seen in the case of the rivals of Yājñavalkya; to hold a wrong view often involves risk of death in an age when the curse is believed to have power to work its own end.⁴ Again of real dialectic there is hardly any; the inquirer is ignorant and makes wrong guesses, the teacher dogmatically expounds the truth, with little or no leading up to it, and with still less reasoning for its support; curiously enough, it is in the discussions between Indra and Prajāpati⁵ that we find more of the expression of uncertainty leading to a final illumination than usual. There are, however, especially in the dialogues of Yājñavalkya, signs of planning; the outcome is attained by a process of rejection of inferior views, arranged in something like a series of lower to higher.⁶