A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c4.s1.22

c4.s1.22

The Śvetāśvatara seems to have been written in the interests of Śaivism. It seems to have had its natural termination at the close of the first chapter, as may be seen from the repetition of the words at the end of it. The other chapters seem to have been added at a later stage. In the first chapter, we have suggestions for a good criticism of contemporary doctrines, including even Ātmanism, in favour of a Śaivite trinitarian monism. The second chapter contains a classical description of Yoga. The third, the fourth and the fifth chapters are devoted to a discussion of Śaivite and Sāmkhya philosophies, and invite a discussion as to the meaning of the word "kapila" which has been mentioned in V. 2; while the last chapter is the only unsectarian portion of the Upanishad which gives us a purely theistic view of the Godhead, and introduces the idea of Bhakti to Guru as to God. As in the case of its compeer Upanishads, the Śvetāśvatara was written at a time when the Sāṃkhya and the Vedānta were yet intermixed. " The Sāṃkhya had not yet lost its God who is described as ruling the Pradhāna (VI. 10), while the Vedānta had not yet definitely had its Māyā, a mere metamorphosis of the Sāṃkhya Prakṛti. The three Guṇas as in IV. 5 were yet the common property of both the Sāṃkhya and the Vedānta, having had their origin so far back as the Chhāndogya VI. 4. Nor had the Sāṃkhya yet laid an emphasis on the subjectivity of sense-perception, which was primarily responsible for the parting of the ways between the Sāṃkhya and the Vedānta. The doctrine of creation in the sense of evolution was mooted V. 5, but its full implications had not been yet thought out. The psychology and the metaphysics of the Sāṃkhya were yet in the making, and had not yet been sundered from those of the Vedānta as with a hatchet. It is for all these reasons that we say that the Śvetāśvatara, in which lie embedded side by side the Sāṃkhya and the Vedāntic doctrines of cosmology, psychology and metaphysics, is a very valuable Upanishad for the genetic study of the parting of the ways between the two great systems."