A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c5.7

c5.7

6. When we come to Pravāhaṇa Jaivali’s doctrine of space as the origin of all things, we come to a much higher conception than has yet been reached in the schemes of the foregoing philosophers. Even in Greek philosophy, the conception of space as the “archē” of things came very late in the development of thought. With Thales, Anaximenes, Heracleitus and Empedocles we meet with the conceptions of water, air, fire, earth, either individually or collectively. It is only when we come to the time of Philolaus, that, according to Aristotle’s evidence, we get to the notion of space as the “archē” of all things. Fire, air, water and earth are more or less tangible; but “space” to be regarded as the “archē” of all things requires a higher philosophical imagination. When Pravāhaṇa Jaivali was asked what was the final habitat of all things, he answered it was Space. “All these beings emerge from space and are finally absorbed in space; space is verily greater than any of these things; space is the final habitat” (S. 5. a). This passage from the Chhāndogyopanishad is corroborated by another passage from the same Upanishad in which we are told that “space is really higher than fire. In space are both the sun and the moon, the lightning and the stars. It is by space that man is able to call.....In space and after space are all things born. Meditate upon Space as the highest reality” (S. 5. b). According to these passages from the Chhāndogyopanishad, then, we must regard space as a higher entity than any of the conceptions that have been hitherto reached.