Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c11.s4.165

c11.s4.165

Similarly, Kalpa or ritualism comes in for its special share of condemnation from the standpoint of this uncompromising idealism.¹ The *Muṇḍaka* [i, 2, 7] openly brands as fools those that seek to perform mere rites and ceremonies. The *Bṛihadāraṇyaka* [i, 4, 10] in a spirit of depreciation thinks it fit to compare those who, instead of knowing and recognizing the *Ātman* as the only Reality, merely offer sacrifices to the gods, to domestic animals ministering to the comforts of their owners. In i, 5, 16 we have: "By sacrifice the world of the Fathers, by knowledge the world of the gods, is gained." In the *Aitareya Āraṇyaka* we find the following: "To what end shall we repeat the Veda, to what end shall we sacrifice? For we sacrifice breath in speech, or in breath speech" [iii, 2, 6]. In the later Upanishads, however, we find a more friendly attitude towards the sacrificial cult. In *Kaṭha* [i, 17] the performance of certain ceremonies and works leads to the "overstepping of birth and death" and to "everlasting rest". This reaction attains its climax in the *Maitrāyaṇa Upanishad*, of which the very first passage affirms that the laying of the sacrificial fires leads to a knowledge of Brahman, while in iv, 3 it is expressly laid down that a knowledge of the Veda, observance of caste-duties, and *āśrama*-duties are all essential to the emancipation of the natural *ātman* and its reunion with the supreme *ātman*. It should be noted, however, that orthodox and traditional Brahminical opinion does not find any real antagonism between the sacrificial cult, the scheme of practical life, under the orders of caste and *āśrama* on the one hand, and the Upanishadic spirit of the quest of the Brahman on the other. The one is taken as a preliminary to the other and the intention of such passages is only to emphasize the supreme importance and worth of *parā vidyā*.