armony with the
Arhat doctrine relating to the same subject. The latter doctrine
postulates the existence of Cosmic matter in an undifferentiated
condition throughout the infinite expanse of space. Space and time are
but its aspects, and Purush, the seventh principle of the universe, has
its latent life in this ocean of Cosmic matter. The doctrine in
question explains Cosmogony from an objective point of view.
When the period of activity arrives, portions of the whole differentiate
according to the latent law. When this differentiation has commenced,
the concealed wisdom or latent Chichakti acts in the universal mind, and
Cosmic energy or Fohat forms the manifested universe in accordance with
the conceptions generated in the universal mind out of the
differentiated principles of Cosmic matter. This manifested universe
constitutes a solar system. When the period of Pralaya comes, the
process of differentiation stops and Cosmic ideation ceases to exist;
and at the time of Brahmapralaya or Mahapralaya the particles of matter
lose all differentiation, and the matter that exists in the solar system
returns to its original undifferentiated condition. The latent design
exists in the one unborn eternal atom, the centre which exists
everywhere and nowhere; and this is the one life that exists
everywhere. Now, it will be easily seen that the undifferentiated
Cosmic matter, Purush, and the ONE LIFE of the Arhat philosophers, are
the Mulaprakriti, Chidakasam, and Chinmatra of the Adwaitee
philosophers. As regards Cosmogony, the Arhat standpoint is objective,
and the Adwaitee standpoint is subjective. The Arhat Cosmogony accounts
for the evolution of the manifested solar system from undifferentiated
Cosmic matter, and Adwaitee Cosmogony accounts for the evolution of
Bahipragna from the original Chinmatra. As the different conditions of
differentiated C osmic matter are but the different aspects of the
various conditions of Pragna, the Adwaitee Cosmogony is but the
complement of the Arhat Cosmogony. The eternal principle is precisely
the same in both the systems, and they agree in denying the existence of
an extra-Cosmic God.
The Arhats call themselves Atheists, and they are justified in doing so
if theism inculcates the existence of a conscious God governing the
universe by his will-power. Under such circumstance the Adwaitee will
come under the same denomination. Atheism and theism are words of
doubtful import, and u
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