atanjali is a
system by which the Purusha may escape from and overcome the Prakriti,
and thus gain emancipation, freedom, and a return to its natural and
original purity and power. This school, of course, teaches
Reincarnation, and Progression through Rebirth, in accordance with the
principles mentioned above.

Another great school of Hindu philosophy is that known as the Vedanta
Philosophy, which many consider the most advanced of all the Hindu
systems, and which is rapidly growing in popularity among the educated
Hindus, and also among many very intelligent students of philosophical
thought in the Western world. Its followers claim that the Vedanta
Philosophy has reached the very highest point of philosophical thought,
speculation and analysis possible to the human mind of today, and many
Western students have claimed that it contains the highest conceptions
found in any and all of the great World Philosophies. Be this as it may,
it certainly contains much that is the most subtle, refined and keen in
the field of philosophical speculative thought of the world, and while,
as some claim, it may lack the "appeal to the religious emotions" that
some other forms of thought possess, still it proves very attractive to
those in whom intellectual development and effort have superseded the
"emotional" side of philosophy or religion.

The Vedanta System holds that the Ultimate Reality, or Actual Being, of
the universe--the One Absolute Energy or Substance from which all the
universe proceeds--is THAT which may be called The Absolute, which is
eternal, infinite, indivisible, beyond attributes and qualities, and
which is the source of intelligence. The Absolute is held to be One, not
Many--Unique and Alone. It is identical with the Sanscrit "Brahman," and
is held to be THAT which has been called "The Unknowable"; the "Father";
the "Over-Soul"; the "Thing-in-Itself"--in short, it is THAT which men
mean, and have always meant, when they wished to express the ABSOLUTE
REALITY. The Vedantists hold that this Absolute Brahman is the essence
of "Sat," or Absolute Existence; "Chit," or Absolute Intelligence; and
"Ananda," or Absolute Bliss. Without attempting to enter into an
analysis, or close exposition, of the Vedanta Philosophy, or so far as
concerns the soul, and its destiny, we may say that it holds that there
do not exist the countless eternal, immortal souls or Purushas of the
Sankhya philosophy, but instead that the individual s