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The Sixth Lesson: The Minor Systems.1223
The Sixth Lesson: The Minor Systems.
Of the six principal philosophical systems of India, the Vedanta is by far
the most important, judging from the careful attention to the details
of thought, the height of speculative reasoning attained, and the growing
popularity of the system in modern times among the educated classes of
its native land. Next to the Vedanta comes the Sankhya System, which still
has many influential followers in India, and which is interwoven into many
of the native religious systems and teachings, and which has had a profound
influence on certain phases of the Western thought, notably the school
of Schopenhauer and his followers. The Yoga System of Patanjali, once
so powerful, has diminished in power and influence, until to-day it exists
principally in its forms of Yoga practices and methods, its philosophical
aspect having been obscured. And as for the remaining three systems—
the Vaisheshika System of Kanada; the Nyaya System of Gotama; and the
Purva Mimansa System of Jaimini, respectively, it must be admitted that
they have rapidly diminished in influence, and have dwindled away in the
number of their followers, until to-day they remain as but shadows of their
former selves, the remaining systems having proved more fit to survive by
reason of the greater vitality of their doctrines, and by the adaptability of
their teachings to the requirements of the modern Hindu mind. But as any