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The Sixth Lesson: The Minor Systems.1229
forms of substance, and work their way upward toward Freedom just as do
the Purushas of the Sankhya System of Kapila—in fact, the teachings on this
point are almost identical in the two systems. Mind is held to be composed
of Ultimate Atoms, as is everything else, according to this philosophy, but
it is entirely separate from the Souls which use Mind as their instrument
of expression. The Atman, Self, or Soul, however, is regarded as possessing
Qualities, or Gunas, which oppose the teachings of the Vedanta and the
Sankhya, which hold that the Soul is above qualities, which arise only from
the Soul’s descent into material life and activity. As we said at the beginning
of the lesson, the Vaisheshikas teach that the soul’s Liberation from Bondage
is attained by the perfection and freedom arising from a comprehension of
the nature and causes of the phenomenal world—and that a comprehension
of the same is to be obtained only by an understanding of the truth of the
Six Categories—and as the Six Categories are taught only by the Vaisheshika
School, it would follow that one must be a Vaisheshika in order to win
Emancipation, Perfection and Freedom, which renders the System rather
more narrow than its companion systems, and which, in spite of its many
excellent qualities and phases of excellent scientific truth, has caused it to be
rejected as too narrow by the thinkers of India, which has contributed to its
losing popularity and strength. Its principal field of usefulness now is in the
sense of giving to other systems, particularly to the Eclectic Systems, bits of
philosophical, metaphysical and scientific truths, which may be assimilated
with their own truths. As a separate system the Vaisheshika has not proven
its fitness to survive and flourish, and it seems to be on the decline in India,
and attracts but little interest in the Western world.
The Purva Mimansa System.
The second of the Three Minor Systems of Hindu philosophy is that
known as the Purva Mimansa System of Jaimini, which is based upon the
attainment of the Freedom of the Soul by means of the observance of the
orthodox rites, ceremonies, worship, prayer, etc., as taught in the Vedas, or