SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

"
This
"
THE SVETASVATARA UPANISHAT. I2/
was hitherto in scattered form and it did greater service in
drawing out more fully the omni-penetrativeness and transcen
dency of God over both Chetana and Achetana Prapancha, the
world of souls and the world of matter. The Postulate of God s
supreme Transcendency is the special effort of the Agama
Philosophy to make out, and as this was the Highest End and
Truth, it was called Siddhanta par excellence as distinguished
from the Vedanta which led up the aspirant only to certain
spiritual stages. It divided all philosophy and religion into four
paths or Margas, called respectively Chariya, Kriya, Yoga and
Jnana and these were
;
otherwise called Dasa Ma"rga, Satputra
Marga, Saha Marga and San Marga. In the exposition of these
paths, it opened out a thoroughly reasoned system of practical
Philosophy, neither contradicting our experience, nor causing
violence to the most cherished of our sentiments, both moral
and religious ;
a system of thought which was progressive and
built on an adamantine basis, step by step leading to higher
knowledge ; a system * which by preserving and pointing out
the essential difference of God, Soul and Matter, established a
true relation between them ;
which led to the highest monistic
knowledge, a system
which was at once dualism and nondualism,
Dvaita and Advaita ; a system which appealed alike
* Cf .
Garbe, The Philosophy of Ancient India, p. 30. As for those
from a monistic point of view
who feel inclined to look down slightingly
upon a dualistic conception of the world, the words of E. Roer in the
Introchiction of the Bhashaparichcheda (p. XVI) may be quoted
"
Though
:
a higher development of philosophy may destroy the distinctions between
soul and matter, that is, may recognise matter or what is perceived as
matter, as the same with the soul (as for instance, Leibnitz did),
it is nevertheless certain that no true knowledge of the soul is possible
without first
drawing a most decided line of demarcation between the
phenomena of matter and of the soul ".
sharp line of demarcation
between the two domains was first drawn by Kapila. The knowledge of
the difference between body and soul is one condition, and it is also an
.indispensable condition, of arriving at a true monism. Every view of the
world "which confounds this difference can supply at best a one-sided
benism, be it a spiritualism or an equally one-sided materialism,"