Chapter6-8.pdf

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

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CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

6.1 HINDUISM
• Understand how Hinduism arose in India.
• De!ne brahmin, samsara, atman, karma, and Brahman.
• Identify the structure of the Vedas and its main components.
• Summarize the main themes of the Upanishads, and explain the process of

samara and karma and how they relate to atman, Brahman, and moksha.
• Explain what the Bhagavad-Gita is and how it di”ers in content from the

Upanishads.
• Explain the principal di”erences between the Hindu philosophies known as

Vedanta and Samkhya.
• Discuss some of the ways that modernity has a”ected Hinduism.

6.2 BUDDHISM
• Discuss the main ways that the Buddha’s views di”ered from the orthodox

beliefs of the times.
• Explain the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths.
• De!ne anatta, dukkha, ahimsa, and anicca.
• Explain the concept of nirvana and how Buddhism says it can be attained.

6.3 DAOISM
• Explain how the concept of the Dao parallels certain ideas in Western philosophy.
• Discuss the concept of wu-wei and how some Daoists try to integrate it into

their lives.

6.4 CONFUCIANISM
• Know why Confucianism is called a humanistic doctrine, and explain what

Confucius hoped his teachings would do.
• De!ne li and ren, and explain how these concepts !t into Confucianism.
• De!ne !lial piety and what it means in practice to Confucians.
• Understand the Confucian attitude toward family and community, personal

freedom, and individual rights.

Eastern !ought

CHAPTER 6

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Among the great religions of the East—Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism,
Daoism, and others—we find just what we would expect in religious traditions:
sacred texts, spiritual journeys, mystical symbols, otherworldly stories, inspired dev-
otees, and saintly leaders. But if we look closer, we can see something else: a vibrant
tradition of philosophical inquiry. !e major religions of the West have had their
share of philosophers, and so have the main religious traditions of the East.

!roughout the centuries Asian thinkers working inside (or alongside) their
religion have addressed problems in epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, philosophy
of language, and logic—all standard areas of study found in Western philosophy.
!e result is that, laboring independently, they have tried to provide answers to
large questions that also happen to be subjects of intellectual exploration in the
West. Remarkably, many of their answers parallel those given by their Western
counterparts, or they entail philosophically interesting alternatives, or they chal-
lenge theories or perspectives that are widely accepted outside Asia. !e Buddha
taught that the self is merely a collection of attributes (not a persisting substance
or soul); so did the British empiricist David Hume. Hindu thinkers have debated
the worth of arguments for and against the existence of the divine; the Western
philosophers !omas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant have done the same. Confucius
defended a theory of ethics and politics; Aristotle and John Locke have sailed in
the same waters.

6.1 HINDUISM

Hinduism can claim to be the world’s oldest living religion (dating back 3,000
years) and the third largest (with about one billion adherents). Many observers are
amazed that it boasts of no common creed, founder, text, or deity. It comprises
not one mode of devotion but a confounding diversity of them. O”erings to deity
images, the chanting of mantras, temple worship, sensual rites, mystical experi-
ences, ascetic privations, animal sacrifices—such practices may be embraced by
some Hindus and ignored by others, but the broad tent of Hinduism accommo-
dates them all. !e sacred texts range from hymns to instructions for conducting
rituals to philosophical treatises, and these are revered or disregarded to varying
degrees by thousands of discrete religious groups. A Hindu may bow to many gods
(polytheism), one supreme God (monotheism), one god among a whole pantheon
(henotheism), or no gods whatsoever (atheism). And Hinduism’s gods are said to
number over a million.

!e Western traditions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are generally faithful
to a core of more or less coherent doctrines. Hinduism is di”erent. It’s a large, un-
wieldy family of beliefs and practices that seem reasonable and practical to Hindus
but perplexing and contradictory to outsiders. Yet in the twenty-first century, this
family thrives both in its mother country (India) and in foreign soil, has devotees
in both the East and West, and influences the worldviews of persons high and low.
And among this cacophony of views, systems of philosophical reflection and even
scriptures containing philosophical speculation have their say.

“!e great secret of true
success, of true happiness,
is this: the man or woman
who asks for no return,
the perfectly unselfish
person, is the most
successful.”

—Swami Vivekananda

“In the morning I
bathe my intellect in
the stupendous and
cosmogonal philosophy
of the Bhagavad-Gita, in
comparison with which
our modern world and its
literature seems puny and
trivial.”

—Henry David !oreau

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Beginnings
Hinduism began in northwest India, emerging from a blend
of native religions and the religious traditions of an Indo-
European people who migrated there from central Asia.
!e indigenous populace established an advanced civiliza-
tion that flourished in the Indus River region and beyond
as early as 2500 BCE. !is Indus Valley civilization, as it is
called, rivaled in many ways the Roman Empire, which was
to come later. It devised a writing system, erected planned
cities, and built impressive structures small and large—
two-story houses, civic centers, porticos, baths, bathrooms,
stairways, drainage systems, and worship halls.

Based on artifacts found in the region, scholars have hy-
pothesized that the people were polytheistic and that some
of their gods may have been forerunners of present-day
Hindu deities. Many sculptures seem to have been used in
worship of both gods and goddesses, and a few of these were
depicted as half-human and half-animal. Evidence suggests
that the inhabitants made animal sacrifices, performed
ritual ablutions with water, and conducted rites where fire
was the central element.

Around 1500 BCE, the migrating Indo-Europeans,
called Aryans, moved into northwest India, carrying their
distinctive culture with them. Most importantly, they
brought their speech from which was derived the ancient
language of Sanskrit, the medium of Hindu scripture. !ey
too were polytheistic, worshiping gods that were thought
to embody powerful elements of nature such as the sun,
moon, and fire. And they sacrificed animals (including
horses) and animal byproducts (such as butter and milk) as
o”erings to these gods.

Aryan culture was partitioned into four social classes called varnas. From these,
the hereditary caste system was developed in Hindu society and is still holding sway
in modern India, although it has been refined into thousands of subdivisions based
on social and occupational criteria. Traditionally the dominant class consisted of
brahmins, the priests and teachers who alone could study and teach scripture. Brah-
mins still play a priestly role and are prevalent among India’s professionals and civil
servants.

The Vedas
For Hinduism, the most important result of the melding of Aryan and Indus River
cultures was a set of sacred compositions known as the Vedas (knowledge), regarded
by almost all Hindus as eternal scripture and the essential reference point for all
forms of Hinduism. !ey were produced by the Aryans between 1500 and 600 BCE
(what has been called the Vedic era), which makes these compositions India’s oldest

brahmin A priest or
teacher; a man of the
priestly caste.

Vedas Early Hindu scrip-
tures, developed between
1500 and 600 BCE.

Figure 6.1 Statue of one of India’s more popular deities—
Ganesha, the elephant-headed god.

1. What is the caste
system? Why is its exis-
tence in modern India
controversial?

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existing literature. For thousands of years the Vedas were transmitted orally from
brahmin to brahmin until they were finally put into writing. !ey are said to be sruti
(that which was heard)—revealed directly to Hindu seers (rishis) and presumed to be
without human or divine authorship. Later scriptures are thought to be smriti (what
is remembered)—of human authorship. !ese consist of commentaries and elabora-
tions on the sruti. Hindus revere the Vedas, even though the majority of adherents
are ignorant of their content, and their meanings are studied mostly by the educated.
In fact, most Hindu devotional practices are derived not from the Vedas, but from
the sacred texts that came later.

!e Vedas consist of four collections, or books, of writings, each made up of
four sections. !e four books are the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, and

2. What is the di”erence
between sruti and smriti?
Does the di”erence
matter much to Hindus?

THEN AND NOW

The Caste System
Much of the social and reli-
gious landscape of modern
India has been shaped by
two-thousand-year-old Hindu
treatises on religious, legal,
and moral duty (dharma),
the most famous being the
Laws of Manu. (In legend, all
humans are descended from
Manu, the original man.)
Completed by around the
first century of the Common
Era, the Laws provided the
basic outlines of India’s caste
system, laid down a code of
conduct for each social class,

and marked out the four stages of life for upper-class Indian men. !e Laws, in e”ect, defined
the ideal Hindu society, which served as a reference point for modern laws and social rules in
India today.

India’s premodern Aryan culture was divided into four hierarchical classes called varnas,
which became the basis of the four main castes of Hinduism. In later eras these divisions
were refined into myriad subdivisions and hardened to forbid social movement in one’s life-
time from one class to another. In modern India both the four classes and the hundreds of
subdivisions are referred to as castes; the subdivisions are also sometimes called jatis. !ese
subcastes are based on occupation, kinship, geography, even sectarian a#liation; and they
are especially influential in rural areas of India. In general, caste protocol forbids members
of one caste to marry members of another, and interactions with people from another caste
are often restricted.

Figure 6.2 Sisters who belong to the dalit caste in India.

Hinduism 131

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the Atharva-Veda. !e sections are (1) samhitas: hymns, or chants, of praise or in-
vocation to the gods (including many Aryan deities), mostly to be uttered publicly
during sacrifices; (2) brahmanas: treatises on and how-to instructions for rituals;
(3) Aranyakas: “forest treatises” for those who seek a reclusive religious life; and
(4) the Upanishads: philosophical and religious speculations.

!e oldest book is the Rig-Veda, which contains a section of over one thousand
ancient hymns, each one invoking a particular god or goddess—for example, Indra
(the ruler of heaven), Agni (the god of fire), and Varuna (the god of moral in
the universe). Most of the hymns in the other books are taken from the Rig-Veda.

!ere are 123 Upanishads, but only thirteen or fourteen (called the principal
Upanishads) are revered by all Hindus. !e Upanishads were added to the Vedas last,

Upanishads Vedic litera-
ture concerning the self,
Brahman, samsara, and
liberation.

In ancient India the concepts of dharma and karma were central to the caste system, and
the same is true today. Each caste is prescribed a dharma, a set of duties mandated for that
caste. !eoretically no upward movement is possible during one’s lifetime, but diligently
performing one’s dharma could lead to better karma and a higher-level rebirth in the next life.

Eventually the caste system was modified to include a fifth group—the “untouchables,”
or dalits (oppressed ones), who are thought to be “too polluting” to be included in any
of the higher castes. !is group comprises those who do “polluting” work such as sweep-
ing streets; cleaning toilets; and handling leather, human waste, or dead bodies. !e term
“untouchables” comes from the traditional Hindu idea that upper-class persons who touch
someone from the lowest class will be polluted and must therefore perform rituals to cleanse
themselves. For generations dalits have been subjected to violence and discrimination—and
they still are even in modern India and even though the untouchable class has been o#cially
outlawed. Mohandas Gandhi called the dalits “the children of God” and advocated for their
rights and their equal status in society.

In recent years the caste system has drawn the fire of many critics. !e main complaint
is that the system is inherently unfair. !e plight of the dalits is just one example. !e Laws
of Manu mandate a lower status for the lowest class, and caste hierarchy itself implies that
some people are inherently less worthy than others, or that some deserve better treatment
under the law than others, or that the highest classes are privileged and therefore should get
special treatment. In practice, caste rules are not as rigid, and adherence to caste rules is not
as widespread as their advocates might prefer. !e influence of caste in people’s daily lives is
weak in urban areas and much stronger in the countryside.

What do you think civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. would say about India’s
caste system and the treatment of the dalits? Do you think the caste system is morally
wrong? If so, what are your reasons?

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composed primarily from about 900 to 400 BCE during a time of intel-
lectual and religious unease. !e ancient certainties—the authority of
the brahmins, the status of the Vedas, the caste system, the sacrificial
rites, and the nature of the deities—were being called into question.
!e Upanishads put these issues in a di”erent light and worked out some
philosophical doctrines that became fundamental to Hinduism right up
to the twenty-first century.

In the early Vedas, there is an emphasis on improving one’s lot in
life through religious practice and faith in the gods. But in the Upani-
shads, the central aim is release from this world. Specifically, the goal is
liberation from samsara, one’s repeating cycle of deaths and rebirths.
!e essential Hindu belief is that at death, one’s soul or self (atman)
departs from the lifeless body and is reborn into a new body, residing for
a time until death, then being reborn in yet another physical form—a
dreary sequence that may repeat for thousands of lifetimes. (Westerners
call this the doctrine of reincarnation.) And with each new incarnation
comes the pain of living and reliving all the miseries of mortal existence.

!e force that regulates samsara is karma, the universal principle
that governs the characteristics and quality of each rebirth, or future

life. Karma is like a law of nature; it is simply the way the world works. It dictates
that people’s actions and intentions form their present character and determine the
general nature of their future lives. Good deeds (good karma) lead to more pleas-
ant rebirths; bad deeds (bad karma) beget less pleasant, even appalling, rebirths.
Depending on karma, the atman may be reborn into a human, an animal, an insect,
or some other lowly creature. !is repeating pattern of rebirth–death–rebirth con-
tinues because humans are ignorant of the true nature of reality, of what is real and
what is merely appearance. !ey are enslaved by illusion (maya) and act accordingly,
with predictable results.

According to the Upanishads, this ignorance and its painful consequences can
only be ended, and liberation (moksha) from samsara and karma can only be won,
through the freeing power of an ultimate, transcendent wisdom. !is wisdom
comes when an atman realizes that the soul is not separate from the world or from
other souls but is one with the impersonal, all-pervading spirit known as Brahman.
Brahman is the universe, yet Brahman transcends all space and time.

Brahman is eternal and thus so is the atman. Brahman is Absolute Reality,
and the atman is Brahman—a fact expressed in the famous adage “You are that
[ Brahman],” or “You are divine.” !e essential realization, then, is the oneness of
Brahman and atman. Once an individual fully understands this ultimate unity,
moksha occurs, samsara stops, and the atman attains full union with Brahman.

Achieving moksha is di#cult, requiring great e”ort and involving many lifetimes
through long expanses of time. !e Upanishads stress that Brahman is ine”able—it
cannot be described in words and must therefore be experienced directly through
several means: meditation, various forms of yoga (both mental and physical dis-
ciplines), and asceticism (the denial of physical comfort or pleasures for religious
ends). !e aim of these practices is to look inward and discern the true nature of

Figure 6.3 Reading the Vedic texts.

samsara One’s cycle of re-
peated deaths and rebirths.

atman One’s soul or self.

karma !e universal
principle that governs the
characteristics and quality
of each rebirth, or future
life.

Brahman !e impersonal,
all-pervading spirit that is
the universe yet transcends
all space and time.

“I must confess to you
that when doubt haunts
me, when disappoint-
ments stare me in the
face, and when I see not
one ray of light on the
horizon, I turn to the
Bhagavad Gita and find
a verse to comfort me;
and I immediately begin
to smile in the midst of
overwhelming sorrow.”

—Mahatma Gandhi

asceticism !e denial of
physical comfort or plea-
sures for religious ends.

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atman and its unity with Brahman. !e rituals and sacrifices of the early Vedas are
deemed superfluous.

After the Vedas
As noted earlier, the sruti scriptures of the Vedic period (roughly 1500 to 600 BCE)
are thought to be of divine origin, revealed to the rishis who received them via an
intuitive or mystical experience. Hindus regard these (the Vedas) as authoritative,
eternal, and fixed. !is canon remains as it was written, without further revela-
tions or later emendations. But after the Vedic period, the human-authored smriti
scriptures appeared. !ey too are venerated yet are considered less authoritative than
the Vedas. !ey are also open-ended, a sacred work in progress. Over the centuries
revered figures have added to them and continue to do so. But these facts have not
diminished the influence of the smriti scriptures, which have probably had a greater
impact on Hindu life than the Vedas have.

In Hindu scripture, newer writings generally do not supersede the old; they are
added to the ever-expanding canon. !us many ideas and practices found in both
the Vedas and the post-Vedic scriptures are still relevant to contemporary Hinduism.
Likewise, the ancient Vedic gods and goddesses were never entirely replaced by dei-
ties that came later in history. !e pantheon was simply enlarged. Today many of the
old gods are ignored or deemphasized, while some of them are still revered.

!e smriti material is voluminous and wide-ranging. It consists mainly of (1) the
epics (the Mahabharata and the Ramayana), (2) myths and legends (the Puranas),
and (3) legal and moral codes (the Laws of Manu).

!e great epics have served Indian and Hindu civilization much as Homer’s
Iliad and Odyssey served the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world: the stories ex-
press the culture’s virtues, heroes, philosophy, and spiritual lessons. With eigh-
teen voluminous chapters (or books) and one hundred thousand verses, the
Mahabharata is the longest poem in existence, many times more extensive than
the Christian Bible. Composed between 400 BCE and 400 CE, the epic recounts
the ancient conflict between two great families, both descendants of the ruler of
Bharata (northern India). !eir struggle culminates in a fateful battle at Kuruk-
shetra. Among the warriors who are to fight there is the war hero Arjuna, who has
serious misgivings about a battle that will pit brothers against brothers and cous-
ins against cousins. Before the fight begins, as Arjuna contemplates the bloody
fratricide to come, he throws down his bow in anguish and despair. He turns to
his charioteer, Krishna—who in fact is God incarnate—and asks whether it is
right to fight against his own kin in such a massive bloodletting. !e conversation
that then takes place between Krishna and Arjuna constitutes the most famous
part of the Mahabharata: the Bhagavad-Gita, the most highly venerated and in-
fluential book in Hinduism.

!e seven-hundred-verse Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord ) is no mere war story.
In dramatic fashion, it confronts the moral and philosophical questions and conflicts
that arise in Hindu concepts and practice—devotion to the gods, the caste system,
obligations to family, duties in time of war, the nature of the soul, the concept of
Brahman, and the correct paths toward moksha.

Bhagavad-Gita !e
most highly venerated and
influential scriptures in
Hinduism.

3. What is the di”erence
between the main goal in
life as presented in the
early Vedas and life’s cen-
tral aim as discussed in
the Upanishads?

4. What is the relationship
between Brahman and
atman? How are moksha
and samsara related to
Brahman?

“!e apparent multiplica-
tion of gods is bewildering
at the first glance, but you
soon discover that they
are the same GOD. !ere
is always one uttermost
God who defies personi-
fication. !is makes Hin-
duism the most tolerant
religion in the world, be-
cause its one transcendent
God includes all possible
gods. In fact Hinduism
is so elastic and so subtle
that the most profound
Methodist, and crudest
idolater, are equally at
home with it.”

—George Bernard Shaw

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Krishna tells Arjuna to join the battle, for a war fought
for a righteous reason is permissible, even a war against one’s
own brothers. Arjuna has a duty to fight, Krishna says, for
he must follow the dictates of his caste. A central tenet of
Hinduism is that to avoid the demerits of karma, humans
must do their duty according to their place in society. As a
member of the warrior caste, Arjuna is obligated to take up
arms.

In the Gita, we get a new account of the nature of God.
In the Upanishads, Brahman is the impersonal Ultimate
Reality, or World-Soul, pervading and constituting the
universe but aloof from humans and their concerns. But
Krishna turns out to be the Supreme Being incarnate, a per-
sonal deity who loves and cares for humans and who often
takes human form to help them.

!roughout history, many Hindus have believed there
is only one path to liberation—solely through medita-
tion or only through asceticism, for example. But in the
Gita, Krishna insists that several paths (marga) can lead to
moksha, a view that fits well with modern Hinduism. (Since
these paths amount to spiritual disciplines, they are also re-
ferred to as forms of yoga.) Today there is a general aware-
ness of multiple paths to liberation, each appropriate for a
particular kind of person.

Krishna teaches Arjuna that one path to salvation is the
way of unselfish action done for duty’s sake (karma-marga).

As human beings, we cannot avoid acting. But when we do, only actions done with-
out regard to rewards, punishments, praise, or blame can lead to liberation and
union with God. We must act with detachment from these motives. Our deeds
should be done with the right intention—the intention to do our duty only because
it is our duty.

Another option, Krishna says, is the way of knowledge ( jnana-marga), a path fol-
lowed by those who are inclined toward intellectual pursuits. !is spiritual knowl-
edge, he says, is attained by seeing clearly into the true nature of the universe, the
soul, and the Supreme Reality. It is the realization that Brahman and the human
soul are in fact the same, that despite surface appearances, there is no di”erence be-
tween the self and Brahman, and between Brahman and the world. !e self (atman)
and the Supreme Self (Atman) are a unity, just as drops of water and the ocean can
be a unity. !e lives of humans who gain this ultimate knowledge are said to be
transformed, and liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth becomes a reality.
To grasp this insight, aspirants practice meditation, plunge into deep reflection, or
study scripture and the words of sages.

!e path to liberation that Krishna speaks of most often is devotion to a personal
god (bhakti-marga), the path chosen by most Hindus. Bhakti-marga entails over-
whelming love and adoration of one’s favored manifestation of God. !e candidates

Figure 6.4 A wooden statue of Krishna.

5. What is the story re-
counted in the Bhagavad-
Gita? What is the Gita’s
message about the path
to liberation?

“In the great books of
India, an empire spoke to
us, nothing small or un-
worthy, but large, serene,
consistent, the voice of an
old intelligence, which in
another age and climate
had pondered and thus
disposed of the questions
that exercise us.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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for adoration are many—Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva, Varuna, Indra, Ganesha, Kali,
and many other deities. !e Hindu view of bhakti is that to love one of these finite
manifestations of God is to move closer to the infinite God of everything. Brahman
is supreme but impersonal. It is di#cult to adore the all-encompassing essence of all
that is; it is easier to love one of God’s incarnations represented in countless earthly
images. !us a Hindu may bring an o”ering of flowers to a stone image of Krishna
and pray for help or healing, expecting that Krishna himself will be pleased and
perhaps answer the plea. !e devotee will feel that moksha is a little closer and that
Brahman is a little nearer.

Hindu Philosophies
Hinduism contains complex systems, or schools (darshana), of philosophical reflec-
tion expressed by ancient sages and commentators. To immerse oneself in one of
these is to follow the path of knowledge ( jnana-marga), a route taken by only a
minority of Hindus. !e schools include six major orthodox ones, some of which
appeared as far back as 500 BCE: Samkhya (probably the oldest), Yoga, Nyaya, Vais-
esika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta. !ey all di”er in important ways but presuppose the
authority of the Vedas, accept the doctrines of reincarnation (the cycle of birth and
death) and moksha (liberation), and set forth their doctrines in discourses, or books
(sutras). Consider these four:

Vedanta. !e term Vedanta means “the end of the Vedas” or the “culmination of
the Vedas,” suggesting that this philosophical system is based heavily on the last
part of the Vedas, the Upanishads. An influential outlook in this school is known
as Advaita Vedanta. It maintains a thoroughgoing monism (nondualism, advaita),
claiming that reality consists not of two kinds of essential stu” (as the dualistic Sam-
khya school holds), but only one kind, and this kind is Brahman, who alone is real.
Brahman is all, and the self is identical to Brahman. !e most influential proponent
of this view is Shankara (788–820 CE). He argues that people persist in believing
they are separate from Brahman because of maya—illusion. Only by shattering this
ignorance with knowledge of true reality can they escape the torturous cycle of death
and rebirth.

Shankara’s view is not the only Vedanta philosophy. Other early philosophers
criticized Shankara’s perspective and taught that separate selves have a dualistic re-
lationship with Brahman—and yet somehow they and Brahman are a unity. Some
thinkers went further, declaring that the human self and Brahman were entirely
discrete entities.

Nyaya. !is school has focused on developing a theory of knowledge (epistemology)
and a system of logical proof that would yield indubitable truths. Nyaya thinkers
applied their learning to try to discover the true nature of the universe, the self, and
God. Gautama (known by some as the Aristotle of India) established the Nyaya
school in ancient times and produced its foundational text, the Nyaya Sutra. Some
early Nyaya scholars were atheistic (as was Gautama), but later ones added the con-
cept of a supreme divinity.

“India has two million
gods, and worships
them all. In religion
all other …

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Money-back guarantee

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Fair-cooperation guarantee

By sending us your money, you buy the service we provide. Check out our terms and conditions if you prefer business talks to be laid out in official language.

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