Abstract
REGARDING THE INDIAN ATTITUDE toward the individual, Westerners hold certain views which are not wholly correct. They are: (1) In Indian metaphysics there is no place for a plurality of individuals. Plurality of individuals is ultimately an illusion: the ultimate reality is one ineffable Absolute (called Brahman). (2) This metaphysics has so influenced the general Indian mind that in formulating the ideal of life it has ignored what concerns, or should concern, individuals as individuals. The ultimate aim of life, for Indians, is complete merging in the Absolute. (3) It is because of this neglect of the individual that Indians could never develop systematic ethics and social philosophy, and the only spiritual religion they have developed is a mystical form of pantheism which, according to many Westerners, is no religion at all and borders dangerously on a life which is thoroughly irreligious and irresponsible. (4) Even where they have admitted individuals, as, for example, on the empirical (vyavaharika) plane, they have systematically deprived them of freedom of will. Westerners hold that the Indian doctrine of karma is a direct denial of the freedom of individuals. Of these four views, the last one is wholly incorrect, and the first, second, and the third are correct only insofar as they represent the standpoint of the Advaita Vedinta. But the Advaita Vedinta is only one of the Indian systems of philosophy. There are other systems, such as the Nyiya, the Vaisesika, the Sirirkhya, the Yoga, the Mim.ihsi, and non-Advaita Vedintic systems, none of which is of less significance to Indian life in general than the Advaita. There are also lesser philosophers, such as the Saivas, Saktas, and Grammarians. Add to the list the three great heterodox systems (Buddhism, Jainism, and the philosophy of the Cirv~kas) and we have all kinds of Indian views on the individual. Except for a few Saivas and Grammarians and the philosophers of one or two schools of Buddhism, none denied plurality of selves, none recommended the liquidation of individuals, and none
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