Book reviews 289

ALSTON,A. J., amkaraon the Absolute, A amkara Source - book, I -

London, Shanti Sadan, 1980, 259 p. 3.50.

Samkara on the Absolute is the first of a proposed six-volume series on the

works of Samkara (ca. 700 a.d.), the foremost exponent of Advaita or
"nondualistic" Vedanta, which many Indian philosophers and scholars
take to be the most important philosophical (religious) system or tradition
in Indian thought. The proposed volumes are divided, according to the
author, so as to cover six themes: (1) The Absolute; (2) God and the
World; (3) God and the Soul; (4) Polemics; (5) Spiritual Discipline and the
role of Revelation; and (6) The Spiritual Path .... Mr. Alston states that
the series "aims to bring together the most important texts of Samkara in
a systematic and digestible form" and that his work is meant as a
"reader" rather than as a "reference work," with the translations aiming
more at readability (without sacrificing content) than at philological
exactitude.
Volume I consists of a substantial introduction to Samkara's life and
work, followed by chapters dealing with the doctrine of nescience (avidji) ,
the knowledge of the Absolute (Brahman), and the Absolute as being, con-
sciousness and bliss (saccidnanda). Each group of texts in the chapters is
further introduced with an explication of the main points of Samkara's
thought and the contexts in which particular problems arise.
One problem that every student of Indian philosophy faces immediately
is to get hold of the distinctive philosophical teachings of a given system
in the primary classical literature. It is a problem because Indian
philosophers did not, until much later, write their works as coherent
philosophical treatises which are organized thematically and which deal
with a set of clearly defined problems and issues; rather the works were
written as part of an ongoing tradition (or "text," in at least one
hermeneutical sense of the word), where from initial (usually scriptural)
works (iruti) of a highly poetic/religious character (for Vedanta, the
Upanisads and the Bhagavadgft), there developed condensed, and often
exceedingly cryptic, summations of a school of thought (stras and karikas),
which in turn were given extensive commentaries (bhijjas) and sub-
commentaries (_tik3s),with many s5tras also accorded short commentaries
( vrttis) and glosses dealing with particular problems in a siitra or kdrikd (v3rt-
tikas). The commentaries are the main philosophical elaborations on the
system as such-and they were organized, quite naturally, according to
what they were commenting upon. Further, apart from form, much of the
content in the classical commentaries is of marginal philosophical or
religious interest, in any strict sense of the terms. They include extended
discussions of grammatical points and of how various nonphilosophical
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passages of scripture (iruti) are to be understood. In short, to get hold of

the basic doctrines in the primary classical literature requires much patient
digging. Mr. Alston has now done much of that digging for the student of
Advaita Vedanta.
Assuredly, something gets lost in any excavation of this sort. Although
Mr. Alston in his choice of materials tries to give the reader some feeling
for the kind and style of argumentation in the commentarial literature, of
necessity, the reader is going to miss the full flavor of the argumentatively
lively, yet oftentimes tedious, discussions about the proper interpretation
of certain (Upanisadic) passages, the right analysis of certain key terms,
and so on. Whenever we have "texts" extracted from their "contexts"
something gets lost.
But, at the same time, something is gained; especially for the Western
student of Indian thought. He can engage the material initially in a
familiar way, and-if he is so interested-he can then turn to the texts in
their fulness.
Mr. Alston, I think, has made a very substantial contribution. His
writing is lucid; he gets to the essence of the major doctrines without un-
due jargon; he has a keen sensitivity to the philosophical issues and prob-
lems in the Indian context; he understands fully how the system functions
as both argument and praxis; he is appropriately careful in his scholarship
and use of materials; and his own judgments are balanced and wise.
Specialists will probably find his discussion of m3jli and his efforts to
place Vedanta in relation to a wide range of other traditions in India (from
the Pancaratras to Mddhyamika Buddhism) to be most useful.
Two points, however, should perhaps be noted. First, Alston speaks
repeatedly of Samkara as adhering strictly to "a principle of tran-
scendence." Now in most contexts where Alston states this, it is rather
clear what is meant. But it should be emphasized that 'transcendence' as
most often understood in Western (especially religious) thought usually
involves some kind of fundamental dualism (or radical difference in the
respective nature of) man and the divine or man and nature and the
notion that man must "go beyond" himself to achieve kinship with, or
insight into, that other order of being. One of the central notions in
Samkara's thought, which Alston is of course very much aware of, is that
Reality is to be realized in the here and now; for, it is said, we are identical
with it all the time. Samkara never tires of arguing that nothing "new" is
acquired in true knowledge other than the realization of what one really is.
This is not "transcendence" in the usual sense of the term.
Second, although Mr. Alston offers a brief and very good discussion of
post-Samkara Advaita, he concludes the discussion with a rather curious
remark. He says:
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And the glance we have taken at developments in his school after his death
should be enough to convince us of the need ... for avoiding the temptation to
seek light on his views from the writings of his followers after Suresvara.
(p. 55)
It is not clear to me why we need to avoid such a temptation. It would cer-
tainly be poor scholarship to read Samkara only in the terms in which his
school later developed (into various sub-schools, with their own problems
selected for emphasis); but assuredly we can get some considerable help
from the developments in post-Samkara Veddnta in our understanding of
the philosophical significance of many key concepts; such as "superim-
position" and "ignorance." The technical refinements which were made
in the analyses of such concepts do enable us, I believe, to understand
better their actual role in Samkara's own thought.
Mr. Alston's translations are indeed readable and succeed remarkably
well in setting forth Samkara's philosophical ideas. If this first volume is
typical of what is to follow in the series, one can, I think, judge Mr.
Alston's project to be very successful indeed.

University of Hawaii ELIOT DEUTSCH