THE TIMES OF INDIA

PunePlu s FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1996

The book is about destruction

of erroheousknowledge!P

ROFEISSOR Sengaku Mayeda,

presently the professor Emeritusof University Of Tokyo and also a

professor of Indian Philosophy at theMusashino women's college. He hasscholarly affilialion守With various･

associations and institutes related to･

philosophy, Indian andノBuddhist

studies or South Asian studies in the

capaclty OrPreSident ordirector. ¶e

recIPlent Of `academic achievement

award from the Embassy of India

aEld the Eastem Jnstitute' Prof

Mayeda has many publications J tohis credit, which include `Sankatla 'S

!LPadesa saJzam'(aThousand Teach-lnか)･ノ

Q : ■一Sir, can you tell us something

about this bookH?

P : HYes althoug,h various works are

attributed to sankaracharya, he is

chief一y known fわr the commentary

癖汀ks like Bra/zmastra bhas.ya.'Upades 'asa/zaSri'is his only inde-

pendent non-commentary work. I

have cntically edited it, with an in-

troductioll. I have also translated it

with notesH.

Q : "What is the main theme of thebook, sir?H

P :.1How to destroy AvidJ.a (erro-

neous knowledge) is dealt　with

here'-.

Q : "So, Vedanta is your major fieldGTresearch?'●ド

P　　　　"Yes,　especially

Advaita- Vedanta, is my area of inter-

est".

･一Q : 'tWhat is the status of Indian

studies in Japan?H

P :一一Oh, Japan has achieved an ad一

拍nced level of research in this field.

We are still explonngfurther areasofresearchJapanhas got a long tra-

tlition in Indian studies, centuries

before Buddhism crossed the Indian

boundanes and reached Japan The

cふncepts like Koksa, NiT･Vana (Sal-

vation) are familiar to the Japanese

thin°. Naturally Buddhism or stu- ,

dies in Buddhist philosophy are dee-

ply rooted in Japanese soil.

But other branches of Indian Phi_

losophy are also being studied, ex-

ample the studies of Nyaya

Vais'eSL'ka and Vedanta are also

i?lnlng grOundT'.

Q : "Sir, how did you got attracted tothis field?"

P: rlMy father was the owner and

ptiest ofa Buddhist temple and fromchildhood I am breathing that a一mo-

st)here一㌧一Q : I-Instead ofruddhisI打hbWdidN

) ou モum to Vedanta?'-

P: 'zl feel that learning OfVedanta is

qulte eSSential for the proper under-standing of Buddhism. lt is on the

basis of the Upanisadic teachings

that the teaching of Buddha grew'..

Q : "So, you believe that 'Buddha

Professor Sen

rofessor

Emeritus′ S eaks on

and reli

°elvin into the

correlates Buddhism

with the U anishads′

arrlVln at some

startlin conclusions.

was but the culmination of Upanisa-

dic thought../

P : "No, not exactly likethat. It isthe

off-shoot. Hinduism and Buddhism

are two different streams. Hinduism

revolves around the concept of 'SaE'

(being) while 'Asat'(non-being) is

the central theme of Buddhism. Both

these concepts fわund their expres-

sion onglnally in Rugveda一一･

Q : ''You mean the famous Nasadu-ta -Sukta _?

P : HYes, `Nasadasit. N0-sadaSit'

but, in both the philosophies ulti一

mate aim of life is the same".

Q : "Whatisthegoaloflife?T.P : "Oh, Moksa- Salvation - Samad-

hi…■-

Q : "When, where is the difference?"P : ■■In the approaches. It islike oneis

looking at a thing from different an-

gles･ Hindus regard the goal assomething static, no change, while

Buddhists regard the totalas dynam-

ic - changing at every moment. The

goal here is 'AvTakta 'beyond `jud-

gement'and therefore we stop Its ex-

pression in Hinduism. They acceptthe一~- I ultimate pnnciple as

Anin,acaniya (non-expressible or

beyond expression), yet they try to

explain it..Neti Netz''(noHhis, not this) is

also an expression -Buddhists stop

talking about a metaphysical being,

Buddha wants to get over the present

`duhkha', in this world. Our `dukha'

is here and we have to overcome and

not to solve the problem of metaphy-

sics".

Q : 'rWherein lies the essence ofAd-vaL'ta - Vedanta?"

P : HItis in therealisation oftheunlty

of Brahman and Atman･ /The duality

is based on Ignorance and destruc-

tion of that ignorance is our goal"･

q : -●Sir, some people call

SankaT･aChaT),a aS `Prachanna

Buddha'(Buddha in disguise). Do

you accept this view?H

P : 'lNo, even before the activity Of

Sankara started, the current of Ve-

danta was qulte inf一uenced by Bud-

dhism, take fわr instance Gaudapada.

In fact, Sankara tried to restore Ve_

danta to its onglnal fbm.■■

Q : "How do you compare the two-thinkers?■■

P : HWe can see thecontrasts in theethnic and cultural backgrounds of

Sankara and Gautama Buddha, but

we canalso discem a common life_

experience. Both of them took simi-

lar steps in leavlng home to under-

take a religious Search. Sankara es･

tablished monasteries through

which he propagated his teachings･

lt is said that this monastery lS patteト.

ned after the Buddhist vihara.

A comparison of their thoughts

can be donewith respect to variousconcepts such as Atman, Avidya, Fi-

nal release, when we look at Buddha

throughthe eyes of Sankara. Ih myhumble　view, what ths Buddha

sought, and what Sankaia sought,appear to be entirely slmiliar. These

two thinkers have provided theoreti-

Calbases for religious and social re-

form movements. It was Narayan

Guru who developed Sankara's

teaching of lone brahman'into the

two dimensions, namely tone caste'

and 一one religlOn. '

I put them into practice. Buddha's

teaching of equality has been taken

up by B R Ambedkar-I.

Q : ‖Sir, how many times you had

been to India before?''

P : "Forthe firsttime I came to Ma-

dras in 62･63, sincethen, Ihave visi-

ted or travelled here-I.

Q : HSir, what are your impressionsabout India?I-

P : ''I ambominJapan butthat was

only my first birth･ India is my se_C-

ond birth-place, i am half indian,

very inmlenCed by its culture, way

ofthinkinlg, way oflife".

Q :-HWhd do youlhink of this coか

ference r

P : '.I am very happy. We can neversee such a large gathering of people

from various branches in Japan For

scienceand technology, yes, but for

philosophy, it is di托cult to gather

large fundsH｡

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