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Even a brief history of Indian philosophy would run into several volumes. Nothing of the sort is, therefore, attempted here. This article deals with the early stages in the development of Indian thought; jargon has been avoided as far as possible.
India's greatest treasure is perhaps her ancient spiritual wisdom. Its value and importance is now being slowly recognised everywhere. The old view that no proper philosophy grew and thrived outside Greece is no more taken seriously.
Few non-Indians have, however, understood the true extent and depth of Indian philosophy. Those who have sought to know, have been amazed by its sweep and grandeur and the candour shown by Indian thinkers in accepting logical conclusions, even when they are unpalatable.
A striking character of Indian thought is its richness and variety. There is practically no shade of speculation that it does not include. Indian philosophy is often described as 'negative' and 'pessimistic'. This is the unfortunate result of inadequate comprehension. There is no lack of emphasis in it on the reality of the external world or on the optimistic view of life understood in its larger sense. The real fact is that Indian thought exhibits such diversity in development that it does not admit to over-simple tagging.
A measure of its sophistication is the high degree of linguistic precision achieved from the very early days. *The vigour of the philosophical disputations, where nothing was granted and everything was challenged is another indicator.
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The beginnings of Indian philosophy take us very far back, to three or four thousand years before Christ when, history tells us, the Aryans came into India. The speculative activity then begun, continued unbroken until a century or two ago. During this long period Indian thought developed more or less unaffected by outside influence; still its achievements are
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*Precision was, however, occasionally lost in the passion for compression which resulted in the evolvement of an aphoristic (sutra) style giving commentators an opportunity to indulge in endless and often conflicting interpretations and expositions.
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impressive. It evolved several schools and systems of philosophy and gave birth to three great religions --- Hinduism and Jainism, which are confined to India and Nepal, and Buddhism, a world religion.
The history of Indian thought can be roughly divided into two stages: The 'Vedic' and the 'post-Vedic'. The first belongs to the age of the 'Vedas', a collections of ancient hymns considered by the Hindus as the 'revealed truths'. The latter refers to the Sanskrit, the classical period which saw the emergence of Buddhism, Jainism and the various so-called systems or schools of philosophy.
The Vedas form the earliest composition of the Aryan people. The hymns were obviously composed by different seers at different periods in history and reveal different strata of religious and philosophical culture. The Vedas indicate that the Aryans worshipped diverse Nature Gods and that they laid emphasis on all kinds of sacrifices to propitiate them. The belief in a pantheon of gods slowly gave way to belief in one of the gods or the other (though not in one supreme god) and led to a search for the unity of the Godhead - the power that works behind all the gods. At this stage, the hymns take on a distinctively philosophical tint. We find the performance of ritual sacrifices often replaced by meditation. We also come across passages which display doubt or scepticism about our know- ledge of the origin of the universe and others which contain descriptions of a monotheistic character. "What is but one, wise men call by different names" is one of these famous passages. The search for the unity of Godhead slowly yielded a higher conception of Unity which traced the whole of existence to a single source. These ideas, fully worked out later, is the mainstay of Indian philosophy.
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The seeds of thought that one finds in the Vedas sprout and grow into their full stature in the Upanishads. These are sacred texts, composed either in verse or in prose, which form the concluding part of the Vedas. The number of original Upanishads is generally taken to be eleven, although there have been later additions which claim equal antiquity.
The Upanishads have been described as the "outbursts of the joy and emotion of Intuitive experience" .They seek the Ultimate Truth and there are many passages attempting to express its nature. The express- ion,however,is always emotional and intuitive and seldom argumentative. Commentators of the Upanishads have, out of reverence to them as 'revealed truths', maintained that all of them teach the same doctrine. This Is however not true. The Upanishads do not embody a single doctrine; there are many discordant notes. However, the most prominent
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and the best developed line of teaching that emerges from them may be described as monistic and idealistic. This alone needs detailed consideration.
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An explanation of this doctrine involves two terms: Brahman and Atman, described as the "two pillars on which rests nearly the whole edifice of Indian philosophy". Brahman refers to the ultimate source of the outer world. Atman is the Inner Self of Man. The desire to understand the nature of the outer world and the resultant objective search led the Indian thinker to the postulation of a single source called Brahman (Universal Soul), while his need to understand the true nature of man, as distinct from his body and its attributes, and the resultant subjective search, led him to the conception of the Atman.(individual Soul). At some stage in the evolution of thought, the primal source of the outer Universe, Brahman, was identified with its inmost essence, the Atman; in other words, the outer reality was identified with the inner. This at once led to the discovery of that unity for which there had been such a long search. The fusing of two such outwardly different but inwardly similar concepts into one is the main point taught by the Upanishads. The individual as well as the world at large is the manifestation of the same Reality, and both are, therefore, at the bottom, one and same, say the Upanishads. This fusion, from which emerges the idea of an absolute all-pervading Reality marks the most important advance in the history of Indian thought.
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The theoretical teachings of the Upanishads, no doubt, had their practical side too, both in regard to the ideal to be achieved by man,and the means of achieving it.
The ideal, of course, is liberation' or final escape from the requiring cycle of births and rebirths. Men, according to the Upanishads, are born again and again until they achieve the ultimate release. Each life, with all its pains and pleasures, is the result of the actions of past lives and becomes in its turn the cause, through its own activities, of future births. This is known as the Law of Karma. The way to break the chain of Karma is the conquest of 'Evil'. Here, the most important point to be noted is the unique concept- ion of 'Evil' that the Upanishads maintain. 'Evil', according to the Upanishads, is not connected with any moral or ethical wrong-doing, or any offence against the will of gods or swerving from the sacrificial paths (as in the earlier periods). Evil is the result of a metaphysical
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error which sees variety alone where there is also the unity of Brahman. This tendency to see distinct and individual entities without grasping the essential unity underlying them leads to ' aham-kara', or the affirmation of the finite self. Aham-kara' , in itself, is not to be summarily condemned as it is basically a manifestation of the desire for self-realisation. However, more often than not, over-emphasis of 'aham-kara' degenerates into pure selfishness and prevents men from living in harmony with the universe and seeking the final goal of human existence.
The conquest of Evil, the Upanishads maintain, is to be achieved through the refinement of our thoughts and deeds. The course of discipline prescribed for this is two-fold:
-- The first: cultivation of detachment (vairagya) or a state where the narrow selfish impulses resulting from 'aham-kara' are eradicated. Various courses of training are available to reach this state, all of them involving self-control.
-- The second: acquisition of True Knowledge (jnana) or removal of all misconceptions about the fundamental unity of the Ultimate Reality. (The first, detachment, is a precondition to the second, as a person who is not detached cannot attain knowledge. ) The training for the acquisition of True Knowledge involves three steps: (1) the learning of the sacred texts and their implications from a Master, (2) continued reflection upon what has been learned and (3) meditation, which assists directly in the realisation within oneself of the unity underlying the diversity of the universe. The Upanishads lay down several meditative exercises to help those who seek liberation.
Of liberation itself, the Upanishads carry two different descriptions. The first of these is the continuance, after death, of the Self in an exalted form which finally finds its identity with Brahman, resulting in liberation and a state of eternal bliss (ananda). In the second, liberation is not a condition to be attained after death, but one to be realised here and now, if one so wills. A person who has reached this state of liberation continues to see variety, but is not deluded by it as he has already experienced the unity of all. The first speaks of achieving unity, while the second claims that unity is already there and needs only to be discovered and realised.
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As noted earlier, neither the Vedas nor the Upanishads teach a single, unified doctrine, but since they were treated as 'revealed truths', their authority could not be questioned even though they presented conflicting ideals and views. In later days, therefore, it became necessary that a definite unity and uniformity of purpose be demonstrated in order to
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maintain this authority. The two earliest attempts in this direction are two sacred texts known as Brahman Sutra and Bhagaved Gita (or simply Gita as it is popularly known). These two did not actually resolve the difficulties that existed; however, their influence on later thinkers was so great that they too were treated on a par with the revealed texts.
Of the two, the Gita deserves special mention as it is considered to be the greatest work in the world of Indian thought. It contains the essence of the theoretical speculations and practical teachings of the Vedas and the Upanishads and has been the main source of inspiration for later-day philosophers.
The Gita, in fact. is not a work by itself. It is part of the 'Mahabharata', the world's longest and greatest epic poem. This is an important fact which a majority of its commentators have conveniently ignored, especially those who deny Man a social role. Arjuna, one of the major warrior heroes of the poem, vacillates when faced with the prospect of fighting against his kith and kin to win the kingdom that justly belongs to him and his brothers and the Lord, who acts as his charioteer, advises him on the right path to be followed in life. This advice is the Gita.
The theoretical teaching that one finds in the Gita is a synthesis of all doctrines then existing. The Upanishadic thought which stresses the cosmic conception of the Absolute is the main current, but this is blended with theism or the belief in a single, personal God. But the Gita's real greatness lies in its practical teaching which provides Man with a key to harmony - both internal and external - in his life.
The cultivation of detachment and the acquisition of knowledge as advocated by the Upanishads would, if strictly followed, lead to a complete withdrawal from and renunciation of life. This could be the ideal for a chosen few - as it has always remained-but gives little solace to others who want to live and act and, at the same time, wish to escape the cycle of birth and rebirth. Renunciation denies the possibility of an active life, while an active life involves the danger of increased selfishness. The unique success of the Gita lies in its discovery of the golden mean between two. It finds this in what it calls 'karma-yoga', roughly translated as action-renunciation. The Gita says that the way to overcome 'aham-kara' and realise liberation is not to run away from life through total withdrawal. The right way, it declares, is to live in the midst of the storm and stress of life and do one's duty, but without any thought of recompense. It is not action, but the thought of profits arising from it, that is the root cause of selfishness. 'Detached action' thus becomes the starting point of life's discipline. Activity is natural to life;
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inactivity means death. Activity cannot and should not be suppressed; it only needs to be properly directed.
And, what should be the direction? The answer is very specific - one should perform one's 'own duty' (swadharma).
The word 'swadharma' has caused considerable difficulty due to a plurality of interpretations. The most common tendency is to confine its meaning to the 'duties prescribed by the caste system'. Such a narrow interpretation has been responsible for the degeneration of Indian social life through the centuries. An intelligent reading of the Gita, however, clearly shows that by the word ' swadharma' it simply means work or action in tune with one's own inborn tendencies or gifts. In other words, the Gita says that everyone should try to know his own inner potential, develop it and lead an active life accordingly, without worrying about right or wrong or about material or other profits. This is 'detached action' which would set free the springs of inner life whose development is the ultimate aim of man. It is the true path to self-realisation and final liberation.
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With the Gita we come to the transition point from the Vedic and the early post-Vedic periods to the age of the 'systems' which is beyond the purview of this article. However, there are one or two other aspects which need to be dealt with, at least briefly.
The Vedas, we have seen, have all along been accepted as 'revealed texts' and their authority never questioned. While this was the case in general, there were indeed currents of thought that did not accept- the validity of the Vedas. Some of these later developed into full scale systems, often referred to as 'heretical' schools. Among them are Buddhism, Jainism and the Charvaka School. Although part and parcel of the Indian philosophical tradition. Buddhism has acquired an identity of its own as a world religion, and it is not proposed to deal with it here. A few words may however, be said about the other two.
JAINISM: At one time, Jainism was misunderstood as a sub-sect of Buddhism. Actually it is an independent religion and perhaps of greater antiquity. Jainism resembles Buddhism in several aspects: in its repudiation of the authority of the Vedas, its pessimistic outlook on life and its refusal to believe in a supreme God. But differences are also equally important, like the recognition of permanent entities like the self and matter. In its present form, it was founded by Vardhamana Mahavira, born about 540 B. C. The Jains believe that the entire universe is populated with minute 'monads', including human souls, which are awakened
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to knowledge form within by the internal action of 'Karma'. The Jains believe in a realistic and pluralistic world and that man creates his own destiny by his own effects and actions. Jainism lays great stress on morality in general. It insists on both enlightenment and conduct at one and the same time, and to these two adds a third - faith. Right knowledge, right faith and right conduct are the 'three gems' of Jainism. When a man becomes absolutely free from all passions, he is known as a 'jina' and he shines in his full power of omniscience and omnipotence.
CHARVAKA SCHOOL: This is a purely materialist school. The onslaught of other schools and systems on this sect has been so fierce that none of the original texts are extant and we have to depend on summaries provided by its opponents to know its nature. This school insists that perception is the only means of valid knowledge and excludes even inference; it denies the existence of the soul as it cannot be perceived by the senses; it dismisses all belief in supernatural and transcendental being; it does not recognise God and ridicules the belief in a life after death. The ideal, it would seem, is one of Hedonism, pure and simple.
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The 'heretical' schools, however, did not grow long, strong roots in India. The Charvaka sect completely disappeared while Jainism, though It survives to this date, was adopted only by a minority of the people. Buddhism, which once held sway all over the country was finally driven out of the land.
The schools that found favour with the people were those which accepted the Validity of the Vedas and are known as the 'orthodox systems'. There are half a dozen in number but the one which has stood the test of time is Advaita Vedanta, propounded by the most famous of all Indian philosophers, Sri Sankara, who advocated strict monism. The Hindu revival in India, in the second half of the nineteenth century, has given this system a new lease of life, not only in its native country but also abroad, thanks to the efforts of the various Indian religious missions.