Classical Indian Philosophial system
In the classical Indian Philosophial system, there are six Astik traditions based on Vedic scriptural authority;
1. Samkhya
2. Nyaya
3. Yoga
4. Vaiseshika
5. Mimmsa...
6. Vedanta
and three Nastik traditions:
1. Buddhist
2. Jainism
3. Charvaak
Now to the first system Samkhya: Sāmkhya is an enumerationist philosophy that is strongly dualist. Sāmkhya philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two realities; Puruṣa (consciousness) and prakriti (phenomenal realm of matter). Jiva is that state in which puruṣa is bonded to prakriti through the glue of desire, and the end of this bondage is moksha.
Sāṃkhya denies the final cause of Ishvara (God). Samkhya does not describe what happens after moksha and does not mention anything about Ishwara or God.
Samkhya accepts the notion of higher selves or perfected beings but rejects the notion of God. Classical Samkhya argues against the existence of God on metaphysical grounds. Samkhya theorists argue that an unchanging God cannot be the source of an ever changing world and that God was only a necessary metaphysical assumption demanded by circumstances. If the existence of karma is assumed, the proposition of God as a moral governor of the universe is unnecessary
The Second System: Nyaya is specifically the school of logic somewhat like Aristotelian logic. The most important contribution made by the Nyaya to modern Hindu thought is its methodology to prove existence of God, based on the Vedas. This methodology is based on a system of logic that, subsequently, has been adopted by the majority of the other Indian schools, orthodox or not.
Its followers believed that obtaining valid knowledge was the only way to obtain release from suffering. They therefore took great pains to identify valid sources of knowledge and to distinguish these from mere false opinions. Nyaya is thus a form of epistemology in addition to logic. According to the Nyaya, there are exactly four sources of knowledge (pramāṇas): perception, inference, comparison, and testimony. Nyaya is probably the closest Indian equivalent to contemporary analytic philosophy.
Nine different arguments have been used in the system based on faith, shruti, pramaan, cause-effect logic etc. to prove the existence of creative God.
Not only have the Naiyayikas provided arguments to prove the existence of God, but they have also given an argument that such a God can only be one.
The Naiyayikas believe that the bondage of the world is due to false knowledge, which can be removed by constantly thinking of its opposite (pratipakshabhavana), namely, the true knowledge. So the opening aphorism of the Nyāya Sūtra states that only the true knowledge lead to salvation. But the Nyaya also maintains that the God's grace is essential for obtaining true knowledge.
Yoga, the third philosophical system is a problematic term as since 19th century, the term gets confused with various physical postures and breathing exercises mentioned in Hatha Yoga pradipika. Moreover, various methods of achieving moksha like karma yoga, gyan yoga, raja yoga, bhakti yoga etc. further confuse the picture. Moreover, there are Buddhist Yoga, Jainist Yoga, Christian Yoga, Tantra Yoga etc.
However, as one of the streams of philosophy, it is based on Yoga Sutras compiled by Patanjali. It is a form of meditation in which the mind is trained to be focused at one point. It aims at the calming of the mind using a succession of steps, culminating in samadhi. According to the samkhya-based Raja yoga-philosohy, this results in kaivalya, the recognition of the pure mind, and the subsequent liberation from rebirth.
Meditation on Om with bhava removes obstacles in sadhana and helps to attain samadhi. Avidya (ignorance), asmita (egoism), raga-dvesha (likes and dislikes), abhinivesha (clinging to mundane life) are the five kleshas or afflictions.
Samadhi is of two kinds:
• Savikalpa, samprajnata or sabija; and
• Nirvikalpa, asamprajnata or nirbija.
In savikalpa or sabija, there is triputi or the triad (knower, known and knowledge). In nirvikalpa samadhi, nirbija samadhi or asamprajnata samadhi there is no triad.
Hence, this system of philosophy does not deny the existence of a Creator God. But it can be saakar or nirvikaar.
In the last sutra, Patañjali says the soul reaches its end in liberation, enlightenment or kaivalya.
नापसंदनापसंद • • साझा करें
Vaisheshika, the fourth school: It espouses a form of atomism and postulates that all objects in the physical universe are reducible to a finite number of atoms. The Vaiseshika sutra proclaims the futility of life in the temporary world (maya) and proposes that an understanding of god can free an individual from Karma, following which liberation will ensue. Major ideas contained in the Vaisheshika Sutra are:
• There are nine classes of realities: four classes of atoms (earth, water, light and air), space (akasha), time (kāla), direction (dik), infinity of souls (Atman), mind (manas).
• Individual souls are eternal and pervade material body for a time.
• There are seven categories (padārtha) of experience — substance, quality, activity, generality, particularity, inherence and non-existence.
Several traits of substances (dravya) are given as colour, taste, smell, touch, number, size, the separate, coupling and uncoupling, priority and posterity, comprehension, pleasure an pain, attraction and revulsion, and wishes. God is not mentioned in the sutra, but later commentators add it to complete the system. Incidentally, these sutras have also enumerated the three laws of motion as propounded by Newton.
Mimamsa, the fifth school: The Sanskrit word 'mimamsa means a ‘revered thought’. Purva-Mimamsa is also known as Karma Mimamsa since it deals with the Karmic actions of rituals and sacrifices. This system out rightly accept the Vedas as the eternal source of ‘revealed truth.’ It endorses the reality of the world as well as that of the individual souls. The soul is accepted as an eternal and infinite substance. Consciousness is an accidental attribute of the soul. The soul is distinct from the body, the senses and the mind.
The system supports the law of karma. Apart from accepting the heaven and the hell, the system supports the theory of liberation. The core tenets of Pūrva Mīmāṃsā are ritualism (orthopraxy), anti-asceticism and anti-mysticism. The central aim of the school is elucidation of the nature of dharma, understood as a set ritual obligations and prerogatives to be performed properly. Dharma as understood by Pūrva Mīmāṃsā can be loosely translated into English as "virtue", "morality" or "duty". Mīmāṃsā theorists decided that the evidence allegedly proving the existence of God was insufficient. They argue that there was no need to postulate a maker for the world, just as there was no need for an author to compose the Vedas or a God to validate the rituals. Mīmāṃsā argues that the Gods named in the Vedas have no existence apart from the mantras that speak their names. To that regard, the power of the mantras is what is seen as the power of Gods.
Vedanta is the most prominent and philosophically advanced of the orthodox schools and the term Vedanta may also be used to refer to Indian philosophy more generally. It literally translates to "the conclusion of Vedas," and originally referred to the Upanishads. It includes all philosophical traditions concerned with interpreting three basic texts: the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. It can be said that this school is the one most re-interpreted one in modern times by Swami Vivekanand, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Mahatma Gandhi and others.
Even though there are many sub-schools of vedantic philosophy, all these schools share some common features,that can be called the vedantic core:
• Brahman is the supreme cause of the entire universe and is all pervading and eternal
• Actions are subordinate to knowledge or devotion. Actions are useful only for preparing the mind for knowledge or devotion; and once this is achieved, selfish actions and their rewards must be renounced.
• Bondage is subjection to Saṃsāra, the cycle of death and rebirth.
• Liberation is deliverance from this cycle.
Traditional Vedānta considers scriptural evidence, or shabda pramāna, as the most authentic means of knowledge, while perception, or pratyaksa, and logical inference, or anumana, are considered to be subordinate (but valid).
Vedanta rejects ritual in favor of renunciation, which makes Vedanta irreconcileable with Mimamsa.
In the Nastik schools of thought, let us first talk about the Charvaks: It is a system of Indian philosophy that assumes various forms of materialism, philosophical skepticism and religious indifference.
Charvaks denied metaphysical concepts like reincarnation, extracorporeal soul and rejected efficacy of religious rites, other worlds (heaven and hell), fate and accumulation of merit or demerit through the performance of certain actions. They also rejected the use of supernatural causes to describe natural phenomena.
Charvaks thought that body was formed out of four elements (instead of five) and that consciousness was an outcome of the mixture of these elements. Therefore, they did not believe in an afterlife.
These philosophers believed that there was nothing wrong with sensual pleasure. Since it is impossible to have pleasure without pain, they thought that wisdom lay in enjoying pleasure and avoiding pain as far as possible. Unlike many of the Indian philosophies of the time, they did not believe in austerities or rejecting pleasure out of fear of pain and held such reasoning to be foolish.
They held truth, integrity, consistency, and freedom of thought in the highest esteem.
They rejected religious conceptions like afterlife, reincarnation, religious rites etc. They were extremely critical of the Vedas and thought that Vedas suffered from three faults - untruth, self-contradiction and tautology. To them, Vedas were just incoherent rhapsodies. They also held the belief that such texts were invented and made up by men and had no divine authority.
In the classical Indian Philosophial system, there are six Astik traditions based on Vedic scriptural authority;
1. Samkhya
2. Nyaya
3. Yoga
4. Vaiseshika
5. Mimmsa...
6. Vedanta
and three Nastik traditions:
1. Buddhist
2. Jainism
3. Charvaak
Now to the first system Samkhya: Sāmkhya is an enumerationist philosophy that is strongly dualist. Sāmkhya philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two realities; Puruṣa (consciousness) and prakriti (phenomenal realm of matter). Jiva is that state in which puruṣa is bonded to prakriti through the glue of desire, and the end of this bondage is moksha.
Sāṃkhya denies the final cause of Ishvara (God). Samkhya does not describe what happens after moksha and does not mention anything about Ishwara or God.
Samkhya accepts the notion of higher selves or perfected beings but rejects the notion of God. Classical Samkhya argues against the existence of God on metaphysical grounds. Samkhya theorists argue that an unchanging God cannot be the source of an ever changing world and that God was only a necessary metaphysical assumption demanded by circumstances. If the existence of karma is assumed, the proposition of God as a moral governor of the universe is unnecessary
The Second System: Nyaya is specifically the school of logic somewhat like Aristotelian logic. The most important contribution made by the Nyaya to modern Hindu thought is its methodology to prove existence of God, based on the Vedas. This methodology is based on a system of logic that, subsequently, has been adopted by the majority of the other Indian schools, orthodox or not.
Its followers believed that obtaining valid knowledge was the only way to obtain release from suffering. They therefore took great pains to identify valid sources of knowledge and to distinguish these from mere false opinions. Nyaya is thus a form of epistemology in addition to logic. According to the Nyaya, there are exactly four sources of knowledge (pramāṇas): perception, inference, comparison, and testimony. Nyaya is probably the closest Indian equivalent to contemporary analytic philosophy.
Nine different arguments have been used in the system based on faith, shruti, pramaan, cause-effect logic etc. to prove the existence of creative God.
Not only have the Naiyayikas provided arguments to prove the existence of God, but they have also given an argument that such a God can only be one.
The Naiyayikas believe that the bondage of the world is due to false knowledge, which can be removed by constantly thinking of its opposite (pratipakshabhavana), namely, the true knowledge. So the opening aphorism of the Nyāya Sūtra states that only the true knowledge lead to salvation. But the Nyaya also maintains that the God's grace is essential for obtaining true knowledge.
Yoga, the third philosophical system is a problematic term as since 19th century, the term gets confused with various physical postures and breathing exercises mentioned in Hatha Yoga pradipika. Moreover, various methods of achieving moksha like karma yoga, gyan yoga, raja yoga, bhakti yoga etc. further confuse the picture. Moreover, there are Buddhist Yoga, Jainist Yoga, Christian Yoga, Tantra Yoga etc.
However, as one of the streams of philosophy, it is based on Yoga Sutras compiled by Patanjali. It is a form of meditation in which the mind is trained to be focused at one point. It aims at the calming of the mind using a succession of steps, culminating in samadhi. According to the samkhya-based Raja yoga-philosohy, this results in kaivalya, the recognition of the pure mind, and the subsequent liberation from rebirth.
Meditation on Om with bhava removes obstacles in sadhana and helps to attain samadhi. Avidya (ignorance), asmita (egoism), raga-dvesha (likes and dislikes), abhinivesha (clinging to mundane life) are the five kleshas or afflictions.
Samadhi is of two kinds:
• Savikalpa, samprajnata or sabija; and
• Nirvikalpa, asamprajnata or nirbija.
In savikalpa or sabija, there is triputi or the triad (knower, known and knowledge). In nirvikalpa samadhi, nirbija samadhi or asamprajnata samadhi there is no triad.
Hence, this system of philosophy does not deny the existence of a Creator God. But it can be saakar or nirvikaar.
In the last sutra, Patañjali says the soul reaches its end in liberation, enlightenment or kaivalya.
नापसंदनापसंद • • साझा करें
Vaisheshika, the fourth school: It espouses a form of atomism and postulates that all objects in the physical universe are reducible to a finite number of atoms. The Vaiseshika sutra proclaims the futility of life in the temporary world (maya) and proposes that an understanding of god can free an individual from Karma, following which liberation will ensue. Major ideas contained in the Vaisheshika Sutra are:
• There are nine classes of realities: four classes of atoms (earth, water, light and air), space (akasha), time (kāla), direction (dik), infinity of souls (Atman), mind (manas).
• Individual souls are eternal and pervade material body for a time.
• There are seven categories (padārtha) of experience — substance, quality, activity, generality, particularity, inherence and non-existence.
Several traits of substances (dravya) are given as colour, taste, smell, touch, number, size, the separate, coupling and uncoupling, priority and posterity, comprehension, pleasure an pain, attraction and revulsion, and wishes. God is not mentioned in the sutra, but later commentators add it to complete the system. Incidentally, these sutras have also enumerated the three laws of motion as propounded by Newton.
Mimamsa, the fifth school: The Sanskrit word 'mimamsa means a ‘revered thought’. Purva-Mimamsa is also known as Karma Mimamsa since it deals with the Karmic actions of rituals and sacrifices. This system out rightly accept the Vedas as the eternal source of ‘revealed truth.’ It endorses the reality of the world as well as that of the individual souls. The soul is accepted as an eternal and infinite substance. Consciousness is an accidental attribute of the soul. The soul is distinct from the body, the senses and the mind.
The system supports the law of karma. Apart from accepting the heaven and the hell, the system supports the theory of liberation. The core tenets of Pūrva Mīmāṃsā are ritualism (orthopraxy), anti-asceticism and anti-mysticism. The central aim of the school is elucidation of the nature of dharma, understood as a set ritual obligations and prerogatives to be performed properly. Dharma as understood by Pūrva Mīmāṃsā can be loosely translated into English as "virtue", "morality" or "duty". Mīmāṃsā theorists decided that the evidence allegedly proving the existence of God was insufficient. They argue that there was no need to postulate a maker for the world, just as there was no need for an author to compose the Vedas or a God to validate the rituals. Mīmāṃsā argues that the Gods named in the Vedas have no existence apart from the mantras that speak their names. To that regard, the power of the mantras is what is seen as the power of Gods.
Vedanta is the most prominent and philosophically advanced of the orthodox schools and the term Vedanta may also be used to refer to Indian philosophy more generally. It literally translates to "the conclusion of Vedas," and originally referred to the Upanishads. It includes all philosophical traditions concerned with interpreting three basic texts: the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. It can be said that this school is the one most re-interpreted one in modern times by Swami Vivekanand, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Mahatma Gandhi and others.
Even though there are many sub-schools of vedantic philosophy, all these schools share some common features,that can be called the vedantic core:
• Brahman is the supreme cause of the entire universe and is all pervading and eternal
• Actions are subordinate to knowledge or devotion. Actions are useful only for preparing the mind for knowledge or devotion; and once this is achieved, selfish actions and their rewards must be renounced.
• Bondage is subjection to Saṃsāra, the cycle of death and rebirth.
• Liberation is deliverance from this cycle.
Traditional Vedānta considers scriptural evidence, or shabda pramāna, as the most authentic means of knowledge, while perception, or pratyaksa, and logical inference, or anumana, are considered to be subordinate (but valid).
Vedanta rejects ritual in favor of renunciation, which makes Vedanta irreconcileable with Mimamsa.
In the Nastik schools of thought, let us first talk about the Charvaks: It is a system of Indian philosophy that assumes various forms of materialism, philosophical skepticism and religious indifference.
Charvaks denied metaphysical concepts like reincarnation, extracorporeal soul and rejected efficacy of religious rites, other worlds (heaven and hell), fate and accumulation of merit or demerit through the performance of certain actions. They also rejected the use of supernatural causes to describe natural phenomena.
Charvaks thought that body was formed out of four elements (instead of five) and that consciousness was an outcome of the mixture of these elements. Therefore, they did not believe in an afterlife.
These philosophers believed that there was nothing wrong with sensual pleasure. Since it is impossible to have pleasure without pain, they thought that wisdom lay in enjoying pleasure and avoiding pain as far as possible. Unlike many of the Indian philosophies of the time, they did not believe in austerities or rejecting pleasure out of fear of pain and held such reasoning to be foolish.
They held truth, integrity, consistency, and freedom of thought in the highest esteem.
They rejected religious conceptions like afterlife, reincarnation, religious rites etc. They were extremely critical of the Vedas and thought that Vedas suffered from three faults - untruth, self-contradiction and tautology. To them, Vedas were just incoherent rhapsodies. They also held the belief that such texts were invented and made up by men and had no divine authority.
posted by eternalromantic @ 2:55 AM
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