Hinduism - A Philosophy, Religion, Way Of Life, And Identity
The difference between philosophy and religion in Hinduism is not as obvious as
it is in modern Western culture.
- The terms "philosophy" and
"religion" have no clear counterparts in Sanskrit, Hinduism's holy
language.
- Anvikshiki-vidya is the closest
synonym for "philosophy" ("science of examination").
- Only the Nyaya school of philosophy,
which deals with logic and dialectics, uses the similar word tarka-shastra
("discipline of reasoning").
- To describe what we understand by
"philosophical inquiry," modern pundits use the phrase tattva-vidya-shastra
("discipline of knowing reality").
Sanatana-dharma The Sanskrit word
dharma, which meaning "jaw" or "standard," captures the idea
of "religion" (with many other connotations).
- Sanatana-dharma ("eternal
law") is a Hindu term that relates to the Western concept of philosophia
perennis.
- For Hindus, philosophy is more than
just abstract knowledge; it is a metaphysics with moral consequences.
- To put it another way, whatever
one's theoretical conclusions about reality are, they must be put into practice
in everyday life.
- As a result, philosophy is usually
viewed as a way of life rather than a meaningless exercise in logical
thought.
Furthermore, Hindu philosophy (and
Indian philosophy in general) includes a spiritual component.
- All philosophical systems accept the
presence of a transcendental Reality and believe that a person's spiritual
well-being is based on how he or she interacts with that Reality, with the
exception of the materialist school known as Lokayata or Carvaka.
- As a result, Hindu philosophy is
closer to the spirit of ancient Greek philosophia ("love of
knowledge") than to the modern academic field of conceptual analysis,
which goes by the name of philosophy but isn't especially concerned with
life-enhancing insight.
- Ontology (which deals with the
categories of existence), epistemology (which is concerned with the knowledge
processes by which we come to know what there is "in reality"), and
logic (which defines the rules of rational thought) are all areas of rational
inquiry that have preoccupied Western philosophers since the time of Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle (which seeks to understand beauty).
Hindu philosophy, like Christian
philosophy, is deeply concerned with humanity's ultimate spiritual
destiny.
- As a result, it is often referred to
as atma-vidya ("science of the Self") or adhyatmika-vidya
("spiritual science").
- Though sophisticated self-critical
systems seem to be the result of the period following the birth of Buddhism in
the sixth century B.C.E., the ancient Rig Veda contains the first philosophical
musings or intuitions of Hinduism.
Six systems are traditionally
differentiated, which are referred to as "viewpoints" or
"visions" (darshana, from the verbal root drish "to
see").
- This statement alludes to two
important aspects of Hindu philosophy: Each system is the result of
visionary-intuitive processes as well as logical thought, and each system is a
unique viewpoint from which the same reality is seen, implying a stance of
tolerance (at least in theory, if not in practice).
- And that same Truth is what has been
passed down by word of mouth (and esoteric initiation) as the ultimate or
transcendental Reality, whether it is referred to as God (ish, isha, Ishvara,
all meaning "ruler"), the Self (atman, purusha), or the Absolute
(brahman).
The Vedic revelation (shruti),
especially the Rig-Veda, is a major element of Hindu philosophy, and tradition
refers to it.
- The Hindu philosophers had to defer
to, or at least pay lip service to, the ancient Vedic legacy in order to
establish their separate schools inside the orthodox fold.
- Purva-Mimamsa (which proposes a
philosophy of sacrificial ritualism), Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta (which is the
nondualist metaphysics espoused especially in the Upanishads), Samkhya (whose
main contribution concerns the categories of sacrificial ritualism), Uttara Mimamsa
or Vedanta (which is the nondualist metaphysics espoused especially in the
Upani (which is primarily a theory of logic and argument).
- I'll provide a short overview of
each school and its connection to the Yoga heritage.
Purva-Mimarnsa.
The Purva-Mimamsa ("Earlier
Inquiry") school is so named because it analyzes the "earlier"
two parts of the Vedic revelation: the early Vedic hymnodies and the Brahmana
texts that explain and deepen their sacrifice rites.
- It is opposed to the Uttara Mimamsa
("Later Inquiry"), which is represented by the Upanishads' nondualist
doctrines.
- The Mimamsa-Sutra of Jaimini gave
the Purva-Mimamsa school its unique shape (c.200300 B .C.E.).
- In line with Vedic ritualism, it
expounds the art and science of moral conduct.
- Its main point is the idea of
dharma, or virtue, as it relates to an individual's religious or spiritual
destiny.
The ethical authorities (dharma-shastra)
are in charge of defining and explaining the secular applications of
dharma.
- There have been many well-known
Jaiminis, and the author of the Sutra must be differentiated from the sage who
was a Vyasa student during the Bharata war.
- Mimamsa philosophers, or mimamsakas,
see ethical conduct as an unseen, exceptional power that shapes the world's
appearance:
- Action affects the quality of human life in both this incarnation
and future incarnations since humans are inherently active.
Bad acts (activities that violate
the Vedic moral code, which is believed to reflect the global order itself)
result in negative life circumstances, while good actions (actions that follow
the Vedic moral code) result in favorable life circumstances.
- The goal of leading a morally sound
life is to enhance one's quality of life in the present, the afterlife, and
future incarnations.
- Because the person has free will, he
or she may utilize good acts to accrue positive consequences and even cancel
out bad ones.
- The fact that the fundamental Self
is transcendental and everlasting ensures free choice.
- Unlike Vedanta, the Mimamsa
tradition believes in many fundamental selves (atman).
- These are considered inherently
unconscious and only become aware in the presence of a body-mind.
For the Mimamsa philosophers,
awareness is always I-consciousness (aham-dhi).
- Although some members of this school
began to believe in a Creator God in the fourteenth century, there is no God
above and beyond those numerous everlasting and omnipresent Selves.
- Because the Self is said to lack
both awareness and joy, the early mimamsakas naturally considered the
liberation goal sought by other schools to be unappealing.
- The eighth-century philosopher
Kumarila Bhatta and his disciple Prabhakara were opposed to this
viewpoint.
- They both taught that abstaining
from forbidden and simply optional acts, as well as diligent execution of
prescribed actions, inevitably result in the separation of the Self from the
bodymind—that is, freedom.
- They saw the Self as awareness, but
they didn't completely grasp the metaphysical consequences of their
viewpoint.
Yoga methods have no place in
Mimamsa, which extols the concept of obligation for the sake of duty.
- "As a philosophical perspective
of the world, it is startlingly inadequate," said Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan, a former president of India and a renowned scholar, of this
school of thought.
- Nothing in such a religion can
"touch the heart and make it shine." However, since Poorva-Mimamsa
was one of the cultural influences faced by the Yoga tradition, it must be
included here.
- Though Poorva-Mimarnsa was important
in the development of logic and dialectics, this school of thinking would
scarcely be considered philosophical by Western standards.
Apart from Jaimini, Kumarila, and
Prabhakara, Mandana Mishra (ninth century c.E.) is the most notable thinker of
this school, which has a fairly extensive literature.
- He subsequently converted to
Shankara's Advaita Vedanta school and took the name Sureshvara.
- In the fourteenth-century
Shankara-Dig-Vijaya, a fictitious biography of Shankara, the tale of the
electrifying meeting between Shankara and Mandana Mishra is recounted.
According to tradition, the youthful
Shankara, who had taken up renunciation, came to Mandana Mishra's magnificent
home just as the renowned scholar of Vedic ritualism was about to begin one of
his rituals.
- Shankara, who lacked the customary
hair tuft and the holy thread across his breast, irritated him.
- Mandana Mishra, quite proud of his
knowledge, challenged the guest to a discussion after a torrent of nasty
comments, which Shankara accepted quietly and not without pleasure.
- They decided, as was usual at the
time, that whomever lost the argument would adopt the winner's lifestyle.
- Their intellect and wit duel
attracted huge groups of academics and lasted many days.
Ubhaya Bharati, Mandana Mishra's
wife (who was really Sarasvati, the Goddess of Learning in disguise), was named
umpire.
- She quickly proclaimed her husband's
loss, but quickly countered that Shankara had only beaten half of the battle;
for his victory to be complete, he needed to vanquish her as well.
- She slyly pushed the young renouncer
to a sexuality debate.
- Shankara requested an adjournment
without losing his cool, so that he might familiarize himself with this field
of expertise.
- Shankara took advantage of the fact
that the monarch of a neighboring country had recently died and utilized his
yogic abilities to enter the body and reanimate it.
- He returned to the palace to the
joyful exclamations of the king's family.
Shankara enjoyed and explored for a
while the pleasures of sexual love among the deceased king's wives and
courtesans in the spirit of Tantra.
- According to tradition, he became so
engrossed in his new life that his followers had to sneak into the palace to
remind him of his previous existence as a renouncer.
- Shankara regained his real identity
and skillfully dropped the king's corpse before returning to his argument with
Mandana Mishra's wife.
- Of course, he triumphed. Mandana Mishra said that he was a
Shankara student, prompting his wife, Ubhaya Bharat!, to disclose her real
identity.
- Shankara's win is often seen as a
triumph of his better nondualist metaphysics against Purva-less Mimamsa's
complex philosophy.
- Although this is true, it was mainly
a victory of yogic experientialism over intellectualism.
Uttara-Mimamsa
The many-branched
school of Uttara-Mimamsa ("Later Inquiry"), also known as Vedanta
("Veda's End"), takes its name from the fact that it arose from the
study of the "later" two portions of Vedic revelation: the Aranyakas
(forest treatises composed by hermits) and the Upanishads (esoteric gnostic
scriptures composed by sages).
- Both the Aranyakas and the
Upanishads teach the absorption of archaic rites via meditation, which is a
metaphoric reworking of the old Vedic legacy.
- The Upanishadic doctrines, in
particular, gave birth to the Vedanta tradition's whole consciousness
technology.
- The Upanishads (of which there are
over two hundred books), the Bhagavad-Gita (which is accorded the holy rank of
an Upanishad and may date from c. 500-600 B.C.E. ), and the Vedanta
Brahma-Sutra of Badarayana (c. 200 C.E.) make up the Uttara-Mimamsa
school's (Vedanta) literature.
Vedanta is the pinnacle of
metaphysics.
Its many sub-schools all teach one
form or another of nondualism, in which Reality is seen as a one, homogenous
totality.
Sureshvara (the former Mandana
Mishra) articulates the basic concept of Vedantic nondualism in the following
stanzas from the Naishkarmya-Siddhi ("Perfection of
Action-Transcendence"):
- The failure to see the single Selfhood [of all
things] is [spiritual] ignorance (avidya).
- The experience of one's own self is
the foundation of [such ignorance].
- It is the beginning of the world's
transformation.
The emancipation (mukti) of the ego
is the elimination of that [spiritual ignorance].
- The illusion of [there being
a separate] self is shattered by the fire of correct knowledge (jnana)
originating from magnificent Vedic words.
- Because action is not incompatible
with ignorance, it does not [eliminate it].
- Action does not eliminate
illusion since it originates from ignorance.
- Because it is the polar opposite of
ignorance, right understanding [alone] can eliminate it, just as the sun is the
polar opposite of darkness.
One gets scared and flees
after mistaking a tree stump for a thief.
- Similarly, a misguided individual
superimposes the Self on the buddhi [i.e., the higher intellect] and other
[aspects of human identity], and then acts [on the basis of that erroneous
belief].
- Advaita Vedanta turned the previous
Vedic ritualism on its head.
- It is a gospel of gnosis, which is
the liberating perception of the transcendental Reality, rather than cerebral
or factual knowledge.
- Shankara (c. 788-820 C.E.)
and Ramanuja (c. 788-820 C.E.) were the two greatest exponents of Vedanta.
- The former was successful in
building a cohesive philosophical framework out of Upanishadic ideas, and is
mainly responsible for Hinduism's survival and Buddhism's expulsion from India.
Ramanuja, on the other hand, came to
the Advaita Vedanta tradition's rescue when it was on the verge of becoming dry
scholasticism.
- His concept of the Divine as
encompassing rather than transcending all characteristics aided the public push
for a more devotional Hindu faith.
- Many other Vedanta gurus, like
Shankara and Ramanuja, have significant ties to the Yoga tradition.
- Samkhya has moved toward
intellectualism in later times as a result of its focus on discriminative
knowledge rather than meditation, while Yoga has always been vulnerable to
straying into simple magical psychotechnology.
- The Samkhya philosophy has been the
most dominant school of thinking within Hinduism, second only to Vedanta, and
Shankara saw it as his primary foe.
- The Sage Kapila, who is attributed
with authorship of the Samkhya-Sutra, is believed to have established
Samkhya.
- Despite the fact that a teacher with
that name existed during the Vedic Era, the Samkhya-Sutra seems to have been
written according to certain
Samkhya
The Samkhya ("Enumeration")
tradition, which includes a wide range of schools, is mainly concerned with
enumerating and explaining the major kinds of existence.
In Western philosophy, this method
is known as "ontology," or "science of being."
- Samkhya and
Yog are closely related in their metaphysical concepts, and they originally
constituted an unified pre-classical school.
- However, while Sankhya's disciples
utilize discernment (viveka) and renunciation as their primary methods of
salvation, yogins primarily use a combination of meditation and
renunciation.
- Sankhya is often mistakenly
described as the theoretical component of Yoga practice.
- As late as the fourteenth or
fifteenth century C.E., each traditions had their own unique ideas and
practical scholars.
The Samkhya alluded to in the six
darshanas is the school of ishvara Krishna (c. 350 C.E. ), creator of
the SamkhyaKarika.
- Ishvara Krishna taught that Reality
is multiple, not single, in contrast to Vedanta and the older Samkhya schools
described in the Mahabharata epic.
- On one hand, there are numerous
changeable and unconscious forms of Nature (prakriti), and on the other, there
are countless transcendental Selves (purusha), which are pure Consciousness, omnipresent,
and everlasting.
- When examined more carefully,
plurality seems to be irrational.
- If innumerable Selves are all
omnipresent, they must also be endlessly intersecting one another, making them
logically identical.
While Shankara's nondualism is the
most academically beautiful, Ramanuja's qualified nondualism may satisfy both
reason and intuition the best.
- Ishvara Krishna went on to say that
Nature (prakriti) is a huge composite or multidimensional structure produced by
the interaction of three main forces: the dynamic characteristics, the material
qualities, and the spiritual qualities (guna).
- The term guna literally means
"strand," yet it has a lot of other meanings.
- The word signifies the irreducible
ultimate "reals" of the universe in Yoga and Samkhya
metaphysics.
The three kinds of gunas are
believed to mirror the energy quanta of modern physics.
- Sattva, rajas, and tamas are the
three gunas.
- They are at the root of all physical
and psychological processes.
- Their distinct characteristics are
described as follows in the Samkhya-Karika: The [three kinds of] gunas are of
the natures of joy, joylessness, and dejection, and have the functions of
enlightening, activating, and limiting, respectively.
- They outnumber each other, and their
actions are interconnected, productive, and cooperative.
- Sattva is said to be
uplifting and enlightening.
- Rajas is energizing and
dynamic.
- Tamas is passive and oblivious.
Like a lamp [made up of many
components that together create the single phenomenon of light], the action [of
the gunas] is purposeful.
- Just as atoms are
matter-energy, the gunas are Nature.
- They are collectively responsible
for the vast diversity of natural forms that exist on all levels of existence,
with the exception of the transcendental Selves, who are pure
Consciousness.
- We can best explain the gunas by the
general idea of two opposites and the middle term between them, or as Hegel's
thesis, antithesis and synthesis, which are manifested in nature by light,
darkness, and mist; in morals by good, bad, and indifferent, with many
applications and modifications, according to German Sanskritist Max Muller.
- The gunas are in a condition of
equilibrium in the transcendental dimension of Nature, known as
prakriti-pradhdna ("Nature's basis"), according to the Samkhya-Karika.
Mahat, which literally means
"great one" or "great principle," is the first product or
evolute to emerge in the process of development from this transcendental matrix
to the diversity of space-time forms.
- Because of its brightness and
intelligence, it is also called as buddhi ("intuition" or
"cognition"), which means "greater knowledge."
- But, in fact, mahat (like other
elements of Nature) is completely unconscious, and it simply symbolizes a
highly refined form of matter-energy.
Its "light" of intellect
is derived from transcendental Self-Consciousness.
- The principle of individuation,
ahamkara ("I-maker"), arises from the mahat, or buddhi, and ushers in
the difference between subject and object.
- The lower mind (manas), the five
cognitive senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing), and the five
conative senses all emerge as a result of this existential category (speech,
prehension, movement, excretion, and reproduction).
- The ahamkara principle is also
responsible for the five subtle essences (tanmatra) that underpin sensory
capabilities.
- The five gross material elements
(bhuta), namely earth, water, fire, air, and ether, are produced by them in
tum.
- As a result, Classical Samkhya
acknowledges twenty-four different types of material existence.
There are innumerable transcendental
Self-monads outside the guna triad and its products, which are unaffected by
Nature's ramifications.
- The closeness of the transcendental
Selves (purusha) to the transcendental matrix of Nature triggers the whole
evolutionary process.
- Furthermore, the procedure is for
the release of those Selves who, for some inexplicable and erroneous reason,
identify themselves with a specific body-mind rather than their inherent state
of pure Consciousness.
- The Samkhya tradition's psychocosmological
evolutionism is intended to help people transcend the world rather than
understand it.
- It is a practical framework for
individuals who seek Self-realization and come across many levels or types of
existence while practicing meditation.
Vaisheshika
The Vaisheshika
("Distinctionism") school of thought is concerned with the
distinctions (vishesha) that exist between things.
Liberation is achieved via a
comprehensive knowledge of the six fundamental types of existence, according to
the teachings:
l. The ninefold substance (dravya):
earth, water, fire, air, ether, time, space, thought (manas), and Self (atman)
2. quality (guna), which is divided
into twenty-three categories, including color, sensory impressions, magnitude,
and so forth.
3. take action (karma)
4. universality (samanya or jati)
5. the specific (vishesha) Yoga
particularly refers to the school of Patanjali, the author of the Yoga-Sutra,
among the six schools of Hindu philosophy.
- This school, also known as Classical
Yoga, is regarded a relative of ishvara Krishna's Samkhya school.
- Both are dualist ideologies that
teach that the transcendental Selves (purusha) are fundamentally different from
Nature (prakriti) and that the former is eternally unchanging, while the latter
is always changing and therefore unsuitable for long-term pleasure.
6. inherence (samavaya), which refers
to the logical connection that must exist between wholes and pieces, or
substances and their characteristics, and so on.
Kanada, the author of the
Vaisheshika-Sutra, who flourished about 500 or 600 B.C.E., established the
Vaisheshika school.
- Kanada seems to be a nickname,
literally meaning "particle eater."
- Although some Sanskrit sources
say that the term immortalizes the fact that this great ascetic lived on grain
particles (kana), it is likely that it alludes to the kind of philosophy he
developed.
- Both readings may be accurate. Kanada's school of thinking has an
enigmatic beginning.
Some academics believe it is a
descendant of the earlier Mimamsa school, while others view it as a
continuation of the materialist tradition, and yet others believe it has its
origins in a schismatic branch of Jainism.
- The Vaisheshika school is similar to
the Nyaya system, with which it is usually associated, in terms of general
direction and metaphysics.
- Both of these systems are the
closest to what we think of as philosophy in the West.
- They contributed to Indian thinking
for a long time, but neither school has remained dominant.
- The Vaisheshika school is almost
extinct, while the Nyaya school has just a few adherents, most of whom live in
Bengal.
Nyaya
The Nyaya ("Rule")
school of thought was founded by Akshapada Gautama (c.500 B.C.E. ), who
lived during a period of intense debate between Vedic ritualism and such
heterodox developments as Buddhism and Jainism—an era in which critical
thinking and debating were at an all-time high, similar to that of
Greece.
One of the first efforts to establish
sound logic and rhetorical principles was his.
- Gautama's moniker, Akshapada,
suggests that he had a tendency of gazing down at his feet (perhaps while being
immersed in thought or in order to purify the ground while walking).
- He is credited with writing the
Nyaya-Sutra, which has been the subject of many comments.
- Vatsyayana Pakshilasvamin's
commentary (c. 400 C.E.) is the earliest surviving commentary, written at
a period when Buddhism was still dominant in India.
Bharadvaja's or Uddyotakara's
Nyaya-Varttika is another excellent commentary, with a good subcommentary by
Vacaspati Mishra, who also wrote on Yoga.
- Around 1200 C.E., Nyaya began
flowering, marking the start of the so-called Nava-Nyaya era (or "New
Nyaya").
- In order to live properly and pursue
meaningful objectives, Akshapada Gautama began with the realization that we
must first define what constitutes right knowledge.
- He developed sixteen categories
considered essential for anybody wanting to discover the truth, in keeping with
the Indic flare for categorization.
- These topics include the acquisition
of genuine knowledge (pramana), the nature of doubt, and the distinction
between discussion and simple bickering.
The Nyaya school's metaphysics is of
particular importance.
- There are several transcendental
Subjects, or Selves, according to Nyaya's disciples (atman).
- The ultimate actor underlying the
human mind is each infinite Self, and each Self enjoys and suffers the consequences
of its acts in the limited universe.
- God is seen as a unique atman in
Classical Yoga, and he is the only one who is aware.
The Nyaya thinkers advocated the
pursuit of freedom (apavarga) as the greatest aim in life, despite the fact
that the human Selves are all regarded unconscious, like in the Mimamsa
school.
- Of course, their opponents did not
miss an opportunity to point out the impossibility of a freedom that would
result in a rocklike, insentient life.
- The fact that Nyaya followers sought
spiritual shelter in Shaivism's religious doctrines demonstrates how little
they believed in their own metaphysics.
- Between Nyaya and Yoga, there are
many places of interaction.
- The NyayaSutra describes yoga as a
state in which the mind is in touch with the Self alone, resulting in mental
balance and a lack of sensitivity to physical discomfort.
Vatsyayana Pakshilasvamin said that
yogins may see distant and even future occurrences while addressing different
kinds of perception, a talent that can be developed by consistent practice of
meditative focus.
- The word apavarga refers to
liberation, and it is also used in the Yoga-Sutra (2. 1 8) to contrast it
with the concept of world experience (bhoga).
- Another interesting similarity is
that both Nyaya and Classical Yoga follow the sphota theory.
- The everlasting connection between a
word and its sound is referred to by this phrase.
The notion is that the letters y, o,
g, and a, or even the whole term yoga, cannot adequately express our understanding
of the phenomenon known as "Yoga."
- Over and above these letters or
sounds, there is an everlasting idea, the essence of a thing, which
"bursts out" (sphuta) or exposes itself spontaneously in our mind
upon hearing a sequence of sounds, leading to understanding of the object so
indicated.
- A last point of connection is that a
Nyaya follower is also known as yauga, which means "one who does
Yoga." It's unclear what this designation conceals.
Hindu philosophy is divided into six
schools, which is rather arbitrary.
- Many other schools, particularly
those connected with sectarian movements, have played an important role in the
development of Indian philosophy at one point or another.
- It's important to remember that Yoga
impacted most of these methods and traditions, but it did so more as a loose
collection of ideas, beliefs, and practices than as Patanjali's philosophical
framework (darshana).
You may also want to read more about Kundalini Yoga here.
You may also want to read more about Yoga here.
You may also want to read more about Yoga Asanas and Exercises here.
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
Be sure to check out my writings on religion here.
