Indian philosophy

Differences between the philosophy of the East and WestEastern philosophy focused on addressing the problem of human from the point of view of practice. Western philosophy is multi problematical. It offers the general principles of being and knowledge.

• Eastern Philosophy is developed in close cooperation with religion. Western philosophy is more committed to the scientific method, sometimes we can see strong atheistic tendency (Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius…)

General principles of the philosophy East and West

Philosophy of East and West are turned to the universal values( good and evil, justice and injustice, happiness and suffering, etc.)

Understanding the cosmological problems and personal existence

The methodological significance: typical desire for scientific search of true knowledge

General principles and differences between the philosophy of the East and West

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Main ConceptsThe origin of philosophical thought

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· Atman· Brahman· Veda· Upanishads· Buddha· Jainism

VedasFirst scriptures – Vedas (Sanskrit: Knowledge):(Rigveda,Samaveda…) have been set up by the tribes of Aryans, who came from Central Asia in XVI centuries BC

Ancient Indian Philosophy

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Upanishads• Philosophical commentary of the Vedas – Upanishads,

under which Brahma is the supreme objective reality. Brahman is the unity of a holistic spiritual substance. Atman is an individual soul. Karma is a rebirth of the soul in accordance with the principle of retribution.

Ancient Indian Philosophy

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Vedic literature contains knowledge of the field of agriculture, medicine, astronomy, crafts, military equipment.Vedic religion is polytheistic/Monotheistic/Hedonist.Brahmanism originated at the beginning of the millennium, sanctifying social inequality (suffering is insignificant because the phenomenal world is an illusion, the only reality is the spirit of the worldJainism (VI c. BC), also questioned the Vedic values.

Buddhism

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Buddhism began to spread in a V c. BC in India, China, South-East Asia

Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) (560-483 years BC)Main ideasPeople need to try to overcome suffering and Varna-caste

system.“The Four Noble Truths”The theory of causality (no acts which would not have

consequences, as all the world for a reason)Impermanence elements (nothing is permanent, nothing is a

guarantee of well-being).“The Middle Way” (moderation in all things)“Eightfold Path”

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Philosophical Schools

Carvaka

Jain Philosophy

Sankhya • Oldest school of Hindu philosophy• First attempt to harmonize the Vedic philosophy

through reason• First systemic account of process of cosmic

evolution• Not purely metaphysical but logical account

based on principle of conservation, transformation and dissipation of energy

Sankhya - meaning

• Sankhya means number – • Sankhya enumerates the principle of

cosmic evolution by rational analysis• It teaches the discriminative knowledge

which enables to distinguish between sprit and matter

Purpose – Gyan Yoga• Provide knowledge which remove the

cause of misery and release of soul • Misery is

– Adhyatmika – intrinsic cause disorder of body and mind

– Adhibhutika – Extrinsic cause, men, beast, birds, or inanimate objects

– Adhidevika – Supernatural cause , atmosphere or planets

Cause of Misery• Soul is free from suffering• Body is the seat of suffering • Soul suffer due to intimate association of

soul and body• Bondage is illusion due to lack of true

nature of soul – Ignorance • Knowledge of true nature of soul removes

bondage and suffering

Epistemology of Sankhya

Prataykshya

•Indeterminate (Nirvikalp)•Determinate (Savikalpa)

Anuman •Logical inference

Sabd •Verbal testimony

Nature of Duality

• Supreme self• Pure consciousness • Inactive• Unchanging• A passive witness• Multiple

Purush:

• Pure objectivity• Phenomenal reality• Non-conscious• One mulprakriti in equilibrium

Prakriti:

Theory of Existence

Satkaryavada

•The effect pre-exists in the cause•Cause and effect are seen as different temporal aspects of the same thing•nothing can really be created from or destroyed into nothingness

Prakriti Pariman

Vada

•Parinama denotes that the effect is a real transformation of the cause•Prakriti is transformed and differentiated into multiplicity of objects

Gunas - Properties

Sttava• Real or Existence• Power of nature• Devoid of Excitement• Cause of equilibrium

Rajas• Power of nature• Activating principle• Cause of manifestation

Tamas• Restrainer• Binding of matter• Cause of weight• Inertia

Five Elements

Akaskh - Ether

Vayu – air

Tejas – fire

Apas – water

Prithvi - earth

Concept of God

Athestic •An unchanging Ishvara as the cause cannot be the source of a changing world as the effect.

Thiestic •Late influence of Yoga and Puranic philosophy

Yoga

Nyaya

THE MIMANSA PHILOSOPHY

• The Mimansa is called the Purva-Mimansa while Vedanta is called the Uttra-Mimansa.

• The former is earlier than the latter, in the sense that it deals with rituals, while the latter is concerned with knowledge.

Mimansa• Jaimini’s sutra in twelve elaborate chapters,

laid the foundation of Purva Mimansa.• Sabarswami wrote the major commentary or

Bhashya on this work. The two most important are Kumarila Bhatta and Prabhakara, who founded the two schools of Mimansa.

• The mimansa believes in the reality of the world with all its diverse objects. It rejects, therefore the Buddhist theory of voidness and momentariness as well as the Advaita theory of the unreality of the phenomenal world.

• The souls are permanent eternal substances and so also are the material elements by the combination of which the world is made.

• Mimansa metaphysics is pluralistic and realistic.

Mimansa (contd..)

The Mimansa’s conception of soul

The soul is an eternal, infinite substance, which is related to a real body in a real world and it survives death to be able to reap the consequences of its action performed here.

Consciousness is not the essence of the soul, but an adventitious quality which arises when some conditions are present.

There are as many souls as there are individuals.

Mimansa:Liberation and its Means • Kumarila and Prabhakara consider the nature

of liberation, and the means of its attainment. Kumarila regards liberation as negative in character, and consequently, eternal.

• Liberation is due to absolute extinction of merits and demerits. When they are completely destroyed, the body, which is the vehicle of experience, is destroyed.

• Kumarila regards action and knowledge necessary for the attainment of release. An aspirant for release should refrain from forbidden acts which produce suffering and prescribed acts which generate happiness.

‘Vedanta’ literally means’ the conclusion of the ‘Vedas’.

Primarily the word stood for the Upanishads though afterwards its denotation widened to include all thoughts, developed out of the Upanishads.

The Vedanta Philosophy

The central theme is that enunciated in the Upanishads - the doctrine of Brahman and the embodiment of the unconditioned self.

The great aim of all vedanta teaching is to prove the reality of Atman and Brahman and to establish their complete identity.

It teaches the essential oneness of all things. Badrayama’s Brahma-sutra is the chief text of

Vedanta philosophy

Schools of VedantaAdvaita Vedanta (Shankaracharya)

Visistadvaita Vedanta (Ramanujacharya)

Dvait Vedanta(Madhvacharya)

Dvaitadvita Vedanta(Nimbarkacharya)

Shudhadvaita (Nimbarkacharya)

Achintaya (Chaitanya Maha- Bhedabheda

prabhu)

The most common question on which the schools of the Vedanta are divided is;

What is the nature of the relation between the self (JIVA)

and God (Brahman)?

Shankara-Vedanta (Advaita Vedanta) Shankaracharya was the greatest

philosopher among the Indian thinkers. He emphasizes the monoistic tendency in

the Upanishads and develop it into a systematic Advaitavada.

He emphasizes the reality of unconditioned and unqualified (Nirguna) Bhahman, and regards God, the individual souls and the world as appearances due to indefinable principle called cosmic nescience (Maya) which is neither real nor unreal, but indefinable.

The Atman According to Shankaracharya the Atman is

the universal self. It is Brahman, the absolute, the supreme

reality. Jiva is the individual or empirical self. It is

the Atman limited by the body, the sense organs , manas, buddhi and the likes, which are its limiting adjuncts.

Atman is the transaendental, metaphysical self.

Jiva is the empirical phenomenonal self.

The Atman is of the nature of pure consciousness. It is eternally pure, conscious, and liberated. It is the eternal, unchangeable, absolute, formless,

one supreme reality. It is different from the empirical self. But the

empirical self is not different from it. The Atman is its reality.

The Empirical self (Jiva) The empirical self is the knower, enjoyer and active

agent. It acquires merits and demerits and experiences there

fruits. It is subject to transmigration, lives an embodied life in

the empirical world, and is capable of bondage and liberation.

Though it is non-different from the Atman, the supreme self and immortal in its essential nature, mortality is attributed to it owing to its actions due to nescience.

The Concept of Brahman

Brahman is the only ontological reality in Shankara-Vedanta.

Brahman is existence, knowledge and bliss. Brahman is limitless and infinite. Brahman is the eternally accomplished being. It

does not change, increase and decrease, grow and develop.

Ishvara (God) God is the determinate Brahman-in Shankara-

vedanta. He is not the unconditioned, indeterminate,

attributeless Brahman. He is Brahman conditioned by cosmic nescience

(maya). Though Brahman is attribute- less it is said to be

endowed with empirical attributes for the sake of prayer.

Maya: (Avidya) Shankaracharya uses ‘Maya’ and avidya, the two

words synonymously. Brahman conditioned by Maya is Ishvara (God). Maya is his power or energy, the source of the names

and forms, which are modified into the phenomena of the world, and which are neither real nor unreal, but indefinable.

Maya is cosmic nescience. It is an indefinable principle. It is ontologically unreal, since

Brahman is the only ontological reality.

But it is not absolutely unreal like a hair’s horn, it is real enough to project the multiple world of appearances.

Ramanuja-Vedanta (Visistadvaitavad)

Ramanujacharya was the chief propounder of the doctrine of qualified monoism (Visistadvaitavada).

He criticized Shankaracharya’s monoism and established the ontological reality of God, the individual souls and the world and regarded the souls and the world as attributes or modes of God.

The concept of Brahman: God

Brahman is the ‘Supreme person’ endowed with innumerable supreme and auspicious qualities and devoid of all impure qualities.

He is the infinite reality by nature and qualities; there is no other supreme reality.

He is possessed of truth or reality, knowledge and bliss.

The Self (Jiva) and consciousness • The Jiva is the individual self.• It is different from the body, life, the sense-organs, mind

and intellect, it is different from the psychophysical organism.

• It is the knower, enjoyer and active agent.• It is self luminous and manifests itself without the aid of

knowledge.• It is the abode of knowledge and has attributive

consciousness.