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ness. It means that there is identification of oneself with the body, or the senses, or the mind, leading to the superimposition (adhyasa) of the characteristics of the body, the senses, and the mind, all of which are material, on the inward Self which is non-material. For example, we say, "I am stout/ slim," "I am blind/deaf," "I am happy/ miserable," and so on. Stoutness and slimness are the characteristics of the body; blindness and deafness are the qualities of the senses; happiness and misery are the characteristics of the mind. Though the "I" which stands for the Self does not possess bodily, or sensory, or mental characteristics, these features, due to a wrong identification of the Self and the not-Self arising from ignorance, are superimposed on the Self. What is called existential predicament is a condition in which human beings do not have harmony of spirit, mind, and body at the personal level, and also harmony with others including nature at the transpersonal level. Absence of harmony is suffering; and the cause of suffering is spiritual ignorance, which can be removed only by knowledge. The aim of the Upanisads, according to Sankara, is to help human beings dis-cover the Self which is Brahman and overcome the existential predicament. The goal can be achieved only by means of a new thinking, a radical questioning of the given, a rigorous inquiry into the life-world which is bound to lead to a transvaluation of all values through deconstruction and reconstruction. This is what the Upaniṣads have done. The work of radical thinking which the Upanisads pursue in quest of the primal Spirit (also called Brahman or Atman) is echoed by Heidegger, who beautifully summarizes as follows:
What philosophy essentially can and must be is this: a thinking that breaks the paths and opens the perspectives of the knowledge that sets the norms and hierarchies, of the knowledge in which and by which a people fulfills itself historically and culturally, the knowledge that kindles and necessitates all inquires and thereby threatens all values.3
The Self is timeless; all other things than the Self are temporal. Philosophy investigates the timeless. While the Self can easily be distinguished from the body and the senses, there is great difficulty in separating the Self from the mind. According to the Upanisads, the mind, like the senses and the body and also like the things of the external world, is material. The Self that is spiritual or non-material should not be identified with the mind and the intelligent functions it performs being inspired by the Self. Heidegger warns us against the wrong interpretation of the Self or Spirit as intelligence, as a tool in the service of others, as an entity in the realm of culture. The neglect and misinterpretation of the Spirit, according to him, results in "the darkening of the world, the flight of the gods, the destruction of the earth, the transformation of men into a mass, the hatred and suspicion of everything free and creative."5
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| SR No. | 007005 |
| Book Title | World of Philosophy |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave |
| Publisher | Shanti Prakashan |
| Publication Year | 2011 |
| Total Pages | 1002 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 30 MB |