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DECEMBER 2013
PRABUDDH JEEVAN
THE GLORIOUS DARŚANAS
BY: ATISUKHSHANKAR TRIVEDI
CHAPTER-1 : INTRODUCTORY There are those in the West (Schopenhauer, Maxmuller, Deussen and others) that have paid the highest compliments to Indian Philosophy. On the other hand there are people that have made hurried generalisations and done great injustice to Indian Philosophy. Thus Thilly generalises that the theories of the oriental people (Hindus, Egyptians, Chinese) "consist, in the main, of mythological and ethical doctrines, and are not thorough-going systems of thought: they are shot through with poetry and faith." This seems to raise the question: Is Indian Philosophy Philosophy at all?
If Philosophy is a striving after Knowledge, an impartial pursuit of Thruth, the pre-Darsana and Darśana Philosophy in India is certainly Philosophy and Philosophy of the highest type too. If Philosophy be indentified with Methodology, the Philosophy in the Upanisads ceases to be Philosophy. Indian Philosophy does not lose its claims to be styled Philosophy, though at times mixed with poetry or mythology. That portion of Indian thought which is clearly systematic, namely the Darśanas, is Philosophy proper; and the History of the Darśanas may be shown to be a history in the sense of a more or less evolving process of thought.
उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान् निबोधत ।
क्षुरस्य धारा निशिता दुरत्यया दुर्गं पथस्तत् कवयो वदन्ति ।।
-कठ.
Early Thinking: The Vedas (Rik, Yajus, Sāma and Atharva) constitute the earliest literature of Ancient Indian civilization. The Vedic hymns are addressed to various forces of Nature as the Vedic divinities, and there is not much Philosophy in them. But even in these hymns poetry and philosophy are combined and in places monotheistic tendencies are visible. In a hymn, called by Maxmuller the "Hymn to the Unknown God", there is distinct attempt to offer prayers to one Individual God, the Prajapati.
In the later Vedic works we have the Brāhmaṇas, the Āranyakas, and the Upanisads. Brahman means a prayer, and Brāhmaṇas means that which is related to prayers. Each Veda had its Brāhmaṇas, the chief ones being the Aitareya and the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa. Aranyakas and the Upanisads form appendices to the Brāhmaṇas. The close of the Brahmana period was about 500 B.C. and the substance of their literature is
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mostly ritualistic, rarely abstract and purely speculative. The Āranyakas or `Forest Treaties' are a further development of the Brāhmaṇas, and in them meditation began to supplant sacrifices and ritualism. The Brāhmaṇas in their way were a link between the Brāhmaṇas and the Upanisads wherein we have distinct speculative fights on mataphysical questions, though clothed in poetic imagery.
The Upanisadic period extends from about 1200 to 500 B.C., and the most ipmortant of them are the Chhandogya and the Brihadaraṇyaka. It is the texts of these Upanisads, mostly, that form the basis of the doctrines of the later schools of Indian Philosophy.
The Main currents of thought in the Upanisads: In the Upanisads, we pass from prayer to Philosophy or rather Philosophic visions, from the objective to the subjective phase of religion. In the Vedas whereas forces of Nature are emotionally and imaginatively approached, in the Upanisads there is a cool attempt to scan the cosmos by Thought and Reason. The Ultimate Reality in the Upanisads is the Brahman, i.e. the One Indescribable Absolute and besides this everything else is Unreal. Secondly, the whole Universe is the Brahman or Atman; and this us Upanisadic Pantheism. This Ātman is the controlling Spirit of Univese : this is Upanisadic Theism. Thus there are different currents of thought to be met with in the Upanisads.
The Upanisads may be grouped under 4 or 5 chief classes. Howsoever a way they be grouped, the Brihadaranyaka and the Chhandogya belong to the oldest group, and in them some of the most Philosophic and characteristic notions are found.
Brahma is the one, Ultimate Principle of Reality.* Plurality is either an illusion or Appearance (Monism of Vadanta) or the manifestation of One is a diversity of forms: (Modified Monism: Visiṣṭādvaita of Rāmānuja). The seeds of later phiolosophies are found in different places in the Upanisads. Thus we have traces of the Budhhistic Void in the Upanisadic notion that in the begining only Non-Being existed (Chhadndogya) or of the Sanskhya Sattva Tamas and Rajas Gunas or at
'अशब्दस्पर्शमरूपमव्ययं तथारसं नित्यमगन्धवच्च यत् । अनाद्यनन्तं महतः परं ध्रुवं निचाय्य तं मृत्युमुखात्प्रमुच्यते ।।
-कठ.
