Transcript
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[Music]
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welcome to the CC Gurukul lectures I'm dr. Monica Prabhakar and I teach
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philosophy at Dollar Trump College University of Delhi the title of my
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lecture series is introduction to Indian philosophy and today I would be talking
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about tracing the beginnings of Indian philosophy I have titled today's lecture
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as tracing the beginnings of Indian philosophy as I would be taking you along in those distant times when the
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world's oldest scriptures were revealed to the inquisitive minds but before that
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let us understand what philosophy is philosophy begins with questioning and
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humans are curious by nature this curiosity makes them ask questions
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some people get involved to the extent of becoming full-fledged philosophers while others choose to restrain
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themselves from becoming so a child at the age of about two or so also seems to
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begin with questioning and never stops asking why even if the adults get tired
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of answering each child then is an authentic philosopher and this reminds
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me of a famous book called Sophie's world in which the author Joe Steen
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godoh in a beautiful manner compares philosophers curiosity with the
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curiosity of a child and in the same Channel he compares the common man with the
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father of the child just as a child is ever amazed and enchanted to see the
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world and asks endless continuous questions to her father similarly a
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philosopher seeks to know each and every detail and remains engaged in the
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process of knowing the father on his part gets irritated while answering
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those innocent questions and ultimately likewise the ordinary people call a
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philosopher childish and laugh at him for seeking answers for irrelevant
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questions Socrates was famous for asking provoking and endless questions to poets
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politicians and others in positions of authority in the end they were so
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annoyed with him that they put him to trial and he was condemned to die by
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drinking hemlock let us return to the curiosity of the child a child may begin
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with the question what color is the sky the parent answers blue the child asked
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what color is grass the parent responds green to ask such a question the child
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already has a concept of colors though she may not be able to distinguish colors properly when the parents answers
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the child begins to distinguish colors and says the sky is blue and ocean is
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blue now she asks they are both blue but not the same color why are they both
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called blue now the child has reached the stage of distinguishing between different shades of a color like blue
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now the child asks a more difficult question why is the sky blue
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the parent takes some time she may respond that it is due to certain
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intensity of light which is measured in angstroms but the child is smart she
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says you have told me what blue is but you have not told me why it is blue this
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means the child has some sense that everything has a cause where did this
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idea come from now if the parent believes in God she
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says because God made it blue but if she does not believe in God she says because
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it has evolved in nature to be blue the child is not satisfied with either
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answer the questions of what inquiring about the essence of something
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and the questions of why inquiring about the causes of something are deeply
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philosophical questions and we can say they are all scientific questions coming
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back to the answer that blue is the intensity of light measured in angstroms
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the child may respond I can see that it is blue but I cannot see the intensity
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of light measured in angstroms the parent now responds reality and causes
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are sometimes transcendent they are beyond our perception and yet we infer
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that they are the causes we can now make the transition to the big philosophical
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questions such as what is the nature of ultimate reality one answer in Indian
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philosophy by with anthems is that it is Brahman but what is Brahman it is
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transcendental beyond our world of perception the charvaka like the child
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ask if I cannot perceive it then how can I have knowledge of the Brahman how can
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you say that it is transcendental why should I believe you that Brahman is the
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ultimate reality nova Dantan now responds we live in a world of many
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beings and many minds each seeing and perceiving similarity
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similarly and differently the world that is transient and the knowledge that is
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attained in this world through perception and experience is also transient whereas the Brahman is the
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transcendental in it everything is one it is beyond perception and it is
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permanent not transient hence the knowledge within Brahman is absolute
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knowledge not transient knowledge the perspective of everything being one in
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the Brahman is often called monism the charvaka now responds I think all
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knowledge comes from experience from perception how can you jump by reasoning
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to the existence of anything without any evidence how is the knowledge of the
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brahman attained the Vedanta response that it is revealed knowledge revealed
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to the sages who are superhuman and the sages then are able to transmit it to us
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through their powers the charvaka now responds who is a sage why should I
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accept anyone as a sage how do you distinguish an authentic sage from a
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pretender how can the reveal knowledge received by any sage be verified why
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should I believe any sage I simply do not accept any source of knowledge
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besides perception now the Vedanta and the charvaka will now carry on the
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debate each building more and more sophisticated arguments for their claims as you can see we have moved from a
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child's questions to a high order philosophical debate on the nature of
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ultimate reality now who wins the debate is not so important but the activity of
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debate is central to philosophy if any
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philosophical claim is immune to debate then it is not really philosophical
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debates proceed through rigorous arguments so arguments are also
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essential to the activity of philosophy now to close my introduction to what is
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philosophy let me summarize a few points point 1
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philosophy begins with questions with curiosity and the desire to know point
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number 2 in answering and understanding answers
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we move to definitions of concepts point
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number three we also move to understanding distinctions which
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distinctions to make and which not to make and there is never one answer to
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any philosophical question hence we have debates about how a question like what
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is the ultimate reality is to be answered debates then are the lifeline
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of philosophy in a good debate each side
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does not simply state a claim and storm their feet and say that their claim is
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correct rather they build rigorous and intricate arguments to support their claims
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hence arguments are essential for the activity of philosophy now philosophy
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can also be defined in terms of the different branches of philosophy historically there have been four
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branches of philosophy there is metaphysics epistemology ethics and
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logic now metaphysics deals with questions of what
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the world is made up of what is real and what is illusion what is permanent and
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what is transient whether there is a final cause like God other is not the
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initial question may be does the world exists some Neela's argue that nothing
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exists now only in philosophy can such perspectives be entertained and this is
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the greatest virtue of philosophy as no perspective is preempted or censored by
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authority making philosophy the most open-minded and open-ended
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of all disciplines interestingly a
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nihilist cannot be refuted but there is no reason to accept a view just because
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it cannot be refuted if we answer the question does the world exist or does
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anything exist in the affirmative then we move to questions like what is the
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nature of the world further two questions like is there a final cause of
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everything and so on now let us come to
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the second branch of philosophy which is epistemology and epistemology begins
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with the question is knowledge possible again some philosophers called the
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ultimate skeptics who are called the ultimate skeptics believe that knowledge is not possible again within philosophy
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we allow this as a perspective imagine if in a particular science like biology
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there is a biologist who say that no knowledge in biology is possible there
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would not be much point in her studying biology then this is but this is not the
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case with philosophy why because whereas
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in each discipline we are restricted to a particular domain of knowledge in
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philosophy we go to a second level what is knowledge this question itself is a
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subject matter of philosophy and particularly an essential question for
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epistemology in seeking knowledge of biology physics or chemistry the
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question of what is knowledge is not entertained nor is an ultimate skeptic tolerated we
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can have more moderate philosophical scepticism which claims that anything
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you propose as knowledge I can raise legitimate doubts about whether it is
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knowledge the charvaka objections to the sages knowledge discussed above
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our this type of skepticism if we agree
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that knowledge is possible then we move to the questions of the nature of
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knowledge the definition of knowledge and the distinction among different sources of knowledge as we will see all
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Indian schools of philosophy accept perception as a source of knowledge but
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there are long debates lasting centuries on the other appropriate sources of
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knowledge such as memory inference comparison and verbal testimony now let
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us come to the third branch of philosophy which is called ethics ethics
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deals with questions of our actions is any action right or wrong again
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since philosophy is broad-minded we allow in ethics a perspective which
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begins with answering this question by know this perspective is called moral
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relativism in which what is right or what is wrong is relative to either
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culture or individual or simply to an emotional state if we accept the answer
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yes then our task is more difficult as a series of questions now ensue what is
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right action in any given situation how do we justify our action as being right
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I will be presenting in later lectures the ethics of the bhagavad-gita which
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addresses these questions in a detailed manner but let one thing be clear ethics
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is not about what is decided as right or wrong by someone outside me but it is
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about what I'm to do in a particular difficult situation perhaps facing a
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moral dilemma as Arjun andas if ethics was a mere following of
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Commandments then the whole bhagavad-gita would be a useless text
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ethics involves a self-discovery self-knowledge and self-realization it
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is only when Arjuna goes through these stages that he comes to a point at the
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end where he can finally resolve his moral dilemma and do the right thing of
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joining the battle the fourth branch of philosophy is called logic now logic is
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the basic methodology of constructing and criticizing arguments and building
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better and more logically sound arguments as such it is not a branch of
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philosophy but historically logic has been studied by philosophers so we might
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as well consider it a branch of philosophy now arguments are inferences
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from premises that are accepted to be true to conclusions which hence must
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also be true if the arguments are valid so the basic activity of logic is to
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determine whether any constructed argument is valid or invalid in later
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lectures we will also be looking at various perspectives on a Newman or
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inference in various Indian philosophical schools now let's come to
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the question what is Indian philosophy Indian philosophy refers to the
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accumulated wisdom of those who belonged to India and claimed Indian heritage and
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by India I mean what we today call the subcontinent including Pakistan
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Bangladesh Nepal Bhutan and Sri Lanka as the political divisions in two nations
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came because of foreign invasions and at the outset I wish to clarify that
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Indian philosophy is not to be equated with Hindu religion for there are
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atheistic as well as materialistic systems which are opposed to the basic
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tenets on which Hindu religion rests nonetheless Hinduism is largely rooted
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in Indian philosophy Hindu religion was initially called the aerodrome or the
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for the Aryans who who came from outside India perhaps from the arctic regions
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settled in India and heavily contributed to the development of Indian thought and
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its way of life it was also called Vedic
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thermal that is the Vedic way of life with us being their sacred scriptures
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however the latter was rejected with the emergence of Buddhism and Jainism which
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developed as protest movements against the Vedic culture by the way Hindu the
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word Hindu is not a Sanskrit word nor does it appear anywhere in the Vedic scriptures the word Hindu is a distorted
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form of the word sin to the river which we now call Indus it is said that the
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Iranians and the Greeks pronounce the letter s as H which led to this naming
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of those who was settled on the banks and to the east of the river Sindhu as
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Hindus when the Afghans and the Iranians became Muslims and came down to live in
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India they were called Muslims while the rest of the population was called the
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Hindus now let us come to the meaning of Indian philosophy
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it means darshan it comes from the Sanskrit root drish which means to see
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or a way of seeing thus unlike Western philosophy which is more about
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speculation Indian philosophy is about experience or seeing the truth which is why
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philosophers in India were called seers see the self is most emphasized in
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mostly all schools of Indian philosophy and what darshan also means standpoint
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or perspective which is why in India philosophy is also called darshan
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Shastra a perspective to attain this vision of truth now how did Indian
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philosophy emerge the cause for the emergence of the systems of thought
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whether theistic atheistic or materialistic was a search for the
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questions of life questions like what is the ultimate reality how do we attain it
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what is the purpose of life what is this world why are we born why do we die why
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do we suffer what is our ultimate end how do we know all this how should we
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act the questions we just pondered over are both philosophical as well as
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religious these questions needed deliberation reflection and maturity of
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thought so the tradition divided man's life into four stages what were the four
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stages of life in the stages of life were number one Brahm Acharya - gar
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hospital three vanaprastha and four son nurse I'll repeat brahmacarya grhastha
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vanaprastha and sannyasa now the first
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stage called brand maturer is that of a student in this stage a child must live
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in the house a hermitage of the teacher until the education is over the second
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stage rehearsal is that of the householder in which the child who is
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now grown up is asked by the teacher to go back to his house and pay the three
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deaths first debt is to the forefathers which is paid back by marrying and having
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children the second debt is to the teachers which is paid back by
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transmitting the acquired knowledge to the next generation the third debt is to
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the gods and that is paid back by performing sacrifices the sacrifice
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could be made through the oblation of butter or beet or rice or barley into
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the fire the third stage is vanaprastha which is that of a forest dweller after
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paying the three deaths and raising children till their adulthood one can retire to the forest with his wife and
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ponder over the questions of life for this is the time for self-reflection and
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self-discovery the fourth stage and the last stage which is son alice is the
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stage when one renounces every kind of attachment he sends his wife back to the family
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nothing attracts them anymore he lives on begging and even changes his
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name so that he can disconnect with everything and remain absorbed in the
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search for the ultimate reality it is to be noted that the last two stages are
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not obligatory in the sense that people can attain spiritual knowledge without
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going through the last two stages and there are examples in the scriptures
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which corroborate this the great spiritual personalities like King Janaka
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sage Yaga Volker sage Vasishta they were all householders women were dissuaded
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from entering into the last stage as this was considered quite hard and harsh
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for them but we can be sure that spiritual knowledge was open for women
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for there is an interesting dialogue in the Brigid arenak open issue between a
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husband and a wife on this issue of the attainment of spiritual knowledge the
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name of the husband is Yaakov alkyl and wife is May 3 now yoga valkira tells my
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three about his intention of taking some nails and expresses his desire to divide
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his wealth between my three and his second wife karthiyaini so that he can
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put an end to all the worldly times my three more spiritually oriented asks a
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simple question from Yaakov lq she says if indeed this earth full of
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wealth be mine shall I be a model through that yoga Vargas's No
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there cannot be any hope of immortality through wealth then may 3 a skeg evil
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cure what shall I do with that which will not make me immortal please with
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her words the agiel key asks her to come and sit down and reflect on what he
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explains and there is a long conversation in which a given key
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imparts spiritual knowledge about the immortality of the soul the oneness of
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everything with the ultimate reality that is Brahman - my 3 after this yoga
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valkia leaves his home to take sannyasa and my 3 takes to spiritual life a
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mention needs to be made here regarding the 4 full division of Verna which divided the society into Brahmins
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Kshatriyas Vaishyas and Childress and each Verna was accorded its own set of
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duties and the time of Manu this division based on Verna became quite
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rigid however in the bhagavad-gita it was clarified that this division was
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only in accordance with one's profession and not by birth the creator made all
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men equal but not similar every individual in the world is born with
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guna and Sabha that is attributes and nature
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which ultimately determine his actions and profession and thus he belongs to
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one of the four burners if one abandons his Verna linked
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avocation he disturbs the peace and harmony of the society for he is not
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just Li performing his role in the society the Papa Gita therefore says it
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is better to do one's own thermal or duty badly than that of another well and
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we have seen many instances in the history of India where many people who
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were shudra by both became gay great Emperor's now let us come to another
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interesting question and it is its philosophy the same as religion I stated
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earlier that Indian philosophy is not to be equated with Hindu religion but it is
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important to know that philosophy and religion began as one in India however
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soon they took different routes but the two parts did not oppose each other the
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purpose of religion is to instill devotion in one's heart for God and the
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aim of philosophy is to make one understand the nature of reality the
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final objective of both is just the same and that is liberation or moksha or
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Nirvana which means release from the cycle of birth and death
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religion prepares one by purifying his or her thoughts emotions and attitude
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towards the world whereas philosophy perfects a person's understanding and
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helps him realize his true nature thus it is the quest for the ultimate which
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keeps religion and philosophy to each other in India Religion proposes
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a philosophic monotheism meaning that there is one creator which is evident in
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the way the Kim's and philosophy offers a monastic view which comes from the
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open issuance and which says that there is only one reality now what all is all
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this means will be clear as we move on to the later sections but first let us
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understand what is the relation of Vedas to the a sticker and nastika traditions
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the classical systems of Indian philosophy have been classified into
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ethical and nastika schools the asticus schools accept the authority of the
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Vedas while the nastika reject their authority so we can see that all schools
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whether article or nastika are somehow focused on to the Vedas positively or
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negatively now the nastika schools include charvak
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Buddhism and Jainism and the ethical schools include Naya
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very Shekar Sankhya yoga poor mimamsa
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and utter mimamsa now it becomes
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necessary for us to discuss as to what sort of knowledge is stored in the Vedas
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now let us understand what what Vedas
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are the word Veda means knowledge and Vedas are the ancient sacred texts full
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of knowledge and which is why we say that Vedas gave birth to Indian philosophy unfortunately not much is
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known about the Vedic period but whatever is known confirms of our rich
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cultural heritage the truth contained in the Vedas is the eternal
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big truth which doesn't have a human origin and the Sears to whom the truths
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in the Vedas were revealed were merely instruments for the transmitting that
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knowledge to the generations to come these seers did not belong to any one
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particular class or gender nor did they belong to any particular time and that
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is why the whole way the corpus extends over a period of 2,000 years it is also
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interesting to note that Vedic teachings were basically oral teachings and after
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a very long period of time they were compiled into books and given their
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present form the Vedic period had a sacrifice and ritual based religion the
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sacrifices or rituals were conducted with full diligence and accuracy as
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nothing written was available for reference and verification the primary
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purpose of these sacrifices was to maintain cosmic order and it was a
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cosmic duty of the individuals to perform them and that is why the
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sacrifices were addressed to natural forces like the Sun the rain the
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lightning the wind which were considered as gods and goddesses now let us turn
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our attention to the Vedic literature here it is important to know the
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distinction between Shruti and Smitty Shruti means what is heard and smithy
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means what is composed or remembered Vedas are therefore Shruti because they
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consist of revealed knowledge which was handed down from the gurus to their
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students orally smithee's on the other hand have a human origin
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and Manu smithy the Epic's Ramayanam and mahabharata and the Puranas come under
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the category of this written literature now Vedic literature is divided into
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four parts one mantras or some hadass two brahmanas three RNA cars and four
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Upanishads mantra of course you know is
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him address to a god or a goddess and the collection of the mantras is called
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some hito there are four samhitas and I'm sure you all must be aware of their
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names they are Rig Veda some hitto some
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with some heat on your juror Veda some pita and a terrible way to sum HIPAA
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these were compiled for the smooth performance of sacrifices now let us see
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what is given in these for some hittas let us start with the Rig Veda it is the
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most important and the oldest of all the foursome hittas the reason why it is
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considered most important is that the content of every other Samhita is either
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similar to that of Rig Veda or is only an extension of regulator also whenever
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any mention is made about the Vedic scriptures the name of Rig Veda always
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comes first now Rig Veda has more than 1000 hymns
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which are invocations and invitations to God there are simple outpourings of
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heart to invite god sama veda which is the second veda is the song book of the
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Vedic rituals the hymns of the sama Veda are devotional in nature which are
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basically to please God's yajurveda is a combination of both prose and
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poetry and of the sacrificial formulas relating to
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the performance of the sacrifices at elevate which is the last weight is
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generally regarded as a later addition to the Vedic Canon again in both prose
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and poetry it is considered to have a dual aspect Huli as well as unholy and there are
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songs and spells for the healing of diseases for long life and health but
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along with that there are philosophical hymns as well coming back to the
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performance of sacrifices for main priests specialized in the force
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samhitas were assigned the duty of performing the whole sacrifice in a
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disciplined manner the first priest called jota dedicated to Rig Veda would
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chant hymns in praise of the gods to invoke their presence and participation
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in the sacrifice the second priest called ode gotta well-versed in some
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Veda would sing the hymns in sweet musical tones to amuse and please the
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gods the third specialized in usury called
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anavar you would perform the sacrifice in accordance with the strict
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ritualistic formulas and give offerings to God the fourth priest called Brahma
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expert in atharvaveda would do the general supervision of the whole performance of the sacrifice now it is
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time to talk about a portion of the Vedic literature known as the sutras
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these are regarded as the connecting link between the Vedic and the post
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vedic period the sutras provide information regarding the social
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economic and religious aspects of the indian culture and most significant
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works of the sutra literature are called the Vedas or the auxilary sciences of
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the Vedas the Vedanta are divided into six parts
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one Shiksha or phonetics two culpa or
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ritual instructions three via corona or grammar forth
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nakta or etymology v chanda or poetic
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meters and six jewish or astrology and astronomy
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now shisha or phonetics concerns with the proper pronunciation of the words
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unless a word is properly pronounced it does not make any sense nor can it
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produce the desired result culpa which is the second vedanga is ritual
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instruction it concerns with the procedures for the vedic rituals associated with major events in life of
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an individual like a marriage birth and death and it also concerns with the
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duties that a person ought to perform in the various stages of his life the third
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via corona or grammar is essential for understanding the basic ideas conveyed
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by the Vedic verses for how can a person know the meaning of any sentence if it
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is not grammatically correct so via karana is important the fourth
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nakta or etymology is regarding the explanation of words which are unclear
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so that the meaning of words can be understood in the proper context fifth
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gender or poetic meters are important as far as the chanting of Vedic hymns are
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hymns was concerned the hymn can bring its fruit only if it is sung or chanted
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in its specific meter or pattern and the last is Jewish or astrology and
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astronomy it helps in calculating the astronomical details of the celestial
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bodies and gives the right time for performing the Sakura Pfizer's so we can see that these vague
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angers make the understanding of the Vedas clear easy and fruit-bearing let
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us now understand the second kind of Vedic literature which is called brahmana the brahmanas are the starting
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point of Indian philosophy it is said that without the knowledge of the
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brahmanas one cannot understand Indian religion philosophy and the importance
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of symbols myths and narratives in Indian literature each sometta possesses one or more
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brahmanas they are basically the elaboration of the complicated ritualism
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of the Vedas it was considered important to understand the significance of the
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performance of the rituals and the way they were conducted the appendages to
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these brahmanas are the are Anika's the word are anika means a text composed or
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read in the calmness of the forest whereas the brahmanas discussed the
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rituals or the sacrifices to be performed by the householders the irony
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cos give a preliminary training to those who aspire spiritual knowledge and want
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relief from the cycle of birth and death it is mainly for them vanaprastha thus
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the Arianna cos market transition from ritualism to philosophical thinking now
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the concluding portions of the R&A cos are the Upanishads open assured
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signified knowledge which loosens completely the bondage of the world and
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enables the learner the seeker to attain the self the ultimate reality the
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Brahman Upanishads are the closing part of the Vedic literature and so they are
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called Vedanta they revealed the highest form of Nohr and the ultimate goal of the Vedas which
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is moksha or merging with the supreme reality which is such anin truth consciousness bliss the
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mantras and the brahmanas are called the Karma kind of the Vedas as they both
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deal with ritualistic performances the R&A cos and the Upanishads are called a
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on account of the Vedas as they are the portions that concern with knowledge
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here a realization comes that the ancient seers arranged the whole Vedic
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literature in conformity with the four stages of life so the Indian
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philosophical thought can very well be traced in the transition from the mantra
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to the brahmana to the Eroica and finally in the Upanishads now let's
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come to the most important question and that is what have the inferred from this and I want to suggest that we have
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inferred a gradual transition from the naturalistic and anthropomorphic
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polytheism through monotheism to monism now again an important question what
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does this mean that it sounds so complicated and to give you some relief
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I want to tell you that it means that the pre upanishadic philosopher on
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seeing the various phenomena of nature like the rising and setting of the Sun
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the rain gathering of clouds in the sky lightening waxing and waning of the moon
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was able to establish the principle of causality and believed in the existence
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of gods associated with each of these phenomena and he glorified these gods as
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mighty and powerful but did not give any form to them to take the example of the
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Sun God he's described as golden hand seated on a chariot of seven horses and
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that's it there's no more description with time however the these majestic and
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mighty gods were personified and given an anthropomorphic form this is evident
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in many poetic hymns in which gods are praised about their looks but the
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philosophical mind of these people was not satisfied with such a conception of
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many gods or as it is called polytheism so their philosophical tendency led them
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from polytheism to monotheism and monotheism is the belief that there must
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be one divine power that works through all the gods whether it is Indra or Verner or Agni
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thus one comprehensive God was conceived as the creator of the whole cosmos some
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people were satisfied with this monotheistic explanation of the cosmos while others were still in search for
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the answer about the ultimate reality and then they conceived of an infinite
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eternal unitary principle the Brahman who is an all and all are in him thus
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monism was ultimately sought as an answer to all the queries and monism is
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what is discussed at length in the open issues now to lighten up this whole
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discussion I would like to narrate a small story from the chandogya upanishad
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there is the sweet child Shweta Kay - who was little naughty boy it was a little naughty boy who had no intentions
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of going to the Guru's Hermitage for education his father
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sage Italica scolded him once very badly and disturbed by the anger of his father
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Shweta Cato left his home in search of a good now after completing his education on
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the Vedas and the vedanga when he returned to his father's house booth De Luca found that Shweta k2 had
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now become very arrogant and proud of his knowledge to set his feet on ground
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or De Luca asked Shweta Cato whether he received the great instructions from his
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guru shredder k2 was perplexed as he had never heard of this expression before
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and he asked his father about its meaning or dhalika then said to him that
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the Veda and the way Donkers that he learnt at the Hermitage of his guru
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consisted of opera Veda or the non supreme knowledge and what he now wishes
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to teach him is part of it there or supreme knowledge immediately the proud
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demeanor of shade okay to change and he humbly asked his father to tell him about the supreme knowledge of the
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Upanishads and this is where I will end my lecture today and next time we'll
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tell you the significance of the upanishadic philosophy which would aleca calls pura vida thank you so much
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[Music]
