Darshana: The Age of the Philosophers

Since we had talked about the story-centric Purāna and Ithihāsa last time, let's start this discussion with a good story. The story below from the Kenopanishad (approx. 750 BCE), is also indicative of an important turning point in the history of Hindu Religion.

The Devas: Indra, Agni, Vāyu, Surya

Once the Devas, the divinities we saw in the Vedas, had an epic battle with their 'not very nice' cousins, the Asuras. The Devas won the battle and were celebrating the victory, gloating over the powers they had used to defeat the Asuras. At that time a strange looking, mystical figure appeared little away from where they were assembled. Unsure of who this mysterious being  was, the Devas asked Agni, the God of Fire,  to go and find out. Agni approached this strange being and asked 'who are you?'. The being responded asking who Agni was. Agni pompously answered, 'I am the Lord of Fire and I can burn anything down'. The being threw a dried blade of grass in front  of Agni and said, let me see you burn this. Agni gave a contemptuous laugh and just glanced at the blade of grass with the tip of a flame. Nothing happened. Now he tried to go at the blade of grass with all his fire power. Again nothing happened to the grass. Agni was half scared and half ashamed of himself and went back to the Devas saying he was unable to find out who the being was. The Devas now asked Vayu, the God of wind, to go and find out who the being was. The same events  repeated with Vayu  who in spite of his hurricane power,  was unable to make the blade of grass move even an inch. Now, this got the King of Devas, Indra, all worried and he said 'I will go myself and find out'. As soon as Indra approached the strange being, it vanished and in its place appeared the Goddess Uma, adorned in her beautiful white clothes. She told Indra,' That strange being you were trying to know is Brahman;  all of you Devas  have your powers that is bestowed by him'.

Why is this story important? First of all, it boldly admits the limitation of powers of the  divinities worshiped by the rituals. Secondly, it points to the single, higher truth that is to be known through inquiry and wisdom and not rituals. The depiction of 'Wisdom' as a woman is an universal mythological theme spanning the oriental and occidental cultures. Essentially, what we are witnessing here in the story is the beginning of critical philosophical inquiry in India.

The early Upanishads  as well as the Samhita part of  Veda, share the visions of truth that the Rishis had seen. But they don't detail out how the answers were arrived at or why the knowledge shared by them is valid. This is the fundamental difference between Religion and Philosophy. Religion relies on faith and credibility of the messenger to support the answers and the means it professes whereas Philosophy relies on the logical validity of its analysis to justify the conclusions it arrives at. Same time, we have to keep in mind that a philosophical inquiry is more of an intellectual exercise where as a religious inquiry is a quest for personal transformation. And, we see in history  a number of brilliant philosophers who happened to lead not so an exemplary life.

Sage Yagnavalkya (Sage of Brihadāranyaka Upanishad)

The questions posed by in a philosophical inquiry as well as religious inquiry are more or less the same; where did all these in the world originate from? what is the true nature of things? how did all these come into being? Philosophy, specifically epistemology, is also concerned with the process of knowledge, examining how reliable are our means of knowledge. We see examples of such analysis  In the early Upanishads like Chāndogya and Brihadāranyaka, appealing to logic rather than faith for validating conclusions . Later on, the scope of this type  of critical philosophical examination in the Hindu religious system expanded, resulting in the emergence of Hindu schools of philosophy known as 'Darshana', or 'Insights'. Six of these Darshanas are namely, Sāmkhya, Nyāya, Vaiseshika, Purva Mimāmsa, Utthara Mimāsma and Yoga are recognized as part of the Veda. The rise of philosophical thinking during this time period was

Aristotle and Plato

not limited to India alone. The pre-socratic Greek philosophers had also started to lay down the foundation for western philosophy approximately around the same time as Chāndogya and Brihadāranyaka upanishads were being compiled. There are also considerable number of parallels between the thoughts of later Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle with that of their Indian counterparts in Darshanas.

The six Darshanas can be classified into two broad types, the objective analysis and subjective analysis. The Sāmkhya, Nyāya and Vaiseshika are objective analysis focused whereas the Purva Mimāmsa, Uthara Mimāmsa and Yoga are subjective analysis focused. Objective analysis is an analysis approach that is focused on the nature of things with the intent of explaining everything from a physical perspective.  The oldest school that took this approach is the Sāmkhya. We know very little about its originator, Sage Kapila and his original text on the subject is not available today. Whatever we know about Samkhya comes from later works that are an elaboration of the original text. Sāmkhya introduced the concept of Purusha (manifests as consciousness) and Prakriti (manifests as matter and nature) that was leveraged by the other later schools o philosophy. The Vaiseshika school proposed that everything is composed of foundational elements and atoms with generic and particular properties. It's proponent was Sage Kanāda. The Vaiseshika thought process was later reinforced using logic and epistemology in the Nyāya school that was proposed by Sage Gautama. The Nyaāya and Vaiseshika schools had significant overlaps and merged in later days.  

Sage Patanjali (Author of Yoga Sutra)

The subjective analysis focused Darshanas were more focused on the nature of mind, intellect, conscience, cognition, cause/effect relations, soul etc. The oldest of these three schools of thought is the philosophy of Yoga. Though a proper compilation of Yoga thoughts happened in 2nd century BCE by Sage Patanjali, the approach was already prevalent in the centuries preceding. The Yoga philosophy also draws heavily from Sāmkhya. The next younger philosophy is Purva Mimāmsa that offered an abstract concept of power inherent in rituals and incantations. It proposed a way of living based purely on the rituals specified in the Brāhmanas. The Uttara Mimāmsa philosophy, more popularly known as Vedānta, is the youngest and most popular of all these schools of thought. While relying on the analytical approaches that other schools of philosophy used, Vedānta pointed towards a truth that lies beyond the means of objective knowledge.  The Sanskrit word Vedanta means end of knowledge. Uttara Mimāmsa inherited this name from the subject matter of its analysis that transcended regular knowledge as well as its foundation on Upanishads which are found at the end of Veda. The foundation text for Uttara Mimāmsa is the Vedānta Sutra which is better known as Brahma Sutra.

All these sound like academically interesting subjects that are incomprehensible to ordinary minds. What does Religion have to offer to the common man to enable him or her to deal with the issues they face in everyday life? Admittedly there was a major shortfall on the part of religious and philosophical thinking in making this connection with ordinary people. But that vacuum didn't last too long. Next time, we will look into how  India's religions addressed this question.