The 6 Philosophical Schools of Vedic India
What are the differences between religious and philosophical thought? An introduction to the six classical Hindu Darshans
What is philosophy?
When we think of the word philosophy what often comes to mind is an image of an old white-haired man lost in thought striking a pose similar to Rodin’s statue of The Thinker.
But is it, actually? How and where did it originate? According to Wilfrid Sellar:
“Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language.”
Translated from Greek philo means love, while sofia stands for wisdom. Therfore, the term philosophy is often explained as the love of wisdom.
The Golden Age of philosophical thought
It is generally believed that the study of philosophy originated in Ancient Greece with a man named Thales in the 7th century B.C. Being the first well-known Greek philosopher, Thales of Miletus laid the foundation for other influential Greek scholars (such as Aristotle) to appear. Although philosophy is oftentimes related to words such as Greece, West, or Europe, great philosophical thinkers can be found all over the globe.
The centuries ranging from the 7th to the 4th century B.C. are often seen as one the most creative periods of human intellectual history. During this time, people like Thales, Heraclitus, Pericles, Socrates, Plato, Laozi, Confucius, and Gautama Siddhartha (the Buddha) were born, lived, and taught. Also, the 6th century B.C. marked the completion of two of the world’s most influential scriptures: the Indian Vedas and the Old Testament. Finally, the 5th-century B.C. is renowned as the golden age of Athens and the birth of Greek (Athenian) democracy.
What was actually happening during these centuries? From where did this tidal wave of intellectual creativity appear? Although the answers to these questions remain cloudy, one thing is fairly clear. Most of the later philosophical inquiries appear to be spin-offs of the intellectual upsurge that struck humanity during these early years.
Even though Greece is synonymous with the birthplace of philosophy, in today’s post I’d like to focus on another hub of intellectual prowess — Ancient India. Oddly enough, in the past, the Indians were not very keen on keeping chronicles of their history as did people in China or the West. That’s why the timeline of India’s intellectual thought is a bit murky. Nonetheless, most scholars believe that the majority of Hindu religious and philosophical outlooks came from one source — the Vedas.
The Vedas, ancient sutras, and the Hindu Darshans:
In order to understand Indian culture, we need to inquire into a few important Indian concepts. Let’s start with the Vedas.
The Vedas (meaning ‘knowledge’) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. There are four Vedas: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda.
It is estimated that the Vedas were begun to be written somewhere around 15 century B.C.
The oldest of the Vedas is the Rigveda, which is also the most complicated to interpret. Vedantic scholars such as Adi Shankaracharya and Sri Aurobindo tried to give a comprehensive explanation of these Sanskrit texts, but being in some way bottomless the Vedas are still open for interpretations. Many interpretations were also provided in the Upanishads, which we will discuss while talking about the philosophical school of Vedanta.
Being the backbone of India’s cultural history, the Vedas influenced the formation of six traditional Indian schools of philosophy, also called Darshanas. Translate from Sanskrit the word darshan means to perceive. As explained by the author of Acropolitan magazine Manjula Nanavati, in the beginning, each Darshan was codified by a founding sage, who also composed explanatory verses, called sutras. To put it briefly:
“The Sanskrit word ‘sutra’ means ‘thread’ or ‘string’, implying that they bind together in written form, a previously oral tradition. A sutra is a series of aphorisms that contains a thought, an idea, a statement or an argument expressed in a brief, condensed phrase, dense with meaning, and therefore open to different interpretations. For this reason, the darshanas have traditionally required scholarly attention to be unveiled, in contrast to the Indian epics, which dispensed wisdom in a more accessible manner. “ — Manjula Nanavati
What do all of the Hindu Darshans have in common?
- All of the traditional Indian orthodox schools of philosophy grew out from the ideas that had been provided in the Vedas.
- All of them share the belief in karma (the spiritual principle of cause and effect, wherein the intent and actions of an individual influence his or her future)
- All of the schools share the same threefold purpose:
- to remove ignorance about the nature of existence,
- to liberate one from suffering,
- to attain an enlightened state of being.
The six schools of Indian philosophy
1. Sankhya (sutras of Kapila)
Heavily focused on cosmological theories presented in the Vedas, the Sankhya school of philosophy teaches its practitioners that all of existence is the play of two deities: Purusha (pure, unchanging consciousness) and Prakrtiti (inert matter). Once Purusha comes close to Prakriti — life emerges. A human being (jiva) is the combination of these two eternal elements.
The focus of the Sankhya school is to teach its followers about the relationship between Purusha and Prakriti and to explain how their interrelationship affects the practitioner’s life. For Sankhya’s followers, performing religious rituals and leading an ethical life is not enough if one’s goal is to liberate himself from the confines of Ajñānī (ignorance). What a practitioner needs most is knowledge. Without proper knowledge, the follower will breed various unnecessary attachments, which in turn will deny him access to the understanding of Self, Life, and Reality.
2. Yoga (sutras of Patanjali)
In a way, Yoga is the practical application of the analytical teachings of Sankhya. While Sankhya school teaches that illumination comes from the right type of knowledge (jñānī), Yoga sutras act as a guide in order to achieve it. Traditional Yoga (as opposed to its contemporary watering down to the performance of asanas) was divided into 8 limbs, 4 of which focused on the body, while the other 4 were devoted to the perfection of one’s inner state.
As believed in the Darshan of Yoga, in order to experience and understand the Truth, a yogi first has to quiet his mind. To achieve that a yogi should follow the 8 limbs of Yoga:
- The Yamas (rules of moral code)
- The Niyamas (guides for personal behavior)
- Asana (yogic postures)
- Pranayama (yogic breathing exercises)
- Pratyahara (withdrawal of senses)
- Dharana (mental concentration)
- Dhyana (the practice of meditation)
- Samadhi (undivided consciousness)
“To understand the ultimate supreme reality as it is, rather than as we want it to be, we need a mind which is calm, clear, and unbiased,” says Sain Dass Aeri
Thus, employing all the 8 limbs of yogic practice in one’s daily life should help the practitioner arrive at the stop to which the Sankhya and Yoga schools are leading.
3. Nyaya (sutras of Gautama)
Putting heavy emphasis on logic and reasoning, The Nyaya school of philosophy has a close resemblance to the techniques and teachings employed by Aristotle and his successors. Believing, that most human pain and suffering is the result of confusion, Nyaya teaches the analytical techniques necessary to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad, and false from true. This is done by employing what the teachers of Nyaya call a theory of fallacies.
According to Nyaya, if a person wants to achieve bliss, first he has to prove to himself that such a state exists. Without being able to reason such a state into being, a seeker will not be able to enjoy its merits. Because of its high emphasis on reasoning and logical inquiry, the Nyaya school is often described as the first Darshan that helped to interpret the Vedas analytically. Also, it is the philosophical school on which ideas the contemporary schooling system of India is built.
4. Vaisheshika (sutras of Kannada)
The Darshan of Vaisheshika is the school of thought which proposes the idea that the whole universe is formed from paramanu — very small and indivisible particles, which bear a close resemblance to the Democritus’ description of atoms. According to the Kannada, paramanu are not something that was created nor can they be destroyed. They are eternal and all living forms can be reduced to a finite number of paramuru.
Kannada was also a firm believer in the law of karma. He claimed that various karmic merits and demerits combined with an unseen moral force of the God Brahma move the atoms (paramuru) leading to the creation of circumstances in which the individual spirit (jiva) experiences justice. According to Vaisheshika school of philosophy, to liberate oneself the practitioner has to learn how to detach himself from Maya (the illusion and play of supreme consciousness) and thus break free from his or her karmic cycle. Valuing empirical knowledge above all else, the school teaches that the right type of perception and inference act as the main keys to achieving liberation.
5. Mimamsa (sutras of Jaimini)
Often seen as the guard of proper ritual and worship practices, the school of Mimansa puts high emphasis on establishing and guarding the authority of the Vedas. Different from the other schools, the Darshan of Mimansa does not put a high emphasis on logical reasoning. Rather, the Jaimini followers focus on safeguarding the traditions related to the Vedic scriptures and emphasize the need to follow their teachings without making interpretations. Thus, the followers of Mimansa are often seen as the most literal adherents of the Vedic texts. As elaborated by Sain Dass Aeri, the central idea of Mimansa is that:
“Meanings of words come alive only through action, not through explanation.”
For this reason, the “show, but not tell” principle is one of the most fundamental blocks of this school of philosophy. Live out the truth instead of explaining it. That seems like a fitting slogan for the Mimamsa Darshan.
6. Vedanta (sutras of Badrayana)
While the school of Mimansa explains the practitioner how he or she should conduct exoteric Vedic practices (worship, ceremonies, ritual), Vedanta concerns itself more with the esoteric side of things (meditation, self-discipline, and reflection.) Claiming to have distilled the essence of the Vedas, the school of Vedanta establishes itself on the later philosophical commentaries — the Upanishads — where logic and reasoning once again play a huge role.
“The Upanishads are late Vedic Sanskrit texts which deal with meditation, philosophy, consciousness, and ontological knowledge while earlier parts of the Vedas concentrate more on mantras, benedictions, rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices.”
The Vedanta school of philosophy has 6 main branches, which interpret the Vedas and the Upanishads in their own unique way. These schools are:
- Advaita (holds a monistic position, explaining that the Atman and Brahman are one)
- Vishitadvaita (teaches that the Supreme Being has a definite form named Vishnu)
- Dvaita (holding a dualistic position espouses a belief in three separate realities: Vishnu, eternal soul, matter)
- Dvaitadvaita (teaches that Brahman exists independently whereas soul and matter have a dependent origin)
- Shuddadvaita (espouses that Krishna is the absolute form of Brahman)
- Acintyabhedabheda (combines monism and dualism, stating that the soul is both distinct and not distinct from Krishna)
Religions or philosophies?
Translated from Ancient Greek the word philosophy means the love of knowledge. The translation of the word religion is murkier, as it can mean many things. According to Douglas Harper:
“The term religion comes from both Old French and Anglo-Norman (1200s AD) and means respect for a sense of right, moral obligation, sanctity, what is sacred, reverence for the gods.”
Another explanation can be found on the website dictionary.com, where the author states:
“A religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.”
Now, knowing what both terms mean, under which umbrella term do the orthodox Indian darshans fall under? Are they religions, or philosophies? Can they be both?
First, it would be wise to remind ourselves that both the words religion and philosophy have either a Greek or a Latin origin. Thus, both of the terms came from the same continent — Europe. Being steeped in European traditions and perspectives, both terms carry a specific meaning. For example, one of the related meanings can be the idea that philosophy and religion are separate and distinct ways of seeing the world. For a Western audience, this might ring as true, but is it true for people coming from other backgrounds? Is it fair to categorize all other cultures by one culture’s beliefs and definitions?
Nonetheless, the question remains interesting. Can there be philosophy in religion and religion in philosophy? The first questions come as a strong yes. There even exists a specific branch of philosophy that deals with questions surrounding the ideas of “God”, “evil”, and “faith.” This discipline is called the “philosophy of religion”. What about the second part of the question? Can there be philosophy in religion?
In my mind, India is a great example of these two seemingly conflicting concepts coming together in a cohesive whole. Still, if there’s dogma (a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted without being questioned or doubted), philosophy will not occur. A philosophical state of mind requires openness, inquisitiveness, and curiosity. If the windows are stained, daylight will be distorted. Yet, some religions don’t shy away from employing philosophical methods of reasoning to explore their own suppositions and statements. That is apparent both in medieval European scholastic philosophy and in the Indian darshans (especially in Nyaya and Sankhya, as both of them don’t rely on divine grace, origin, or other traditional religious tenets).
To conclude, we can say that some religions tend to be “philosophized”, while some philosophies focus on theological doctrines, concepts, or the religions themselves. We can also claim that both religions and philosophies appear from the same (or at least a similar) underlying concerns relating to the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe. What differs is whether those concerns are stable, rigid, and fixed (as in terms of exoteric religiosity) or flexible and open for investigation (as in the case of most philosophies.)
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