Indian Philosophy: What I Always Wanted to Know

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Why this book?

Our scientific accomplishments, unprecedented coexistence of wealth and poverty, and struggles for survival have precipitated global disharmony and conflict. It is in this context of ultra-modernism, which is also heralding the destruction of our planet that we need to evaluate our concepts of quality of life, including mental and spiritual needs. The 'quality of living' in terms of a blissful existence in peace, equanimity and contentment had been foremost in the minds of the ancient Indian philosophers. This is different from the modern concept of 'quality of life', which does depend upon physical amenities and comfort. A true understanding of the evolution of our thought processes from the earliest time to the present may help us in this hour of need.

Indian philosophy appears at first to be a bewildering plethora of concepts. It is this curious potpourri of faith and logic that has made Indian philosophy an enigma. Although the original works appear in simple, short phrases or sentences in Sanskrit, they do require some knowledge of the ancient culture and religion of that land to comprehend them. Many Indologists of great renown have tried to explain this philosophy and have produced many tomes of learned literature. They had become profoundly impressed to find that the Indian subcontinent had produced many great philosophers even earlier than the Greeks and Egyptians who had Influenced their Christian world. These commentaries, while showing their reverence to the works of the great Indian philosophers, also indicate the insurmountable complexities of the diverse cultures and the prevailing conditions in that unknown era of that unknown land which they had to comprehend. This was realised by General Wellesley, who unilaterally established the 'Oxford of the East in Calcutta, but was not allowed to make this a great institution. A general reader cannot be certain to have grasped the actual message of the original philosophers by reading these commentaries, which mostly focus on single issues, suggestive of 'not seeing the wood for the trees'.

Professor Prasanna Gautam is a serious scholar of ancient Sanskrit literature. He has been pursuing these studies in the tradition set by his grandfather, Vidwatshiromani Sri Kulachandra Gautam, who was a beacon of light for all of us. His exceptional original works are the pride of the Sanskrit literary world and make his presence felt amongst us even after his death so long ago. I have no hesitation in saying that Professor Gautam, too, has made an enormous contribution with his uniquely insightful expose of the Rig Veda, by his word for word translation of that ancient literature. Readers will remain forever indebted to him for this scholarly work.

I was also amazed to read his book Reflections on Contemporary Values, Beliefs and Behaviours (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018) which prompts us to follow our own inherent inquisitive nature for the benefit of ourselves and humanity at large. This is a unique work for which no amount of praise will be sufficient.

I felt privileged to glance through the draft of this book on Indian philosophy. I found this to contain the core of the eastern philosophical concepts. This has the thoughts of the Rishis (sages) of the Vedic era and reflects their debates found in the Upanishads in a lucid manner. The secrets within Mahabharata and Ramayana have been clearly uncovered from the old dogmas over the centuries. This also has shaken our usual way of interpreting Bhagavad Gita. The gravitas of the teaching of Buddha has been well elucidated. In short, he has tried to fill a jar with all the waters of an ocean.

Man has always deluded himself with all kinds of fanciful beliefs. The bewildering variety of ideas and the several religions which are presented as the truth support this observation. These ideas have led the learned people of the east to debate between pseudo-knowledge, Avidya, and the true knowledge, Vidya. This has been the hallmark of Indian philosophy since ancient times. Avidya was regarded as the source of all evil, misery and suffering, but true knowledge, Vidya, brought 'true bliss', the Brahma. This quest for bliss and its acquisition was accepted as the sole purpose of human life.

The ancient Indian philosophers had realised the need for proof of their statements or conclusions. They called this Pramana. Although they maintained that "knowledge comes from inside the self, whereas information is obtained by studying", they had accepted the fact that all philosophical thoughts were theories which needed to be verified by acceptable means. 'Intuitive knowledge' alone was not sufficient. In other words, the concept that loosely corresponds to epistemology had been realised and accepted from the earliest times. Max Muller had observed, "Such an examination of the authorities of human knowledge (Pramanas) ought, of course, to form the introduction to every system of philosophy, and to have clearly seen this is, as it seems to me, a very high distinction of Indian philosophy. How much useless controversy would have been avoided, particularly among Jewish, Mohammedan, and Christian philosophers, if a proper place had been assigned in limine to the question of what constitutes our legitimate or our only possible channels of knowledge, whether perception, inference, revelation, or anything else!" However, these ancient philosophers were also unable to be consistently objective and without fanciful imaginations.