School of Indian Philosophical Thought (An Old and Rare Book)

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Philosophy, says Prof. Joad "is a record of the soul's adventure in the cosmos Some find enjoyment in the pursuit of mental and spiritual adventure, these are philosophers". "Many philosophers have set themselves to examine the features of the familiar world-time, space, change, substance, or the law of cause and effect-and have sought to reveal the contradictions to which the examination gives rise. Regarding philosophy and philosopher. Prof. DeWulf says: "Philosophy is simply a survey of the world as a whole. The philosopher is thus the man who views the world from the top of a lookout and sets himself to learn its structure; philosophy is a synthetic and general knowledge of things. It is not concerned with this or that compartments of existence, but with all beings existent or possible, the real without restriction. It is not a particular but a general science. General science or philosophy constitutes the second stage of knowledge. It is human wisdom (sapientia), science par excellence theoretical, second, pratical, and third, poetical. This three-fold division of philosophy into speculative, practical, and poetical, says DeWulf, is based upon man's different contacts with the totality of the real, or, as it was put then, with the universal order. The practical philosophy further includes in its field, mathematics, metaphysics, logic, religion, ethics, politics, and other things, which are speculative or theoretical and practical. Mathematics studies quantity as regards its logical implications. Meta- physics enters deepest of all into reality and deals with what is beyond matter, motion, and mind. Logic sets up a scheme of all that we know, of the method of constructing the science. Religion helps philosophy to search deep into the recess of reality and spiritual feeling. Ethics studies the realm of our acts, and there is nothing in human life that cannot become the material of duty.

It is a privilege to be called upon to write a Foreword to any of the works of Swami Prajnanananda, an eminent thinker and author whose works on Philosophy, Music and other humanistic subjects have been widely acclaimed as of lasting value by competent scholars of India and abroad. In the present work entitled SCHOOLS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT the author has made a comprehensive survey of the different systems of Indian Philosophy The author has not only given expository and critical analyses of the heterodox and orthodox schools of Hindu Philosophy, but has also presented, wherever necessary, Western parallels with a view to bringing home to the reader his own point of view. The most striking contributions of the author are to be found in his critical exposition of the philosophical tendencies in the RkVeda, religion and philosophy of the Brahmana period, the central thoughts of the Upanishads, relation of Sannyasa to Tyaga, distinction between Brahmavada and Mayavada, definitions of Vyapti, distinction between the nature of liberation according to Samkhya and that according to Vedanta, validity of the Veda in regard to Dharma, Khyativada, etc.

In expounding Sankara's theory of validity, the author has taken great care in elucidating the views expressed in the Panchapadika-Vivarana, Bhamati, Vartika and other commentaries. As the author rightly points out: "Sankara is really a brahmavadin, because his doctrine of Advaita Vedanta philosophy is brahmavada, and not mayavada. Maya is to Sankara a negative fact, and not a positive one, and all through his commentaries on the Brahmasutra. the Upanishad, and the Bhagavad-Gita, and in many of his independent works, Sankara's utmost attempt is to prove the unreality of the changing world and the absolute reality of the Brahman." In analysing Sankara's doctrine of Maya the author has, with remarkable ability, introduced Kant's doctrine of phenomenalism and has pointed out how the post-Sankarite Vedantists view the doctrine of Maya.