Sometimes a little detour from our destination can bring fresh perspectives and possibilities that often remain unseen in a journey.
As you might have guessed from the title, the subject matter of this post is different from the weekly philosophical insights.
You cannot evade certain questions in a world infatuated with profit-making and return on investments. While some queries sprout from genuine curiosity, most focus on utility. I've often been asked why I'm besotted with Indian philosophy when it's neither going to secure an academic tenure nor help climb the higher rungs of the corporate ladder. There are a few who forsake the question of practicality to know about intellectual growth and normative outcomes. Whatever be the objective, I would like to share my thoughts on learning Indian philosophy — for the pragmatist, seeker, and inquisitive.
The nature and scope of Indian philosophy
The word “philosophy” has its origin in the Ancient Greek civilization. It signifies the love for wisdom. But this definition falls short for Indian philosophy. Attaining wisdom is only a means to an end and not the end itself. Be it a Buddhist or a Vedāntin; Naiyāyika or a Jain, the objective is to attain liberation by getting rid of nescience.
दोषनिमित्तानां तत्त्वज्ञानादहङ्कारनिवृत्ति: ।।४।२।२।। - न्याय सूत्र
There’s cessation of egotism through knowledge about the true nature of the causes of faults
Liberation is neither nihilism nor renunciation of the body. It is a quest for the inquisitive mind to understand Truth and Reality, for when you can differentiate the real from the superficial, you can live a life that’s not a slave of the passions. You philosophize not merely for intellectual pleasures but to inculcate immortal ideas into the fabric of life and society. It’s a philosophy that breathes beyond the conference rooms and academic journals. It’s systematic, analytical, and logical - the criteria to differentiate philosophy from mysticism. But there’s no need to either defend or compare with the Western counterpart. I’m guilty of making some unnecessary comparisons in my early days of learning Indian philosophy. It often results in misinterpretation of ideas. With a wide difference in society and culture, any comparison between the East and the West will be myopic and partial. We can understand and communicate with our shared constructions of metaphysics, epistemology, and logic.
“The purpose of the Indian philosopher today, who chooses to work on the classical systems, is to interpret and thereby offer a medium where philosophers, using the word to mean those who pursue rationally arguable answers to meaningful questions, both Indian and Western, may converse.” - Bimal Matilal
Neither the east nor the west needs to be dismissive of the other. As Joerg Tuske points out, the Indian texts have their own context and have to be read within that context. 1
In fact, Kautilya gives a well-rounded definition of philosophy (Ānvīkṣikī, आन्वीक्षिकी) in his seminal work, Arthaśāstra (अर्थशास्त्र) :
धर्माधर्मो त्र्यामर्थनर्थो वार्त्यां नयापनयौ दण्डनीत्यां बलाबले चैतासां हेतुभिरन्वीक्षमाणा लोक्स्योप्करोति व्यसनेभुदये च बुद्धिंव्स्थापयति प्रज्ञावाक्यक्रियावैशारधं च करोति ।।१।।
प्रदीप: सर्वविद्यानामुपाय: सर्वकर्मणाम
आश्रय: सर्वधर्माणां शाश्वदान्वीक्षिकी मता ।।१२।।
It is the Vedas that discuss what is Dharma (right, moral, ethical) and what is Adharma (wrong, immoral, unethical), it is the Varta that explain what creates wealth and what destroys wealth, it is the science of government that illuminates what is Nyaya (justice, expedient, proper) and Anyaya (unjust, inexpedient, improper), and that it is Ānvīkṣikī (philosophy) that is the light of these sciences, as well as the source of all knowledge, the guide to virtues, and the means to all kinds of acts
To understand and appreciate the nature and scope of Indian philosophy, we need to not only analyze the scriptures but also look beyond what's apparent in the society -- Ethics within epics, Metaphysics in spirituality, and Epistemology in beliefs and practices.
The Pragmatist
"What's the practical use of learning Indian philosophy?"
The question is at odds with the very definition of philosophy. But there are some answers for the pragmatist. Of course, these answers will not provide you direct monetary benefits or career advancements. You can, however, develop certain qualities that can help you achieve the desired materialistic outcomes. And with sustained self-reflection, you can get rid of the desires themselves, resulting in a perpetual peace of mind. But let’s leave that part for the Seeker. For now, let’s focus on two distinct qualities that can provide exponential “gains” in the long term — Developing an analytical mind and respecting diverse perspectives.
It’s not that learning Indian philosophy is the only way to develop these qualities. For that matter, dedication and deep reflection in any field will make you good at these characteristics. However, we will see things from the lens of Indian philosophy in this article.
Developing an analytical mind
An analytical mind will break down a bigger problem into smaller ones, analyze them deeply, and put the pieces together to arrive at a coherent, consistent and complete solution. It’s the ability to see the forest for the trees and the trees in the forest.
Freeman Dyson, a well-known mathematician and physicist, explains the idea with the analogy of birds and frogs:
Some mathematicians are birds, others are frogs. Birds fly high in the air and survey broad vistas of mathematics out to the far horizon. They delight in concepts that unify our thinking and bring together diverse problems from different parts of the landscape. Frogs live in the mud below and see only the flowers that grow nearby. They delight in the details of particular objects, and they solve problems one at a time.
The dual approach outlined by Dyson is familiar to a student of Indian philosophy.
You begin by analyzing the individual Sūtras to understand the subject matter. The Sūtras are concise and contain only the essential keywords that are necessary to communicate a thought. 2
Consider the following Sūtra:
जन्माधस्य यतः ।।२।। - ब्रह्म सूत्र
A literal translation gives a cryptic text — That from which the birth, etc. of this.
We have to decode it further to understand the complete meaning of aphorism.
The compound word (बहुव्रीहि समास), janmādi, implies birth, continuance, and dissolution. As we are reading from Brahma Sutra, “That” refers to Brahman.
“This” implies everything around us - the universe itself.
Putting everything together, we get:
Brahman is the cause for the creation, preservation, and destruction of the universe.
We have to deconstruct each sutra and then reconstruct the interpretations to comprehend the entire text — a strenuous but rewarding analytical exercise that assumes the philological requirement of knowing Sanskrit. It’s at the intersection of philosophy and linguistics that one can grasp the essence of the matter.
We cannot constrain analysis to a subject. Instead, it percolates through every mental activity and becomes inseparable from cognition — A gradual shift from System 1 to System 2 thinking. I experienced this change in thinking while designing products that I’ve captured in my talk on managing enterprise complexity.
Respecting diverse perspectives
The quality of respecting diverse perspectives is most apparent in Jainism. With their theories of Nayavāda and Syādvāda, we learn that there are multiple perspectives to reality. We only know about a few of them because of our limited knowledge and experience. A belief can be valid from a certain standpoint but fallacious when taken as a universal truth. This idea is best captured in the well-known story of “Blind Men and the elephant.”
A small group of blind men tries to touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each touches only a part (side or tusk or ear or something else) and hastily concludes that it must be the elephant’s real and only form. They quarrel long and loud upon discovering the incompatibility of their accounts. The story has been used to encourage intellectual humility and respect for the views of one’s opponents. It also reflects the tricky nature of truth and highlights the need for dialogue in human society - On Art and Aesthetics.
Jain philosophy teaches us to keep aside rigidity and intolerance. We should respect diverse opinions while believing that we know is a point of view and not the entire view itself.
I hope the pragmatist is no longer puzzled about the “value proposition” of Indian philosophy. But is that all? Far from it. As the clićhe goes, we have just touched the tip of the iceberg. The various schools of Indian philosophy have a lot more to offer.
The Yoga Sūtra of Patanjali focuses on mediation and various stages of the concentration of the mind.
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः ॥२॥
Its second sūtra clearly defines the objective - Yoga is the stilling of the changing states of the mind. What can be more pragmatic than Yoga Sūtra’s goal of controlling the mind in a world of constant distraction?
The Buddhists teach us compassion and tolerance, while the Naiyāyikas enlighten us with their rigor in logical arguments.
Bhagavad Gita (श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता), the song of God, is a religious and philosophical text taken by many as a guidebook to lead a virtuous life. If you’ve to take just one thing from the Gita, it’s the message of focusing on actions rather than outcomes.
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन |
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि || 47 ||
You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.
The Seeker
The seeker, unlike the pragmatist, is in a single-minded pursuit towards an abstract goal that’s above the worldly desires of money, class, and position in society.
The seeker is more of a mystic than a philosopher. When the metaphysical inquiry becomes Reality, philosophy converges to mysticism.
Indian philosophy offers many paths to reach the common goal of unity with the Absolute. The journey from Form to Formless is paved with knowledge. Knowing the distinction between real and unreal is a prerequisite for the seeker. There will be confusion and contradiction. But if you stay the course, you will eventually realize the path from illusion to illumination.
I’m not a seeker, yet. I might or might not walk the path, but the scriptures show the route to attain Saccidānanda (सच्चिदानंद) - Truth, Pure consciousness, and Eternal Bliss.
If you ever feel lost in life, remember that the answer lies not in renunciation but knowledge.
The Inquisitive
Children are naturally curious. These small bundles of joy want to know about everything in the world. Neither do they worry about the practicalities of life, nor do they want to know about the transcendent. They are just inquisitive - a trait they share with philosophers, though with much more innocence and no worries about the outcomes.
Like a child exploring the physical world, my journey into philosophy is also driven by inquisitiveness to explore and understand the terrains of human thought.
It began with an existential crisis. Tired of running on the Hamster wheel, I started looking for answers to define my essence over existence. One thing led to another, and the crisis became curiosity. I decided to pursue a Master’s in philosophy for giving structure to a fragmented mind. And this is where I got my first exposure to Indian Philosophy.
Like Alice in Wonderland, an entirely new world opened up that had a vast landscape with unknown territories — Nyāya, Sānkhya, Mīmamsa, Vaisesikha, Yoga, Vedānta, Cārvaka, and the many theories of Buddhism and Jainism.
Call it my ignorance, westernization, or incompetency of the education system, I had never read about these great philosophies in the thirty-one years of my existence.
In the last three years, I’ve come to appreciate the amazing depth and richness of Indian philosophy. As I continue to learn more about it, I’ve realized that the inquisitive is the soul of both the pragmatist and the seeker. Though I’ve categorized them separately, they are different shades of the same color.
My sole objective in writing this blog is to traverse this beautiful landscape with other inquisitive souls. Whether you’re a pragmatist or a seeker, there’s a view (Darśana, दर्शन) for everybody.
Resources
A list of recommended books for Indian philosophy:
Indian epistemology and metaphysics - Joerg Tuske
The structure and meaning of Badrayan’s Brahma Sutra - George C. Adams