CHAPTER-29

Developments in Philosophy

Goals of Life

The objectives of regulation of the social order or dharma, economic resources or artha, physical pleasures or kama, and salvation or moksh was expounded in writing.
Matters relating to economy were treated in the Arthashastra, the well-known book written by Kautilya. Laws governing the state and society became the subject of the Dharmashastra, and physical pleasures were discussed in the Kamasutra.
All these three branches of knowledge were primarily concerned with the material world and its problems. Salvation or moksha became the central subject of the texts on darshana or philosophy. It meant deliverance from the cycle of birth and death, which was first recommended by Gautama Buddha.
By the beginning of the Christian era, six schools of philosophy developed. These were known as Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta.

Samkhya

Samkhya, literally ‘count’, seems to have originated first. According to the early Samkhya philosophy, the presence of divine agency is not essential to the creation of the world.
Around the fourth century AD, in addition to prakriti, purusha or spirit was introduced as an element in the Samkhya system, and the creation of the world was attributed to both. According to the new view, Nature and the spiritual element together create the world.
Initially, according to this school, a person can attain salvation through the acquisition of real knowledge, and his misery can be ended for ever. This knowledge can be acquired through perception (pratyaksha), inference (anumana), and hearing (shabda). Such a method is characteristic of a scientific system of inquiry.

Yoga

According to the Yoga school, a person can attain salvation through meditation and physical application. Practice of control over pleasure, the senses, and bodily organs is central to this system.
In order to obtain salvation, physical exercises in various postures called asanas are prescribed, and a breathing exercise called pranayama is recommended.

Nyaya

Nyaya, or the school of analysis, was developed as a system of logic. According to it, salvation can be attained through the acquisition of knowledge. The veracity of a proposition or statement can be tested through inference, hearing, and analogy.

Vaisheshika

The Vaisheshika school gives importance to the discussion of material elements or dravya. They draw a line between particularities and their aggregate. Earth, water, fire, air, and ether (sky), when combined, give rise to new objects.
The Vaisheshika school propounded the atom theory believing that all material objects are made up of atoms. The Vaisheshika thus marked the beginning of physics in India.

Mimamsa

Mimamsa literally means the art of reasoning and interpretation. According to the Mimamsa school, the Vedas contain the eternal truth. The principal object of this philosophy was to acquire heaven and salvation.
In order to attain salvation, the Mimamsa school strongly recommended the performance of Vedic sacrifices, which needed the services of priests and legitimized the social distance between the various varnas.
Through the propagation of the Mimamsa philosophy, the brahmanas sought to maintain their ritual authority and preserve the social hierarchy based on Brahmanism.

Vedanta

Vedanta means the end of the Veda. The Brahmasutra of Badarayana compiled in the second century BC formed its basic text. Later, two famous commentaries were written on it, one by Shankara in the ninth century and the other by Ramanuja in the twelfth.
Shankara considers brahma to be without any attributes, but Ramanuja’s brahma had attributes. Shankara considered knowledge or jnana to be the chief means of salvation, but Ramanuja’s road to salvation lay in practising devotion/loving faith.
According to it, brahma is the reality and everything else is unreal (maya). The self (soul) or atma coincides with brahma. Therefore, if a person acquires the knowledge of the self (atma), he acquires the knowledge of brahma, and thus attains salvation.
Both brahma and atma are eternal and indestructible. The theory of karma came to be linked to Vedanta philosophy. It means that in his present birth, a person has to bear the consequences of his actions performed in his previous birth.
Belief in rebirth or punarjanma becomes an important element not only in the Vedanta system but also in several other systems of Hindu philosophy.

Charvaka and the Materialistic View of Life

By and large, the six systems of philosophical teaching promoted the idealistic view of life. All of them became paths of attaining salvation. The Samkhya and Vaisheshika systems advanced the materialistic view of life.
Kapila, the earliest exponent of the Samkhya, teaches that a man’s life is shaped by the forces of nature and not by any divine agency. Materialistic ideas also figure in the doctrines of the Ajivikas, a heterodox sect in the time of the Buddha.
Charvaka, however, was the main expounder of the materialistic philosophy which came to be known as the Lokayata, which means the ideas derived from the common people. It underlined the importance of intimate contact with the world (loka), and showed a lack of belief in the other world.
The schools of philosophy with emphasis on materialism developed in the period of an expanding economy and society between 500 BC and AD 300. The struggle against the difficulties presented by nature in founding settlements and leading day-to-day life in the Gangetic plains and elsewhere led to the origin and growth of iron-based agricultural technology, the use of metal money, and the thriving of trade and handicrafts.
By the fifth century AD, materialistic philosophy was overshadowed by the exponents of idealistic philosophy who constantly criticized it and recommended the performance of rituals and cultivation of spiritualism as a path to salvation; they attributed worldly phenomena to supernatural forces.