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The
sixth century B.C. is one of the most remarkable centuries in
human history. It is the century of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zoroaster, the
Buddha, Mahavira, Confucius, and Lao Tzu. It is the century of
Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, who originated in the Greek
world an approach to reality later to be called philosophy.
And
it is the century in which philosophy appeared in India. Many
Indians and Indophiles will doubtlessly dispute this statement
and will point to the Vedas and the Upanishads to support their
claim for a much earlier date for the beginnings of philosophy
in India; but these works cannot be considered as philosophy
in the strictest sense, for they lack systematic presentation and
rational argument, without which one may have religion or
speculation,
but not philosophy.
Das
Gupta has said of the Vedas, "It is here we find interesting
philosophical questions of a more or less cosmological character
expressed in terms of poetry and imagination." J
The same author says
of the Upanishads, "These are not reasoned statements, but
utterances
of truths intuitively perceived or felt as unquestionably real
and indubitable, and carrying great force, vigour, and
persuasiveness
with them."2
The speculations in the Vedic literature were
- and still are - a vast mine of material for Indian philosophers.
The ancient Greek philosophers could draw some philosophical
material from the Iliad
and
the Odyssey,
but
these epics cannot
match the Rig
Veda and
the Upanishads in quality and
IV. The self in sankhya-yoga
1 Surendranath Das Gupta, a History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Cam bridge, Cambridge University Press, 1957), p. 6.
2 Ibid., p. 7.
The Self in Sankhya-Yoga
quantity of religious and philosophical insights. This deficiency was not without merit. The Greeks, lacking a body of material assumed to be revealed, were not tempted to develop a Greek scholasticism; whereas one of the constant dangers in Indian philosophy has always been the stifling of original thought in the presence of authoritarian ideas. Greek philosophers did not write commentaries on the Iliad and the Odyssey; Indian philosophers, on the other hand, had difficulty in thinking except in the context of the Upanishads. This fundamental difference between the two philosophies can be brought out by noting that the terms orthodox and heterodox are irrelevant in Greek philosophy, but in Indian philosophy these terms are used to classify philosophers and philosophies.
Philosophy in ancient Greek civilization came to be when a few lonians, motivated by intellectual curiosity and courageously ignoring mythology, began to speculate freely about the natural causes of physical motion and the fundamental reality which they surmised must lie behind the manifold world of everyday experiences. This early Greek thought was philosophical, not merely speculative, because argument was an integral part of it. Philosophy in India did not originate as an effort to satisfy scientific interests; rather it arose out of the emotional necessity of protecting and defending a precious body of truths. The Buddhist revolt was part of the intellectual ferment in sixth century India which forced Indian minds to desert dogmatism and adopt reason as a method of arriving at truths and values. Appeals to the authority of Upanishadic seers were futile against those who rejected Vedas and Upanishads. Analysis had to be countered with better analysis, not with speculations; criticism with more penetrating criticism, not with revelations; system with system, not with intuitions; naturalistic and humanistic thought with logical examination, not with poetic rhapsody or mystical ecstasy. The Buddha may not have been the first Indian philosopher, but he is the earliest Indian thinker to be dated with accuracy who presented his message in a philosophical manner. His basic message, now called The Four Noble Truths, was presented as an inference from three postulates:
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The Self in Sankhya-Yoga
The Self in Sankhya-Yoga
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First Postulate: All living beings suffer.
Second Postulate: All suffering is caused by desires.
Third Postulate: Whatever is caused can be stopped by removing the cause.
The Inference: Therefore, suffering can be stopped by the elimination of desires.
The Buddha was one of many who challenged the scholastic method of discovering truth by searching in Vedic lore. Out of this challenge has grown Indian philosophy which was once described by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Minister of Education in the Government of India, as "one of the proudest possessions of human civilization".3
The term Indian philosophy is used with three different meanings. The broadest use of the term is the one which would include all speculation in the sub-continent of India. According to this use, the Rig Veda and all the Upanishads are part of Indian philosophy. From what has been said above, it is clear that this is not the sense in which the term is being used in this study. The term can be used in a second sense to include all the systematic and rational schools of thought which have developed in India, regardless of their relationship to the Vedas and the Upanishads. This use would include both the astika (orthodox) schools, which accept the Vedas and the Upanishads, and the nastika (unorthodox) schools, which reject the Vedas and the Upanishads. The nastika schools are Carvaka or Lokayata, Jainism, and Buddhism. The narrowest use of the term would limit its denotation to the orthodox schools. It is in this sense that the term is used in this study.
The astika and the nastika philosophies - with the exception of the Carvaka - agree in three assumptions: (1) This world is a place of sorrow. (2) The soul is subject to transmigration. (3) The Vedic tradition contains some truths. Each philosopher interprets these assumptions in the context of his own philosophical position. The last assumption is especially varied in the systems; only the
3 Radhakrishnan et al, History of Philosophy, Eastern and Western, Vol. 1 (London, Allen and Unwin, 1952), p. 5.
Carvaka rejects the Upanishads completely and absolutely. A brief statement of how the self is conceived in each of the nastika systems will be helpful in understanding the self in the astika systems.
According to Carvaka there is no spiritual substance. The physical body is the self. Life is one of the possible arrangements of matter, and consciousness is a by-product of physical activity.4
In Jainism all reality is divided into two categories: jlva (the vital principle) and ajlva (the non-vital principle). Jlvas are real individual substances having neither beginning nor end. Although jlvas are spiritual in nature, they have a physical dimension, but, unlike atoms, jlvas vary in size according to the size of the body the jlva inhabits. There are an infinite number of jlvas. They are all alike in that sentience is their essential nature, yet they differ by reason of the number of senses they have. Some jlvas have but one sense, e.g., jlvas in stones, lumps of clay, salt, and chalk have but the sense of touch; other jlvas have as many as five senses, e.g., human beings, lower animals, creatures of hell, and demigods. Jlvas upon becoming associated with the non-vital principle
- a principle which is divided into time, space, motion, stability, and matter — suffer curtailment of powers. The ami of human life is to cast off all limitations so the jlva can gain omniscience. The means of salvation is the avoidance of destruction of jlvas and the release from dependance upon ajlvaJ'
Gautama the Buddha rebelled against metaphysical speculations. He formulated a list of unelucidated or unprofitable questions which he would not discuss because he believed that men
4 For information on Carvaka see: Dakshinaranjan Shastri, A Short History of Indian Materialism, Sensationalism and Hedonism (Calcutta, Calcutta Book Co., 1930); Dale Riepe, The Naturalistic Tradition in Indian Thought (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1961), ch. 4.
* The following books on Jainism are recommended: J. Jaini, Outlines of Jainism (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1916); Mohan Lai Mehta, Outlines of Jaina Philosophy (Bangalore, Jain Mission Society, 1954); Mrs. Sinclair T. Stevenson, The Heart of Jainism (London, Oxford University Press, 1915); Nathmal Tatia, Studies in Jaina Philosophy (Banares, Jain Cultural Research Society, 1951). The Sacred Books of the Jainas, edited by Sarat Chandra Ghoshal, is published by The Central Jaina Publishing House of Arrah and Lucknow.
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