Hindu Thoughts & Applied Philosophy
Hindu Thoughts & Applied
Philosophy
Socrates advanced- “Philosophy is
what, which serves the humankind, is to be served and spread, but, if it is not
what I believe then ruin it into dust.” Socrates seems to be speaking about the
subject philosophy on the line of American pragmatism, evaluating the
usefulness of the truth and hurl the subject in dustbin if it is found useless.
Socrates meant the practicality of
the subject in the manner it should serve humanity and prove the validity of
the subject by its great richness. The assertion truly advises the usefulness
of the subject.
But Socrates was neither pragmatic
in concept nor in character and his statement about ruining the subject into
dust shows his confidence in self that philosophy is the only subject that
serves the mankind.
The statement seems that Socrates
threw the challenge to opponents, very boldly, and his statement was somewhat
similar to the proclamation that as sciences and technologies these days are
serving to make lives of humankind better, so is philosophy.
Therefore, Socrates was confident
of Philosophy to serve the mankind and societies, but now, at present, the
confidence of Socrates, on Philosophy, has become week and vague and requires
revaluation and there are thinkers who are working hard to find the spirit of
Philosophy with the same sense in which Socrates uttered those words in his
age.
Truly, Socrates took the subject philosophy as
the touchstone of civilization because for him, philosophy is a subject of
reasoning, thinking, ideas, speculation and questioning irrationally. For him
only the thoughtful process can uplift the self, the humanity, the society and
the civilization.
Logical analysis is the only method
for happiness and therefore Socrates accepted his unwarranted death by
advancing logic to his friends who wanted his freedom by an escape. And testing
the words of Socrates, truly, histories of different civilizations proved that
philosophy made societies better and provided reasoning and knowledge which was
the key of development of different civilizations in the world.
Philosophy helped in straight
thinking and kept the superstitions in control and in limits with the
scientific approach and with moral values of civilizations.
The Indian context too mostly used philosophy, ‘Darshan’ as the light
that turns the darkness away. Katha Upnishad ( chapter II-5) stated, “Those who
are wrapped up in imperfect knowledge, fancy themselves alone wise and learned,
they wander about floundering and deceived, like blind man led by the man who
is himself blind” Indian soil, for thousands of years made sense of philosophy
with the only blueprint that true knowledge is the only key of life.
The ultimate liberation is possible
only by right knowledge and therefore philosophy in India spread and was
practiced thousands of years with deep speculation and questioning the
existence.
Even the theories within Rig Vedas
were altered to such limit that numbers of Nature gods were changed in later
versions of the text. The civilization of Hindus flourished and so the economy
and literature during golden age of Gupta period because philosophy was the
base of culture, religion and life and that philosophy was not marching on some
particular thought, making a rigid principles restricting man in a circle of
thinking but a process of flowing thought process.
Philosophy here was a static
phenomenon and flowed continuously without adamancy of accepting a rigid
concept keeping away the reasoning. The subject went so deep that Hindu
philosophers talked about knowledge and only true knowledge and also proving
knowledge and its’ sources and the valid presentation of knowledge. It was the
continuous efforts and freedom of thought which was witnessed at large that at
that time that even unorthodox treaties- which challenged Vedas- were accepted
greatly and kingdoms accepted it as a state principle and religion. Certainly,
the advancement of philosophy in India limited the scope of religion and
superstition in certain period of time when philosophical thoughts flourished
freely and dogmas were too in control.
Even in west, the philosophy was
the greatest weapon used during revolution against the Church and reasoning and
innovation was the base of developing America with the perspective of new
dimensions. Philosophy, in broader sense is not a particular school of thought
or ϴ theory of single school but a continuous process to develop the method of
speculation within self and to deduct the right from the different options. The
epistemological part develops concept and concepts made ethical and moral life
of a particular society in large.
Philosophy trained minds for
independent thinking without prejudice or pre-deposit of situations. Maintaining
any principle with open eyes and judging every perspective provided, keeping
the mind away from any settled faith or belief. But philosophy now is in a
challenged mode and in this era when scientific approaches shaped to abstract
theories and philosophy is pushed hard towards the wall because science is
explaining how the world is formed and what human body is.
And therefore philosophy,
abandoned, pushed, solitary forced to remain attached with the religion, values
and culture. Irony is that the subject philosophy that fought against illogic
and superstitions in India has now become a part and a tool of dogmas and
superstitions. Religious orators are using philosophy not in a scientific or in
a literature sense but abusing it to settle the religious rules in the society
according to them.
Again the prevailing satire is that
religious metaphysics are settled on the basis of philosophy which was already
disapproved by the science. The literature that used metaphors to describe the
characters of religion and epics are now taken as real sense without
understanding the theme of the concept. Religion orators are forcing society to
believe that Hindu philosophies made these notions for betterment of the
society. The aim of philosophy that provided the goal for society to live
accordance with truth is now turned to self benefits and blessings of almighty.
It is not acceptable in wider
sense, the commandant of Vedas that ‘Not all are eligible to learn Vedas’. It
was taken up many times as a craft of Brahmans to keep everyone away from
education and from knowledge but in philosophical sense, the eligibility is
required to study and understand the philosophy as now in India, story tellers
are masters of none and preaching religion quoting Vedas as philosophy of Hindus
but in reality they do not understand the soul of Vedas.
Learning Vedas was restricted to
some castes but it was not banned for common mass, there are examples like
Valmiki, of lower social group who turned to seer and learned every concept of
Hindu philosophy and written the Ramayana- the great epic. The question in true
sense, at that time, the eligibility of learning Vedic concept was not even
allowed to every Brahmin and only mature minds were required to understand the
true nature of Vedic philosophy. Even children of Brahmans had to go through
the basics of learning before turning to Vedas and mind it, not all Brahmans
were eligible to study Vedas as there were clear cut examples from Hindu
literature. Certainly, at present, for disappointing Socrates, philosophy is
waste and even in the era of technology, people have become more and more
superstitious, more religious and more irrational.
And therefore philosophy is a waste
and demanding the command of Socrates to follow to ruin the subject. The religion,
at present, practice in India has no shadow of the real image of Hindu religion
and there are more new cults and more sects and more gods came out which were
never ever heard in the past of this Hindu race.
If any Vedic priest, supposed, come
down again from anywhere and unknown place of the sky and witness such
religion, custom and rituals of religion, will feel that he has dropped to an
alien land.
Undoubtedly, things have to change
with time and so the religion and customs and rituals have changed but still,
the base of such changes has to be philosophical. It does not mean that walking
on the same route every time and maintaining old treatises without giving an
ear of reasoning but whatever has to prevail should have reasoning and logic.
If god only shower blessings on
Hindu race, then what about the theory of karma (action) which is the base of
Hindu theology. And when god can do miracles then there is no good and bad
action in concept and therefore the Hindu philosophy that advanced on principle
of action should be ruined to agree with Socrates.
The new stream of applied
philosophy has been started in some western countries in which subjects such as
bio-ethics and leadership science, philosophy of mind is included in syllabus
in some universities but the Hindu philosophy has not yet made in an applied
sense to initiate the use of such treasurer of the world.
There are different streams
integrated in Indian philosophy which had scientific reasoning and essence of
bettering the society. There are still subjects like Buddhist logic, Nayaya
reasoning, Mimansaka ϭϭ ethics, Vedic environment studies, administration of
Arthshastra and many, many other branches which need to be explore. Habit of
reasonable thinking and logical analysis required as the base of education,
especially in philosophy, rather than the system of cramming and obtaining
grades in every standard of school or colleges.
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