Hindu Philosophy- A Rational Life

  One of the most important terms, recently in use is ‘trance,’ the Hindu philosophy has no trace of this word in different philosophies. The meditation, prayer and dhyana are the common words used in spiritual sense. Yoga used the Dhyana as one of the tributary of eight fold part. The  Yoga used Samadhi as the last resort of this practical philosophy in which it explained the consciousness as transcended and generated some power.  Even the Buddhist philosophy talked about transcendental of consciousness but do not used the term trance.   Trance a stage in which stupor or stage of coma or stoppage of consciousness is felt even when the individual is conscious. The condition is like feeling the consciousness away from the body and then realizing something. Sometimes it is realized as sub-consciousness state. The word trance is usually used by Western writers in explaining the mass ritual or the spirit of dancing in which the dancer of participant in the mass ritual realized that his c

  The Hindu religion talked much and much about liberation which was the ultimate freedom from the suffering, ultimate freedom from the bonded chain of rebirth, Even Samkhya said the ultimate liberation is death and even unorthodox streams talked at large about liberation, “Surely do I know much more that what I have told you and wherefore my disciples, Have I not told you that. Because it does not lead to the turning from the earthly, to the subjection of all desire, to the cessation of the transitory, to peace, to knowledge, to illumination to Nirvana. Two things only my disciples do I teach- Misery and the sensation of misery. Human existence is full of misery and pain, our immediate duty, therefore is to get rid of this misery and pain ” Gautama Buddha, as stated in Mulmadhyamika Karika. The liberation in Hindu philosophy was concluded that man had to come out from this painful world and there is no god but man himself has to make efforts to attain that stage, as Max Muller co

  Reasonable religion One of the reasons that may be responsible for the blindfold faith in present Hindu race is the breaking of joint families . The unitary families emerged in last three-four decades and now family means a couple and their two children. Indian family system was totally different where there were brothers, cousins, grand parents and their parents. The joint family system was the base of faith of individual that if anything happens wrong, my brothers, my sisters, my cousins, uncles and their uncles and relatives will come forward to help. B.N. Luniya in Evolution of Indian Culture made brief notes on later Vedic age and epic period and stated, “Joint family was the framework of the society. The eldest male member of the family was the head. He was expected to show high sense of responsibility and duty towards other members of the family. He commanded great respect and authority in the family. ” The psychological aid to individual that my family is there to support

  Worshiping any god is not superstition and worshiping and offering prayers is also not illogical as faith does not accept reasoning but following symbolism of religion blindly, certainly leads to absurdity.   India is the land where philosophy germinated for thousands of years and provided logic and reasoning for the balance life and certainly where religion was similar to deeds and moral and knowledge.   Christopher Hitchens in, God is not great on page 184 states, “ The argument that religious belief improves people, or that it helps to civilize society, is one that people tend to bring up when they have exhausted the rest of their case. Very well, they seem to say, we cease to insist on the Exodus (say), or the virgin birth or even the resurrection, or the “night flight” from Mecca to Jerusalem.   But where would people be without faith? Would they not abandon themselves to every kind of license and selfishness? Is it not true, as G K Chesterton once famously said that if pe

    The sketch of Hindu race is made in the way that it only talked at large about the suffering and liberation and therefore the soil germinated with cynicism and therefore the race went down and ruled by many and many dynasties who invaded their land. But this is not the case because Havel found in Aryan rule in India,  “ The Vedas represent culture of race of warriors, poets and philosophers who despised the art of coerce and live mostly by agriculture . ”   And for Hindus, philosophy, a darshan , an insight for the right view bringing out the best way of living, both socially and politically and ancient India shows that there was rise in culture, art and economy and social network with the rise of philosophical thoughts. There are also many examples found in the history of this race that there was democratic atmosphere that people were free to express their views and adopt newly visions and principle and were neither condemned.   Mahaveer and Buddha brought unorthodox philosop

  Hindus never look dreaming in thought that the life of man is useless and to eradicate this suffering from their live is to exile from this world, They never think to keep the view of this world as unreal as because if this could be the base of their philosophies, the life had become useless and imaginative and so the suffering in life could never be dealt so widely and therefore life and suffering become synonyms.   Mythologies suggests that after long waited opportunity, the life as a human being is able to form for any soul and this is the only life where one can try for liberation to attain knowledge.   “ The pleasure which arises to men from contact with sensible objects is to be retinquested as accompanied by pain-such is the warning of fools, the berries of paddy with the finest white grains, what man taking his true interest would fling there away to covered with husks and dust,” added Servardharma Samgraha page 4.   Somehow, it proves that Hindu thoughts clearly re

  No Satan for wrong deeds   Interestingly comparing the philosophy of Hindu race with other parts of the world, we found no trace of the concept of good and evil struggling to overpower. The Hindus had never maintained the work of evil for wrong deeds. There is no evil for original Hindu religion that lures the Adam and Eve to do something wrong and against the divine because good or bad is the outcome of one’s own action. In Christianity and also in Islam and even in other religions, fight between divine and devil still continues and the main work of devil is to work against the divinity and the divine power works to bring the man again on right path. The fight between these two positive and negative powers remained working since the episode of Satan.   But for Hindus there is no evil, even the Ravana- the villain in the  Ramayana epic was not an evil power. The Ravana was praised as the wise man and a pundit who knows even more than any other seer. Even the epic describes th

  Theory of Ashrams and Karmas   The concept of Sanskara was the major reason of moral life in which Hindus lead their life according to such codes. The Sanskaras define duties of every individual as per their age group. The four parts of Ashrams was the main reason that made people behave accordingly.   The Brahmacharya, the age of a child and adolescence, the purity and learning and getting education was the main duty of a person. The Dharma was the major essence of this life age.   The Grahsata was the family life and the duty was to support the family and respect the elders and earning the living, the dharma, kama artha was the main subject of this life age in which it was the duty of the person to support his family, respect and service his parents, grow children and earn the living as prescribed.   The Vanprasth is the age which is retiring from the responsibility and wonder for religious places in which Dharma was important.   The last stage of life was Sany

  Bhakti and ethics   And the Bhakti cult emerged that preached equality of all religions and the unity of godhead. There were saints like Ramananda, Vallabhacharya and Chaitanya made the gods as beloved of mass and the Bhakti system of religion spread in Hindu land. This period is quoted by historians as a reforming in religion.   During Mughul period the Hindu religion exist in supremacy and they also adopted the rectification influenced by Islam. These two religions were parallel formation of society and history shows that education was the priority both for Hindus and Muguls,    “ Female education of some sort existed during the Mugul period. The daughters of the imperial household, and of rich nobles, were given tuitions in their houses and we may assume that the daughters of the middle class people among the Hindus received primary education along with the boys in the schools and that some of them were conversant with religious literature. The Auxiliary committee of the I

  Moral of non-violence & conduct   The Jainism brought new type of ethics which influenced the greater part of Hindus. The system of worship as well as way of life was totally different from the Vedic system of living. Jainism emphasize on purity and non-violence. These two streams had a clergy system to support and encourage their philosophies and therefore there were five vows of these clergy including non-violence, truth, not to steal, abstention, renunciation by thought, speech and action and renunciation by word and deeds.   Historians believe that the then prevailing violence against animals and against castes was diluted by these new streams of thoughts. Importantly these two streams provided the right to worship to common man-   “ The merciful Buddha who is true friend of all, has taught the right doctrine to everybody without making any distinction of any kind” Tattva Sangraha 3512.   And most important was that these streams were based on reasoning to satisfy t

  Theory of sorrow Samkhya - oldest Indian philosophy- established the theory of sorrow which is not based on Karma like Mimansaka. Samkhya stated that because we act according to our Gunas- Sattva, Rajas and Tamas , our actions are not result of free will. Therefore the actions are not conducted by Purusa.   Samkhya advanced that there are three types of sorrows or pains- The first is spiritual ( Adhyatmika ) -- which caused by our own dilemma like feeling solitude, confusion. The other is external ( Adhibhautika ) like injury, body pain, fever . And the third is divine ( Adhidaivika ) caused by planets and stars. The Bhagwat Gita remained the main book of codes for the society and thousands of years this book was praised as the guide to live the better life, life accordance to the knowledge. The Bhagwad Gita is one of the most popular religious books of the Hindus. It gives the philosophy of Karma.   “All the different classes of Sanyasis and Sadhus whose number is l