Know your Indian Philosophers
You were taught about Plato, Aristotle & Confucious, but do you know your own Indian philosophers? Here’s the tea!
Our philo is called darshanas, which means perspective & we have 6 classical darshans under the aastik category, which are different takes on what’s written in our Vedas.
Starting with Kapila (not the cricket one) from the 6th Century BCE who talked about Samkhya, which says the world is split into Purusha i.e. conciousness & Prakriti i.e. nature & matter, including the mind, so our experience is called the Jiva, and the goal becomes to remove our ignorance through the knowledge of this bond to achieve moksha. Samkhya is regarded as the more realistic & most ancient view.
We move to Patanjali from the 2nd century BCE, who is seen only as a medical name but his Yoga Sutra is actually a larger philosophy that says we can liberate ourselves from bondage by following yam (restraints) & niyam (rules). Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is considered the foundational reference for this school of thought.
Third, we have Adi Shankaracharya from somewhere between the 5th to 8th century CE, who actively talked about the Advaita vedanta, which says that our individual self (Atman) and the ultimate reality (Brahman) are one & the same, so the goal of life becomes to move from maya (ignorance) to elevate our conciousness to realise this & gain moksha. In essence, we must believe in “Aham Brahmasmi” - I am the universe.
Standing in front is Madhavacharya from the 12th century CE, considered by some to be the founder of Dvaita vedanta, which says that the self (Atman) & Brahman (God) are separate entities & the goal of life is to reach Godhead through karma, bhakti & gyana (knowledge).
Finally, you’ve got Jaimini proposing Mimamsa, which gives the top priority to doing vedic rituals (karma) to achieve Dharma (righteousness).
We haven’t even touched Ramanujacharya’s Visisthadvaita, Brihaspati’s nastika Charvaka which rejects the vedas, and Sir Aurobindo’s & Swami Vivekananda’s modern takes on our culture.