Darshanas of Dharma
Part One: The “Orthodox” Darshanas
What is reality? What is knowledge? Is there a God? What separates right from wrong? What is our purpose? What is Dharma? How do we know what is True? Humans have been asking these questions for a long time, and arguing about them for just as long. If there is anything we Indians love, it is arguing about everything and anything [cue to clips of Indian TV News.] Naturally, this has lead to a whole lot of ideas to emerge from Bhartiya civilization which aim to answer our endless curiosity or just fuel our endless arguments.
A person from the Dharma culture, or a Dharmika has the freedom to explore whatever ideas they wish to explore and be influenced by; however, some people accept certain ultimatums upon which they build all their ideas. These ultimatums are called Darshanas. There are ten major Darshanas. These Darshanas are Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Mīmāṃsā, Vedānta, Buddhadhātu, Jain, Cārvāka/Lokāyata, and Ajīvika.
Sāṅkhya
The origins of Sāṅkhya are much debated but the classical formulation is founded in the Sāṅkhya-Kārikā by Īśvarakṛṣṇa around 350 C.E (Ruzsa.) The Darshana can be identified as non-theistic or atheistic metaphysical dualism (Ruzsa, Jajubczak.) By reading Īśvarakṛṣṇa’s work we can conclude that Sāṅkhya believes that there are two types of entities or tāttvas — puruṣa and prakṛti. Puruṣa is the metaphysical infinite consciousness which is the highest form of the real self and is the seer of prakṛti. Prakṛti is the world which is seen, it includes thoughts, matter, nature, and the physical self. The puruṣa is transmigratory; thus, upon death it reincarnates into a new body based on Karma and continues to bear witness (Ruzsa.) Once puruṣa is fully realized it loses any interest in prakṛti; thus, escaping from dukha.
Yoga
Yoga is founded upon the Yoga Sutra, written around the second century BCE by Patañjali (Sovik.) It accepts everything from Samkhya and “adds meditative practices culminating in attaining a state of consciousness free from all modes of active or discursive thought, and of eventually attaining a state where consciousness is unaware of any object external to itself, that is, is only aware of its own nature as consciousness unmixed with any other object (Bryant.)” Thus, the goal of Yoga is freeing Puruṣa from all material suffering and the cycle of reincarnation. Yoga forms the basis of the theological study of salvation in Dharma, and establishes meditative techniques and practices (Bryant.)
Nyāya
Nyāya was founded by Akṣapāda Gautama’s Nyāya Sūtra, written around 200 CE (Bilimoria.) It is the Darshana of epistemology, and logic, which concerns itself with valid knowledge sources called pramāṇa, and a conception of epistemic responsibility (Dasti.) Nyāya debate theory, known as vāda–śāstra, and epistemological process influenced much of classical Indian literary criticism, philosophical debate, and jurisprudence (Dasti.) Nyāya is a strong advocate for realism; thus, differing from the Darshanas which came before it, and becoming one of the most influential Darshanas in the process (Dasti.)
Vaiśeṣika
Vaiśeṣika Sutra written by Kanada, a pseudonym of Rishi Kashyap, written somewhere between 600 BCE to 200 CE, founded Vaiśeṣika (Kak, Editors of Encyclopedia.) The naturalist Darshana attempts to identify, inventory, and classify the entities and their relations that present themselves to human perceptions (Editors of Encyclopedia.) The Vaiśeṣika Sutra is a remarkable document which contains ideas on the Laws of Motion, Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and Atomic Theory (Kak.) Kanada is arguably the Father of Physics, and an absolute genius (Bharati.)
Mīmāṃsā
Mīmāṃsā is Vedic deontology, which has both theist and atheist elements, with several schools focusing on realist spiritualism. Mīmāṃsā uses the Vedas as a framework which serves as the foundation for society (Ciabattoni, et all.)The foundational text for the Mīmāṃsā school is the Purva Mīmāṃsā Sutra of Jaimini, written around 4th or 5th century BCE (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica.) The next major contribution came from Kumārila Bhaṭṭa and Prabhākara, extreme rationalists who created the two major branches of Mīmāṃsā around 700 CE (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica.) There is also a third lost school. Mīmāṃsā is one of the most consequential Darshanas, and was dominant in Dharmika society before the rise of Vedānta.
Vedānta
Vedānta is one of the most popular Darshanas; thus, it is extremely consequential in the current context. Literally meaning the end of the Vedas, it attempts to comprehend a conclusive intent from the Vedas in their entirety, with the aid of other texts such as the Upanishads, Brahma Sutra, and Bhagavad Gita. Vedānta define two realities — Brahman which is the Absolute reality, and the world which is the relative reality (Mazumdar.) The world encompasses both the matter of the world, the non-living objects, and the souls, or consciousness. Dvaita, Bheda Abheda, Vishishta Dvaita, Suddh Advaita, and Advaita are considered to be five major schools within Vedānta (Mazumdar.) Vedānta’s popularity is such that it has come to define the label “Hindu,” but we must keep in mind that this is a foreign label which does not accurately portray Dharmagan. None of the important textual works ever mention the word Hindu. Dharma is the native label for the culture which emerged from the Vedic Period, and Dharmika is the native label used by people from this culture. It is also important to remember that Vedānta is just one Darshana within Dharma, and not all Dharmika follow it.
This is the end of Part One of Darshanas of Dharma, where we briefly explored the “orthodox” Darshanas. Part Two will explore the “heterodox” Darshanas.
Sources
Sāṅkhya:
1) Ruzsa, F. (n.d.). Sāṅkhya . Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/sankhya/.
2) Jakubczak, M. (2014). The purpose of non-theistic devotion in the classical Indian tradition of Sām. khya-Yoga.
Yoga:
1) Bryant, E. (n.d.). The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/yoga/#:~:text=In%20contrast%20to%20its%20modern,to%20itself%2C%20that%20is%2C%20is.
2) Sovik, R. (2014, April 30). Yoga Philosophy Fundamentals. yogainternational.com. https://yogainternational.com/article/view/yoga-philosophy-fundamentals/.
Nyāya:
1) Dasti, M. R. (n.d.). Nyāya. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/nyaya/#H1.
2) Bilimoria, P. (2008). Nyaya : onto-logic of classical Indian philosophy.
3) Gautama, A. (1999). Nyaya Sutras of Gautama. (G. Jha, Trans.). Motilal Banarsidass.
Vaiśeṣika:
1) The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Vaisheshika. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vaisheshika.
2) Narayan, R. H. (2007). Nyaya-Vaisheshika: The Indian Tradition of Physics .
3) Bharati, P. (2016). Acharaya Kanada: Father of Physics and true inventor of law of motions. EPH - International Journal of Science and Engineering.
4) Kak, S. (2016). Matter and Mind: The Vaisheshika Sutra of Kanada. Mount Meru Publishing.
Mīmāṃsā:
1) Ciabattoni, A., Freschi, E., Genco, F. A., & Lellmann, B. (2015). Mīmāṃsā Deontic Logic: Proof Theory and Applications. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 323–338. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24312-2_22
2) The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Mimamsa. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mimamsa.
Vedānta:
1) Mazumdar, P. J. (n.d.). Five schools of Vedanta Philosophy and Metaphysics. Vedanta (Upanishad) schools of Philosophy: Dvaita, Bhedabheda (bheda abheda or Dvaita Advaita), Vishitadvaita (Vishista Advaita), Shuddhadvaita (Shuddha Advaita), Kevala Advaita. http://www.advaitayoga.org/advaitayogaarticles/vedantaschools.html.
