<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
(From previous issue…)<\/p>\n
It may be said that we are teaching philosophy in universities and colleges but they have no desired effects. We teach philosophy and morality for a job and not for true learning and practice of value system. Educational system throughout the world has to undergo change. By saying this I do not wish to cast any aspersion on any person for the failure of the system of ideas. We teach philosophy for livelihood. But we forget that philosophy and religious values are to do a great deal to improve the quality of human being by way of providing guiding light and compass for cosmic welfare. Ancient Indian Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita are storehouses of moral ideals and ideas. <\/p>\n
Indian philosophy is not only a system of knowledge and enquiry but create value systems. For example, Saha nau avatu, Saha nau bhau manaktu (Let all be protected and let all be saved). This means prayer for the good of all. I may be permitted to say that throughout the world the objective of education seems to be to earn more and more money and enjoy life. I may be excused for saying this. Education as a system and medium for positive transformation has failed like any other systems.<\/p>\n
It is usually believed that philosophy started in the western world with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. But I wish to say in this connection that Indian philosophy started with the Rig Veda. The first line of Rig Veda is that I am offering prayer to Almighty God with fire. The Vedas are 4 in number: Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva. It will not be an exaggeration to say that Vedas are first books in the world. This is true as a matter of fact. <\/p>\n
After the Vedas, the period of Upanishad started. The literal meaning of Upanishad is: knowledge obtained by sitting at the feet of the teacher. After the Upanishad the philosophical systems building started. Historically speaking, Indian philosophical systems are older than ancient Greek tradition initiated by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. It will not be wrong to say that metaphysical systems building started first in India. Six systems of Indian philosophy were created and developed by ancient Indian scholars. The six systems are Sankhya-Yoga, Nyaya-Vaisesika, Purva-Mimamsa, Uttara-Mimamsa and Carvak system or otherwise known as Indian material system. Further, philosophy of language was started very early in India by Bhatrihari. I may be kindly be excused to state in this connection that the contemporary philosophy known as linguistic or conceptual analysis, dialectical materialism and pragmatism etc. have their roots in ancient Indian philosophical system. Bhatrihari’s commentary is an outstanding works on philosophy of language much before western linguistic analysts. By saying this I am not saying contemporary western philosophy is inferior to Indian philosophy. But what i wish to point out is that ancient Indian philosophy is more comprehensive and started much before contemporary western philosophy. <\/p>\n
What I am driving at is that for the good of all humans, unfortunately this part is never highlighted because of various reasons. Panini, Patanjali, Bhatrihari and many others are comparable to Gilbert Ryle, Wittgenstein, John Austin, A.J. Ayer etc. As a matter of fact linguistic analysis started in India much before the western philosophers. This claim is well grounded. Carvad philosophy tells this way: Yavaj gigee sukhan jige rua kautya ghitam, bhasaya sarirasya punara danan autah. (Live happily, so long as you live. If possible and necessary take ghee by borrowing money for the simple reason that once you die, you will never come back. Before hedonistic philosophy started in Europe, Carvak already started hedonism in India. But such philosophy is not good for the survival of all beings. Therefore, only Carvak philosophy is not recommended for ethical and spiritual living for humankimd.<\/p>\n
It may not be out of place to mention here that Europeans came to India for trade and commerce, but in due course of time, some European scholars collected Sanskrit works and scholar like Max Mueller translated Sanskrit works into English. Max Mueller is the first person who made Sanskrit popular among Europeans. In order to strengthen the idea of happy coexistence among all humans I suggest that Sanskrit language and philosophy should be taught together. As a matter of fact, Indian scholars went to oblivion of some of the great ideas discovered by their ancient thinkers. <\/p>\n
Similarly, if any such great ideas are forgotten or declined into oblivion by any society or community, efforts should be made to retrieve them for the benefit of all humankind. Time has come to discover such ancient ideas and ideals of living together from all the ancient civilizations which are possibly buried or forgotten overtime. <\/p>\n
All schools of thought like Monism, Dualism and Pluralism developed in ancient Indian tradition. Monism of Sankara, Dualism by Sankhya-Yoga and Pluralism by Nyaya-Visesika are well known. All of them emphasize the oneness of all existences including the cosmos. As stated earlier Carvak philosophy is more ancient than hedonism introduced by John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. But its ethics is not for the harmony and balance of all beings. <\/p>\n
In contemporary period, India has again produced philosophers and saints of world class like Jiddu Krishnamurty, Swami Vivekananda, Aurobindo Ghosh, S. R Bhatt and some others are well known. Prof. S.R. Bhatt’s interpretation of Indian philosophical tradition with regard to ethical living is not I and thou’ but ‘I and we’ is very significant. Unfortunately even in India these great philosophers and saints are not studied and researched properly in many universities and colleges. Therefore, I would conclude by saying that time has come to study all great philosophers and saints of the world so that we can enrich and enhance our common storehouses of knowledge of the world. Such knowledge and wisdom of the world should be taught in all schools and universities of the world to shape and mould future generations to live together as one human family along with other living beings on this fragile earth as all are interconnected and interdependent.<\/p>\n
(To be concluded…)<\/p>\n
By Xavier P Mao, Department of Philosophy,<\/p>\n
North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong-793022, India<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
World Peace: An approach to the concept of living together<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}