INDIAN PHILOSOPHY….A JOURNEY WITHIN India has a long, rich and diverse tradition of philosophical thought spanning
around two and a half millennia,. and is an amalmagation of several major religious traditions.Indian philosophy can broadly be defined as ,”inner spiritual quest by an individual…aSoulfull journey within…in order to reach a state of perfection or moksha.” Some people have inquired in to the existence of God some others have inquired about themselves like "who am I, where am I from, where am I going" etceteras. Its origin rests in Ancient Indian thought, which is also philosophic in a broader sense, originated as early as 2000 BC and appears in scriptures called Veda. Ancient Indian philosophy also includes the mystical treatises known as Upanishads (700 to 100 BC), early Buddhist writings (300 BC to AD 500), and the Sanskrit poem Bhagavad-Gita. Classical Indian philosophy is less concerned with spirituality than ancient thought; rather, it concentrates on questions of how people can know and communicate about everyday affairs. Some scholars have argued that Platonism (the philosophy of ancient Greek thinker Plato) and neo-Platonism (a 3rd-century movement based on Platonism) were greatly influenced by Indian thought. . The whole Indian philosophy is basically built-up on three schools of thought. They are dwaita (dualism) founded by Sri Madhavacharya, vishisthadwaita(qualified non-dualism) founded by Sri Ramanujacharya and Adwaita (non-dualism) by Sri Adi Sankara. All three schools try to understand the term "God" in their own way. In order to sustain their Logic All three masters have commented on the main "Ten upanishads." I am trying to put below my understanding over these schools by using an example of our 3 states we experience in our daily lives. i.e. Waking state, dream state, deep sleep state.Dwaita: Founded by Sri Madhavacharya, this school teaches that God is other than you. That is God is existed as you are existed to the other person. For example, I am fully awake now and I can see the computer right in front of me. I can see and read the article I am writing now and I can hear the other persons around me, talking and disturbing me with their doubts. This kind of state can be illustrated to Dwaita. A powerful example is Islam. During the time of difficulties a dwaiti (one who follows dwaita) thinks in this way:"What ever you do Oh lord! who am I to quarrel with thee? Does a picture ever quarrel with the painter?".understand Dwaita and try to obey the things as they are. , . In Christianity you can see the same thinking in a different way "Jesus is Jehovah's son" that means, Jehovah is there somewhere. Something does not stand for reason. The dwaita school never accepts human reasoning. On contrary it says God is beyond reasoning. There comes Vishistadwaita in to picture.VishiSThadwaita: Sri Ramanujacharya, founder of Vishistadwaita school of thought, in his commentaries over 10 upanishads, says that "God is not a separate entity. Indeed, you are in him, but you are not him." This is pointed out even in Bhagawad Geeta. "Like the waves are in the ocean but ocean is not in the waves." How does one understand this?... Here is an example.Before entering into the deep sleep state we experience a state called dream state. In this state we dream a lot of things. Since, I did not do it in the waking state in dream state I dream "the same computer, the people around me, the article I am writing" everything... as a part of me. That is, I can see everything inside me... I can see airplanes flying inside me. Logically, how can an airplane fit in a 5 foot 9 inches individual?... It is only possible during the dream.In the same way, Vishistadwaita teaches that you are a part of God's dream. You are a character that what ever he is dreaming. You are as if a small bubble in the Ocean called God. Hence, each and everything in this universe is a part of Godere the question arises: Why is God dreaming? If he is dreaming, why should he dream different characters? Where is he? Where am I? Etceteras... Here comes to rescue the Adwaita of Sri Adisankara, which stands for Logic and gives clear understanding about oneself.Adwaita: Sri AdiSankara, the greatest philosopher and missionary is the advocate of this School of thought. . Adwaita teaches that "you are God"... "Tat tvam asi," "that thou art". .After the dream state we enter into a state called the "deep sleep state." In this state, neither the ego (i.e. `I'ness) existed nor the world. We experience, at least for a few minutes, absolute bliss. Since there is no ego over there we can neither explain nor understand what that state is, except from saying "sukhEna maya nidrA anubhootaya" means, "I slept very well." In case, if one does question about the happiness we experienced in deep sleep state, we fail in answering. Thus The Indian intellectual environment extends beyond the universities, where continuation of India's spiritual philosophy is influenced by religious and mystical practices, such as yoga , atman and Dharma (Sanskrit for "duty" or "the right way to live"), that are distinct or much more prominent in Indian culture. Ancient concepts like karma
,dharma,atman ,yoga still governs the life of Indians