Book Reviewed: Hindu Philosophy by Theos Bernard

The Hindu thought and the nature of physical reality

Since civilization dawned on humans, they looked up at the sky and always puzzled as to what could be there in that vast space. The idea also lurked in their minds slowly and steadily as to the nature of force behind the diversity and creation. Why are we all here? And what is reason behind human existence? Spiritual and philosophical thoughts crossed human minds at various levels and these ideas evolved slowly but steadily into sophisticated form of reasoning.

The earliest metaphysical thought emerged from the early Upanishads, dating back to 9th century B.C.E. The Vedic sages and preceptors built Hindu Philosophy based on the teachings of Vedas and Upanishads. They are called the Astika (orthodox) philosophical traditions. There are six schools of metaphysical systems, and they are, Samkhya Philosophy, Yoga Philosophy, Nyaya Philosophy, Vaiseshika Philosophy, Mimamsa Philosophy and the Vedanta Philosophy. The Buddhist and Jain philosophical schools also evolved in ancient India independently of Hindu scriptures.

Hindu philosophy also includes several sub-schools of theistic philosophies (focused on devotion to God) that integrate ideas from two or more of the six orthodox philosophies, such as the realism of the Nyaya School, the naturalism of the Vaiseṣika School, the dualism of the Samkhya Philosophy, the Oneness of School of Vedanta; and self-discipline of Yoga School and asceticism.

Hindu philosophy covers an exhaustive amount of material, but the author has summarized this in about 200 pages. The metaphysical concepts has not been described fully and accurately in this book. I recommend the readers interested in the wisdom of ancient Indian philosophy to numerous online resources available at Wikipedia, HinduWebsite.com, Encyclopedia Britannica, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy @Iep.UTM.Edu, and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The published books such as “A history of Indian Philosophy, by S. Dasgupta, and Indian Philosophy by S. Radhakrishnan could be of some assistance in familiarizing the underlying principles.