Book Reviewed: Indian idealism by Surendranath Dasgupta

Pursuit of Wisdom: Perspectives from Hindu and Buddhist Philosophical Systems

Professor Das Gupta was one of the leading thinkers of Hindu and Buddhist philosophies in the last century. Although an exhaustive amount of material is condensed in this book, but the author has presented the discussions in a readable manner. The narratives are engaging, and the book focuses on important concepts and the exchange of metaphysical thoughts among Hindu and Buddhist philosophers. But not all Hindu and Buddhist metaphysical disciplines are covered in this book.

A brief summary of the book is as follows: Sacrifice was a powerful instrument to seek the favor gods in the ritualistic tradition of Rigveda, the ancient scriptures of Hinduism. but Vedic sages also had philosophical insight in the power of creation as observed in Nasadiya Sukta of Rigveda. The hymns of creation, the 129th hymns of the 10th mandala of the Rigveda (10:129, 1-7) is about the beginnings of the cosmos. The hymn 1 states that there was neither existence, nor non-existence; There was no air and no space beyond it. But the emergence of metaphysical thoughts in early Hinduism strengthened in the post-Vedic period, in the sacred scriptures of Upanishads that laid foundation to six Hindu philosophical systems. Buddhism which emerged to contrast the ritualistic beliefs of Rigveda grew in parallel with Hindu philosophy. During the early stages of its development, Buddhist teachings were in response to ideas of Upanishads, in some cases concurring with them, and in other cases re-interpreting them.

Some of the exciting part of Hindu thoughts are from: Katha Upanishad that describes the legendary story of a little boy, Nachiketa, the son of Sage Vajasravasa, who meets Yama (the Hindu deity of death), and their conversation about the nature of man, knowledge, Atman (Soul, Self) and moksha (liberation); Chandogya Upanishad describes the spiritual conversation between a father and son, Uddalaka Aruni and his son Śvetaketu Aruneya about The Self, the Soul (Atman) as the essence of all living beings: It is True, it is Real, it is the Self, and Thou Art That (Tat Tvam Asi); and the dialogue between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi, husband and wife in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad about the doctrine that the inmost self, pure consciousness, and pure bliss that are grounded in the ultimate cause of reality.

Vedanta Philosophy or Uttara Mīmāṃsā is the most prominent of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. It reflects ideas from the philosophies of the Upanishads, specifically, knowledge and liberation. Vedanta has several segments ranging from dualism to non-dualism, all of which were based on the texts of: Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavad Gita. Advaita Vedanta espouses non-dualism and monism. Brahman is held to be the sole unchanging metaphysical reality and identical to the individual Atman, but the physical world is an illusion (Maya). The absolute and infinite Atman-Brahman is realized by a process of negating everything relative, finite, empirical and changing. This school accepts no duality, no limited individual souls and no separate unlimited cosmic soul. All souls and their existence across space and time are the same “Oneness.” Spiritual liberation in Advaita is through the realization of Oneness, and this unchanging Atman (soul). It is the same as the Atman in everyone else, as well as being identical to Brahman. Vedanta also refutes Nyaya-Vaiseshika School categories such as atoms, molecules, time and space, qualities, action and reductionism of science.

This book also discusses the ideas of Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna and its relationship with Vedanta. For Nagarjuna the true nature of reality is not the absence of existence but the absence of intrinsic existence. There are a lot of metaphysical ideas to assimilate, but be patient with the author of the book.