Hinduism
The Spirit of Indian Philosophy
by Dr. R.K. Lahiri

The western thinkers point out that India has no proper and accurate records of philosophy There are philosophical thoughts that do not go beyond the mythological stage and do not make philosophy as a thorough going system of thought. It remains simply limited to mythology and ethics (1) they fail to find any proper historical records not even the biography of its thinkers and seers. Alburey Castell believes that the Greek thinker Pythagoras in the 6th. Century B.C. was the first ever philosopher, ‘the lover of wisdom. (2)

The western view is based on incorrect information and untruth. It betrays colossal ignorance of ancient Indian thoughts. Its achievements are very imperfectly known to them even today. It may be that the philosophical thoughts in the western evolution may have resulted in a somewhat coherent type as of today but the Indian thought of old definitely represented a superb universal thought of that day. Most of the Indian thoughts in earlier stages existed in a much undifferentiated stage. We witness many schools of thought and criticism of various schools and find each system more differentiated and coherent. Unfortunately most of the systems of thoughts in many cases are lost. India never considered chronology as primary to philosophical interests, which was its main concern.

The rise of philosophical thoughts in India has entirely been very different from that of the west. We do not notice system of thought preceding or succeeding each other as in the west. The Indian system developed in richer and better form side by side and supplemented each other. Almost all thinkers dealt with the same system, same thoughts similar to each other unlike the development in the west.

Indian philosophy has a long history of continuity and developmental process, longer than any other. Unfortunately continuous foreign brutal invasions and deliberate destruction of scriptures and culture by these brutes, the chronological sequence has lost its distinct trace. Moreover our sages and seers had no such inclination to be known as a person of achievements and performances and thus be appreciative of autobiographical writing. Putting self before others was not their aim of life As a result of the greatness of Hindu culture; the ego was always kept in check Their emphasis remained on the subject of their experience, teaching and realization.

Though much of it is lost yet whatever is left, it is sufficient enough to claim that the Indian philosophy of wisdom is the oldest and richest living thought of all times..
The ancient seers preferred selective teaching. It is difficult to translate it in English for the west. Even if some do, he has to be quite at home in Sanskrit and the ways of expressions of those days. Without it, the English rendering of Sanskrit works will not be judicious and authentic. All such translations made before need revaluation, as in many cases they were done with a set purpose of distorting Indian values so as to facilitate conversion. Even today there remains a lot of philosophical works to translate. The job is not easy to achieve. The Indian mode of expression and technical and philosophical terms have no proper English equivalents. E.g., take the Sanskrit word ‘sat’. The Greek equivalent is ‘to ov ‘. The German word is ‘seiende’.

In English, we are bound to use ‘that, which is’, what exists or what is real. English translation of Dharma as religion is totally erroneous. Swami Dayananda says that no single word in English can express its manifold meaning. Swami Chnmayananda says, ’Dharma is one of the most intractable term in Hindu philosophy. Derived from the root Dhri, meaning to uphold, or sustain, support, the term denotes, ’that which holds together‘ the different aspects and qualities of an object into a whole. This is Law of Being; that which makes a thing or being what it is.

There is no proper substitute for the word Yajna. Swami Dayananda says that the English word used for it, is sacrifice, which sends different meanings and signals as is used in the Christian notion of sacrifice, which has no place in Hindu philosophy. It does not cover the Hindu spirit of Yajna at all. Yajna is an active voluntary association of objects on part of a man for the purpose of advancing art and assembly of men together for the purpose of teaching and learning. It originally indicates any action which requires association of men and objects for performance of some beneficial results. There are so many other terms including Murti translated wrongly for idols. The other is Monism which fails to convey the feeling of ’Not Two but one‘ (Advaita).

Difficulty in the work of translation

The English is the language of technology and commerce, and not of philosophy or metaphysics. The knowledge of Sanskrit is pre-requisite. Dr. Das says, ’A man who can easily understand the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, the Law books and the literary works, and is also well acquainted with the philosophical thoughts of European philosophy, may find it literally impossible to understand even small portion of a work of advanced Indian logic or the didactical Vedanta. (3)’. He gives two reasons to substantiate:

1- The use of technical terms and condensed forms of expressions.
2- Hidden allusions to the doctrines of other systems.

In ancient times teaching was imparted on teacher taught basis. The teacher had himself got it from his teacher and he, from his. The Philosophical thoughts were taught to a chosen few on a personal contact. So the pupils could understand the meanings of the terms used in different contexts. In different systems the same term was used in extremely different sense. So one has to understand the meaning of the same term system-wise. Allusions from other systems were also puzzling and one has to understand it in proper perceptive. This makes the translation work difficult especially for those who do not well know Sanskrit, Indian life and culture. Moreover we do not have any authoritative guidebook dealing even with main epistemological, ontological, and psychological aspects of thoughts of seers and sages. So no translation can do absolute justice, not even sufficient justice to the real nature of Vedic sentiments as neither it can translate the mood or the rhythm of the original meter, nor can decipher the use of symbols representing a reality. So the reader is likely to go astray.

Thus, in the absence of any judicious translation work and non-prejudice outlook, the west remained deprived of the knowledge of proper Indian thoughts and its deep- rooted philosophy. This ignorance has led them to think otherwise and miss the right conclusion that the Indian philosophy is the oldest living thought as of today.

Most of the ancient Indian philosophy is contained in the four Vedas  – Rg. Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda.

– Continued

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