Digest Number 1922

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Jai Srimannarayana SeethaRam garu,

 

The six schools of vedic philosophical thought in India are:

1. Sankhya/Samkhya 2. Yoga 3. Nyaya 4. Vaiseshika 5. Mimamsa 6.Vedanta

 

Samkhya/Sankhya:

Sage Kapila is traditionally considered the founder of this school of thought.

According to this school of thought, everything in this world is a product of

interaction between Prakrithi(matter/energy) and Purusha(atma/soul). There are

many individual souls which possess some level of consciousness. Prakrithi is

comprised of 3 gunas(qualities)- Rajas(action/passion),

Tamas(inaction/frigid/lethargy), Satva(mode of goodness/steadiness). The

interaction of soul with these gunas and an imbalance or prominence of one guna

over the other causes the evolution of world. In this philosophy, a liberated

soul is the one which realizes that it is above and beyond these three gunas.

Sankhya regards ignorance is the cause of bondage. It believes Purusha is

eternal pure consciousness. But due to ignorance, it identifies with the

physical body(the product of prakrithi). Moksha ensues once it is free from this

false identification. That is the gist of Sankya philosophy.

 

The seminal work in this Vedic school is Sankhya Karika by Ishwara Krishna in

200 A.D(not to be confused with Lord Vasudev SriKrsna).

 

Buddha's Vipassana(Pali/Prakrit)/Vipasyana(Sanskrit):

Vipasyana literally means to view clearly - meaning the true insight of the

world around us. Gautama before becoming the Buddha, toured the length and

breadth of India in search of truth. One fine day he got fed up with the vain

philosophical specualtions and self-starvation(extreme asceticism) he had been

doing all those years in search of truth and decided to find it himself. So he

sat under a Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, took Adhisthana(strong

determination) that he would not move until he learns the truth and started

concentrating on his incoming and outgoing breath(Anapanasati=awareness of

breathing). After a while he expanded this awareness to other parts of the body

in a systematic manner from head to toe - first concentrating on the gross/solid

feelings like pain, itch etc and slowly graduating to the minute subtle

experiences(vibrations/vibes) that occur at the sub-atomic level. In the

process, he could 'see' within, break the atoms that constitute his body and

experience the eight sub-atomic elements which constitute the fundamental

building blocks of matter. He called them AshtaKalapa what modern particle

physics refers as quarks. After experiencing these sub-atomic elements of his 

body/matter, it is believed that his soul(or mind or brain) attained a level of

consciousness where he could regain the forgotten memories of his past 72

births. And what followed is history. He attained the ultimate consciousness and

became The Buddha or liberated soul.

 

The purpose of all Vedic schools of philosophy is the attainment of the same

consciousness. But the means vary. From what I understand, Krsna's Karmayoga is

the most practical of all the available means to attain  this

Moksha/Consciousness.

 

2. Now coming to your next question:

Before Adi Shankara, the Sanathana Dharma was divided into six sects which

centered around the worshipping of the six main dieties of Hinduism viz., Shiva,

Vishnu, Shakthi(Shaktheyas), Ganesha(Ganapathyas), Surya and

Skanda(Karthikeyas). Though all the rituals, rites and worshipping of these

dieties were rooted in Vedic traditions and though all these sects accepted the

infallibility of Vedas, they were essentially segregated. In those days there

was internecine rivalry among the followers of each of these dieties which was

detrimental to Sanathana Dharma as a whole. Adi Shankara's Shanmata(six

religions) philosophy synthesized these warring factions by integrating the

worshipping of all these dieties. This is based on the essential oneness of all

the dieties, that they are the myriad manifestations of Supreme Lord

Vishnu/Krsna. If not for the great souls like Adi Shankara, Sri Ramanuja, Madhva

etc Hinduism would not have survived.

 

Hopefully, this answers your questions.

 

My intro:

Name:Gopi