Scientific Methods and Ancient Sanskrit Philosophies.
Modern Science is based upon the philosophy of Sir Francis Bacon of 17th century according to which scientists set up experiments to manipulate nature, and attempt to prove their hypotheses wrong. Before him, Hasan Ibn Al Haytham who was a Arab mathematician and physicist of 11th century. He also gave a very similar idea. This was a repeating cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and need for independent verification.
Even a millenium before him in the cornor of Indian Subcontinent, the stranger philosophy was sprouting in 6th century BCE. This idea was the idea of 6 pramaanas. According to which correct means of acquiring accurate knowledge :
1. Pratyakṣa (perception),
2 Anumāṇa (inference),
3. Upamāṇa (comparison and analogy),
4. Arthāpatti (postulation, derivation from circumstances),
5. Anupalabdhi (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof) and
6. Śabda (word, testimony of past ).
There was a philosophy of atomism called Vaiseshika, some says it began by a hindu philosopher and sage called Kanad in 600 BC in South India. The Vaisheshika system holds that the smallest, indivisible, indestructible part of the world is an atom (anu). All physical things are a combination of the atoms of earth, water, fire, and air. The Vaisheshika School accepts only Perception (Pratyaksha) and Inference (Anumana) as the source of evidence.
The Vaisheshika school attempts to identify, inventory, and classify the entities and their relations that present themselves to human perceptions. It lists six categories of being (padarthas), to which was later added a seventh. These are:
1) Dravya, or substance, the substratum that exists independently of all other categories, and the material cause of all compound things produced from it. Dravyas are nine in number: earth, water, fire, air, ether, time, space, spirit, and mind.
2) Guna, or quality, which in turn is subdivided into 24 species.
3) Karma, or action. Both guna and karma inhere within dravya and cannot exist independently of it.
4) Samanya, or genus, which denotes characteristic similarities that allow two or more objects to be classed together.
5) Vishesha, or specific difference, which singles out an individual of that class.
6) Samavaya, or inherence, which indicates things inseparably connected.
This was one of 10 philosophies that includes…
1) Samkhya
2) Vaiseshika
3) Nyaya
4) Yoga
5) Mimamsha
6) Vedanta
7) Ajivika
8) Charvaka
9) Jain
10) Buddha
Samkhya
The philosophy of Samkhya was even enriched with the provoking thoughts about the way we perceive the reality.
Samkhya adopts a consistent dualism of matter (prakriti) and the consciousness (purusha). According to which, both are, in fundamental, independent, but one influence the other. It is thus a perspective of viewing reality and human experience as being constituted by two independent principles, puruṣa; and prakṛti
Unmanifest prakriti is the primordial matter. It is inactive, and unconscious, and consists of an equilibrium of the three guṇas (‘qualities, innate tendencies) namely sattva , rajas, and tamas. When prakṛti and Puruṣa becomes indifferent, this equilibrium breaks down, and Prakriti becomes manifest, evolving twenty-three tattvas,:
1) intellect (buddhi, mahat),
2) ego (ahamkara)
3)mind (manas);
4) the five sensory capacities; the five action capacities; and
5) the five “subtle elements” or “modes of sensory content” (tanmatras), from which the five “gross elements” or “forms of perceptual objects” (earth, water, fire, air and space) emerge giving rise to the manifestation of sensory experience and cognition.
Jiva (‘a living being’) is that state in which purusha is bonded to prakriti. This according to this philosophy, Human experience is an interplay of purusha-prakriti, purusha being conscious of the various combinations of cognitive activities.
Samkhya’s epistemology accepts three of six pramanas (‘proofs’) as the only reliable means of gaining knowledge. These are
i) pratyakṣa (‘perception’),
ii) anumāṇa (‘inference’) and
iii) śabda (āptavacana, meaning, ‘word/testimony of reliable sources’).
Therefore it was costumary to doubt on what we experience in ancient Sanskrit Philosophy. There is ancient Sanskrit scripture called Rig Veda. On it is the Nāsadīya Sūkta, which is also known as the Hymn of Creation. It can be paraphrased as…
“ There was neither non-existence nor existence then;
Neither the realm of space, nor the sky which is beyond;
What stirred? Where? In whose protection?
There was neither death nor immortality then;
No distinguishing sign of night nor of day;
That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse;
Other than that there was nothing beyond.
Darkness there was at first, by darkness hidden;
This all was like water; without distinctive marks
That which, becoming, by the void was covered;
That One by force of heat came into being;
Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?
Gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?
Whether God’s will created it, or whether He was mute;
Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not;
The Supreme of the world, all pervasive and all knowing
He indeed knows, if not, no one knows.”
It is unusual that the thought which is a part of religious culture, suggest that gods came after the universe and doubt whether he knows or he knows not about the true origin. This culture of experience and doubt is the methods of establishing the facts. Modern Science culminates this in more rigid way.
What about spirituality?
It has been a subject of human curiosity and human's quest to know, where we make our stand in universe and to find reason of our existence. For thousands of years, we found that, asking questions, "Who am I? From where I came? And Where I am going?" It is a ritual way of spiritual experience. And everytime human asks such question, this often led us to the question, What is the essence that is reasonable for our existence? In modern science too, we asks similar questions "What is origin of life? What is consciousness? What happens after we die?" And in the end we always come to a question, what are everything made up of. To find that every things are made of same thing and we are indifferent to mighty cosmos, is also a kind of spiritual experience.
