In this post I will talk on 7 amazing facts about Hindu Philosophy.
Facts about Hindu Philosophy # 1
Hindu Philosophy is the oldest philosophical system in the world. While all almost all Hindu works are philosophical, the pure philosophy part or the Upanishads can be dated to as early as 1000 BC.
When Europe and Arab lands were populated by barbaric hunter gatherers, Hindu philosophers were composing awesome hymns!
Facts about Hindu Philosophy # 2
Hindu Philosophy is the world's oldest philosophical system in continuous existence!
3000+ years of unbroken tradition is something not heard of anywhere else in the world ! In the West, given their love for materialistic pleasures, even children don't take care of their families, so tradition is a foreign concept to them.
Facts about Hindu Philosophy # 3
The oldest Hindu Philosophical musings date back to as early as 2000 BC. They can be found in the Rig Veda, the oldest existing text in any Indo-European language
Facts about Hindu Philosophy # 4
The purpose of Hindu Philosophy is to remove sorrow and sufferings. All sorrow and sufferings come from ignorance. To remove sorrow and suffering, one must acquire knowledge of the true nature of things.
Hence the Guru-Shishya system (Teacher-Student) is held in so high esteem in India even today, and teachers are considered to be next to God.
Photo Courtesy: wikimedia
Facts about Hindu Philosophy # 5
Hindu Philosophy provide a scientific framework to understand and experience ultimate reality. The purpose of a Hindu is to become one with the Ultimate Reality.
A true Hindu does not care about prophets, he wants to become a prophet.
In Christianity and Islam, on the other hand, only one person can know the Ultimate Reality. So apart from Jesus and Muhammad, no one can know the Reality. If they try to look within for answers or say they have become One with God, they will be beheaded or ostracized.
Facts about Hindu Philosophy # 6
The purpose of Hindu Philosophy is to provide a practical guide for spiritual aspirants to move up the value chain.
For some people, puja works. For some meditation works. For some seclusion in forest works. To each his own, the Hindus say. Christians and Muslims on the other hand have only one system. Anyone who does not adhere to their religion is considered a kafir or pagan and persecuted or killed.
Facts about Hindu Philosophy # 7
Hindu Philosophy come from a wide variety of sources including Rig Veda, Atharva Veda, Yajur Veda, Upanishads, Darshanas, Puranas and Tantras.
No other religion has so much philosophy!
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That's it. Thank you for reading Facts about Hindu Philosophy. You may also like the following.
Interesting Facts about Rig Veda
Interesting Facts about Atharva Veda
An Introduction to Tantra
The Hindu World View
Introduction to Trika
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I'd like to see a mention to the Advaita theory which hypothesizes the notion of universal consciousness. Although consciousness is something which has evaded scientific theories for quite a while now, it is believed that a Quantum mechanics based theory can eventually explain consciousness and most scientists believe that the nature of the consciousness which will be outcome of the theory will eventually be a universal one... Isn't this intriguing? Just imagine the depth of the Hindu philosophy....
ReplyDeleteVivekanada told the western world "You give us food, we will give you philosophy"... Such is the greatness of Hindu philosophy...
Thank you Debasis for a very thought-provoking comment.
DeleteAs you rightly said, Quantum Mechanics may be the closest to explaining what we Hindus like to call "universal consciousness" or ब्रह्मन्
I will definitely touch upon Advaita in a latter post. If you have any thoughts on this, please share your ideas / write-up for this website.
Another intriguing thing is the uncanny similarity between theory of relativity (in terms of time moving slower in regions with high gravity or gravitational time dilation) and Hindu time scales.
Human days are 24 hours. But a day of Devas (evolved beings) are many years. And so on, as one moves up the evolutionary chain. One day of Brahma is a few hundred million years of humans. If this isnt gravitational time dilation then what is? Remember Interstellar?
Either our rishis were geniuses or each and every similarity between Hindu philosophy (there are too many to count) and modern physics is a complete random coincidence. :)
I choose the first option.
Thanks for dropping by and sharing your comments!