The Philosophy
The Philosophy
The Hindu philosophy gets its roots from the Vedas, which are four in number namely, Rigveda, Atharvaveda, Sameda, and Yajurveda. Veas literally mean the divine knowledge.
Each Veda has essentially three parts. The first part in the Karamakanda, telling us about the rituals for the invocation of gods, Rituals require various processes and a sequential methodology of invoking a deity. This is basically more or less a materialistic process, which requires the specified articles of worship.
The second part is the Jnyakanda, which shifts away from the rituals to the knowledge and talks about the philosophy of life. In one of the Jnyankandas it even states that a worshiper has to rise above mere ritualistic worship and has to attempt to reorganize the presence of the cosmic life in him and all the creations, if he doesn’t do so he is nor more than animal. So here we see a transition from the materialistic rituals to a more abstract notion of philosophy, that’s why this part is called the Jnynakanda, which literally means the episode or the chapter of the knowledge.
This is followed by the concluding part, the Vedanta, which literally means the end of the Vedas, and it tells in essence the gist the text: the knowledge hidden in Vedanta is world famous and has been mesmerizing the world by giving the answers to some of the extremely complicated questions dealing with the life and its existence. Vedanta basically gives the essence of the Veda in short. So the essence of the whole Jnyankanda is hidden in the Vedanta, again a transition from explanatory mode to an essence mode.
Each of the four Vedas end up in a Mahavakya, or a great sentence, they being Prajnaynam, Brahmam, which means, “Brahman, or the God means realizing the knowledge that is highest”, AHAM BRAHMASMI, means , “I am the Brahman (God)”, TAT TWAM ASI , means, “that thou art”, and AYAM ATMAM BRAHAMAM, meaning , “the Brahman resides within my spirit”.
A deeper study and thought reveals that this philosophy is basically attempting a transition, from the materialistic and physical rituals to more abstract knowledge and finally towards a state of non-dualism where you realize the vibrations of the divine within yourself.
