The Six Schools of Scientific Inquiry

dars'ana-s are schools of scientific inquiry. They are not to be taken merely as schools of philosophy as often considered by many. They do include aspects of philosophy but they mainly talk of knowledge, means of obtaining proper knowledge, inference and proof. They can therefore be applied to any topic. They are schools of scientific inquiry.

There are six schools of scientific inquiry in the Indian tradition, called the SaT dars'ana-s. The six schools differ in terms of the details of approach but the final goal as well as the means to the goal are the same in all cases. The final goal of life is total eradication of all suffering and attainment of eternal peace and unalloyed bliss. The only means to this is tattva-jnyaana, the Knowledge of the Truth. All the six systems are rigorous, scientific, logical methods of attaining the final goal through the exploration of Truth. Knowledge is the key.

Physics wants to define itself as uncovering the laws that govern the entire universe but it has largely restricted itself to the physical world of matter and energy, set in a framework of space and time. Every physicist knows and accepts that love, anger and greed are real but his definition of existence is too weak to bring these within the scope of his subject. Scientists have failed to understand basic concepts such as consciousness, existence, life, and truth. The scientific spirit of inquiry is useful, why, even essential, but science as we know today is of little use. Come here to the world of Indian thought for a thoroughly rigorous, most scientific, uncompromising exploration and deep understanding of the basic questions of life. You will not find the answers anywhere else in the world.

The co-existence of multiple schools of thought demonstrates the maturity and professionalism of Hinduism. Hinduism never believed in bulldozing, forcible conversions or brain washing. Constant academic debate has helped Indians to develop into unmatched levels of human excellence in all spheres of life. It is a pity that over the last few hundred years, India has largely forgotten itself and is fancying with all the hollow superficial glitter of the western world. Quest for perfection has been replaced by widespread ignorance, hollow talk, pleasure seeking and greed. But a strong foundation based on sound principles built and perfected over many thousands of years cannot be destroyed so easily. India will surely come back as the world leader in every sphere. We will have to just wait for the snow ball to start rolling and gathering mass. This is bound to happen although it is difficult to predict when exactly it will happen. Some positive signs are already visible and the wise among the rest of the world have sensed this too as can be seen by their worried reactions. India's power does not come by colonialism, imperialism or slavery. Our power will be to give, not take. Our power will be to give supreme happiness, lasting peace, eternal bliss to all creatures in this world without any kind of bias. And ask nothing whatever in return, not even gratitude or a hollow "thanks" emanating from the lips.

The Six dars'ana-s are:

1. nyaaya
2. vais'eeSika
3. saaMkhya
4. yooga
5. (puurva) miimaaMsa
6. veedaaMta (uttara miimaaMsa)

We begin with some introductory material that is essential for understanding any of these six systems.

dars'ana: Once the mundane necessities of life required for a living are satisfied, there is a good chance that the mind starts thinking about the deeper questions such as what is life or who am I. This is the starting point for philosophy, a term that literally means love of knowledge. It is the uniqueness of the Indian mind that instead of restricting this to mere intellectual curiosity like others have done, we have gone far beyond this superficial level into the realm of intuitive perception and mystical experience. It is very difficult, if not impossible for people used to superficial analysis, even to understand the depth and profoundness of Indian philosophy. Many westerners who have tried to understand Indian thought have miserably failed, not being able to see beyond more or less literal interpretations. Words do not have meanings, meanings exist in our minds. Many of the fundamental concepts of Indian thought are not even known to the western mind and it is almost impossible for them to understand the true meaning of these words. Any amount of explanation will not suffice. Symbolism is often missed. There are often no equivalent terms in English and we are forced to use the nearest equivalents. These terms make correct sense only if you already know the concept. The term dars'ana means seeing, perceiving or experiencing, not through the two eyes sitting on our nose but through the depth of our hearts, deeper than the mind and the intellect.

The Purpose: Man has conquered outer space and landed on the moon. But the tiny mosquitoes continue to irritate! We have made fantastic progress in all spheres of science and technology. But millions are dying out of hunger even today. Millions are becoming blind every year due to malnutrition. Is not agriculture the oldest of the professions? Even with thousands of years of experience we are unable to overcome hunger and death. Is this not a sign of utter failure? Two thirds of the globe is filled with water. Yet drinking water continues to be the top most worry of all countries! God has given us everything we need - water, air, the right range of temperature, food, even medicines. What more can we ask? But millions are dying every day for want of exactly these basic necessities of life. Man's suffering has nothing to do with science, technology, development or progress the way we think. Whatever we are proposing as solutions to these problems facing mankind are not solutions, they are the cause. Unless and until we understand this, there will be no end to man's suffering and misery. Man is covered by a impenetrable mask called ignorance. He will never be able to see the Truth even if it is glaring on his face with the brightness of a thousand suns unless this veil of ignorance is removed. The purpose of the dars'ana-s is to help him come out of this mask of ignorance so that he can immediately see the Truth . Truth is simple and easy to understand, provided you have come out of your shell of ignorance. Darkness can only be removed by light, not by anything else. And when light comes, darkness cannot dare to linger on. All the misery, suffering, worries, anxieties, problems will be gone once and for all, never again to return. Knowledge does not come slowly and gradually. Knowledge comes in full force instantaneously the very moment light is let in. All the dars'ana-s try to give you a practical systematic method, an algorithm so to say, to reach this final goal.

The Method: All of science is based on experimentation, observation and inference. All other modern disciplines follow the same basic method. The key step is observation. By observation we mean seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or touching and feeling. Either directly or through a gamut of scientific instruments and devices. But understand that finally it all boils down to observation through our sense organs. All these observations are observations of the external world, things happening outside us, using our sense organs and the mind to perceive and experience and our intellect to guide us with reason and logic. The crux of the issue is that all of human thought within these modern disciplines is thus based on observation of the external world, to the near total exclusion of the happenings in the internal world! The internal world, the world within ourselves, which we cannot see, hear, smell, taste or touch, not even with the most advanced of the scientific instruments, is a larger, more wonderful and more revealing world, the True world. The external world is unreal, like a dream world. This comes in such sharp contrast, why, the exact opposite of what you have been taught and what you have been thinking all along that you will find it extremely difficult to understand. At first it looks like rubbish, nonsense. Many people just laugh it at and turn away. Only the wise try to dig deeper. Read the pages on veedaaMta. Think. Ponder. Contemplate. Meditate. Chances are that you will get realization. The truth cannot be reached by lectures, meetings, emails, Internet, journals, conferences or exploration of the external world by whatever means. The Truth is revealed only when you sit silently, eyes closed, ears blocked, mind fixed immovably on to the target with nut and bolt, and meditate intensely for long hours. The method suggested in the dars'ana-s and the method followed by the proponents, the great seers and sages, is exactly the same. Listen to the silent, still voice coming from deep within yourself, ponder, reflect, meditate. This is called s'ravaNa (listening), manana (reflecting) and nididhyaasana (deep meditation). This can be achieved only through tapas (austerity, penance). Knowledge and realization comes not from supercomputers and advanced scientific instrumentation and costly laboratories but from the silence and tranquility under a lonely boodhi vRkSa far away from the high technology life of the modern city.

The Sources of Knowledge: We know things by direct observation, by logical inference - reasoning based on a sound system of logic, by accepting what other dependable sources have said (as in citing the proofs given by other experts). As long as we are the knowers and the world is the known, all this works very well. The moment you try to ask who you are, you are into trouble. It seems the centipede, moving all over happily as it does, one day started asking how it could move a hundred legs in perfect synchronism, started observing its own legs in perfectly orchestrated motion, got thoroughly confused, got its legs entangled beyond recovery and dropped dead. This is what will happen if X tries to find out who X is. No wonder, our great scientists and the great thinkers have cleverly avoided ever asking this basic question! Neither experiment and observation nor logical reasoning will work. Who has to observe and who has to prove? Understand the limitations of science.

The impossibility of X trying to know X through ordinary methods we use in modern science has been established clearly and convincingly only in the veedaaMta system, no where else in the world. Science cannot tell you who you are. All scientists, including the greatest of them, the Nobel laureates too, are ignorant. Ignorant of themselves. So are many other great thinkers and leaders. To know the true nature of the world and to know the true nature of ourselves is the goal of every subject. But only the veedaaMta system developed in ancient India can give you a correct answer with a rigorous proof. In fact once you know who exactly you are are, you will also find it very easy to understand the rest of the world. Further, this proper understanding will, as a side effect, remove all human problems we are facing today. Because all of our problems arise out of ignorance and once knowledge shines, ignorance melts away completely. That is inevitable.

It is beyond the human mind's capacity to know who we are. The sense organs, the human mind and intellect, all of our logic and reasoning, all the advancements of modern science put together are insufficient to get us to the ultimate truth. The only way is to resort to a source that is beyond the limitations of the human mind and hence absolute, defect free and perfect. The only such source available to us in the world is the s'ruti, the veeda-s as they are apauruSeeya - not man made but given directly by Him to the great seers. All the six schools depend upon the veeda-s as the ultimate source of knowledge only the details of the method are different.

But hold on, we are not asking you to "blindly" believe and have unquestionable faith in any system. The beauty of the dars'ana-s is that you do not have to do this at all. You can continue to think, question, analyze, try to find fault, experiment and observe the end results for yourself. The proponents of these dars'ana-s did this too, before they gave you something to look it. It is not a raw material, it is already tested and proven. Yet you are free, in fact your encouraged to try it and test it for yourself. The proof of the pudding is in eating. Eat and see, don't blindly accept what somebody says. Millions have tried it out and found to work over the last thousands of years. Ignorant people, people who have never tried, may have different opinions but there is no single case of anybody who has tried this sincerely finding these to be false. What better proof do you require?

All the six systems are called aastika dars'ana-s since they all accept the authority of the veeda-s. Note that in the Indian tradition the terms aastika and naastika do not refer to theism and atheism but to acceptance of the veeda-s as the ultimate and unquestionable authority or not. Since the very purpose of life is God realization, there is no question of not believing in God. Non-believers remain so when everything is going fine in life and the moment things get out of hand, they realize their folly. The wise know that the fire burns even before they get burnt by fire. We have no non-believers in India.

Origins and Evolution: The six dars'ana-s were proposed by sages whose names appear in the veeda-s as also in the epics and ancient puraaNa-s. Thus the origins of these dars'ana-s can be traced back to hoary antiquity.

The dars'ana-s were moulded into the suutra style (mnemonic statements, extremely terse, cryptic, laconic) so that they can be easily committed to memory. Remember that Indians have the whole books by heart, there is no need for reading or writing. The six schools used to have open discussion, debate and academic attack on each other, as also on other emerging thoughts such as Buddhism. This continuous academic debate, attack, counter-attack and defence, in the most professional and cordial academic atmosphere, lead to each school perfect their presentations by writing commentaries to explain their view points carefully and to avoid possible confusions and misinterpretations. Thus we find a wealth of literature on the dars'ana-s, both expounding a particular school of thought in depth and polemical.

Common Ground: The starting point is the recognition of suffering and misery in this world. The final goal is total freedom from all suffering, called liberation (mookSa). The only means of achieving this is through right knowledge, not merely the knowledge and experience at the sensory level or the mind-intellect level, but perception, experience and knowledge of the deeper spirit, the soul, transcending the mind-body complex, by seeing through the inner eyes. To transcend the body and the mind, which tend to act as obstacles, strict discipline and constant practice are necessary. Adhering to strictly moral life, overcoming lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride and jealousy (the aris'aDvarga-s), continuous deep meditation on the truths learnt through philosophical inquiry, must go on until the goal is reached. As we sow, so we reap. The world is a stage for us to act and we must play our roles well, improving our spiritual strength at every step. These views are common to all the six schools and thus we see remarkable harmony in spite of the differences.

Gradation: It appears that the six schools have developed one over the other and there is some sort of gradual development, refinement and perfection of ideas, finally culminating in the veedaaMta school, the very pinnacle of Indian thought. The veedaaMta philosophy has been expounded in the most clear, forceful, convincing and coherent logic with compelling evidence. In some sense, the veedaaMta philosophy summarizes all of Indian thought but one must not forget the root, the branches and the whole tree as he tastes the sweet juicy fruit on the tree!