Category Indian Philosophy

Savitarka Samadhi PatanjaliYoga

Samadhi, the State of becoming or returning to our original State of Being,that is of Being, Knowledge and Bliss is explained in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra 1.17.

There is a difference between the 'Nirvana', spoken of in Buddhism and The Samadhi of Yoga.

Buddhism advocates Nirvana, a State of Nothingness, Sunyavada.

Both Samadhi and Nirvana are Higher or elevated sense of Consciousness.

Yoga Samadhi is positive in the sense that one reverts to his original state of Being which consists of Being, Knowledge and Bliss.

Nirvana , on the other hand is the negation of all transient attributes and attaining a State of being Nothing, without attributes.

The difference,please do not read philosophical interpretations in this statement,is akin to being fully satisfied after eating and the feeling of Fullness one has without having eaten.

Adi Shatakam Descartes Advaita

The essential difference between the philosophers of The East and The West lies in fact that while those in the East relie on Direct Experience more, while those of the West go through Reason(Rationalists)

True there are also philosophers called Empiricists, who rely on Empirical experience,starting from John Locke.

But their experience is limited to Experience as a Tool and not anything more.

In India the experience which the Philosophers speak of is the actual feeling of Oneness with the Reality.

In the sixteenth century there was a reassessment of Scientific thoughts and Philosophy.

Though most of the earlier thoughts of Socrates, Aristotle and Plato were accepted, the Philosophers wanted to reason them out.

Also there was the Church Dogma.

In came Rene Descartes,a Great Mathematicians(Nearly all great Philosophers were great Mathematicians too,Descartes, Locke, Leibniz,Spinoza, Pythagoras,Bertrand Russel).

He wanted to find the Truth of the origin of the World.

He started by questioning his beliefs, for , to him, they were planted in his Mind by others.

He tested the senses , found that they do not give out the facts exactly(ex.You dip your hands in cold water, then in hot water;the warm water takes more time to be felt as warm, similarly with Cold water:another instance he quotes is that of a Man with jaundice, for him the World is Yellow-which it is not).

Therefore he discounted the senses as well.

In the same vein he discounted and rejected all the sources of Knowledge.

Then he observes,

Cogito ergo sum (French: "Je pense donc je suis"; English: "I think, therefore I am")