Tag Atma Shatakam

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")

The World Is Us Sankya, Nirvana Satakam

The Prakriti,(The Potential Energy to be known,),of three constituent Dispositions of the Prakriti) called the Gunas.

Purusha, Kinetic Energy that Flows,

Mahat, The Intellect, to translate these,

Ahankara,The Feeling of 'I, Mine" to be conscious,

Mind,(For the Observer)

Five sensory organs,(For the Observer)

Five Motor organs,(For the Observer)

Five Subtle Elements(For The Observed, The World)

Five Gross Elements(For the Observed)

Total 25.

Let us look at each in brief.

What is to be known, has 'To Be'

That implies presence.

That presence has to be immanent and be inert, to be activated when to it is to be known or aware of.

This presence is Prakriti or the Principle that is permanent, immanent and inert, awaiting to be known.

This is provided by Purusha, the Kinetic principle that interacts with the Prakriti to generate Intellect,(at the macro level)

Now Prakriti is constituted by the Three Gunas or Dispositions(for details see post Gunas under Indian Philosophy)

This Intellect at the Macro level is Mahat.

Once the Intellect is formed, it is ready to be known, both at the Macro-level and at the individual level.

To be understood, at the Macro-level, the external World has the Following.

Five elements,Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether.

These five elements have five subtle elements called Tanmatras.

The Five elements of the external world are gross in nature.

Their qualities are a part of them , like Heat and Light are the qualities of Fire.

We can not experience them as they are.

The qualities embedded in them make us aware of them, like the heat is known by our bodies, light by our eyes.

To sum up, the external world, the'Observed' has elements that complement the internal organs of the Individual(Observer).

When these connect Awareness or Knowledge dawns.

Put it in another way , the Observed becomes Observer when connected, when the Individual Ego is identified with it.