Dr (Mrs) Vishiesh Verma
The history of a country is the history of its great men and women. In this the earliest recorded thought of man is Indian philosophy.Vedas fountain head of Hindu Philosophical thought, embodying divine thought 4500 years old – through Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana Vedas still hold good as guidelines for human conduct, ethics, political philosophy, moral etc. Philosophers have upheld the religious beliefs and practices of their times and in this the march of religious faith which brought in modification on Hinduism – such as Jainism, Budhism (563 B.C) Brahama Samaj (1772-1833), Arya Samaj, the last of them transplanted Indian spirituality on Western soil, Shri Aurbindo Ghosh, Sri Rmana Maharishi, Gandhi Ji etc, all kept our religion dynamic and living.
This world is rationally ordered. Knowledge is that thought process which helps us to know the nature of things. Understanding the inner relationship of this Order is knowledge. Philosophy is the collective name for questions which have not been answered to the satisfaction of all who have asked them. Philosophy is the search for truth in the innermost world of man mostly the world of mind, soul and spirit. It is an attempt to find out the meaning of our ideas to synthesize concepts which elude explanation. It tries to answer questions regarding the purpose of life and existence in relation to the individual, society and universe at large. Besides philosophy is a search into the invisible world with an emphasis on the purpose of creation and meaning of life.
Plato has defined philosopher as, “One who has a taste for every sort of knowledge, and one who is curious to learn and is never satisfied.” He is not only just a collector of wisdom but a lover of wisdom also. The more knowledge he has, the more vision he will have. It was Cicero(Roman Philosopher) who said that ‘Philosophy is the true medicine of mind, an antidote to sorrows’. Function of philosophy is different from that of science. Science gives us knowledge, philosophy gives us wisdom. Science deals with analysis, philosophy deals with synthesis. Science is concerned with nature, philosophy is immersed in man and his problems with which culture is related. In short philosophy is the science of sciences, knowledge of the ultimate, adviser to the man and search for the meaning of life.
Man is in bondage, he is in ignorance, he is assailed by his native impulses and is tied to the post by circumstances with the result that his soul is suppressed. The aim of Mukti has been defined in several ways in Indian philosophies. Mukti means liberation from all bondages of ignorance. Mukti in this context is realization of something which is inherent in the self, though it is concealed from our view. When the limitations are removed self is liberated. Liberation of self or freedom in Indian philosophy is not abolition of self but the realization of its infinity and absoluteness, its expansion and illumination. Besides according to Indian Philosophical thought the freedom of self and perfect happiness is the goal of life and efforts of man, individual or social are directed to the realization of this goal.
The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudice derived from the common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or nation and from convictions which have grown up in his mind. To such a man the world tends to become definite and finite obvious common objects raise no questions and unfamiliar possibilities are rejected. Philosophy enlarges our thoughts and frees them from tyranny of customs, removes the somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who have never travelled unto the region of liberating doubt and keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar forms. Philosophy enlarges our conception of what is possible, enriches our intellectual imagination and diminishes the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation and mind is rendered great.
One’s philosophy of life is important, because it reflects feelings, attitudes as well as conscious ideas, which are powerful agents in human affairs. They determine the behavior of a person in all life situations, whether it be the family life, occupation or the society.
It may be argued that one need not study philosophy and still one may possess a set of values, certain faiths and convictions which may guide one’s life activities. It is exactly this, that philosophy will equip a person with. It can’t be denied that every-one has an implicit philosophy, whether it is explicitly stated or not.
Henryk Skolimowski, a Polish Philosopher says, “Philosophy should be training for life for living well. ‘What does it mean to live well?’ It means to do justice to our evolutionary potential. It means to experience consciously spiritual aspects of our life and to allow these aspects to blossom. It means to contribute to the well being of others. It means to leave a good trail behind your existence. It means to live in peace with you and with the world. In brief, to live well is to live life in Joy, gently celebrating your humanity.
The ancient Tao thought says: “Choose a job you love and you would not have to work a day in your life”. The first secret of success is: Do not work just for wages, work for the love of God. You can work too, for the love of humanity or for the love of work itself. Your work then becomes a source of joy and delight. ( Sadhu Vaswani).
In cities we find that when people are assigned work, they always ask: “What is in it for me?” or “What do I get for this?” People work only for wages, they have forgotten what it is to view work as a source of delight, So work has become a cause of so much boredom and frustration for many.
There is no happiness in wealth, but there is considerable wealth in the experience of happiness. Many of us tend to equate success with money. Only money and material acquisitions has become basis of living. The truth is, external achievements and monetary wealth can’t constitute true success nor can they guarantee happiness. Power, prestige, position cannot guarantee happiness in the outer area. They touch the fringe of life, they don’t enter the depths within. There is no limit to what one can accomplish but one is lost in trying to achieve name and fame and hence there is so much disappointment.
The honeybee provides a superb example of hard work. The honeybee visits 125 clover heads to make one gram of honey. That means the bee makes about three million trips to make just one pound of honey. Why is it that most people find it so difficult to enjoy the work they do? The wisdom of hard-work is the art if enjoying work. One can enjoy the work if one feels good about oneself and has positive attitude about the things around him.
Mahatma Gandhi has been an extremely rare example of having succeeding on all fronts. He comes out as politician, saint and philosopher at the same time. His advice is, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever”. Satya Nadella, the Hyderabad-born Microsoft CEO, said “One should be passionate about what he or she does and should never stop learning irrespective of the heights they scale. He advised youth that they should fall in love with what they do. Then it doesn’t feel like work. Everything becomes easy”.
Life is indeed a precious gift and it is brief. A life time of four score years passes like a breath, this awareness must prompt us to pray, ” A Little more happiness spread through the day, A little more cheer to light up the way, A little more thought for the chap at our side, a little more kindness in word and the deed. A little more boosting those, others may need, A little more effort so friendships may grow”. (David William Moore)
(The Writer is a former Reader Coordinator of University of Jammu.)
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