Introductory Philosophy

Indian Philosophy
Sankara’s Philosophy
Atman

• Atman is eternally pure, conscious and liberated.

• It is the eternal, unchangeable, absolute, formless, one and supreme reality.

• The Atman is not an enjoying and active agent. It is devoid of merit and
demerit and does not enjoy and suffer.

• It is not subject to birth and death.

Jiva (The Empirical self)
• The empirical self or ego is the Atman limited by the adjuncts of
the body, the sense-organs, manas, buddhi and ahamkara- the
psychophysical organism.
• The origin of the limiting adjunct of the mind-body-complex is said
to be the origin of the empirical self.
• The origin of the empirical self from the Atman is not real, because
it is a limitation of the latter.
• The relation of Atman to the adjunct of buddhi is due to false
knowledge which is dispelled by right knowledge.
Avidya
• The Power of Discriminate (Jnana sakti)
• The Power of Desire (Ichha-sakti)
• The Power of Strive (Kriya-sakti)

• Vasanas

• Each individual creates his own world around himself due to his
ignorance (Avidya), through his mind.
Avidya
• The Power of Discriminate (Jnana sakti)
• The Power of Desire (Ichha-sakti)
• The Power of Strive (Kriya-sakti)

• Vasanas

• Each individual creates his own world around himself due to his
ignorance (Avidya), through his mind.
Avidya
• Maya- Brahman

• Maya also called delusion can never be explained.

• Mind- Action

• Deep-sleep
• This great avidya or non-apprehension, has sattwa, Rajas and
Tamas as its Gunas or properties.
Avidya
• The Maya which creates restlessness in the mind is called Rajoguna,
from which all activities are born.

• Rajoguna creates agitations in the mind. Due to these mental

agitations, objectively we act in the world and subjectively we
experience desires, passions, lust and consequently, joy and sorrows.

• Rajas generates agitations (Vikshepa), and these very agitations of

the mind veil (Avarana) the Self in us. When a Rajasic man gets
exhausted due to his own over-exertion, he gets tired and feels
sleepy- a state when he is about to enter Tamas.

• Once higher Awareness is “veiled”, we are apt to act foolishly and

get more and more entangled in the mad pursuit of objects of
pleasure
Avidya
• Maya, in its Tamoguna nature, acts in our personality as ‘the power
of veiling’, by which Reality is veiled from our cognition, and things
are observed as something other than what they actually are.

• Tamas veils Reality and Rajas creates agitation in the mind. As the
result of a combination of these two, we see things which are not
really there.

• Considering myself to be the body, the mind and the intellect, I

function in the world of objects, emotions and thoughts, creating
more and more vasanas for myself. In order to exhaust these vasanas,
I must necessarily search for another physical body when the present
one drops off.

• The cycle of birth and death goes on until all the vasanas have been
exhausted.
Avidya
• The Tamasic aspect of Maya has such a mighty power, that even a
brilliant intellect, when under the influence of Tamas, cannot
understand the Reality.

• Tamas

1.Absence of right judgment (Abhavana)

2.Contrary judgment (Vipareeta-bhavana)

3.Want to definite belief in the existence of a thing, even though

there may be a vague notion of it (Asambhavana)

4.Doubt (vipratipatti)
Avidya
• Rajas and Tamas are mixed with Sattwa.

• When the mind becomes more and more Sattwic, it starts

apprehending thing it could not apprehend before.

• The World

• Liberation

• Ethics