Eastern philosophy focuses on addressing human problems through practice, while Western philosophy offers general principles of being and knowledge through a scientific approach. Eastern philosophy is closely tied to religion, while Western philosophy sometimes shows atheistic tendencies. Both seek universal values like good and evil. The document then provides details on some key concepts in ancient Indian philosophy like the Vedas, Upanishads, Buddhism, Jainism, and philosophical schools like Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Mimamsa and different schools of Vedanta like Advaita, Visistadvaita and Dvaita.

1. Differences between the
philosophy of the East and
West
Eastern philosophy focused on
addressing the problem of human
from the point of view of practice.
Western philosophy is multi
problematical. It offers the general
principles of being and
knowledge.
• Eastern Philosophy is developed
in close cooperation with religion.
Western philosophy is more
committed to the scientific
method, sometimes we can see
strong atheistic tendency
(Democritus, Epicurus,
Lucretius…)
General principles of the
philosophy East and West
Philosophy of East and West are
turned to the universal values(
good and evil, justice and
injustice, happiness and
suffering, etc.)
Understanding the cosmological
problems and personal
existence
The methodological significance:
typical desire for scientific
search of true knowledge
General principles and differences between the
philosophy of the East and West
1

2. Main Concepts
The origin of philosophical thought
2
 Atman
 Brahman
 Veda
 Upanishads
 Buddha
 Jainism

3. Vedas
First scriptures – Vedas (Sanskrit:
Knowledge):(Rigveda,Samaveda…) have been set up by the
tribes of Aryans, who came from Central Asia in XVI
centuries BC
Ancient Indian Philosophy
3
Upanishads
• Philosophical commentary of the Vedas – Upanishads,
under which Brahma is the supreme objective reality.
Brahman is the unity of a holistic spiritual substance. Atman
is an individual soul. Karma is a rebirth of the soul in
accordance with the principle of retribution.

4. Ancient Indian Philosophy
4
Vedic literature contains knowledge of the
field of agriculture, medicine, astronomy,
crafts, military equipment.
Vedic religion is
polytheistic/Monotheistic/Hedonist.
Brahmanism originated at the beginning
of the millennium, sanctifying social
inequality (suffering is insignificant
because the phenomenal world is an
illusion, the only reality is the spirit of the
world
Jainism (VI c. BC), also questioned the
Vedic values.

5. Buddhism
5
Buddhism began to spread in a V c. BC in India, China, South-
East Asia
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) (560-483 years BC)
Main ideas
People need to try to overcome suffering and Varna-caste
system.
“The Four Noble Truths”
The theory of causality (no acts which would not have
consequences, as all the world for a reason)
Impermanence elements (nothing is permanent, nothing is a
guarantee of well-being).
“The Middle Way” (moderation in all things)
“Eightfold Path”

6. 6

7. 7

8. 8

9. 9

11. Philosophical Schools

12. Carvaka

13. Jain Philosophy

14. Sankhya
• Oldest school of Hindu philosophy
• First attempt to harmonize the Vedic philosophy
through reason
• First systemic account of process of cosmic
evolution
• Not purely metaphysical but logical account
based on principle of conservation,
transformation and dissipation of energy

15. Sankhya - meaning
• Sankhya means number –
• Sankhya enumerates the principle of
cosmic evolution by rational analysis
• It teaches the discriminative knowledge
which enables to distinguish between sprit
and matter

16. Purpose – Gyan Yoga
• Provide knowledge which remove the
cause of misery and release of soul
• Misery is
– Adhyatmika – intrinsic cause disorder of body
and mind
– Adhibhutika – Extrinsic cause, men, beast,
birds, or inanimate objects
– Adhidevika – Supernatural cause ,
atmosphere or planets

17. Cause of Misery
• Soul is free from suffering
• Body is the seat of suffering
• Soul suffer due to intimate association of
soul and body
• Bondage is illusion due to lack of true
nature of soul – Ignorance
• Knowledge of true nature of soul removes
bondage and suffering

18. Epistemology of Sankhya
• Indeterminate (Nirvikalp)
• Determinate (Savikalpa)Prataykshya
• Logical inference
Anuman
• Verbal testimony
Sabd

19. Nature of Duality
• Supreme self
• Pure consciousness
• Inactive
• Unchanging
• A passive witness
• Multiple
Purush:
• Pure objectivity
• Phenomenal reality
• Non-conscious
• One mulprakriti in equilibrium
Prakriti:

20. Theory of Existence
• The effect pre-exists in the cause
• Cause and effect are seen as
different temporal aspects of the
same thing
• nothing can really be created from
or destroyed into nothingness
Satkaryavada
• Parinama denotes that the effect is
a real transformation of the cause
• Prakriti is transformed and
differentiated into multiplicity of
objects
Prakriti
Pariman Vada

21. Gunas - Properties
Sttava
• Real or Existence
• Power of nature
• Devoid of Excitement
• Cause of equilibrium
Rajas
• Power of nature
• Activating principle
• Cause of manifestation
Tamas
• Restrainer
• Binding of matter
• Cause of weight
• Inertia

22. Five Elements
Akaskh
- Ether
Vayu –
air
Tejas –
fire
Apas –
water
Prithvi -
earth

23. Concept of God
Athestic
• An unchanging Ishvara as the
cause cannot be the source of
a changing world as the effect.
Thiestic
• Late influence of Yoga and
Puranic philosophy

24. Yoga

25. Nyaya

26. THE MIMANSA PHILOSOPHY
• The Mimansa is called the Purva-Mimansa while
Vedanta is called the Uttra-Mimansa.
• The former is earlier than the latter, in the sense
that it deals with rituals, while the latter is
concerned with knowledge.

27. Mimansa
• Jaimini’s sutra in twelve elaborate chapters,
laid the foundation of Purva Mimansa.
• Sabarswami wrote the major commentary or
Bhashya on this work. The two most
important are Kumarila Bhatta and
Prabhakara, who founded the two schools of
Mimansa.

28. • The mimansa believes in the reality of the
world with all its diverse objects. It rejects,
therefore the Buddhist theory of voidness
and momentariness as well as the Advaita
theory of the unreality of the phenomenal
world.
• The souls are permanent eternal substances
and so also are the material elements by the
combination of which the world is made.
• Mimansa metaphysics is pluralistic and
realistic.
Mimansa (contd..)

29. The Mimansa’s conception of soul
 The soul is an eternal, infinite substance,
which is related to a real body in a real
world and it survives death to be able to
reap the consequences of its action
performed here.
 Consciousness is not the essence of the
soul, but an adventitious quality which
arises when some conditions are
present.
 There are as many souls as there are
individuals.

30. Mimansa:Liberation and its Means
• Kumarila and Prabhakara consider the nature
of liberation, and the means of its attainment.
Kumarila regards liberation as negative in
character, and consequently, eternal.
• Liberation is due to absolute extinction of
merits and demerits. When they are completely
destroyed, the body, which is the vehicle of
experience, is destroyed.
• Kumarila regards action and knowledge
necessary for the attainment of release. An
aspirant for release should refrain from
forbidden acts which produce suffering and
prescribed acts which generate happiness.

31.  ‘Vedanta’ literally means’ the
conclusion of the ‘Vedas’.
 Primarily the word stood for the
Upanishads though afterwards
its denotation widened to include
all thoughts, developed out of the
Upanishads.
The Vedanta Philosophy

32.  The central theme is that enunciated in the
Upanishads - the doctrine of Brahman and the
embodiment of the unconditioned self.
 The great aim of all vedanta teaching is to prove
the reality of Atman and Brahman and to establish
their complete identity.
 It teaches the essential oneness of all things.
 Badrayama’s Brahma-sutra is the chief text of
Vedanta philosophy

33. Schools of Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta (Shankaracharya)
Visistadvaita Vedanta (Ramanujacharya)
 Dvait Vedanta (Madhvacharya)
Dvaitadvita Vedanta (Nimbarkacharya)
Shudhadvaita (Nimbarkacharya)
Achintaya (Chaitanya Maha-
Bhedabheda prabhu)

34. The most common question on
which the schools of the
Vedanta are divided is;
What is the nature of the
relation between the self (JIVA)
and God (Brahman)?

35. Shankara-Vedanta (Advaita Vedanta)
 Shankaracharya was the greatest
philosopher among the Indian thinkers.
 He emphasizes the monoistic tendency in
the Upanishads and develop it into a
systematic Advaitavada.
 He emphasizes the reality of unconditioned
and unqualified (Nirguna) Bhahman, and
regards God, the individual souls and the
world as appearances due to indefinable
principle called cosmic nescience (Maya)
which is neither real nor unreal, but
indefinable.

36. The Atman
 According to Shankaracharya the Atman is
the universal self.
 It is Brahman, the absolute, the supreme
reality.
 Jiva is the individual or empirical self. It is
the Atman limited by the body, the sense
organs , manas, buddhi and the likes, which
are its limiting adjuncts.
 Atman is the transaendental, metaphysical
self.
 Jiva is the empirical phenomenonal self.

37.  The Atman is of the nature of pure consciousness.
 It is eternally pure, conscious, and liberated.
 It is the eternal, unchangeable, absolute, formless,
one supreme reality.
 It is different from the empirical self. But the
empirical self is not different from it.
 The Atman is its reality.

38. The Empirical self (Jiva)
 The empirical self is the knower, enjoyer and active
agent.
 It acquires merits and demerits and experiences there
fruits.
 It is subject to transmigration, lives an embodied life in
the empirical world, and is capable of bondage and
liberation.
 Though it is non-different from the Atman, the supreme
self and immortal in its essential nature, mortality is
attributed to it owing to its actions due to nescience.

39. The Concept of Brahman
 Brahman is the only ontological reality in Shankara-
Vedanta.
 Brahman is existence, knowledge and bliss.
 Brahman is limitless and infinite.
 Brahman is the eternally accomplished being. It
does not change, increase and decrease, grow and
develop.

40. Ishvara (God)
 God is the determinate Brahman-in Shankara-
vedanta.
 He is not the unconditioned, indeterminate,
attributeless Brahman.
 He is Brahman conditioned by cosmic nescience
(maya).
 Though Brahman is attribute- less it is said to be
endowed with empirical attributes for the sake of
prayer.

41. Maya: (Avidya)
 Shankaracharya uses ‘Maya’ and avidya, the two
words synonymously.
 Brahman conditioned by Maya is Ishvara (God).
 Maya is his power or energy, the source of the names
and forms, which are modified into the phenomena of
the world, and which are neither real nor unreal, but
indefinable.

42.  Maya is cosmic nescience.
 It is an indefinable principle.
 It is ontologically unreal, since
Brahman is the only ontological
reality.
 But it is not absolutely unreal
like a hair’s horn, it is real
enough to project the multiple
world of appearances.

43. Ramanuja-Vedanta (Visistadvaitavad)
 Ramanujacharya was the chief propounder of the
doctrine of qualified monoism (Visistadvaitavada).
 He criticized Shankaracharya’s monoism and
established the ontological reality of God, the
individual souls and the world and regarded the
souls and the world as attributes or modes of God.

44. The concept of Brahman: God
 Brahman is the ‘Supreme person’
endowed with innumerable supreme
and auspicious qualities and devoid
of all impure qualities.
 He is the infinite reality by nature
and qualities; there is no other
supreme reality.
 He is possessed of truth or reality,
knowledge and bliss.

45. The Self (Jiva) and consciousness
• The Jiva is the individual self.
• It is different from the body, life, the sense-organs, mind
and intellect, it is different from the psychophysical
organism.
• It is the knower, enjoyer and active agent.
• It is self luminous and manifests itself without the aid of
knowledge.
• It is the abode of knowledge and has attributive
consciousness.