Akshayjha at 05:16, 14 June 2024

2024-06-14T05:16:01Z

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	Authored by Dr. Pingali Gopal.		Authored by Dr. Pingali Gopal.
	Published by Brhat ~~Culture Creative LLP~~.[[Category:Social Sciences]]		Published by Brhat.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

	<ref>Gainsaying Ancient Indian Science in two parts by Michel Danino</ref>		<ref>Gainsaying Ancient Indian Science in two parts by Michel Danino</ref>

Akshayjha: Created page with "Yoga is obtaining knowledge of the immortal Self, which frees man from the shackles of prakṛti. All orthodox and non-orthodox schools (except Cārvāka) give importance to Yoga and meditation in their schemes of things. The first five aṅgas(parts) of Yoga are the preparations for the higher states: yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, and pratyāhāra. The first two (yama and niyama) are for control of desires and emotions; the next two (āsana and prāṇāyāma) e..."

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Yoga is obtaining knowledge of the immortal Self, which frees man from the shackles of prakṛti. All orthodox and non-orthodox schools (except Cārvāka) give importance to Yoga and meditation in their schemes of things. The first five aṅgas(parts) of Yoga are the preparations for the higher states: yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, and pratyāhāra. The first two (yama and niyama) are for control of desires and emotions; the next two (āsana and prāṇāyāma) eliminate disturbances from the physical body. Pratyāhāra detaches the sense organs from the mind, thus cutting the external world and its impressions from the mind.

The last three aṅgas after this preparation are dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi. Dhāraṇā is confining the mind within a limited mental area; dhyāna is uninterrupted flow or contemplation towards an object of meditation; and the final state is samādhi, where there is consciousness only of the object of meditation and not of the mind. The mind dissolves into the final state of samādhi. These last three together constitute the samayama, and this can be performed on any object.

Can these states give rise to knowledge of the mundane world? The Yogic answer is affirmative at one level and negative at another, as Śrī Ramakrishna Puligundla explains in his classic Fundamentals of Indian Philosophy. Samādhi has progressive savitarka and nirvitarka stages, according to Patanjali. In the savitarka _state, knowledge occurs at three levels: śabda(based on words), _jñāna (knowledge based on perception and reasoning), and artha (the intuitive knowledge of the object in its essence). In the nirvitarka final state, the yogī_is one with the Supreme Consciousness. The savitarka state, especially the jñāna _component, based on perception and reasoning, can construct conceptual knowledge.

According to Śrī Patanjali Mahaṛṣi, the yogī, who has reached the final state is infinitely perfect and is God. Therefore, there is nothing the yogī cannot know since there is instant cognition of anything with a complete mastery of the universe. The highest state cannot give rise to knowledge of individual objects, but the yogī, if he chooses to, can reach the corresponding states of consciousness, and attain knowledge of the world. Thus, the intellectual, perceptual, and conceptual knowledge (“phenomenon” of Kant) is available in the savitarka states, and the essence (or “noumenon”) of Kant is available in the nirvitarka state.

'''Science and Metaphysics'''

Science, by popular conception, seems to be the correct way of understanding the external world, whereas metaphysical thoughts appear to be other-worldly, mystical, or plainly superstitious. Thus, science triumphed over metaphysics as a solution for humanity. But can that be true?

Ananda Coomaraswamy wrote a century ago, “What then are the essentials, from the Indian point of view, that, for their intrinsic value and in the interests of the many sides of human development, are so important to preserve?

A few of them were:
The almost universal philosophical attitude that contrasts strongly with that of the ordinary Englishman, who hates philosophy. Science is important, but there are wrong and right ways of teaching it. ‘Facts’ taught in the name of science are a poor exchange for metaphysics.

The sacredness of all things — the antithesis of the European division of life into sacred and profane. European religious development excludes from the domain of ‘religion’ every aspect of ‘worldly’ activity. Science, art, sex, agriculture, and commerce are, in the West, secular aspects of life, quite apart from religion. In India, this was never so; religion idealized and spiritualized life itself rather than exclude anything from it.

Special ideas in relation to education, such as the relation between teacher and pupil implied in the words of guru and celā (master and disciple); memorizing great literature such as the epics, and embodying ideals of character; learning not to become a mere road to material prosperity; and the high emphasis attached to the teacher’s personality and presenceThis view is antithetical to the modern practice of making everything easy for the pupil.

Metaphysical conceptions are slighted in our modern world, while the scientific method is hailed as a panacea for all our ills, says Śrī Venkat Nagarajan in an incisive essay, False Supremacy of Science. This view has not been adequately challenged. Metaphysics has been relegated to mean a faith-based view of reality and is thus not considered worthy of respect.

The original argument was that only empirical evidence could validate scientific theories. Revolutionary changes in scientific theories have, however, established that empirical evidence alone cannot conclusively establish scientific theories. There is always a chance that a present theory can be falsified by a competing theory in the future, like the replacement of Dalton’s atomic model with Niels Bohr’s atomic model. The falsifiability criteria replaced the empirical evidence theory of science. Now, science is superior because, unlike metaphysical claims, a scientific theory can be falsified using evidence.

This argument also failed because a scientific theory or hypothesis is always linked to a series of supporting premises. Any falsifying evidence or observations can thus be falsifying at least one of the supporting assumptions and not the scientific theory itself. Then, an effort was made to argue that scientific theories can be shown to be conditionally true in a probabilistic sense based on empirical evidence, whereas metaphysical theories cannot. This argument also fell apart, as there may be many ways to derive the conditional probability, and there is no basis to argue that one way of deriving the conditional probability is correct.

All attempts to establish the supremacy of science over metaphysics have failed; consequently, one cannot make such a claim without making a value judgment that some form of intersubjective empirical verifiability is superior. Such a claim of supremacy would not be rooted in logic but rather in faith or belief, writes Nagarajan.
Science and metaphysics are different paradigms. Vedānta defines Being as Consciousness or the knowing Self, whereas science does not accept the notion of Being. The standard materialistic view of science is that atoms, molecules, compounds, matter, life, mind, and consciousness evolve in that order. Life, in evolutionary terms, is purposeless and accidental.

For metaphysical systems, life has meaning and a definite purpose. These systems are more holistic and give a great deal of importance to personal experience, emotions, and unexplained phenomena in explaining reality. Therefore, science and metaphysical conceptions of reality are mutually exclusive theories of reality that co-exist, and the choice of one or another is ultimately an individual’s prerogative.

No rational person can honestly argue that a scientific conception of the nature of reality is superior to metaphysical conceptions of the nature of reality. Such a person would have to acknowledge that assumptions and value judgements are at the root of all theories. All would have to submit to the fundamental axiom of logic that nothing is devoid of belief.

Authored by Dr. Pingali Gopal.
Published by Brhat Culture Creative LLP.[[Category:Social Sciences]]

<ref>Gainsaying Ancient Indian Science in two parts by Michel Danino</ref>
<ref>Integrating India’s Heritage in Indian Education in two parts by Michel Danino</ref>
<ref>Indian Culture and India’s Future (2022) by Michel Danino</ref>
<ref>Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century (2021) by Dharampal</ref>
<ref>Anand Coomaraswamy on Education in India</ref>
<ref>Understanding Hinduism: V. Foundational Texts of Hinduism - Indic Today by Shatavadani Ganesh (co-authored by Hari Ravikumar)</ref>
<ref>The Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo</ref>
<ref>The Brahmin, the Aryan and the Powers of the Priestly Class by Jakob De Roover</ref>
<ref>Natural Realism and Contact Theory of Perception: Indian Philosophy’s Challenge to Contemporary Paradigms of Knowledge (2019) by Chittaranjan Naik</ref>
<ref>On the Existence of the Self: And the Dismantling of the Physical Causal Closure Argument (2021) by Chittaranjan Naik</ref>
<ref>Apaurusheyatva of the Vedas by Chittaranjan Naik</ref>
<ref>Apaurusheyatva of the Vedas Part 2 by Chittaranjan Naik</ref>
<ref>Cultures Differ Differently: Selected Essays of S.N. Balagangadhara (2022) Edited by Jakob De Roover and Sarika Rao</ref>
<ref>False Supremacy of Science by Venkat Nagarajan</ref>
<ref>THE IMPERISHABLE SEED: How Hindu Mathematics Changed the World and Why this History was Erased (2023) by Bhaskar Kamble and edited by Sankrant Sanu</ref>
<ref>INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM: CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS (2022) by B. Mahadevan, Nagendra Pavana, Vinayak Rajat Bhat</ref>
<ref>Socrates, the Senses and Knowledge: Is there Any Connection? by Moya K. Mason</ref>

Yoga, Science and Metaphysics - Revision history

Akshayjha at 05:16, 14 June 2024