I can come to see why he’s called the father of modern philosophy and the harbinger of scientific method. But what was bothering me a bit is Descartes trying to understand the human mind better so that he can look outward into nature and master her, but didn’t Indians from ancient times onwards possess this knowledge of the mind with far more heights and depths?
Hindus, Buddhists and Jains all of them had devised hundreds of techniques for this mastery, but the only difference being seems to be that for them the objective is moksha/nirvana and not turning it outward to investigate nature. The way Patanjali, for example, goes into the mechanism of the human mind has all the ingredients that could have trained men to arrive at scientific knowledge.
I cannot but feel that this is quite tragic cos how many times I’ve heard some people make remarks against Indian culture that it has taught us nothing concrete and all the modern amenities that we enjoy, like telephones, electricity and airplanes, are all Western gifts.
Certainly, the Hindus knew the various means of purifying the mind and intelligence and, during the heydays of ancient India, the Vedic period and even much later, they did turn it both inwards and outwards. That is how they discovered such wonderful things which included plastic surgery, an elaborate pharmacopeia, warcraft and deadly weapons, principles of politics and administration, rules of mathematics and chemistry, linguistics and poetry, music and dance, astronomy and astrology and many other things besides. However, the beauty of ancient Indian civilisation lay in the fact that, unlike Descartes, who separated Science and spiritual pursuit, the Vedas had created a living synthesis between the two. That was the great strength of ancient India because it kept the outer under the spiritual through the mediating link of Dharma. In the West however, thanks to Descartes, the link or whatever of this kind existed, was removed decoupling Science and the Spiritual. The result we are beginning to see in the deep erosion of values. This erosion with a tremendous scientific development, of the gigantic outer machinery governed by the pygmy man has now brought humanity to the brink of destruction and devastation through deadly wars and natural calamities. Certainly, it is not the path to be followed.ย
In India too we created a false divide between God and the World through the lure of individual moksha and regarding the world as Maya. However, the saving Grace was that dharma was never completely lost because it was integrated with life itself.ย
Now we have turned full circle and the rise of India is imminent even though the shadow of Mayavada and the lure of an otherworldly nirvana still lingers around. But the cycle has turned decisively and the coming years will see more and more the rise of India in Science, technology but on the deeper basis of the Sanatana Dharma. So let us be full of hope and work towards the rise of India because therein lies the good of the world and its future.
Affectionately
Alok da
