Shad Darsana or the 6 orthodox hindu philosophical schools of thought

1. Hindu Philosophical schools of thought

2. SAMKHYA
• Oldest school of thought and was founded by
kapila muni who is suppose to have written
the samkhya sutra.
• Salvation could be attained through the
acquisition of knowledge.Lack of knowledge is
suppose to be the root cause of misery of
man.
• The school believed in dualism or dvaitavada.

3. SAMKHYA
• The soul(purusha) and the matter(prakriti) are
separate entities.
• Prakriti and purusha are basis of reality and they
are absolute and independent.
• Purusha is closer to the attributes of a male and it
is associated with conciousness and can’t be
changed or altered
• Prakriti-”thought”,”movement” and
transformation.(closer to physiogamy of woman)

4. YOGA
• Union of two major entities.
• They argue that human beings can achieve
salvation by combining meditation and
physical aspects of yogic techniques
• Release of purusha from prakriti and finally
leads to salvation
• “yogasutra” of patanjali -2nd century BCE

5. YOGA
• This school favours techniques as they help
humans to control their mind,body and
sensory organs.
• They propounded that these exercises can
help if one believes in the existence of god as
a guide , mentor and teacher.

6. NYAYA
• Believe in the technique of Logical thinking to
attain salvation
• Mysteries can be solved by logical and
Analytical reasoning “real knowledge”
• Founded by Gautama who is the author of
“Nyaya Sutra”
• God only created universe but also sustained
and destroyed it

7. Vaisheshika school
• They believe in the physicality of Universe
• Founder – Kanada
• Universe was created by 5 main elements-
”Fire,air, water ,earth and ether(sky).These
elements are called dravya.
• They developed the atomic theory.
• Responsible for the beginning of Physics in
indian subcontinent

8. Vaisheshika school
• On the subject of god,even though they argue
for scientific thinking ,they believe in God and
consider hiim the guiding principle.
• They also believe that the laws of Karma guide
this universe.
• God decides the merits and demerits of our
actions and man is sent to heaven or hell
accordingly

9. Mimamsa School
• It literally means reasoning,interpretation and
application
• This school focuses on the analysis of vedic
texts of samhitas and brahmanas.
• They argue that Vedas contain eternal truth
and they are repositories of all knowledge.
• Sutras of Jamini which were suppose which
were suppose to have been composed in 3rd
century BCE

10. Mimamsa
school
• The main focus of this philosophy is the
ritualistic part of Vedas
• To achieve salvation one has to perform vedic
rituals
• This philosophy inherently legitimized the
social distance between various classes

11. Vedanta
• Upholds the philosophies of life as elaborated
in Upanishads
• Oldest text that formed the basis of this
philosophy is “Brahmsutra” of Badranya..
• This philosophy propounds that Brahma is the
reality of life and everything else is unreal or
Maya.
• Atma or the conciousness of self is similar to
brahma

12. vedanta
• If a person attains knowledge of self,hewould
automatically understand brahma and would
attain salvation
• But the philosophy evolved in 9th century
through the philosophical intervention of
shankaracharya who wrote commentaries on
the Upanishads and Bhagavath Gita..

13. Shankaracharya’s view
• He considers brahma to be without any
attributes
• He considers Knowledge or jnana to be the
main means of attaining salvation

14. Ramanuja’s view(12 th century)
• He considers brahma to posses certain
attributes
• He considers loving the faith and practing
devotion as the path to attain salvation..

15. Vedanta
• Vedanta theory also gave credence to the
theory of Karma.
• They believed in the theory of punarjanma.
• They also argued that a person would have to
bear the brunt of their actions from the
previous birth in the next birth..

16. Charvaka(Lokayata)
• Brihaspati laid foundation to this school..
• The philosophy is old enough to find mention
in vedas and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
• Materialistic view of Salvation

17. THAT’S ALL FOLKS
• Thanks and Regards- AJAY T JOSEPH
AJAY T JOSEPH