Rise and growth of philosophy

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The study of the process of evolution is not confined to animal kingdom. This is applicable to the study of knowledge and emergence of ideas from new to newer forms. Prior to coming to the study of the evolution we observe the changes in matter for about 80 crores of years after creation of the earth about 460 crores of years back. All these years were spent in experiencing  enumerable changes in matter which occurred in all situations in non-stop patterns of changes. At about 380 years BCE , Life came into existence in the courses of chemical and biological changes ( Ref: author’s book ‘life welcome` ,chapter viii). Then started a change in the patterns of life , evolving unicellular to multi-cellular creatures, finally man as we witness now. In these courses of changes evolved once a regulatory organ in animal’s body named ‘Brain` which has now taken a very brilliant shape with much more magnificent patterns of functions.     

These changes and developments of the brain did not remain away from refining and developing the ideas and thoughts of the  scientists cum philosophers beginning from the ancient period of human civilization.The Indus civilization has lost its history leaving behind some pictures engraved on stony soil and remnants of buildings , drains which themselves speak of a high form of civilization. But that shining age did not maintain continuation. .  Even then it happens that the ancient civilization of the Vedic era  happened to be the fore runner among those developments that have maintained some sort of continuity in the world from the time immemorial. It is estimated that the Vedic era found its existence in about 3000 years BC and continued for some thousands of years.  We are able to know the patterns of life and activities of men during those days from the careful study of Vedas and Upanishads. A big part of the Vedic civilization as evolved from a long chain of pre-Vedic past ages,  exhibit the forest life, relation between man and animals, the leading of hunting ages, pre-agriculture period and then the beginning of the period of agriculture and the feudal system and statehood. The period of the Vedas, the ages of Ramayana and Mahabharata, indicate a period when the world civilization did not visibly come to the picture with the Indus and Homeric civilizations being some exception. We observe our sages to recite verses long before the age of Pythagoras or Archimedes in Greek, whose names are considered to be the earliest philosopher cum scientists , excepting the Indian sages. If we take stock of the great thinkers of the past, the thinkers of the days of the Vedas had a world view of divine-like characteristics . Though it dealt with the earthly matters, all the while the performances were offered to some ones unseen and unreachable.  But during the period of Atharva Veda, matter began to win recognition as the reality in the environment, though  divine ideas were ruling the society by and large. The divinity of ideas began to take share in the field of material knowledge. Medical sciences started shooting up, medical operations naturally brought  confidence over the hypothetical propositions. Thus the growth of knowledge in India was having a perspective of its own. If  we go back to the period when man  was in the grip of struggles with natural trouble makers like wild animals, rivals groups, natural calamities etc, people were absolutely busy in maintaining safety, security, food, in so much busy a stream  of events that they could have no time or opportunity to think of anything like god or goddess. They were heavily busy with themselves in procurement of food and managing shelters and fighting against difficulties that stood as threat. After proceeding further , when man could come to the situation of settling down and living a sort of social life, the troubling factors got minimized, an air of free thinking imbibed. The period of helplessness  in erecting resistance against wild animals was over, man to man relation had developed, fellow-feeling had substituted the period of distrust and unusual rivalry. Such was the period of some what relief for evolving the idea why there were sorrows, births and deaths, diseases  and the like. This means , an atmosphere of  free thinking came up.The early part of Rigveda exposed the fact that the cause that directly made an impact on man’s feeling and daily activities and also on his livelihood, gave rise to the belief in god appropriate to his feelings and deeds. Such was the idea to consider a god responsible for each of the entities like fire, sky, air, water, thunder, sound, rain etc.

          In ancient pre-historical period, when the people had little knowledge of laws of nature and of properties of matter, they used to lead their lives in almost eco-system in an atmosphere of water, air, land, forests, rivers, sky and the like. In this system, bodily weaknesses, ailments, coughs, fevers, etc, were got automatically treated by the use of leaves, buds, saps out of tender stems and roots of trees and plants and this experience was earned through practical use from nature by trial and error method, over centuries. The continued use of herbs and shrubs, leaves, stems and roots facilitated the growth of knowledge regarding the properties of matter around habitations. The intensity of knowledge could push the minds and ideas onward to evolve a sense of analysis of the material world. This trend ultimately culminated in the generation of Ayurvedic medicine.

        So here we observe a very interesting dialect between man and nature and a dialect between known and unknown, which have led man to the discovery of properties of matter in various directions. This way the brain of man got developed through  interactions, running contradictions, and the brain of man propelled man to evolve the knowledge of science. Though knowledge of science grew by the way of experience , the belief in divinity remained associated and recitation of Vedic verses was in vogue equally in belief as inseparably useful. The meaning of all these verses was that along with the recitation of verses the measured quantity of good food  was necessary for up keeping of good health. The growth of this sense paved the way to Atharva Veda . That means, the right way thinking for good health necessitated perspective environmental atmosphere. A true idea of science began to bloom.

  Thus a background came into existence to foster the growth of knowledge in medical treatment. When some people began to be attacked by diseases like leprosy , there arose the idea that great sin was done by the person concerned and that had been the cause of the fatal disease. As in the present day, so also to a certain degree, people believed that that was a contiguous disease; as such, other people used to keep away from him. The proposition was that the sinner  might suffer, why the innocent persons would suffer.

        The famous personality and the never-failing physician Dhanvantari appeared before the helpless people as a great saviour. He was looked upon as the God of Ayurveda. He was a person of proverb, the winner of death. His important disciple was Sushruta, renowned physician.  Sushruta and very few other physicians were greatly reputed for the efficiency they attained of their own and from the teachings of Dhanvantari. The therapies they used were based on complex herbal compounds, minerals, and metallic substances. Sushruta was famous particularly for treatment of the fatal disease named Leprosy. He analysed the disease critically and discovered 18 varieties of the disease. He invented medicine  Thus man’s knowledge firstly was based on invisible ideas as reaction to illness because of ignorance of the intrinsic strength in matter. The material shape in treatment was firstly designed by Dhanvantari , Sushruta and other contemporary physicians, but the religious impression was associated with it as the continuation of the prevalent ideas, because the usual motion of knowledge marched from known to unknown. But the remarkable development in the growth of knowledge in this era was that the properties of matter and the hidden strength in it began to trigger the minds of the thinkers amidst the  torrential flow of divinity in thoughts and ideas. The Atharva veda began to expose the virtue of matter in unision with the prevalent beliefs in the unseen. This part of the four Vedas had streamlined the future development of science which we could observe in the Gupta era in Indian history. This fact is a landmark proof of dialect lying in the contrast between the known and unknown, between ideas and realities, between sorrows and happiness, between obstacles and opportunities. This truth is lying dormant or getting evolved in the courses of occurrences in every other religions too.

   On analysis of the then situation it transpires that the idea of single God as almighty arose after placing initially separate gods behind every natural vicious event. Here we observe a growth of ideas from divergence to convergence. Firstly the idea of gods arose out of the incapability of man to discover the reason why storms occurred, why people die, how flames grasped every thing and the like. So there might be a god behind every course of events beyond man’s control. Then the idea of kingdom of god arose in the minds of sages as a natural line of thinking prevalent here on the earth.  At the advent of scientific discoveries during Archimedes` and Pythagoras` period and also later on, the forces of matter began to be felt to take place in the human societies. The idealistic thoughts  began to lose ground in proportion to the discoveries of mysteries in nature. Superstitions began to lose ground  gradually. This holds Marxist ideas of realities. The recitation of verses of the Vedas was, as if, the go of early ancient period. The placement of God from the externally imaginary world for ruling and controlling every thing was registered in the minds of man, generation after generation, getting shattered in pieces owing to scientific discoveries and that trend has been continuing in lesser degrees as yet.

     This is interesting to examine  why idealism rose to find room in all countries across the glove almost in similar manner though the civilization in different countries developed in their own ways, owing to their separation from one another geographically. The answer is that in the environment of man in whichever part of the glove he might be, there was soil, air , water and the sky, there were trees and plants, there were rainfalls and hail-storms, earthquakes, rivers and hilly tracks, etc. So their reflection on the minds of man was sure to have been almost  the same with slight local differences. This again comes in cementing the prevalence of ideas about dialectical process ( though not in knowledge), whether we dare to recognize or not.

        In the foregoing discussion it is attempted to throw the light that the intrinsic strength in matter and the application of its laws were  always prevalent  whether we knew it or not in the realm of ancient ideas and occurrences. It has been shown how the principles of Marxism held good in the courses of evolution, emergence of mammals,rise of man and also afterwords in separate essays.                                                                                                           Then the country which entered into the arena of philosophical thoughts , appear to be Greek .after the Vrdic era.   In Greek the great thinkers appeared in series namely, the pre-Socratic and the Socratic periods. They contributed to the field of  scientific ideas. The appearance of Buddha in India, was almost contemporary with Democritus . When God prevailed as a sounding almighty in the Vedas as Brahma, Archimedes and Pythagoras clang to the side of Science, Buddha was the first in the world to pronounce with force that God did not exist. In the face of arrogance of priests and religious dictations, it was an impossible occasion to disapprove God. But Buddha being a prince, and  people, his subjects having been intolerant to the torture of the so called priests, the rise of Buddha with an almost opposite tune of ideology was a justified occurrence.  My submission is that the rise of ideologies and philosophical doctrines has advanced in natural pursuit of the the principles of Marxism ,such as , unity and struggle of two opposites, qualitative changes resulting from quantitative changes. When idealism started losing ground, scientific senses began to breed, one country ( such as Greek) rose high in philosophical thoughts with the growth of science  at a point of time. The Gupta era in India generated tremendous development in science with Arayabhat, Baraha, Mihir, having world wide reputation acted as the rise of Hindu civilization after a setback with the rise of Jainism and Buddhism. The teachings of Buddha made a stir in almost the whole of Asia with the favour from the kings and emperors. Thus the contrast of idealism and materialism in winning the minds of man is a recognizable march of philosophy. The emergence of science  and its onward growth indicate  the propelling force of matter  would  lead the the courses of nature to proceed infinitesimally within man’s control till  man’s tenure would cease to exist.

  The great scientist Einstein and Peter Higgs  in their respective discoveries have some blazing aspects which pose to revise some of the topics in the apparently  contradicting views. The mass energy equation appears to raise question if mass becomes convertible to energy,. The higgs boson holds quarks to havr the ability to generate mass. These are the issues which would , in future, reveal more knowledge in respect of mass and energy, What is due with us is to place the vast exploited section of people in the power of the world as emancipation of the suppressed sections from the tyranny of the oppressors. Only then the unveiling of the nature will get impetus in its true term.