Biswamitra, an idealist

In my other essays on evolutionary changes, I have tried to get it recognized that Marxist principles , prominently known as three principles,  hold good in the thoughts of philosophy starting from inception of philosophical thoughts in the  courses of evolutionary changes.

In my other essays on evolutionary changes, I have tried to get it recognized that Marxist principles , prominently known as three principles,  hold good in the thoughts of philosophy starting from the inception of philosophical thoughts in the courses of evolutionary changes. In the running essay I  would try to enunciate the truth behind the growth of different philosophical thoughts, not definitely in abrupt manner, but in the gradual order of development from lower to higher forms. The belief in God prevails, but at the same time this belief is trying to seek some sort of adjustment with the  aspirations of life and occurrences of events in nature.

To begin with, let me recapitulate the growth of philosophical thoughts in ancient India. The Vedic period had had a span of about one thousand five hundred years BCE. Naturally the Vedic civilization appears to have been the oldest among other civilizations of the world, excepting the Indus (Harappa) civilization about which we have been able to know very little. That being the fact, this Vedic era provides us an ample scope to the studies of philosophical phenomena as to how animals including man could evolve, how the earth could evolve an environment for formation of societies in the primitive stage. The interaction of events of natural calamities proceeded to resolve the mysteries mostly in idealistic way of thinking and the result was the  creation of gods behind each type  of occurrences like rains, fire, hail storms, earthquakes, etc. When the cultures, rituals, customs , caste wise divisions of the societies and senses of higher and lower castes advanced to such an ugly height  that the society was proceeding to a stalemate, that warranted a moment of getting a leap in ideological wave. In such a situation appeared Mahavir Jin and then Lord Buddha with a diametrically opposite slogan, ‘there is no god`. It was so clear and emphatic  an assertion that the world was amazed to learn how devotion to god was negated. So I find here the application of Marxist principle. Firstly there was witnessed a leap within the Vedic era itself when the way to recovery from disease jumped from the state of treatment available with the go of the  natural ecosystem  to the state of medical treatment according to the system formulated in the  Atharva  Veda including surgery. Then it came to be another step forward to  experience from devotion to God to the dilution about belief in  God. It was  the development to a material belief about the use of medicine , having been available  in that period.  This way it resulted  to have been  a  leap in ideology , whatever small extent it could proceed to. 

 Now we have entered into a period and have been proceeding along a direction, where material aspect has been a great feature of existence with, side by side,  the belief in  divinity existing as an inertia. The rise of Buddhism with the spirit of `No God’, naturally emphasized the forces of matter in the course of every day affair. So the reality of existence of matter  was getting importance in day-to day environmental occurrences and in gaining recognition. This development continued to catch hold of European   philosophical thoughts which mostly dealt with the line of  material courses of events along with reverence to idealism passively remaining present. In the Vedas itself,  a contradiction was perceived in the prevailing system .The gods( being abstract) had to be offered the best food items in the jajna to derive their attention and kindness. If we go back to the period, when food had to be procured from the forest, the days were so difficult to pass that the brain had to remain engaged in affairs all the while as to where to go and where to have the availability of food, where the ferocious animals will be less to cause harm, and how to escape their attack. In doing so, all the time of the day got passed in anxiety and tension. During that period there was little scope to consider the appearance of god, because the causes of sufferings were not far to understand, as the danger seemed to  come from ferocious beasts, savage gangs of rogues, from persons of cross interests, etc. As the evil forces were met on the ground,  troublesome  factors, though painstaking,  had no chance to create in mind  a sense of any imaginary force.  So it can be inferred that there was a period when appearance of god in the minds of man was not necessitated . 

     To be more clear, let us prelude how the situation got to develop from a stage of non living objects to  that of the living  ones. So far analysis goes,  there was no life in the nature up to about 380 crore years BCE . The Earth was formed about 460 crore years ago. Life did not exist at that time. It required about 80 crore years for the earth to cool down to the level of a temperature so that the emergence of life could be possible.  But still then no creature grew initially to possess brain. As no brain was there, there was no possibility of a thinking mind. The brain or brain-like  growth took place in the invertebrate animals, by which they could sense the presence of animals to escape from. Let us think of insects that can sense well the presence of ferocious animal in their danger zone. But the ability to think was nearly at an initial level in the invertebrates. Even the vertebrates of the initial level did not bear in mind the question of the presence of God. The brain was then not so developed as to  analyse the cause of sufferings other than escaping from attacks, as we can now estimate the feelings among the insects or fishes or reptiles. The vertebrates of the low status did not have the capacity to erect the defense measures. If we try to advance towards the evolution of mankind, we would realize that there was initially no tool in their hand to obstruct a harmful animal . Likewise the feeling of god did not crop up at the dawn period of mankind. It required some sort of maturity in the man’s brain to acquire the sense of development to the desired extent. Hence it is believable that the thinking mind of man at an appropriate period would have reached a stage to feel the appearance of  god to provide answers to his queries about fire, rainfall, earth quakes, storms, birth and death and the like. So the roots of philosophy were  the  vastness of nature, the curiosity of the unseen and disability of understanding what lies beyond the jurisdiction of man’s reach and their interaction with the thinking mind  of man. In short, the feeling of god appeared at one point of time with the development of contradiction between man and nature.

     In an explanatory way, it  is the outcome of the contradiction between the known and the unknown, between the seen and the unseen, between the objects within reach and beyond reach.  Broadly speaking, it had appeared initially  as answers to the queries about why it rains, from where thunder falls, why the storms claim lives and give enormous sufferings and the like. In the Rig Veda, initially there was no god as the supreme of all. The sages placed gods conveniently like Indra, Agni, Barun, etc and sang the lyrics in sweet musical tunes to attract the disciples and keep them spell bound in meditation. It was in the ending part of the Vedas, when multi-god beliefs gradually started  fading and  the placement of  the of  single-god started gaining momentum. So the appearance of god  depended on the level of understanding about the unseen and unrealized. Truly it was  the fact that  the multiplicity of gods could not believably  provide remedy for the rains flooding fields, fire burning houses and properties, storms causing devastation and so on. So the situation compelled the sages to  begin to think that there must be some one to be more powerful to provide genuine remedy. This yielded an idea to think of one as the supreme of all gods. Thus the idea of the supreme, named as Brahma could be discovered. The significance of  one God or Brahma was enshrined in the  Isha Upanishada. Here  we see that the accumulation of so many gods gave rise to single supreme god.  This way  a situation that came up to be prominent to place one as the supreme of  all gods. The supremo  deemed to be keeping abreast with common people’s sufferings.  So the emergence of Brahma or the supreme of all gods was the result of the growth of issue-based gods. This phenomenon refers to the process of changes from quantitative to qualitative stage. So , the principles of dialectical  materialism holds good here also. The rise and development of philosophical doctrines have  had proceeded in pursuance of the paths of dialectics.    

  As discussed in the Upanishad philosophy, the human life, since inception, was bogged up in the procurement of food on one hand, and fight against attacks of ferocious animals, rival groups etc. on the other hand. In that period man could have no time to generate the ideas of gods.The ideas,  to whatever extent it might rise, were around the technique as to how to protect and continue life amidst all material odds. The ideas to fight against odds got obstructed in deriving the reasons of incidence of devastation  by rainfalls, storms , earth quakes, etc., at the hands of which people were rendered helpless. Thus a situation arose where the concentration of ideas required to make a leap in finding out the cause of happenings. As these incidents appeared to have been caused from above, from somewhere beyond the human’s reach, an idea erupted to discover the roots of incidents to be generating from  the heaven. It sensed man to consider some entities to have settled up in the heaven to produce these extra ordinary events. So the root causes appeared to be one particular god in spite of gods for  each of the categories like fire, rainfall, storm, earth quake, hail storm, etc. Thus the congestion of material techniques failing to remove difficulties gave birth to the thinking of existence of  gods, one after another, with the strokes of incidents, finally the feeling of Brahma. One may take it to be  hypothetical  growth or not . But it is the fact beyond doubt that the process of growth is nothing but a dialectical process. As the growth of ideas originated from the brain of someone, and as the brain happened to be material content, the process may be designated as a sign of dialectical materialism.

        Once the gods were discovered, now the questions automatically arose how to contain them for the welfare of human beings. Thus the methods of worshiping the gods came to mind. The system of making a platform of jajna  appeared in some one’s mind. In a platform made of soil , a bit high,  a furnace could be prepared by burning firewood and the name of `jajna’ was conferred on it. Any thing given to the furnace got burnt off, giving the idea that the god `Agni’ seemed to have swallowed the substance for its onward transmission to that particular god. Thus a material path was opened from the earth to the heaven through fire. The name` god fire'(Agni) had been ornamented by conferring on fire by  the hymns of sweet and admiring words as found in the Vedas.

        As the gods were the creation of the ideas to get rid of dangers and to become healthy and safe, the phenomenon had material foundation, in consideration of the fact that its origin was the brain of the sages as acting on the reasons like the dangers, suspicions, fears etc. The brain was composed of matter. But the thoughts were developed from matter and elongated from matter (concrete) to gods (abstract). These thoughts were nothing but developed matter known as energy, satisfying the mass energy equivalence, E=m C² .  So it did not have any material benefit in respect of relief from illness and release from the causes of dangers except some mental consolation and herbal consumption as blessings(prasad). In such a situation the gods got multiplying from this to that. The aggregation of gods could not provide complete relief . So this state of quantity culminated to the push towards further state of growth. Hence the creation of the supreme god took place and was named as Brahma. He is the god of gods. So we see here how the quantity develops to quality. Dialect is evident in all cases where ever growth is a concern of change, be it materialism or spiritualism. If we speak of Rishis(sages) of the Vedas, if we consider the richness of the hymns in respect of their composition and fineness in lyrical expression, we shall have to think about the pre-rishi stage of development. The art and expertise of the hymns’ composition and the rhythmic sweetness of the verses imply a long base of practice continued from the pre-Vedic era. According to Rahul Sankrityayan, about one lakh years have elapsed since the primitive man came into being. From  those primitive days, it appears, man preferred staying in line with the nature conveniently and making compromise. It is fact that  the nature always kept changing as a rule. Man complied with the requirement of the nature. When man gradually began to take up  the course of securing his own interest at the cost of other members and ingredients of nature, his philosophical ideas began to crop up. The rise of philosophy started taking shape depending on the background and the patterns of technique that man designs according to his level of intelligence.    This patterns varied with the go of the environment. 

    In this connection I like to quote one important remark made by the Italian Philosopher, Xenophanes( 576-490 BCE), as follows, “ people believe that gods too have existence like them, they too have senses, body, power to  speak like them. If cows or horses did have power likewise, they would make the images of gods according to their own image. It is seen that the images of gods of Abesiniyas are black with flat noses . the gods of the Thresiyas are with red hair and blue eyes.” The quotation has clearly narrated real meaning of gods. 

      As for the Vedic era, a long past had elapsed there before coming to the days of the Vedas. Before  the settlement of the Aryans in India, a long period of developed civilization prevailed in the Harappa region, called the Indus civilization. That had gone to ruins for whatever reason it might be. However , the environment at that time also contained fire, air, water, the sky, the plants, the sun, the moon, ordinary animals, ferocious animals etc. Unusual events that struck men were hail storms, cyclone, earth quake, rainfalls, etc. All these factors impacted the people, stirred their mental equilibrium, compelling them to react. That were the reasons behind which was bred the situation for the rise of philosophical thoughts in ancient India. Kireet Joshi  placed his views like this, “ Presumably there was a pre-Vedic tradition too, since the Vedic compositions as included in the four Vedas indicate high level of poetic quality and spiritual experience, which can come about only through a long period of growth.” It is believable that without a long-time practice taking decades of years beforehands, the attainment of such a high quality of poetic art could have not been possible. Like wise the growth of philosophy and the principal schools of philosophy in India are classified in two sets of thoughts— orthodox or heterodox— astika or nastika, imbibing the sects of philosophers belonging to Vedic era and the era of Jainism and Buddhism.The Indian Hindu philosophy provided six major schools; Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya,Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta. On the other side , as reaction to the dominance of the Hindu caste division, grew to certain extent, heterodox schools–Jainism, Buddhisn and the ideals of Ajivika, Ajnana and Carvaka, came up. The experience of one era pushed the society to move for a developed and higher form of philosophy, orthodox to heterodox, a move from idealism towards materialism. To proclaim boldly the eight-fold doctrine of ideology, void of god,  registered a courageous stamina in the face of series of barbarity committed by some of the Veda-based preachers.  This courage had its origin in the motion of a section of masses from one place to another with the growth of qualities in the environment owing to the spread of trades between India and European countries to the possible degrees towards the end of the Vedic era. It was during the 6th 7th century BCE that the Greek merchants acquired great skill in arts and culture, industrial techniques and their architectural goods were the set of commercial business in Asiatic countries also. Even migration to other countries was also done in a part of India. The Gandhar  sculpture and architecture was one of the finest creations as a mixed entity. Thus the Greek rose to a height in mathematics, astronomy, physical sciences,etc. Exchanges occurred among a section of countries in the region . It was almost in the same period that the  Babylon civilization and Jainism- Buddhism, Carvak philosophy  grew in almost the same period.  As a whole, the period  bloomed in  a part of the glove a situation of rationalism , belief in science , etc, diluting the dependence on supernatural ideas. The features that then cropped up in  philosophical thoughts would mostly cling to the side of materialism. The experience of life-realities began to gain importance in philosophy. It was luminous with the touch of Pythagoras whose  view was based on science. It was carried forward by the future generations in the Socratic era which continued to the  period of Aristotle with some sort of scientific aptitude. Thus it can be assessed that wave of philosophical thoughts shifted from the idea of supernatural aspects to the ideas more and more to life realities. 

     Whatever be the shape of philosophical thoughts, we shall always find a background to initiate the future growth. The rise of philosophy can not be other than this trend. If an outline of the philosophical growth the world over is made , we shall interestingly observe that in almost the same period as the age of the Vedas, we see in Greece the Homeric philosophical development , but not on the same plane of thoughts. The Vedas dealt with the growth of ideas from matter to spirit , from concrete to abstract. But after a bitter development of ideology involving caste and creed, severe social distinctions, where the sorts of differences proceeded to create a stalemate to the path of progress, a qualitative change  occurred with the rise of Buddhism and Jainism to proclaim the message of the race of religion without god . The Idealism, as in the Vedas, had had the realities of air, fire, water, sky etc, as the source of  philosophy or,  alias, roots of philosophy. But  its goal in the Upanishad was towards the Brahma, This is the impact of thinking mind of man on the infinite stature of nature. The abstract cannot be made concrete.  The race of philosophy starting from India, then from Greece, made world wide rounds as far as practicable. . The concrete shapes had been gaining momentum. The propositions of Socrates of Greek, Nicolaus Copernicus of Poland, Galileo of Italy, Isaac Newton of England, Leibniz of Germamy,  A. Oparin of Russia, JBS Haldane of British, and the like made rounds of races to discover the truth behind the creation of the universe. Every one made extraordinary contributions to the formulations of the unknown from the known . So far the Germany stalwart scientists of the 18th to 20th centuries rose to the peak of the race with Hegel defining the law of changes and Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels giving the conclusion as regards the three principles , namely , unity and struggle of two opposites, law of transformation in a developing chain and the law of negation of negation, along with Charles Darwin of England discovering the theory of Evolution . The Marx’s theory  gave answer to all the unanswered questions, pricking people’s mind so far, and came to  conclude, uptil now, the race of the journey of matter, which was inanimate in original and changed to provide life on the earth planet as a stage in the chain of changes and also foretold that the unearthing of the nature, infinite in existence, would go on producing truths  with no end to it. The future of the nature is left to the future.                                     
I have attached hereto two images of great philosophers, Biswamitra, one of the senior sages of the ancient India and Lord Buddha to instill in the mind of interested readers the ideas how philosophy took the direction from idealism to realism and proceeded up t days of Marx and Engels. Let us initiate a thinking wave in the progressive youths of the day.