Six Schools of Indian Philosophy Quiz

Answer: Vedanta

Attributed to Adi Shankaracharya, 'Vivek Churamani' is in the form of questions and answers between the liberated Guru (spiritual teacher) and the shishya (earnest student) seeking salvation. Literally meaning 'end of the Vedas' but metaphorically defined as 'essence of Vedas', Vedant is considered by many scholars as the most profound among the schools. Vedant propounds the primacy of unified awareness over its modifications and the equivalence of the individual and the universal soul once the veil of cosmic illusion (termed 'Maya') is removed. Awareness is affirmed as the only reality in Vedant. Everything else, from the entire cosmos to the entire range of human experiences, is seen as a dreamlike appearance in Awareness.

This appearance binds those who are engulfed with desires, but is merely a joyous play of Awareness for those who are beyond desires, who see both mundane pleasure and pain as crests and troughs of the waves of bliss that shine in Awareness.

Answer: Yoga

The eight steps are Yama (Ethical prohibitions - non-violence, not lying, not stealing, celibacy and non-covetousness), Niyama (Ethical affirmations- purity of body, mind and speech, contentment, austerity, self-analysis and surrender to God), Asana (Posture), Pranayama (Mode of breathing), Pratyahara (Withdrawal of awareness from externalization), Dharana (Focus on awareness on interiorization), Dhyan (Deep contemplation) and Samadhi (Unified Awareness).

The basic philosophy of Yoga is similar to those of Samkhya and Jainism, but the emphasis on a structured and disciplined step-by-step approach to liberation sets it apart from them.

Answer: Mimansa

Mimansa literally means 'reflection' or 'critical investigation'. The four Vedas (Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharv) are collections of hymns to personified forces of nature. Mimansa is a school that emphasizes understanding of the Vedic verses for performance of ritualistic and social duties.

It has both theistic and atheistic undercurrents since it does not accord primacy to the question of God or gods. The Upanishadas which are the core basis of Vedant are considered of secondary importance to Vedas by adherents of Mimansa. Vedant takes a contrary view and considers Vedic rituals as insignificant compared to direct realization of liberated awareness.

Answer: Mandan

Kamban is the author of the Tamil version of 'Ramayana'. Kapil is an exponent of Samkhya. Panini is the author of the celebrated work on Sanskrit grammar - 'Ashtadhyaya'.

Mandan, as an exponent of Mimansa, was an adherent of Vedic rituals involving sacrificial offerings to fire. Adi Shankara, as the greatest of the exponents of Vedant, considered rituals and prayers as ultimately meaningless since Vedant recognizes only Awareness as the ultimate reality, and considers even the worship of God as an illusion since it presupposes an illusory separation between the worshiper and the worshiped. Mandan was a householder while Adi Shankara was a monk who had renounced worldly obligations at a very young age for direct contemplation into the ultimate essence of awareness. In those days, it was obligatory for householders to offer alms to monks who visited them at their abodes. When Adi Shankara visited Mandan and Mandan tried to offer him material goods, Adi Shankara replied that an intellectual debate to determine the ultimate truth was the only offering he would accept. In the debate that ensued, the learned wife of Mandan was appointed as the judge. Adi Shankara established the primacy of awareness and the ultimate futility of rituals and consequently Mandan renounced his allegiance to Mimansa and became an adherent of Vedant.

Answer: The entire universe is an illusory appearance in Awareness and once the veil of ignorance is removed, the individual soul is none other than the universal soul.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharshi, who are among the modern exponents of Advait Vedant, emphasized its lived realization rather than theoretical learning. While Vedant emphasizes ethics, it regards them as facilitative rather than instrumental for liberation which is a fruit for an intense yearning for emancipation reflected in an aversion for all sensory enjoyments. Such an aversion renders the state of bodily wakefulness as illusory as that of dreams and once the dreamlike nature of wakefulness is seen, the true essence of Awareness beyond wakefulness, dreaming and sleep shines forth.

Answer: Purusha (Consciousness) and Prakriti (Nature) are absolutely distinct and to realize Purusha is liberation.

Samkhya literally resonates with 'counting' since it expounds twenty-four elements of Prakriti (Nature) beyond which lies Purusha or Consciousness. Samkhya holds that both Purusha and Prakriti are eternal and ultimately independent of each other. The admixture of Purusha and Prakriti is a state of bondage for Purusha which can only be resolved through its complete transcendence from Prakriti. Samkhya also posits the three qualities or gunas of Sattva (bliss), Rajas (passion) and Tamas (mystery) which have had an immense impact on Indian thought.

Answer: Vaisheshika

Paramanu is the Sanskrit word for atom. At around the same time as the ancient Greeks, Vaisheshika theorists posited that all matter is composed of atoms. Vaisheshika posits that all experience is a result of interplay of atoms and their spatial permutations and combinations.

The school is noted for its naturalism and for its assertion (which it shares with Buddhism) that direct observation and inference are the only two reliable means to knowledge.

Answer: Nyaya

Interestingly, 'Nyaya' literally means 'law' rather than logic - at least in modern Hindi. Nyaya accepts four reliable means of gaining knowledge - Pratyakṣa (perception), Anumâṇa (inference), Upamâṇa (comparison and analogy) and Úabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts).

Answer: Vedanta

Advait literally means 'non-dual'. Advait Vedant posits that beyond the illusory multifariousness of the cosmos, including that of the myriad hues of the human experience, is a single unified awareness which is of the nature of ever-new bliss. The distinction between the individual and the supreme soul (God), too, is seen as illusory in Advait and one that disappears upon self-realization.

Answer: Belief in the supremacy of Vedas

Although the modern Hindi word Aastik means a theist or a believer in God, the term had a different meaning in ancient India. In those times, the schools which recognized the supremacy of Vedas were considered Aastik while those which denied the same were termed Nastik.

It is another matter that some of the Aastik schools only affirmed the Vedas as a matter of expediency while displaying remarkable independence in their philosophical systems. Besides the six Aastik schools of Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimansa and Vedant, there were at least four Nastik schools (two of which are living religions in our times)- Buddhism, Jainism, Ajivikas and Lokayat.