Origins of Indian Pedagogy

Origins of Indian Pedagogy

ॐ सह नाववतु ।

सह नौ भुनक्तु ।

सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।

तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Om, may He protect us both (teacher and the taught).

May He look after us both to enjoy (the fruits of

scriptural study). May we both exert together (to find the

true meaning of the sacred text). May our studies be

fruitful so that we acquire lustre. May we never quarrel

with each other. Om Shanti! Shanti!! Shanti!!!

One of the prominent Vedic mantras from Taittriya upanishad, it is recited on a daily basis in many households. Though the mantra asks for a benedictions for teacher-student duo, a deeper thought over it throws some light on Indian Pedagogy and its origins. 

Bhartiya Darshans have always conceptualized Knowledge/Gyaan as inherent dharma/guna/quality of Atma. A human being takes birth with knowledge as his innate characteristic however, it this Gyaan is covered due to a veil of ignorance (Agyaan). This one proposition of Bharatiya Darshans had such a deep impact on our tradition. 

A Guru's role was thus, removing the veil of ignorance rather then imparting knowledge from a higher level to a lower one. Many of our scriptures like Bhagwad Geeta, Upanishads, Bhagwatam are a conversation between Guru and a Shishya. A Guru in these scriptures is seen as the one who stimulates the Shishya to contemplate on a point, connect dots for a better understanding, dwell deeper in it by asking appropriate questions. 

Probably this is the reason why Guru Gita describes the word Guru as, 

गुकारश्चान्धकारस्तु रुकारस्तन्निरोधकृत्।

अन्धकारविनाशित्वात् गुरुरित्यभिधीयते।। 

'Gu' stands for the darkness of ignorance and 'Ru' stands for remover/dispeller, thus the word 'Guru' means ' remover of darkness of ignorance'.

A simple aphorism of our Darshan shastra had such major impact on our pedagogy. It made the Guru-shishya relationship more cohesive and interdependent. The Shishya served the Guru out of reverence, not out of fear; Guru Dakshina was given at end of education to express gratitude, not as an exchange against knowledge given. 

Its even more interesting to compare the word ' Guru' with the contemporary word 'Teacher'. According to Cambridge dictionary, 'Teacher' denotes 'a person who instructs or trains others'.When human being is considered to born as 'tabula rasa (blank slate)', its obvious that he has to be instructed, trained and taught everything anew.

Dr. Karan Mittal 

MBBS, M.A ( Sanskrit, Clinical Psychology) 

M.Sc ( Counselling Psychology), PGDCH

Hiranyakashyapu of Kaliyuga

Hiranyakashyapu of Kaliyuga

"Neither inside, nor outside; neither in daytime, nor night" 

These boons asked by Hiranyakashyapu from Lord Brahma are one of our most vivid memories of the childhood stories we enjoyed. Whether watching it on TV or listening to it as a story, the appearance of Lord Narsimhadev to kill the demon Hiranyakashyapu without breaking even a single rule of his boon always gave me goosebumps. 

However, this pasttime which is found in many of our Puranas is not applicable to one story alone. Somewhere, we are replicating the dualistic mindset of Hiranyakashyapu in all spheres of life. 

"Either a person is mentally incompetent, or completely healthy. Allopathy is draconian, Ayurveda/Naturopathy is the best. Ayurveda is pseudoscience, Homoeopathy is best. Particular government is great, another one is devilish". Such extreme view points are becoming rampant nowadays stealing away the fluidity of our mind and making it more concrete. The result being because these views are extreme, people turn extremist in defending their beliefs leading to arguments and fights.

The modern-day Hiranyakashyapu mind tries to weigh the whole creation in just two extreme polar opposites. Like, Hiranyakashyapu tried to evade death by asking a boon based on a notion that everything consists of only two possibilities, similarly we try to fit everything in similar two compartments in our brain. We fail to realize that things can't be segregated into just extremes and such view-points are dysfunctional and dangerous at the end. 

The very nature of Universe is a continuum. Infact, the appearance of Lord Narsimhadev in the above story is a proof to it. Lord Narsimhadev by not compromising a single condition of the boon and still annhilating Hiranyakashyapu demonstrated that the universe is dynamic and hosts a wide range of possibilities for every aspect. 

All Indian spiritual paths talk about moving away from extremes of pain and pleasure, hot and cold towards equanimity( samatvam). Ofcourse, these standards are for spiritual aspirants; but can't we think of giving up our fanatic and extremist attitudes for our psychological equanimity? 

Dr. Karan Mittal 

MBBS, M.A ( Sanskrit, Clinical Psychology) 

M.Sc ( Counselling Psychology), PGDCH. 

Attractive Arguments are Distractive!

 ATTRACTIVE ARGUMENTS ARE DISTRACTIVE. 

If an X god cries on death of his wife, how can he be God? If a Y god takes help of monkeys to save his wife, how can he save you?

The problem with these approaches is not the questioning, our tradition is supports curiosity based questioning. 

Infact most of our scriptures are born out of question-answer dialogue between a disciple and a teacher. Many Upanishads, Bhagvad Geeta, Ayurvedic texts are a result of deep curiosity of the disciple and a kind-hearted guru.

Ignorance of important aspects of one's tradition, political/social scenario and other aspects is definitely our fault. But on the other hand, Knowing everything is not possible as well. Therefore in my understanding, the bigger problem is not the lack of knowledge, but not knowing where to seek the right answers from and discriminating true knowledge from false claims.

Nyaya shastra (one of the schools of Indian Philosophy) puts a lot of emphasis on tests for validity of information. Knowing which information can be relied upon is the first step towards 'Knowledge acquisition (Prama/Gyan)'. 

With regards to the above topic, Nyaya shastra specifies that information only from a reliable person who has studied the concerned topic with due diligence is valid.

The process of arguing over a topic (Vaad), another limb of Nyaya philosophy was highly systematised so as to make the conclusion born out of the discussion authentic and valid. Attractive argument doesn't necessarily mean its true. In the Nyaya tradition, such baseless arguments disqualified the participant at the very first instance. 

This ancient Nyaya wisdom was one of the essential branches for a student to learn in Vedic days. If foundation is built with Logic and  the correct Knowledge acquisition process, the superstructure becomes unshakable. 

Satya (truth) is a dynamic process and needs to be accessed with deep study or from a person who has done that. May be more then the knowledge, we need to to learn how to seek knowledge before believing in it?

Dr. Karan Mittal 

MBBS, MA (Sanskrit, Clinical Psychology) 

M.Sc (Counselling Psychology) 

Ignorance is Bliss v/s Vimudhatma

Learning moral, idioms, phrases through fables, history, legends was a significant exercise during childhood. 

"Ignorance is bliss", is one such lesson that has been taught to us right from our childhood days. The intensity of this particular lesson taught slowly increased from simple stories to real life situations as one grew up.

A trailer of a recent movie made me contemplate, "Is ignorance truly a bliss?" Isn't the modern approach emphasizing too much on ignorance of many aspects of life in the name of specialization? Can one really ignore learning the survival skills in name of expertise in a financial skill set?

Though I haven't seen the movie yet, but it compels me to think whether staying politically/spiritually/emotionally ignorant a big risk to one's survival itself? 

Indic traditions have always discouraged the mode of ignorance (Tamoguna). As a civilization our focus has always been "Knowledge". Ignorance was always discouraged and one's curiosity towards various issues was kindled. In one of his verses, Acharya Chanakya compares an ignorant man with an army without commander, both being destined for defeat!

The Bhagvad Geeta calls a person with predominance of Tamoguna (mode of ignorance) as a 'Vimudhatma'. Such a person is bound by the clutches of delusion, laziness and sleep; ultimately heading towards self-destruction. Isn't our ignorance of important political or dharmic matters making us a Vimudhatma of some form?

 

If one studies Indian dialectical ( shastric debate) traditions, one realizes that we had a heritage of knowing the opponent's system more then what the opponent himself knew. Knowing one's own subject is good, having awareness of opponent's subject is better, excelling at opponent's subject matter was considered the best. This was the reason that gave rise to such a rich knowledge tradition and heritage.

Isn't it high-time one question one's ignorance of various aspects of life in name of specialization? It's not only limited to political scenario but to things like believing in fake claims on WhatsApp to most important aspects like questioning one's tradition without even making an attempt to study it. The expanse is huge. 

Dr. Karan Mittal 

MBBS, MA(Sanskrit, Clinical Psychology), 

M.Sc (Counselling Psychology), PGDCH, DCHP

Exploring Indian Psychology

Whenever I mention about Indian Psychology to anyone, the immediate response I encounter is, "India never had a concept of Psychology/Psychotherapy". To people who know Indic Traditions usually attribute Indian psychology to Yogasutras alone.

My contemplation over the years over this topic makes me question, a civilization which focussed on physical reality in terms of Yoga and Ayurveda and Spiritual reality with innumerable Shastras starting like Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas; how can it ignore the connecting link between the two : MIND?

Has Bhartiya civilization never focussed on Mind? Have we lost the concerned tradition like we have lost many Veda shakas? Or our focus has been different as compared to modern conventional psychology?

The earliest reference to mental health in written tradition is found in Atharva Veda which lists down 20 different mental afflictions. Acharya Sushruta in his famous treatise on Surgery, enlists 'A happy and contended mind' as a criteria for a healthy person. Needless to say Darshan shastras like Sankhya, Yoga, Vedanta (Bhagvad geeta is a part of Vedanta darshan) have discussed mind, its associated functions and personalities quite exhaustively. Ayurveda considers Bhuta vidya i.e treatment of Psychological afflictions as one of the 8 branches of Ayurvedic treatment modalities. 

With prominent limbs of Indic civilization discussing mind in some form or the other, it can't be an ignored aspect in our tradition. Probably, our compulsive need to legitimise any of our knowledge systems based on its equivalence with modern Western knowledge is a problem!!

Let us explore the Indic mind traditions in the next few articles to dive deeper into this unexplored and yet important aspect of our civilization 

Dr. Karan Mittal 

MBBS, MA( Clinical Psychology, Sanskrit), MSc ( Counselling Psychology), PGDCH, DCHP.

Arsha Astronomy! ☀️🪐⭐⛈️

Arsha Astronomy

The word 'Jyotish' is often misunderstood as an exclusive fortune-telling branch. But in its true sense, fortune-telling forms a small part of this ancient branch of knowledge. Jyotish in Vedic context formed an important part of Vedic Literature and is considered as one of the six Vedangas (limb of Vedas) thus was attributed as the 'Eyes' of Vedas. It was imperative to understand these six Vedangas to delve deeper into Vedas. Out of the many sub- components included in Jyotish, Astronomy ( Siddhant) formed one of the most significant one.

The influence of celestial entities on various dimensions of human life was known to Vedic people since time immemorial. Movements of Sun, Moon, Stars and other entities played a very important role in the Vedic tradition. Even a superficial study of Vedic Literature points at knowledge of Solar year, Lunar year, constellations, eclipses etc existing in that era.

The Nidan sutra and Latyayan Srautasutra text of Samaveda have clear references to Solar and Lunar years of 360 days and 324/351 days respectively depending on the method of calculation. Due to the difference in the number of days in the Solar and Lunar calenders, an additional month was considered every 3rd year to bring uniformity in both the calendars and prevent widening of gap between both the calenders.This arrangement today is called as the Purushottam month or the Adhik month. As a result, we usually observe that Indian festivals usually fall around the same time in the modern Gregorian calender.

Aitreya Brahman and Kaushtiki Brahaman have clear indication of knowledge of winter and summer solstice and it was used extensively to decide timings of longer sacrifices. The year was divided into two halves of 6 months each; longer sacrifices (Mahavrata) were performed in winter-half while Vishuvat was observed in summer-half. Vedanga Jyotish also records the location of these solstices to be middle of Ashlesha constellation and Dhanistha constellation respectively, which coincides with the time period of that era.

Vedanga Jyotish had also calculated the duration of the day in both the solstices. The shortest day in winter-half is of 12 muhurats and in summer-solstice the longest day is of 18 muhurats ( Muhurat is a unit of Vedic time measurement which is equivalent to 48 minutes approximately).

Astronomy has always been an integral part of Indic tradition. It was not only highly instrumental in professions like agriculture and animal-husbandry but it also played a major role in determining the influence of these celestial bodies on one's day to day activities.


Dr. Karan Mittal
MBBS, MA(PSYCHOLOGY) , MA (SANSKRIT) 

Drishti of Darshans!

Mankind has always contemplated on higher questions of reality, creation, beyond life from the beginning of its existense in a variety of ways. Stability and security paved the way to curiosity and inquiry into various higher dimensions of life. This tradition of inquiry led to the development of various theories of philosophy at different times in different parts of the world. 

The word 'Philosophy' literally means 'love of knowledge' and it is regarded as 'Queen' of all knowledge systems by medieval scholars. It dwells on many questions beyond normal human perception and makes an to answer them in all possible ways. 

 

The word 'Philosophy' in Indian context brings scriptures like Bhagvad Geeta, Upanishads, Vedas to one's mind. But is  the Indian Philosophy confined only to these? Have the Indian Rishis contemplated on other aspects of Philosophy like the Western or Greek schools?

The Indic term for Philosophy is 'Darshan'.

Originating from the root ' Drsh', the word Darshan means ' to see/perceive' as the study of Darshans gives one a perspective to life. Indian Darshan systems have contemplated on practically all topics of human existence in some form or the other. Cognition, Linguistics, Psychology, Atomism, Health, Aesthetics and much more have been discussed over the long tradition existing for thousands of years.

The Indic tradition attributes Vedas to be at the root of all knowledge systems. But strikingly, we have schools of Darshan which don't hold Vedas as the authority and have conflicting views with Vedas ( Heterodox/ Nastik systems).Orthodox systems (Aastik systems) on the other hand consider Vedas as the supreme authority and are considered to originate from Vedas. There are 6 such schools of Indian Philosophy and their main subject matters are:

1. Nyaya : Cognition, Causation, Reality

2.Vaisheshika : Primordial discussion on Atomism, Matter

3. Sankhya: Creation, 3 gunas, Physical reality etc. 

4: Yoga : Mind, Meditation, States of Consciousness 

5.Purva-Mimansa: Linguistics, Analysis of Vedas. 

6: Uttar-Mimamsa: Liberation, Soul, Metaphysics etc. Bhagvad Geeta and Upanishads are a part of this school. 

Contrary to the popular belief, the word Aastik and Naastik in Indic context are meant to signify the ones who consider Vedas to be the supreme authority and the ones which do not. Certain Aastik Darshans don't believe in existense of God (the present day concept of God to be specific), and had full liberty to do so since their advent.

Indian Philosophy has always been a very rich tradition of discussion and contemplation. Considering Indian Darshan to be of a handful of selected scriptures is disregarding this rich tradition of scholars and Rishis. As inquisitive souls of this rich tradition, one needs to realize the benefits of studying these Darshans are way beyond just philosophy and make an attempt to understand their basics. 

Dr. Karan Mittal 

MBBS, MA (Sanskrit) MA (Clinical Psychology). 

To be continued...