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    Hindu Schools of Thought

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    Dev Mohunta
    The document summarizes 7 heterodox schools of thought in ancient India that departed from mainstream Hinduism based on the Vedas and Upanishads. It briefly describes the key beliefs of each school, including Ajita Kesakambala's materialism; Makkhali Gosala's belief that destiny alone determines one's fate; and the Buddha's teachings of the four noble truths and concept of nirvana to escape rebirth. Overall, it provides a concise overview of several non-orthodox philosophies that emerged in ancient India and some of their core doctrines.

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    Hindu Schools of Thought

    Uploaded by

    Dev Mohunta
    158 views3 pages
    The document summarizes 7 heterodox schools of thought in ancient India that departed from mainstream Hinduism based on the Vedas and Upanishads. It briefly describes the key beliefs of each school, including Ajita Kesakambala's materialism; Makkhali Gosala's belief that destiny alone determines one's fate; and the Buddha's teachings of the four noble truths and concept of nirvana to escape rebirth. Overall, it provides a concise overview of several non-orthodox philosophies that emerged in ancient India and some of their core doctrines.

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    The document summarizes 7 heterodox schools of thought in ancient India that departed from mainstream Hinduism based on the Vedas and Upanishads. It briefly describes the key beliefs of each school, including Ajita Kesakambala's materialism; Makkhali Gosala's belief that destiny alone determines one's fate; and the Buddha's teachings of the four noble truths and concept of nirvana to escape rebirth. Overall, it provides a concise overview of several non-orthodox philosophies that emerged in ancient India and some of their core doctrines.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    158 views3 pages

    Hindu Schools of Thought

    Uploaded by

    Dev Mohunta
    The document summarizes 7 heterodox schools of thought in ancient India that departed from mainstream Hinduism based on the Vedas and Upanishads. It briefly describes the key beliefs of each school, including Ajita Kesakambala's materialism; Makkhali Gosala's belief that destiny alone determines one's fate; and the Buddha's teachings of the four noble truths and concept of nirvana to escape rebirth. Overall, it provides a concise overview of several non-orthodox philosophies that emerged in ancient India and some of their core doctrines.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    In the past there have many deviations from the mainstream Hinduism based on Vedas,
    Upanishads, etc. These have been called the heterodox schools of thought, at one time or
    other they had large followings but except two schools of thought none of them have
    survived. The word heterodox means that which is "characterized by departure from accepted
    beliefs or standards"

    During the Vedic period the brahmanical religion was characterized by sacrificial rituals,
    ³Homa´. Nowhere do the Vedas mention the idea of transmigration of soul that is the
    doctrine of birth, death and reincarnation, a doctrine that developed during the Upanishadic
    period. But somewhere as time went on this idea became central to Hindu religion, ultimate
    goal being salvation or deliverance from this cycle of birth, death and reincarnation.

    Buddhism must be considered as a belief that departed from mainstream Hinduism, There ar
    six others schools of thought that had their pro-pounders and one time or large followings.

    Briefly they are given below, it will be noticed that many of our current beliefs are embedded
    in these teachings, and derived from them of these unorthodox teachers.

    1.| Ôurana Kasapa : he believed that virtuous conduct had no effect on man¶s karma.
    ³ He who performs and act or causes an act to be performed ........he who destroys life,
    the thief, the housebreaker, the plunderer....... the adulterer and the liar......... commits
    no sin. Even with a razor-sharp discus a man were to reduce all the life on earth to
    single heap of flesh he would commit no sin, neither would sin approach him.....
    ....From liberality, self control, abstinence, and honesty is derived neither merit nor
    the approach of merit.

    2.| Makkhali Gosala: his sect was called the Ajavikas and perhaps survived for about
    2000 years. He agreed with Ôurana that good deeds did not affect transmigration,
    which proceed according to preordained pattern, controlled by °  fate,

    ³There is no deed performed either by oneself or by others [that can affect one¶s
    future births], no human action, no strength, no courage, no human endurance or
    human power[that can affect one¶s destiny in this life] All beings, all that have
    breath, all that are born, all that have life, are without power and strength, or virtue,
    but are developed by destiny, chance, and nature.......... There is no question of
    bringing unripe karma to fruition, nor of exhausting karma already ripened, virtuous
    conduct, by vows, by penance, or by chastity. That cannot be done. Y    
       
         
    
       
     
    . It can be
    neither lessened or increased, neither is there any excess or deficiency of it. Just as
    ball of thread will, when thrown, unwind to its full length, so fool and wise alike will
    take their course, and make an end of sorrow.
    º
      
     
    

    3.| Ajita Kesakambala: a materialist had complete unbelief in the immaterial.


    ³There is no [merit in] almsgiving, sacrifice, or offering, no result or ripening of good
    or evil deeds. .....Man is formed of the four elements; when he dies earth returns to
    aggregate of earth, water to water, fire to fire, and air to air, while the senses vanish
    into space. Four men with the beir take up the corps; the gossip [about the dead man]
    as far as the burning ground, where the bones turn the colour of dove¶s wing, and his
    sacrifices end in ashes. They are fools who preach alms giving, and those who
    maintain the existence of immaterial categories speak vain and lying nonsense. · 

      
         
       They do not survive after
    death.

    4.| Ôakudha Kacchayana : was an atomist, predecessor to Vaisheshika school of


    philosophy. He preceded by a century or more the Greek atomist philosophers.

    ³The seven elementary categories are neither made nor ordered, neither caused nor
    constructed; hey are barren, as firm as mountains, as stable as pillars. They neither
    move nor develop; they do not injure one another, and one has no effect onthe joy or
    sorrow. ......of another. What are the seven! The bodies of earth, water, fire, air, joy,
    and sorrow, with life as the seventh. .....No man slays or causes to slay, hears or
    causes to hear, knows or causes to know. G
     
    
     
     
     
      
    
     
     
     
      
    
    

    
    

    


    
     
    
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    5.| Niganta Nataputta pali (Nirgrantha Jnatraputra, sanskrit) ± Vardhaman Mahavir

    ³ The phenomenal individual consists of a soul closely enmeshed in matter, and his
    salvation is to be found by freeing the soul from matter, so that it may regain its
    pristine purity and enjoy omniscient self-sufficient bliss for all eternity.´

    6.| Sanjaya Belatthiputa : he denied the possibility of certain knowledge altogether.

    ³If you ask me ³Is there another world?´, and I believed that there was, I should tell
    you so. But that is not why I say. I do not say that it is so; I do not say that it is
    otherwise. I do not say it is not so; I do not say that it is not not so.´

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    The above are from Buddhist texts.

    7.| Siddhartha Gautam -Buddha ±

    ³ Doctrine of four noble truths ±(1) That all life is inevitably sorrowful.(2)That sorrow
    is due to craving.(3)that it can only be stopped by the stopping of craving (4)that this
    can only be done by a course of carefully disciplined and moral conduct.
    The individual is made of five components, psychological emotions, propensities,
    faculties, condition of the individual, and conscious thought. Every individual is made
    combination of these five components, that are always changing and in a state of flux.
    The root cause of process of birth and death and rebirth is ignorance. The cycle can
    only be stopped by achieving Nirvana, first by adopting right views about the nature
    of existence, then by carefully controlled system of moral conduct, and finally by
    concentration and meditation. ³

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