Ancient Indian wisdom is based on thousands of years of efforts to find the Truth and brainstorming of several intellectuals who are experts in their own fields .
One of the accepted practices to arrive at Truth is by Mimamsa which is similar to-day's courts where one learned person used to be the judge and various arguments and counter arguments used to be proposed.
In that , proposal was called " Pratipadana" which has to be supported by accepted example.
Then "pratipaksha" like opposition of the proposals used to be made by other side.
During the discussions the honesty levels used to be so high, once convinced, the Truth they believed for the whole life used to be given up and adopt the new found knowledge.
classic example was "sri Adi Shankara" disposing all the theories of spiritual thinking of India in 10th century and applying "Advaita Philosophy" in whole of India from kashmir to Kanyakumari.
Also another beautiful aspect is that no body used force to convince others. Also conqueror vanquishing the
defeated party is never heard in Ancient India. In fact, Sri Ram has started this tradition where he crowned
brother of Vali and Ravana after defeating them. This tradition of using force and eliminating the clan after defeating is considered barbarism. and not accepted by both parties.
Search for Truth is a life time affair and many kings have given up their kingdoms and proceeded to forest for penance in search of Truth. Also respect for Truth was exemplary. Even if the person who proclaims Truth is from lower strata of society or even a child, it was given full weightage. Truth prevails and every thing else is secondary. Scientific because several times, quoting Vedas and Puranas, practices like Sacrificing animals was stopped. Even women were given full freedom and rights long before Indian history could record.
It is a democratic and purely intellectual pursuit of Truth.
Another technique to arrive at Truth used by the Ancient Indians is consensus. this was preceeded by several views each was backed up by own experience or self realisation. Once all the ideas are pooled, there sued to be brainstorming and at the end, logic and counter logic called " Nyaya, Mimamsa and Tarka " used to the process to arrive at consensus. Some times, this consensus was difficult to arrive at or used to take a long time. But only consenus was approved. Meanwhile, the one who proposes a consensus has to explain previous accepted theories based on the new theory. As most of the previous accepted theories were based on real expereinces, there is no way one can deny those epxereiments. In
One of the accepted practices to arrive at Truth is by Mimamsa which is similar to-day's courts where one learned person used to be the judge and various arguments and counter arguments used to be proposed.
In that , proposal was called " Pratipadana" which has to be supported by accepted example.
Then "pratipaksha" like opposition of the proposals used to be made by other side.
During the discussions the honesty levels used to be so high, once convinced, the Truth they believed for the whole life used to be given up and adopt the new found knowledge.
classic example was "sri Adi Shankara" disposing all the theories of spiritual thinking of India in 10th century and applying "Advaita Philosophy" in whole of India from kashmir to Kanyakumari.
Also another beautiful aspect is that no body used force to convince others. Also conqueror vanquishing the
defeated party is never heard in Ancient India. In fact, Sri Ram has started this tradition where he crowned
brother of Vali and Ravana after defeating them. This tradition of using force and eliminating the clan after defeating is considered barbarism. and not accepted by both parties.
Search for Truth is a life time affair and many kings have given up their kingdoms and proceeded to forest for penance in search of Truth. Also respect for Truth was exemplary. Even if the person who proclaims Truth is from lower strata of society or even a child, it was given full weightage. Truth prevails and every thing else is secondary. Scientific because several times, quoting Vedas and Puranas, practices like Sacrificing animals was stopped. Even women were given full freedom and rights long before Indian history could record.
It is a democratic and purely intellectual pursuit of Truth.
Another technique to arrive at Truth used by the Ancient Indians is consensus. this was preceeded by several views each was backed up by own experience or self realisation. Once all the ideas are pooled, there sued to be brainstorming and at the end, logic and counter logic called " Nyaya, Mimamsa and Tarka " used to the process to arrive at consensus. Some times, this consensus was difficult to arrive at or used to take a long time. But only consenus was approved. Meanwhile, the one who proposes a consensus has to explain previous accepted theories based on the new theory. As most of the previous accepted theories were based on real expereinces, there is no way one can deny those epxereiments. In
