Astika and Nastika
The terms astika and nastika from Sanskrit are wrongly translated as "theist" and "atheist". This post tries to explain their meaning.
There is no notion of theism in dharmic thought. Sure, Hindus have several deities, but it is not the same as theism. A deity is used as a handle to focus one's thoughts and hermeneutics around what it represents, as a means of spiritual inquiry. This is characteristic of the bhakti marga mode of inquiry.
The terms asti and nasti respectively represents something that is or is not. The video above, explains these terms.
The fundamental debate in dharmic thought is whether there is a reality that is beyond our perception and cognition, or what we can perceive and think of is all there is.
As in a much later era, the quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg, once said, "What we observe, is not the universe itself, but the universe exposed to our method of inquiry."
A core debate in dharmic thought is as follows. What we can perceive, imagine and conceptualise is called Maya. The true nature of reality is said to offer its glimpses to us only when we can escape the illusion of Maya. There is no single way to achieve this. This spiritual inquiry takes several forms, each of which has a core component -- like jnana (pursuit of knowledge), bhakti (devotion), yoga (harmonization), karma (deeds) etc.
Each marga or pathway of inquiry has a different characteristic. The jnana marga for instance, uses skepticism as its core element of inquiry. It is sometimes called "Neti, Neti" (not this, not this). One who pursues knowledge is eternally skeptical of everything that is presented, and wants to go and explore their foundations -- until one day, they turn their skepticism onto their skeptical mode of inquiry. And get thoroughly confused. And are completely lost. At this point, they are considered to have qualified for spiritual inquiry (passed their comprehensive exam or quals).
Similarly, a seeker using the bhakti marga for spiritual inquiry, holds on to an object of their devotion and idolises it or deifies it. They express themselves without inhibition towards their object of devotion. Their object of devotion would be the centre of their universe and they dedicate themselves totally in it. Until one day, they realise that all the ideal and divine attributes that they have been attributing to their object of inquiry is in fact, within themselves! If they felt that their deity was the epitome of gracefulness and compassion, it is because their mind was able to experience it. If they felt that their deity was the epitome of justice and order, it is because their mind was able to experience it. By attributing things to the deity, they are in fact, discovering themselves. And that is when they have cleared their comprehensive exam and gained candidature.
This beautiful rendition from the Markendaya Purana, estimated to be more than 5000 years old, explains the above -- the purity of thought and action we attribute to our ideal deity, is in fact, within us.
Like the above, there are several pathways, each having its own dominant heuristic to help us escape the hermeneutic framework in which our mind resides. Each such transgression of the underlying hermeneutics leaves the seeker in a potentially different part of reality and they would come back with a glimpse of one small part of the underlying reality that is presented to us as Maya, in our matrix.
Where there are several pathways and heuristics to escape Maya, there is also a "null" hypothesis, which is the nastika hypothesis.
The nastika hypothesis basically says that there is no such thing called reality beyond our perception and cognition. Just because we stumbled upon something unexpected, which made our entire mental framework crumble, does not mean that it was somehow unreal, and whatever we experienced in the resultant state of confusion and hallucination is somehow real.
In fact, whatever we experience in our state of confusion (that gained us our candidature), is still in fact, being experienced within the framework of our faculty for perception and cognition! How can we claim to have transcended our existence, if all that we experience is through our perception and cognition? Sure, we may not be able to understand what we experienced, or we may not be able to explain it, but we did experience it in our mind, using our brain and body -- that is, we experienced it within the framework of existence, or Maya.
The astika mind would argue back by saying that, what the seeker experienced is not just a new experience, but a new insight and a perspective. Which can only be experienced if one were to escape from sensory and cognitive limitations. For instance, did mathematical truths like the primality of a number, exist when dinosaurs roamed on the face of the earth? Sure they did. Except, there was no seeker who could escape from the confines of their mind, and discover them. It was only after several millennia, that the human mind discovered it. It was always there, but the earthly creatures were too trapped in their minds to discover them. Who knows how many more elements of reality we can discover, if only we made an effort to escape from Maya?
The nastika mind would reply by saying that in our quest for truths that lie outside the realm of Maya, we may end up neglecting our very existence and well-being. If for instance, people around me are suffering, I would rather engage with them and find solutions right here and now, within the framework of Maya, rather than neglect all these "worldly matters" and go off on a "spiritual quest" and breaking our own minds. This line of argument, for instance, was what philosophers like Siddharta Gautama (later known as Buddha) gave, in their rejection of the astika philosophers.
Buddha himself went on a spiritual quest, but in a guided fashion. He went to explore the roots of suffering and pain. He didn't reject everything, saying Neti, Neti. And he didn't idolise anything, like a bhakt, pursuing the pathway of devotion. His pursuit had a focus called "What is" (the cause of human suffering), and based on focused struggle or "Srama". This pathway of focused inquiry was later accepted as yet another valid pathway, and is now called Sramana.
The idea of nastika is very important, because it brings in the notion of a null hypothesis for spiritual and philosophical inquiry. It is possible for us to adopt scepticism as a blind belief (religion), just like we can be proud of our humility, and flaunt our modesty at every given opportunity. The nastika frame of reference can give a reality check in such cases.
The above debate is very different from the debate as to whether "God exists" or "There is no God". This is also not the same as the (confused) dilemma between "religion" and "science".
There is no notion of theism in dharmic thought. Sure, Hindus have several deities, but it is not the same as theism. A deity is used as a handle to focus one's thoughts and hermeneutics around what it represents, as a means of spiritual inquiry. This is characteristic of the bhakti marga mode of inquiry.
The fundamental debate in dharmic thought is whether there is a reality that is beyond our perception and cognition, or what we can perceive and think of is all there is.
As in a much later era, the quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg, once said, "What we observe, is not the universe itself, but the universe exposed to our method of inquiry."
A core debate in dharmic thought is as follows. What we can perceive, imagine and conceptualise is called Maya. The true nature of reality is said to offer its glimpses to us only when we can escape the illusion of Maya. There is no single way to achieve this. This spiritual inquiry takes several forms, each of which has a core component -- like jnana (pursuit of knowledge), bhakti (devotion), yoga (harmonization), karma (deeds) etc.
Each marga or pathway of inquiry has a different characteristic. The jnana marga for instance, uses skepticism as its core element of inquiry. It is sometimes called "Neti, Neti" (not this, not this). One who pursues knowledge is eternally skeptical of everything that is presented, and wants to go and explore their foundations -- until one day, they turn their skepticism onto their skeptical mode of inquiry. And get thoroughly confused. And are completely lost. At this point, they are considered to have qualified for spiritual inquiry (passed their comprehensive exam or quals).
Similarly, a seeker using the bhakti marga for spiritual inquiry, holds on to an object of their devotion and idolises it or deifies it. They express themselves without inhibition towards their object of devotion. Their object of devotion would be the centre of their universe and they dedicate themselves totally in it. Until one day, they realise that all the ideal and divine attributes that they have been attributing to their object of inquiry is in fact, within themselves! If they felt that their deity was the epitome of gracefulness and compassion, it is because their mind was able to experience it. If they felt that their deity was the epitome of justice and order, it is because their mind was able to experience it. By attributing things to the deity, they are in fact, discovering themselves. And that is when they have cleared their comprehensive exam and gained candidature.
This beautiful rendition from the Markendaya Purana, estimated to be more than 5000 years old, explains the above -- the purity of thought and action we attribute to our ideal deity, is in fact, within us.
Like the above, there are several pathways, each having its own dominant heuristic to help us escape the hermeneutic framework in which our mind resides. Each such transgression of the underlying hermeneutics leaves the seeker in a potentially different part of reality and they would come back with a glimpse of one small part of the underlying reality that is presented to us as Maya, in our matrix.
Where there are several pathways and heuristics to escape Maya, there is also a "null" hypothesis, which is the nastika hypothesis.
The nastika hypothesis basically says that there is no such thing called reality beyond our perception and cognition. Just because we stumbled upon something unexpected, which made our entire mental framework crumble, does not mean that it was somehow unreal, and whatever we experienced in the resultant state of confusion and hallucination is somehow real.
In fact, whatever we experience in our state of confusion (that gained us our candidature), is still in fact, being experienced within the framework of our faculty for perception and cognition! How can we claim to have transcended our existence, if all that we experience is through our perception and cognition? Sure, we may not be able to understand what we experienced, or we may not be able to explain it, but we did experience it in our mind, using our brain and body -- that is, we experienced it within the framework of existence, or Maya.
The astika mind would argue back by saying that, what the seeker experienced is not just a new experience, but a new insight and a perspective. Which can only be experienced if one were to escape from sensory and cognitive limitations. For instance, did mathematical truths like the primality of a number, exist when dinosaurs roamed on the face of the earth? Sure they did. Except, there was no seeker who could escape from the confines of their mind, and discover them. It was only after several millennia, that the human mind discovered it. It was always there, but the earthly creatures were too trapped in their minds to discover them. Who knows how many more elements of reality we can discover, if only we made an effort to escape from Maya?
The nastika mind would reply by saying that in our quest for truths that lie outside the realm of Maya, we may end up neglecting our very existence and well-being. If for instance, people around me are suffering, I would rather engage with them and find solutions right here and now, within the framework of Maya, rather than neglect all these "worldly matters" and go off on a "spiritual quest" and breaking our own minds. This line of argument, for instance, was what philosophers like Siddharta Gautama (later known as Buddha) gave, in their rejection of the astika philosophers.
Buddha himself went on a spiritual quest, but in a guided fashion. He went to explore the roots of suffering and pain. He didn't reject everything, saying Neti, Neti. And he didn't idolise anything, like a bhakt, pursuing the pathway of devotion. His pursuit had a focus called "What is" (the cause of human suffering), and based on focused struggle or "Srama". This pathway of focused inquiry was later accepted as yet another valid pathway, and is now called Sramana.
The idea of nastika is very important, because it brings in the notion of a null hypothesis for spiritual and philosophical inquiry. It is possible for us to adopt scepticism as a blind belief (religion), just like we can be proud of our humility, and flaunt our modesty at every given opportunity. The nastika frame of reference can give a reality check in such cases.
The above debate is very different from the debate as to whether "God exists" or "There is no God". This is also not the same as the (confused) dilemma between "religion" and "science".
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