Nyaya Darshan – The logic & Spirituality

Nyaya Darshan – The logic & Spirituality

​Nyaya or Logic Darshan, one of the six Hindu philosophies, has five Chapters with 538 verses. It was founded by Rishi Gautam or Gotama in 550 BC. He attached due weight to reasoning and relied on scientific system of 16 categories to reach on the philosophy. His philosophy dealt the riddle of Body, Atma and moksha. 

He postulated in Nyaya Darshan as under:

1. Since all the substances in the universe are elements, there should be one “Consciousness”.
2. There should be one “Consciousness” who provides fruits of karma of human beings.
3. Vedas are mine of wisdom and not man-made. Parmatama/God is the maker.
4. Vision of Parmatama can be done by purifying one’s
5. Conscience and not by external means.  

The salient features of the Darshan are as under:

1. The darshan has four categories viz. to solve the riddle of general knowledge & physical universe, Jeevatma (soul) & Moksha (liberation) and Parmatma (God) and his knowledge.
2. To solve the riddles, sixteen categories (pramana, prameya, samsaya, prayojana, drstanta, siddhanta, avayava, tarka, nirnaya, vada, jalpa, vitanda, hetvabhasa, chala, jati, and nigrahasthana) are used to gain right knowledge.
3. The five elements (viz., earth, water, light, air and ether), the five objects of sense (viz., smell, taste, colour, touch and sound), etc., are tenets.
4. The five senses, viz., the eye, ear, nose, tongue and skin (touch) are essentially identical with the five elements, viz., fire, ether, earth, water and air whose special qualities, viz., colour, sound, smell (odour), savour (taste) and tangibility are exhibited by them.
5. The earth possesses four qualities, viz. odour (smel1). Savour (taste), colour and tangibility. In water there are three qualities, viz Savour (taste), colour and tangibility. Fire has two qualities viz  colour and tangibility. Tangibility belongs to air and sound belongs to ether.
6. Desire, aversion, volition, pleasure, pain and intelligence are the marks of the soul.
7. All the five sense organs work together at all times. But knowledge does not happen together. With respect to the senses the mind and the soul have knowledge.
8. World causes various distresses through birth, infirmity disease, death, connection with undesirable, connection with desirable etc. Hence, one who pursues pleasure, does in reality pursue pain.
9. We incur three debts (debts to sages-rishis, gods-dev, progenitors-pitri) which we must go on clearing off until the time or our decay and death (by acquiring knowledge, making sacrifices & by begetting children).
10. Ten troubles (kelasha viz. greed, hatred, stupidity, pride, heretical view, doubt, sloth, arrogance, shamelessness and recklessness) are our constant companions, while activities pursue us throughout our life. In presence of these, attaining moksha or release not possible.
11. Wisdom destroys false knowledge, false doctrines and the defects (attachment, aversions etc) & tendencies.
    1. Due to the destruction of the trend, the actions/activities/karma ceases. The absence of karma stops birth. When there is no birth and death, the cycle of birth & death ceases.
    2. Pain can remain as long as the mind is there. Mind is a place where attachment & aversions reside. Until the mind is kept in anger, the entire action goes on. When the mind desires to achieve what is considered to be soul-friendly. This name is called Raga. If he loves what he loves, then he feels pleasure. If you do not get it then you feel sad.
    3. There are two kinds of actions to achieve the object of which the mind desires. Either violence/theft or benevolence/donation is done. The fruit of the good deeds is the result of happiness and fruits of misdeeds are cause of sufferings & miseries.  
    4. Our merits and demerits having already been exhausted, we cannot get a body thereafter we have attained release (moksha).

The detailed explanations of Nyaya Darshan are as under:

Methodology of Knowledge

1. Supreme felicity is attained by the knowledge about the true nature of sixteen categories, ·viz., means of right knowledge (pramana, प्रमाण), object of right knowledge (prameya, प्रमेय), doubt (samsaya, संशय), purpose (prayojana, प्रयोजन), familiar instance (drstanta, द्र्ष्टांत), established tenet (siddhanta, सिद्धांत), members (avayava, अवयव), confutation (tarka, तर्क),· ascertainment (nirnaya, निर्णय), discussion (vada, वाद), wrangling (jalpa, जल्प), cavil (vitanda, वितंडा), fallacy (hetvabhasa, हेत्वाभास), quibble (chala, छल), futility (jati, जाति), and occasion for rebuke (nigrahasthana, निग्र्हस्थान).(verse – 1.1.1)

 
Physical Universe

1. Earth, water, light, air and ether - these are the elements. (verse – 1.1.13)

Body, Mind & Soul

1. Body is the site of gesture, senses and sentiments. (verse – 1.1.11)
2. Nose, tongue, eye, skin and car arc the senses produced from elements. (verse – 1.1.12)
3. Smell, taste, colour, touch and sound are objects of the senses and qualities of the earth, etc. (verse – 1.1.14)
4. Activity is that which makes the voice; mind and body begin their action. There are three kinds of action, -viz., vocal, mental and bodily, each of which may be sub-divided as good or bad.
5. Bodily actions which are bad a.re :-( 1) killing, (2) Stealing, and (3) committing adultery. Bodily actions which are good :-(1) giving, (2) protecting, and (3) serving.
6. Vocal actions which are bad are: - (l) te11ing a 1ie, (2) using harsh language, (3) slandering, and (4) indu1ging in frivolous talk. Vocal actions Which are good arc ,i-(l) speaking the truth, (2) speaking what is useful, (3) speaking what is pleasant, and (4) reading sacred books.

 
Mental actions which are bad :-(1) malice, (2) Covetousness, and scepticism. Mental actions which are good are :·-(1) compassion, (2) refraining  from covetousness, and (3) devotion.
 (verse – 1.1.17)

1. The five elements (viz., earth, water, light, air and ether), the five objects of sense (viz., smell, taste, colour, touch and sound), etc., are tenets.
2. Desire, aversion, volition, pleasure, pain and intelligence are the marks of the soul. (verse – 1.1.10)
3. There is a soul beyond the sense because what is seen by left eye is recognised by right eye. Consequently, we must admit that there is a soul which is distinct from the left and right eyes and which is the common seat of perception and recognition. (verse – 3.1.7)
4. The soul is distinct from the senses because there is an excitement of one sense through the operation of another sense (after seeing tasty food, tongue become watery). Hence, remembrance is property of soul. (verse – 3.1.12, 3.1.14)
5. The act of thinking is done by mind. Mind cannot be soul as it is atomic in nature. An atomic agent cannot perform the acts of seeing, hearing, etc. (verse – 3.1.17)
6. A new-born child manifests marks of joy, fear and, grief arising in a child from the memory of things of past life. The memory of the past proves the previous birth as well as existence of soul. (Verse – 3.1.19)  We find that none is born without desire. (Verse – 3.1.25)


7. The five senses, viz., the eye, ear, nose, tongue and skin (touch) are essentially identical with the five elements, viz., fire, ether, earth, water and air whose special qualities, viz., colour, sound, smell (odour), savour (taste) and tangibility are exhibited by them. (verse - -3.1.63)


8. The earth possesses four qualities, viz. odour (smel1). Savour (taste), colour and tangibility. In water there are three qualities, viz Savour (taste), colour and tangibility. Fire has two qualities viz  colour and tangibility. Tangibility belongs to air and sound belongs to ether. (verse - -3.1.64)
9. Knowledge is neither permanent as we cannot receive various sorts of knowledge simultaneously not identical to permanent intellect. (verse – 3.2.4)
10. The internal organ, mind (not intellect) can be move from one sense to another to produce different knowledge which belongs to soul. Intellect (Buddhi) & Ahmkara (ego) are other senses. (verse – 3.2.8)
11. Recollections are not simultaneous owing to the non-simultaneousness of the efforts of attention, operations of stimuli etc. A recollection is produced by the mind coming in conjunction with the soul in which impressions inhere. (verse – 3.2.34).
12. Knowledge, Desire and aversion, volition, pleasure and pain belong to the soul inasmuch as they are the causes of its doing an act or forbearing from doing the same. (Verse – 3.2.36).


13. Memory belongs to the soul which possesses the character of a knower. The soul is competent to recollect a thing because it possesses the knowledge of the past, present and future. (verse - - 3.2.43)

 

• From the contact of a sense with its object no knowledge arises unless, it is said, there is also conjunction of soul with mind. (verse – 2.1.21)
• All the five sense organs work together at all times. But knowledge does not happen together. Knowledge arises only when sense organ is associated with mind (mann). The specialty is that the mind is engrossed in its thoughts that the grim power of the electrifying power stirs the mind. At such a state does not imply the desire to know the soul, but with respect to the senses the mind and the soul have knowledge. (verse – 2.1.24)
• If body were soul, there should be release from sins as soon as the body was burnt. But in reality sins pursue him in his subsequent lives. (verse – 3.1.4) 
• Misrepresentation (false knowledge), faults, activity, birth and pain, these in their uninterrupted course constitute the world. A person with true knowledge of 16 categories is able remove misrepresentation. When this is done, his faults viz. affection - (affection - राग includes lust, avarice, avidity and covetousness), aversion (aversion - द्वेश includes anger, envy, malignity, hatred and implacability) and stupidity (stupidity - मोह includes misapprehension, suspicion, arrogance and carelessness), disappears and he is no longer subject to any activity and is freed from transmigration (re-birth) and pains. (verse – 1.1.2) of the three, stupidity is worst as if it is not there, other two do not come into existence. (verse – 4.1.6)
• Perception, inference, comparison and word, are the means of right knowledge. (verse – 1.1.3) Perception is knowledge which arises from the contact of senses with the object. The perception about the object is pramana when it is determinate and non-erratic. (verse – 1.1.4)
• Soul, body, senses, objects of sense, intellect, mind, activity, fault, transmigration, fruit, pain and release are the objects of' right knowledge. (verse – 1.1.9)
• Our present body has been made up of elements endowed with the fruits of deeds (merit and demerit) of our previous lives. (verse – 3.2.64) All unions between husband and wife are not followed by the production of a child (body). Hence we must acknowledge the deeds of the child to be a co-operative cause of its birth. (verse – 3.2.69)


• Birth is stated to be a pain because it signifies our connection with the body, the senses and the intellect which bring us various distresses. The body is the abode in which pain resides, the senses are the instruments by which pain is experienced, and the intellect is the agent which produces in us the feeling of pain. Our birth as connected with the body, the senses and the intellect is necessarily a source of pain. (Verse – 4.1.55) However, pleasure arises amidst pains. (verse – 4.1.56)
• World causes various distresses through birth, infirmity disease, death, connection with undesirable, connection with desirable etc. Hence, one who pursues pleasure, does in reality pursue pain. (verse – 4.1.58)
• We incur three debts (debts to sages-rishis, gods-dev, progenitors-pitri) which we must go on clearing off until the time or our decay and death (by acquiring knowledge, making sacrifices & by begetting children).
• Ten troubles {10 क्लेश – लोभ (greed), घृणा (hatred), मोह (stupidity), मान (pride), विधर्मिक  (heretical view), संशय (doubt), आलस (sloth),  दम्भ (arrogance), बेशर्मी (shamelessness) and लापरवाही (recklessness)} are our constant companions, while activities pursue us throughout our life. In presence of these, attaining moksha or release not possible. (verse – 4.1.59)

Moksha

1. A person who has, through the knowledge of Brahma, attained release (moksha) is freed from all bonds of lust, pleasure, pain, etc. (verse – 4.1.63)
2. Through knowledge about the true nature of the causes of faults, there is cessation of egotism i.e. I am (part of stupidity). (verse – 4.2.1)
3. Meditation is the soul's union with the mind abstracted from the senses, whose contact with objects does not produce' any perception. The knowledge of the truth is rendered habitual by the repeated practice of this meditation. (verse – 4.2.38) We acquire a habit of practicing meditation in consequence of our good deeds of previous life. (verse – 4.2.41)
4. Our merits and demerits having already been exhausted, we cannot get a body after we have attained release (moksha). Release is the perfect freedom from all sufferings: it consists in a complete destruction of all the. Seeds and seats of suffering. (verse – 4.2.45) For that purpose there should be a purifying of our soul by abstinence from evil and observance of certain duties as well as by following the spiritual 'injunctions. (verse – 4.2.45)

Reference:
1. Sacred books of  Hindus, The Nyaya Sutra of Gotama, Volume –VIII, Published by Sudhindranatha vasu, Allahabad, Printed by Apurva Krishna Bose, Indian Press, 1913.   2.   Shad Darshanamm by Swami Jagdishwaranand Saraswati, publisher: Vijay kumar Govindram Hasanand, nai Sarak, Delhi-110006. ​