Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-4. Part - 15.

Chapter-4. Swami Sri  Adi  Sankaracharya - The Genius ( Sankara Jayanti ) :

 Part-15.

I started by saying that besides the chronological process, there was also a logical reason for the development of this thought which is another interesting stream of the psychological history of man, while what I have said so far is the historical, purely sociological or chronological aspect of the significance of Sankara's work in this country and in the world.

Let us now see its logical significance.

His thought is a logical consequence of all the thoughts that preceded his coming into being.

There were systems of thought called the Darsanas.

You must have heard of the schools of thought known as Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and certain other mystical and ritualistic philosophies which were in minority, of course, yet prevalent during the time of Sankara.

The immediate or rather the crudest form of human perception is taking for granted whatever is seen by the senses.

"Oh, I am seeing it there, and therefore it is there. Just because I see it there, it is there."

This is the uncritical acceptance of things.

We know very well that just because something is there before our eyes, it need not necessarily be there, because certain things can present themselves before our eyes yet they may not be there really.

Yet uncritically we accept everything that is visible to the eyes.

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued  ....