Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
International Phenomenological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
VEDANTA AS TRANSCENDENTALPHENOMENOLOGY
"What is that which being known everythingis known?" This is the
metaphysicalquestion asked in Vedanta which clearly distinguishesit
from an empiricalquestion.1The question implies that, first, we have a
notionof an absolute origin and explanationof all things or Being, and
second,we have the capacityto knowimmediatelyor unitively this metaphysicalobject. In other words,we have such a kind of knowledgeof this
object, Brahmanor ultimate Being, that it cannot be said to be known
by us nor to be unknowneither. It is vaguely thought to be the ground
of every empiricalknowledgeof ours.2The metaphysicalquest is made
possibleby the paradoxicalstate of our knowledgeabout Brahman,for
it couldnot have arisen,if we had eitherno notion whatsoeverof Brahman
or a perfect knowledgeof It, as Sankara points out.3 Now this metaphysical quest presupposesa faith in man, in his essentialunity with the
core of Being. Metaphysicalknowledgeis conceivedas a realizationof this
unity which is somehowforgotten.All true metaphysicianshad this idea
of their task. Socrateswas feeling his way to a concept of man such that
men could know the abstract universalsbehind the sensible particulars,
and, so, have knowledgeinstead of mere opinion. Only thus could he
really answerthe Sophists.Plato believedthe soul of man to be possessed
of knowledgeof the eternal Ideas as it lived in the world of Ideas from
which it fell and was imprisonedin the body after drinkingthe waters of
Lethe. So for Plato "Ourbirth is but a sleep and a forgetting"(Wordsworth) and our knowledge is awakening and recollection. Aristotle's
'active reason'is the richest and the immortalpart of the universalMind,
Nous. Thus metaphysical cognition is a simple exercise of a function
inherent in human existence by virtue of which man feels with total
certitudeand securityhis onenesswith the whole of Being. It is no dark
gropingof a logico-empiricalor speculativekind and so there is no scope
for profundityhere which, accordingto Husserl, is a sign of chaos and
not of clearknowledgeor science.Theutterancesof the Vedanticseersand
other metaphysicalmasters are made in a simple languageof discovery.
They do not argue nor do they take recourseto inference,analogy, and
postulation:"Listen, 0 the devas, I, througha disciplineof the mind am
getting into communionwith Brahmanthat has revealed you," says a
1 MundakaUpanishad, 1, 1. 3-4.
2
252
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
PHENOMENOLOGY
VEDANTA
AS TRANSCENDENTAL
253
Vedantic seer.4 Sankera declares that in metaphysical inquiry argumentation has no real force or foundation and revelation is the only
source of our knowledge.5Argumentsare used only to make revelation
intelligibleor plausibleto the ordinaryintellectualsor rationalmindswho
do not have any intuitive knowledgeso far of the metaphysicalobject
and want it in termsof their empiricalexperience.
The positive and self-confidentattitude toward man and metaphysics
was abandonedin Westernphilosophyby Descartesand the rationalists
who regardedman in his cognitive activity as an isolated Ego using his
cognitionas a tool to know Being as an outwardlygiven object. Naturally
the whole of Being could not be graspedwith the whole of his self. This
meanta breakdownof both metaphysicsand humanexistencein Western
culture.6The rift betweenfaith and reason,whichappearedwith Aquinas,
became wide and permanent. Germanidealism sought to rehabilitate
metaphysicsas a rational science. Kant showed that metaphysicsis impossibleas an empiricalscience,that the idea of causalityoperativein the
universecannot be employedto yield us the explanationof the Universe
itself, which as a whole cannot be explainedin terms of one of its components. Thus metaphysicscannot be a matter of "telling stories," as
Plato wouldsay. Hegel recognizedthe essentialunity of man in his metaphysicalenterpriseand Being; the formeris the self-manifestationof the
latter. However,all such effortsat reinstatingmetaphysicsand man were
not effective against the growing positivism of the Western mind that
endedin a total surrenderof all metaphysicsand, so, all bonds that unite
man with the supremeBeing or Brahman.
The modernpositivist has entered the scene with an orthodoxy of an
opposite kind. He cannot make any sense of the metaphysical object
which is said to be a self-sufficient explanation of the universe. For he
feels that the whole of the universe is an open system and not a closed
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
254
their dispositions.The positivist also fails to make sense of the first cause
or ultimategroundof the worldfor similarreasons.And he suspectsthat
the metaphysicianmerely quibbles with words and indulges in picturethinkingand emotivegratification.The positivist does not find any cognitive significancein the discussionsof metaphysics.Thisis understandable,
for somepeoplemay not see as far as othersdo, but the attitude that some
positivists have adopted is quite unreasonable.For they insist that the
metaphysicalstatements must be nonsensicaland that the only sensible
ones are those that belongto empiricalsciencewhich dealswith the senseverifiablethings. They maintain that a sensible idea must have senseverifiableconsequencesby means of whichit may be definedand verified
either directly or indirectly. But this is rather dogmatic, for how can
anybodyknowthe wholerealmof objectsthat man is capableof knowing
and, so, determinethe meaningof meaning?The positivist's criterionof
meaningis thus to be taken as a stipulation instead of an established
truth. It merely expressesa particularattitude, one that helps science,
and so, our practice. It expressesour biophysicalnature. But we may
have a metaphysicalnature too. Theremay be dimensionsof our human
personalityand the positivisthas seen only one of them.
But the positivist's criticismof metaphysicshas done one good to the
latter. It has taught metaphysicsto followits own methodand not try to
imitate science and tell stories. The scientific method in metaphysics
would yield what is known as an inductive metaphysicswhich will offer
us indirectly verifiable results bearing some analogy with sensible experienceand possessingthat public characterwhich metaphysicsas an
esoteric disciplinelacks. But such a scientificmetaphysicscannot deliver
us the goods, for it cannot arrive at the ultimate explanationof things;
the most generalhypothesisor formulathat it can offerus will always be
open to further questions, and, moreover, cannot claim certitude. So
that if metaphysicsremainsloyal to its originaland fundamentalobjective
and means business,it must not flirt wich the scientific method. If one
seeksto presentor developmetaphysicaltruths in the mannerof scientific
concepts then one must submit one's accounts to the scrutiny of the
logical empiricists who will then not allow any concept which is not
verifiableeither directly or indirectly,and certainlynot any claim to an
ultimateexplanationand certitude.Thereforethe allianceof metaphysics
with science,thoughit can succeedto some degreeand help one in understandingin logico-empiricalterms some of the concepts of metaphysics,
cannotgo far enoughand after a point becomesa positive dangerto our
intellect that must seize the fundamentaldistinctionbetween the metaphysicalquest and the scientificone. As regardsthe esotericor subjective
nature of metaphysicsand its incommunicability,this is not an insuperable difficulty,for it only needs on our part as initial faith in metaphysics
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
255
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
256
PHILOSOPHY
ANDPHENOMENOLOGICAL
RESEARCH
for the metaphysicalobject. The mind has a notion of the object and,
therefore, it poses the metaphysical question and will not rest satisfied
with such answers as are given from its logico-empirical framework. Metaphysics is thus a serious business and not an intellectual pastime. The
metaphysician knows the stake involved in his nature. Either he recovers
his inherent bond with the ultimate Being and is firmly established in the
universe or he is doomed to be a stranger in the world, "a guilty thing
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
AS TRANSCENDENTAL
PHENOMENOLOGY
VEDANTA
257
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
258
PHILOSOPHY
AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL
RESEARCH
succession. Now, we have evidence for this stage of the self from the
testimony of the mystics including the Vedic seers. We, as Vedanta also
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
VEDANTA
AS TRANSCENDENTAL
PHENOMENOLOGY
259
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
260
takes them respectively for given worlds and their reproductive expressions.Kant noticed only the formsof experienceand languageof the
highly developedconsciousnessof the enlightenedhuman society of his
time and took it to be fixed for all minds for all times and places. His
insight revealedthe mind-dependenceof a particularform of world experience.This form being found commonto a large section of individual
minds,a commonbase for them had to be imagined.The a prior character
of the categoriespointed to the hypothesis of a commonmind working
behind the individual ones. But the insight of the psychologists and
philosophershas relativizedthe categorialfeature of our experienceand
has made the hypothesis more plausible. In Vedantic terminologythis
insightmay be expressedby saying that the warp and woof of this world
are but namesand forms(ndmaand ro4a). Thisidentificationof the world
with the formof languageor speechhas a parallelin the Westerntradition
in the Greekconcept of Logos as the originand foundationof the world,
and also the Biblical concept of the 'Word'which is said to have been
originallywith God and then becameincarnatedin the world. All these
ancientinsights with variousdegreesof clarity and adequacycan be best
understoodin the light of our phenomenologicalfindingswhich may thus
gain some initial trust from the speculative thinkers, who may then
adopt the right method, the phenomenological,to know the truth about
these matters.
Third,our thesis regardinghigher-ordermentality behindthe ordinary
one is further supported by certain extraordinarymental phenomena
observedfrom the very ancient times and more or less made plausiblein
the light of modern researchesin parapsychology.Extrasensory perception,precognition,thought reading,and thought transference,hypnotism, and telekinesis are now recognized phenomena. Also prophetic
and telepathicdreamshave come to be acknowledgedby moderninvestigatorslike Myers,Dunne, and Tyrrell.8C. G. Jung believes that some of
our dreamsexpress our experiencesof the forgottenpast of the race and
prove the existence of a 'collective Unconscious'or "a sediment of our
experiencesof the universe for all times."9 These phenomenahave led
the parapsychologiststo recognize a common substratum of our apparently isolated minds. However, this postulate of a universal higherordermind on the analogyof our individualone is always a puzzleto our
understandingfor the analogy is never complete. One cannot imagine
how a single mind can workin so many ways throughso many empirical
minds and take up so many attitudes or statuses at once. Only a direct
8 F. W. H. Myers: Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death (1903).
J. W. Dunne: An Experimentwith Time (1937). G. N. M. Tyrrell: The Personality of
Man (1947).
9 See his CollectedPaper8 on Analytical Psychology(1917).
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
VEDANTAAS TRANSCENDENTAL
PHENOMENOLOGY
261
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
262
PHILOSOPHYAND PHENOMENOLOGICAL
RESEARCH
Ivetdgvatara,IV, 9-10.
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
263
perfectly satisfied and quiet in his mind. Brahman knows the empirical
world of our common experience as a dream within a dream,a dreamthat
is fully understood as a work of fancy. Therefore to know Brahman or S4
as a stage of subjectivity is to know that which being known everything
is known, and to be identical with this ultimate cause and explanation of
things. The Vedantic seers have repeatedly told us of the identity of the
ultimate metaphysical knowledge with the ultimate self-realization on
the part of the enquirer as we have already mentioned before. The
enquirer knows his own self to be the ultimate basis of all being he has
been searching after, his real self behind his many assumed selves with
which it had allowed itself to be covered up and concealed to itself as we
do in dreams or fantasy. How this could be is a lazy question asked by the
scientific intellect which assumes that everything must follow the pattern
of its empirical experience and that inference from and analogy to this
experience are the only ways of knowing the mysteries behind nature.
The scientific mind must be told that we have more things in the world
than are dreamt of by it and the only way to know them is to listen to the
words of the ancient seers, ponder on them, and then delve deep into
ourselves to verify and possibly improve upon them by actual experience.
We must not merely sit on the shore of the ocean and speculate on the
things that may lie at its bottom, we must take the plunge. If we take
this all-important step in philosophy then we will naturally have scope
for collaboration of efforts and mutual checking of results, and so, will
be able to develop metaphysics as an interpersonal body of knowledge
like science. To doubt the possibility of such a science and condemn all
meditative researches in metaphysics as subjective illusions on abstract
and antecedent grounds is idle and dogmatic. The idle man is the greatest
prophet, goes the proverb and, of course, he has to be dogmatic too. To
the true aspirants after metaphysical knowledge the Vedic Seer urges,
"Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached, the path to the self is
as difficult to pass over as the sharp edge of a razor." 11
PRAVAS JIVAN CHAUDHURY.
PRESIDENCY COLLEGE,
CALCUTTA, INDIA.
11
This content downloaded from 169.230.243.252 on Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:30:29 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions