How Logic is the Foundation of Indic (Hindu) Spiritual Philosophy

A painting depicting Tarkavidya (the science of reasoning and logic) in action.

Picture: The famous debate between Adi Shankaracharya and Mandana Mishra, in which Shankaracharya emerged victorious. https://twitter.com/mimansaka/status/1411535285444247556?lang=bg)

Can Science & Religion be reconciled?

I've often wondered if there is a reconciliation of science and religion. In past, I've written about misinterpreting faith, the importance of spiritual philosophies, and spiritualism in the Hindu (or Indian) context. I've also read the likes of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who are the pioneers of the atheistic movement opposing the Abrahamic philosophy, to not limit my view to just my Indic background.

In the western world, more people are identifying as atheists, agnostics, or otherwise nonreligious. Pew Research shows the same trend in the western world when it comes to religion. The same Pew Research also shows the importance of religion in India, across the diverse religions that exist, like Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Sikh, Christian, and others. This disillusionment with religion/spirituality, in my opinion, is driven by the rise of materialism as much as a growing preference to use scientific principles to pursue spiritualism.

Atheism in Hinduism / Dharmic Meaning of Atheism

On a side note, Indians are comfortable with atheism as there isn't a concept of "non-believer" but end-goal (or even lack of it) of human life could be attained through multiple paths. There isn't a single monolithic concept of God that is the only way. So Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs alike are comfortable in their own skin without any denigration of other paths. Indian atheistic philosophies like that of Cārvāka and Jain get clubbed under the western concept of "religion" in the above surveys. However, the nuance of these atheistic philosophies from an Indic (Vedic) perspective is lost. You can read more about Cārvāka here.

I would not digress to other battles that will unnecessarily take up the bandwidth of my limited intellect, for example, people often argue that religion is a system of beliefs that justify a creator and atheism is disbelief in God hence more rational. I don't intend to fall into this trap, as a lot of this is influenced by the Western concept of 'God', or Karl Marx's opposition to supernaturalism and other stereotypes. 

What is Nyāya Philosophy?

My focus will be the Indic philosophy of Nyāya, the word has its roots in Sanskrit, meaning the conclusion of a syllogism. It's also referred to as "Hetu-vidya" the science of causes. And sometimes also referred to as the science of reasoning, as it gives a lot of impetus on what is knowledge, what are tenets, confutation, and fallacy. 

Indic philosophies like Nyāya or Vaiśeṣika begin with simple questions on what is knowledge and understanding of the physical universe instead of commandments. Especially in Nyāya besides the means of right knowledge, the focus is on doubt (Saṃśaya) as well! The basic premise is there will always be multiple theses in the world and we have to carefully maneuver as we go from curiosity to doubt to the right knowledge. It outlines the definitions of each of these steps. 

The natural state of our intellect is to understand the true meaning that always starts as curiosity and ends with final knowledge after removing all doubts. This is the fundamental principle of Nyāya Darshan (न्याय दर्शन) that has been elucidated throughout this ancient Indian treatise on knowledge and logic. It uses epistemology to divide the world into sixteen categories. And each of these is discussed in great detail.

Unfortunately, in the modern world, the focus has shifted to finding ways for easy material gain. Everyone is looking for a quick miracle that can cure diseases, or bring undeserved success overnight or material wealth through unrestricted exploitation of nature. J Sai Deepak in his book, 'India, That is Bharat', discusses in great length how European colonialism followed by modernism and globalization cemented the position of material profit above everything else. 

As the masses thronged for miracles and the thirst for materialism gained momentum the religion (and spirituality) adapted to attract the masses. Perhaps that's where 'religion became the opium of the masses. And somewhere along the line spiritualism started seeking validation from science to justify itself. And in recent times social media popularized notions of the inferiority of religion (and spirituality) as physical proof was given a higher pedestal.

Hindu religion in India too went through a phase of excessive ritualism. And still, there are branches of Hinduism that exclusively deal with ritualism for material gain. However, numerous sages, saints, and reformers have stressed the goal to dispel ignorance (avidya) and strive for knowledge (vidya). And as the world is full of sources that claim to possess the qualities of the right knowledge, it is of utmost importance to be able to differentiate between ignorance and knowledge.

Nyāya Darshan empowers the readers by diving into syllogism (the science of reasoning). As there will be doubts in our curious minds but leading it to the right conclusion will lead to not only enlightenment but also prosperity in the material life. The 'right' conclusion is the topic of the various Sutras of this entire Darshan. 

This perhaps is the common ground of science and spiritualism. The science of reasoning via logical problem-solving is mandatory for both fields. In an Abrahamic mind, the two may be separated by a chasm that's irreconcilable, but Dharma calls for an intellectual discussion instead of a faith-based system. So both science and spiritualism rely on the same principles of study.

Is science able to explain spiritualism or vice versa? Perhaps we're not yet intellectually developed yet to see these as one realm. And qualms and divisiveness arise due to our shortcomings in observing the oneness. Here is a link to the series of lectures on Nyāya Darshan by Acharya Satyajit Arya, in case you're interested in this Indic philosophy from ancient times.