The Hindu View of Existence
by Hindus see two forms of existences. These are Brahman, which is described as pure reality, a formless unit that is sometimes called the source or pure consciousness, and Atman, the inner controller, the self that creates karma that perpetuates life and are discussed here.
Through Hinduism there are many different groups that look upon the world in dual systems and singular systems. Each group has a different reason for doing this and comes up with different answers for how it works. I will be discussing the two different Hindu schools and their thoughts on existence. There are two specific entities that are important in understanding Hindu pluralism. These are Brahman, which is described as pure reality, a formless unit that is sometimes called the source or pure consciousness, and Atman, the inner controller, the self that creates karma that perpetuates life. Some Hindu schools look as these two as one entity when others see them separately or on different levels between. Other Hindu schools use purusa and prakrti to understand the world. Prakrti includes the three gunas called sattva, goodness, rajas, activity, and tamas, the darkness which makes up the entire universe. Purusa is the creator of all of these, being said that prakrti came into existence when purusa saw itself, causing goodness, activity, and darkness.
There are six main schools of Hinduism. Mimamsa who take the vedic interpretation to get their meaning and rituals, Vedanta who use the Upanisads to find truth, Samkhya, a dualist school of consciousness and matter, Vaisesika who find truth though nature, Nyaya who find knowledge from direct perception of the world, and the Yoga school who look with spiritual means for existence. The two I will be focusing on are Samkhya and Vedanta. Samkhya uses purusa and prakrti to understand the universe and Vedanta uses Atman and Brahman, which they consider to be one. These two systems each form a very separate world yet they are both Hindu. I will be looking at how each school uses their system to form the world and then how they are similar, both being Hindu.
First to understand the Samkhya philosophy we need to know the three pramanas, the ways to knowledge that they accept. They accept perception, inference, and reliable authority as valid means to knowledge.
4. The attainment of reliable knowledge is based on determining the means of correct knowledge. The accepted means of correct knowledge are three because these three comprehend all means of correct knowledge. These three means are as follows: (a) perception, (b) inference, (c) reliable authority. (Isvarakrsna: the samkhya karika)*
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