KOCHI: The Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR) seminar on ‘Revitalisation of Indian Philosophy: Decolonisation of Indian mind’ was held at the 22nd Kochi International Book Festival (KIBF) on Friday. S R Bhatt, chairman, ICPR, inaugurated the session and researcher and writer David Frawley was the chief guest.
“Philosophy should be brought in as meditation, and its real teachings have to be learned so our soul never detaches from us. There must be a revitalisation of philosophy to gain and retain the inner vision,” said David while speaking at the session. Stressing the importance of inner and outer consciousness, he said to control one’s mind requires much effort.
During his speech on ‘Darsana and Western Ideologies,’ he said western ideologies are completely dominated by science and chemistry. “Religion and faith have its limitations, the knowledge it gives us is also limited. The human brain is getting limited to chemistry, there is no soul or ‘athma’ in one. Even to control one’s mind chemicals are used, the relevance of yoga, Ayurveda must be widespread,” said David.
According to David, yoga and Vedic philosophy are all about the detachment of the mind.
Our senses are always compromised, a mind is a wandering soul. The true knowledge of self comes through ‘samadhi’, he said. “People cannot attain true and complete knowledge in one’s life, it is after ‘samadhi’ one is able to get true and pure knowledge. Marxist ideology takes one’s brain from a philosophical being to a political one, whose aim is to gain political power through class division, caste division and so on,” he said.
Rather than understanding the teachings of philosophy, they deconstruct the teachings on addressing social and psychological issues. “Marxist colonialism, therefore, is the worst form of colonialism. It becomes political at several stages,” he said.
The keynote address was given by Rajaneesh Kumar Shukla, member secretary, ICPR. V Nithyanantha Bhat, director, Sukrtindra Oriental Research Institute; Sreekala Nair, head of department (HOD), Philosophy, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady; Chandrasekharan K R, KIBF; and Vidyasagaran B, KIBF, also took part in the event.