September 05, President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s birthday is celebrated as Teachers’ Day in India. On Tuesday, September 05, 2023, I want to share my reflections on the philosophy of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
In my analysis, President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, like all other Indian thinkers, thinks of Spirit, Soul, or Atman as an immaterial principle and hence fails to examine the Material Basis of Spirit and Soul, or Atman. At a fundamental level, he fails to make the distinction between Physical Matter and Living Matter. He discusses the nature of human form and human body without sharing any thought about the living corporeal substance of the human body and human form.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888—1975)
As an academic, philosopher, and statesman, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) was one of the most recognized and influential Indian thinkers in academic circles in the 20th century. Throughout his life and extensive writing career, Radhakrishnan sought to define, defend, and promulgate his religion, a religion he variously identified as Hinduism, Vedanta, and the Religion of the Spirit. He sought to demonstrate that his Hinduism was both philosophically coherent and ethically viable. Radhakrishnan’s concern for experience and his extensive knowledge of the Western philosophical and literary traditions has earned him the reputation of being a bridge-builder between India and the West. He often appears to feel at home in the Indian as well as the Western philosophical contexts, and draws from both Western and Indian sources throughout his writing. Because of this, Radhakrishnan has been held up in academic circles as a representative of Hinduism to the West. His lengthy writing career and his many published works have been influential in shaping the West’s understanding of Hinduism, India, and the East.
Radhakrishnan located his metaphysics within the Advaita (non-dual) Vedanta tradition (sampradaya). And like other Vedantins before him, Radhakrishnan wrote commentaries on the Prasthanatraya (that is, main primary texts of Vedanta ): the Upanishads (1953),Brahma Sutra (1959), and the Bhagavadgita (1948).
As an Advaitin, Radhakrishnan embraced a metaphysical idealism. But Radhakrishnan’s idealism was such that it recognized the reality and diversity of the world of experience (Prakrit) while at the same time preserving the notion of a wholly transcendent Absolute (Brahman), an Absolute that is identical to the self (Atman). While the world of experience and of everyday things is certainly not ultimate reality as it is subject to change and is characterized by finitude and multiplicity, it nonetheless has its origin and support in the Absolute (Brahman) which is free from all limits, diversity, and distinctions (Nirguṇa). Brahman is the source of the world and its manifestations, but these modes do not affect the integrity of Brahman.
In this vein, Radhakrishnan did not merely reiterate the metaphysics of Shankara (8th century C.E.), arguably Advaita Vedanta’s most prominent and enduring figure, but sought to reinterpret Advaita for present needs. In particular, Radhakrishnan reinterpreted what he saw as Shankara’s understanding of Maya strictly as illusion. For Radhakrishnan, Maya ought not to be understood to imply a strict objective idealism, one in which the world is taken to be inherently disconnected from Brahman, but rather Maya indicates, among other things, a subjective misconception of the world as ultimately real. [See Donald Bauer, Maya in Radhakrishnan’s Thought: Six Meanings Other Than Illusion (1985) for a full treatment of this issue.]
President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan just like Adi Shankara is fully convinced in his belief that ‘A’ (Soul or Spirit, or Atman) and the human body ‘B’ are not connected or related. It must be noted that, ‘A’ or “AHAM” refers to a singular person called ‘I’ and that singular person ‘I’ is in a state called ‘Being’, one who lives, or exists. If ‘A’ is stated to be existing as an entity called I am, I would like to ask the following questions:
1. Who is Existing?
2. What is Existing?
3. When it is Existing?
4. Where it is Existing?
5. Why it is Existing?
If the Subject ‘A’, or “AHAM” (I AM), has no size, no shape, and no form, how could we establish the fact that ‘A’ is existing?
Adi Shankara/ Dr Radhakrishnan fail to categorically state the place or site where Spirit, Soul, or Atman could be existing.
If ‘A’ is existing, we may like to know the purpose of this existence. If there is a purpose for the existence of ‘A’, the question would be, What is that purpose? How is the nature of ‘A’ or the nature of ‘C’ (Ultimate Reality or God) is related to its purpose?
The Truth and Reality about human Soul, or Spirit, or Atman can be verified, can be corroborated, and can be validated by knowing the structural, functional, mental, moral, social, and spiritual relationship, partnership, connection, association, or bonding between ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’. Indian tradition suggests that the human body has three aspects; “Tri-ani-pada”, or three-in-one; and the three aspects of human body are, 1. Causal, 2. Spiritual, and 3. Material. There is a material connection between ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’, if the human body has a ‘causal, and a ‘spiritual’ dimension.
It would be very interesting to note that Adi Shankara and Dr Radhakrishnan specifically avoid to describe the connection or relationship between the human Soul and the human Consciousness. In the Sanskrit language, Consciousness is called Chetana and this term is not explored to study the conscious dimension of the human body. Indian tradition believes that consciousness is the evidence for the presence of the human Soul and there is a structural and functional relationship between Soul and the Living human entity that is Conscious.
We need to explain the concepts of Subject-Object, Appearance-Reality, Perceptual-Categorical, Immanent-Transcendent, Regulative-Constitutive, Conditioned-Unconditioned Dualism in respect of man’s existence and man’s status in Nature.
We need a methodology to study philosophy and to understand philosophical statements. Logical Positivism, also known as Scientific Empiricism aims to clarify concepts in both everyday and scientific language. It describes analysis of language as the function of philosophy. This analysis of language and of concepts is important to understand questions of belief and ideology which affect what we think we ought to do individually and socially. I would use this method of ‘Applied Philosophy’ to analyze the philosophical doctrine of ‘Advaita’ and to study the views and philosophy of Adi Shankara and his efforts to interpret the true or real identity.
In the study of a man, the know-er and the known are one. The man is the observer and the observed fact is that of the man’s nature. If a man has to know the truth about his true or real self, the man has to understand the truth and reliability of his own cognitive powers. If the Subject called man is identified as an Object called Soul, or Spirit, the Truth or Reality of Soul, or Spirit involves a structural/functional relationship between the Subject and its Object.
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s metaphysics fails to account for the existence of the Spirit in the physical, material, terrestrial, or immanent realm called Earth. Just like Shankara, Radhakrishnan claims that the Absolute (Brahman) is identical to the true or real Self (Atman) without clarifying the structural and the functional relationship between the human body and its indwelling Soul, Spirit, or Atman.
In any case, Hinduism cannot be defined as the Religion of the Spirit. In my experience, most Hindus worship Mother Earth as the physical manifestation of the Absolute (Brahman). In my analysis, the Spirituality of the Hindu experience always includes a Material Basis to account for the relationship between man, Earth, and God.
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