Contemporary Indian philosophy/ Basant Kumar Lal

I Swami Vivekananda
Life. The influences that shaped his philosophy. His
metaphysical standpoint. Reality and God. Proofs
for God's existence. Some other characters of God.
Nature of the world : the Cosmos. The Doctrine of
Maya. Nature of Man. The Physical nature of
Man. The Spiritual nature of Man. Freedom and
Karma. Destiny of the Soul : Realisation of
Immortality. Evidences in its favour. Nature of
the Liberated. Ways of Realisation : The way of
Knowledge (Jnanayoga). The way of Devotion
(Bhakti-marga). The way of Action (Karma-marga).
The way of Psychology (Raja-yoga). A final note on
the four kinds of Yoga. Religion, its nature.
Religion as a necessary aspect of life. Origin of
Religion, Nature of Religion. Nature and Ideal of
Universal Religion.
II Rabindranath Tagore
Introduction. General Philosophical standpoint.
Reality and God. Proofs for God's existence. Crea
tion. Doctrine of Maya. Degrees of Reality.
Nature of Man. (i) The finite-infinite nature of man
(ii) The finite aspect of man (iii) The Infinite aspect
of man's nature (iv) Soul and Body. Nature of
Religion. Human Destiny. The Problem of Evil.
Ways of Realisation : (i) Soul-consciousness and
self-consciousness, (ii) The ways : Realisation in
Love. Realisation in Action. Realisation of Beauty.
Realisation of the Infinite. Tagore's Humanism.
Ill Mahatama Gandhi
Life. Influences that shaped his Thought. God
and Truth. Truth is God. Proofs for the exist
ence of God. Some other characters of God. Nature
of the world. Nature of Man. Karma and Rebirth.
Non-violence. The technique of Ahimsa : Satya-
graha. Requirements of a Satyagrahi. Kinds of
Satyagraha. Philosophy of End and Means. Reli
gion and Morality ; (i) What is Religion (ii) the
way of Religion (iii) attitude towards living Reli
gions (iv) attitude towards Hinduism. Morality :
(i) Religion and Morality (ii) what is Morality ?
(iii) The Cardinal Virtues. Social and Political
Ideas : (i) Society, (ii) The natural classes or the
^Varnas (iii) Bread Labour (iv) Equality of wages
»'(v) Labour, Capital and the Doctrine of Trusteeship
(vi) The economic basis of Society (vii) against too
much of Industrialisation (viii) Men and Women
in Society (ix) Nature 6f his Political Ideas (x)
Political freedohi : Swaraj (xi) The State and the
Individual (xii) Decentralisation (xiii) Ideal State
and Sarvodaya (xiv) Education (xv) Swadeshi,
Nationalism, Internationalism.
IV Sri Aurobindo
Life. The Philosophical Background. The Two
Negations. Reality — Saccidananda. The Pure
Existent. The Consciousness-force. The delight of
Existence : Bliss. Nature of Creation. The world-
process : Descent or Involution. Maya and Lila.
Ascent or Evolution. The four Theories of Exist
ence. Nature of Man. Rebirth and the Law of
Karma. Ignorance, its origin and nature. The
Sevenfold Ignorance. The Supermind. The triple
status of the Supermind. The triple transformation.
Gnostic Being and Divine Life; (i) Nature of
the Gnostic Being (ii) types of Gnostic.Being (ill)
Personality of the Gnostic Being. The Divine Life.
Integral Yoga, its nature. How is it integral ?
V Krislmachandra Bhatiacharya
Life. General Character of his Thought. Concept
of Philosophy : (i) Theoretic • consciousness (ii)
its four grades, Science. Philosophy of the object,
Philosophy of the Spirit, Philosophy of Truth.
Theory of knowledge. Negation as the basis of
his philosophy. Notion of Subjectivity : (a) The
subject and the object (b) further analysis of sub
jectivity (c) A summing up. Progressive realisa
tion of the Subject's freedom. Concept of the
Absolute and its alternation.
VI S. Radhakrishnan
Life. Nature of his philosophy. Nature of the
Ultimate Reality. The Absolute or the Brahman.
Absolute and God. World. Nature of the Soul.
The finite aspects of Man. The Infinite aspect of
Man's nature, true nature of the Soul. Some
other characters. Are Souls one or many ? The
Doctrine of Rebirth. Human Destiny. The Way
of Realisation, Religion, its nature. Religious Ex
perience. Essence of Religion. The Way of Reli
gion. An element of Mysticism. Different ways of
knowing Inadequacy of Sense experience. Inade
quacy of Intellectual Cognition, Intuition and Sense-
impression. Intuition and Intellect. Nature of
Intuitive Apprehension.
VII Sir Mohammad Iqbal
Life. General Introduction. Nature of Intuition.
Objections against Intuition considered. Nature of
the Self. Nature of the World. Space and Time.
The World as an Ego. God. On the traditional
proofs for the existence of God. God as the
Supreme Ego. Attributes of God. Knowledge,
Omnipotence, Eternity, Immanence and Transcen
dence. Human Destiny. Importance of Prayer.