The Quest for Consciousness- Indian and Cross-Cultural Perspectives- Volume-1

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An "ego" sense of 1 and Me is not denied by any philosopher. Ego accompanies all our activities in the waking, dreaming and deep-sleep states. An ethical Self is equally not denied by any thinker in the East or the West. "Affirming a reality, independent of what really is, is called the ego" (Swami Krishnananda). That works as the centre of personality. It is a myth, yet the whole life revolves around this mythical self. The "Anatmavada" of the Buddha is meant to counter this mythical self, not the transcendent Self. Vyavaharika mithyatma is equally denounced by the Upanisads. Something separate from the organic structure of this universe is what our personality is. Our belief that we are unique, that we are distinct from all that is outside of us. This is the cause of suffering and sorrow of the humans. This separateness from nature is created by the "ego". How to universalize our existence, which is the original status of all the jīvas is the primary concern of the Vedas. Contemporary times have seen a rise in the interest in the studies on subject, subjectivity, Self, etc. There are references to Buddhist texts, Vedanta and other schools of Indian philosophy. It is a good development indeed.

I have been contemplating for a long time on the ways in which Indian philosophy can be carried on. Indian philosophy, generally, is presented in the language of Kant, Hegel or Husserl. The challenge before us is: Can we reverse this model of doing Indian philosophy? Can we understand and present the Western philosophies in the language and conceptual framework of Indian traditions, may be that of the Nyaya or Vedanta? This does not mean distorting the philosophies of Kant or Husserl, but to creatively interpret them, and thereby improvise the domain of knowledge. Instantly, two names of Indian philosophers come to my mind. One is K.C. Bhattacharyya who appropriates Kant's philosophy and creatively interprets it using an Indian language, and also using terminology and concepts from Vedanta tradition. The second is Professor R. Balasubramanian who was rooted to Vedanta tradition and creatively interpreted Husserl.

It is very hard to convince European scholars that there existed consciousness studies for the last 4,000 years in India, and that several contemporary issues were discussed in detail which resulted in several schools of thought within Buddhism and Vedanta. There were other systems as well that contributed to consciousness studies in India. The chapters in this book are written with an aim to introduce the reader to contemporary problems in consciousness studies and the way they were handled by the thinkers from the East. Not resting at that, the objective is to further the research based on Indian methodologies, approaches and cultural contexts.

This book is a result of the project work undertaken at the "Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems", Assam University sponsored by the AICTE, Ministry of Education, New Delhi. The centre aims at revisiting traditional Indian knowledge systems and finding their contemporary relevance in addressing global concerns. The centre advances research in areas such as consciousness studies, agriculture, fermented foods, export potential in handlooms and handicrafts. All these themes have a special reference to north-east India.

THE quest for consciousness is not new, it has a long history. Modern science has shown its immense expertise in unfolding the nature of the external world, yet the inner world has remained a mysterious domain so far. It is only from the beginning of the twentieth century that Western philosophers, cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, psychologists, biologists and others have become anxious about studying this inner private world. However, for Indian thinkers, this is not a new affair as the quest started along with Upanisads. It would not be a mistake to argue that the nature of self or consciousness is the central theme in Upanisads. Even many times Upanisads declare that the study of consciousness or self-inquiry is not only essential but has more importance than any other study and thus conducted an extensive inquiry into our inner subjective world. Today, the problem of consciousness is the problem of explaining this subjective experience that is inner, private, imperceptible and inexpressible yet so self-evident that it is totally absurd to deny it.

The sole reason that makes the study of consciousness challenging is that consciousness is a subjective experience or first-person experience unlike the objects of our experience. There is an intrinsic sense of "I"ness associated with every conscious experience that cannot be apprehended or known like any material object of the world. There are many arguments against the ontological existence of such "I" or subjective experience but the problem is how to deny the sense of "I"ness or subjectivity we all essentially retain. This book would like to discuss and address the issues related to consciousness or subjective experience from Indian perspectives. The purpose is to understand how far these multiple approaches offered by these classical and contemporary Indian thinkers are still relevant in contemporary consciousness studies, There is no doubt that great thinkers of Vedanta, Tantra, Samkhya and Buddhism have done enormous work which can be explored, examined and enhanced even today for a better comprehension of the subjectivity and conscious experience. It is quite interesting to note that some of the leading contemporary Western scholars like Jonardan Ganeri, Evan Thompson, Mark Siderits and many others have made a great effort to set a global platform by bringing ideas and examining theories of several non-Western traditions to discuss and resolve the problems of self, and the nature and structure of consciousness. They just did not open a door for a cross-cultural exchange of ideas and debate, but at the same time have expanded the scope of contemporary consciousness studies. The present work firmly upholds this novel attitude of these contemporary scholars and aims to see the modern problems of consciousness or subjectivity through the lens of Indian scholars.

Broadly, the study of consciousness can be classified into two categories. There are good number of philosophers, cognitive scientists and neurobiologists who hold that consciousness is nothing more than a natural phenomenon. They adopted a third-person scientific approach and explain consciousness in terms of physical phenomena or functions of the brain. Consciousness or mental states are biological phenomena and very much part of this natural world like photosynthesis or digestion (Searle 2004). Of course, neuroscientists still do not know how the brain produces this consciousness or why we have this subjective experience. But they contend that it would be possible to define consciousness in near future like the way they defined life processes. On the other hand, there is another popular Indian approach that considers consciousness as fundamental and universal. The non-dual philosophy of Vedanta that strongly supports this position refutes any materialistic interpretation of consciousness or theory of correlation or reductionism.