Heading back to Indian Philosophy

I had subscribed to Brain Pickings a long time ago. I used to have the time to read this newsletter before the time there were so many newsletters. I was thinking of names when I learnt that Maria Popova changed the name of her newsletter from Brain Pickings to The Marginalian. Somehow, it pushed me to take the time to read her newsletter every Sunday, her weekly digest.

In a post written on December 7 (coincidence?), she had an article on Carl Jung. The post was on Jung’s advice on how to live and do the next right thing. This post seems to have triggered some avalanche inside me.

Popova writes:

We long to be given the next step and the route to the horizon, allaying our anxiety with the illusion of a destination somewhere beyond the vista of our present life.

Maria Popova, The Marginalian

I think when I read non-fiction, this is what I sought. An answer that will help me take the next step and provide me with a destination. But, as I read, an author would convince me to change my next step and even the destination.

Jung says that death is the only destination or horizon that is real. There are many ways to get there. We have to take the next step intuitively. There is uncertainty in this. But, uncertainty is the price we pay for beauty. Integrity is the only compass we have to point to the right direction on this uncertain landscape. Popova summarizes Jung more poetically in her post above.

This reminded me of my interest in Samkhya that I had shared here earlier. But, I felt that I wanted to place my study in the context of the wider Indian philosophy.

I have started reading the Sarva Darsana Samagraha. This is an English translation from 1882 but is a surprisingly easy read. While looking for other similar books, I found a suggestion among Nitin Pai’s notes for Chatterjee and Dutta’s Introduction to Indian Philosophy. I am listening to that book on Audible so that I can get through the content once.