The purpose of this research is to examine three assumptions about the nature of the universe, of man, and of human motivation, with reference to Yoga, Gandhi's beliefs, Vedanta, and sankara. The plan of the research will be to examine each philosophy relative to the assumptions that only the present moment exists; that man starts life fresh, except for limitations set on him by his genetic inheritance, cultural environment, and accidental happenings, all modified by his reactions to them; and that the primary motivations affecting people are desires for power and for sexual pleasure, along with the avoidance of pain.
To discuss assumptions about the nature of man and the universe with reference to Indian philosophies is to understand that they overlap and converge in various ways. The reason for this is that each philosophy can be found in various aspects of Hinduism. Indeed, within, say, Yoga, there are multiple disciplines and divergent doctrines. Nevertheless, there are certain lines of thought that may readily be discerned.
The idea that the only reality is of the present moment in Yoga takes the form of a tendency toward negation of life by way of meditation and an association or unity with absolute spirit. Indeed, Yoga is translated as union or joining ("Hinduism" 1975). The primary fact of existence in Yoga thought, as expressed by the later Upanishads, or mystical teachings, is a world view that seeks "freedom of the soul from the world of sense" and a consciousness that man "carries infinite Being within himself" (Schweitzer, 1977, p. 36). Yoga therefore contains the concept of harmonious and creative living on one hand, and in its practice contains specific method of reintegration with the unconditional in the universe. If this is the case, it follows that "world and life negation is valid for man as man" (p. 37). The present moment, in this view, is the absolute unity of man, and it is the enterprise of man t...