Philosophy - The Elixir Of Life

Man , being a conscious creature , lives his life notself-introspection to know the Self, as it helps one
only to survive on the Earth but to make the best ofspiritually realize not only the empirical existence but
his self-developed or self-experienced concept ,also the Eternal. Philosophy comes from no where
giving rise to civilization and culture , custom andbut is an outcome of Man's self-intuition, when he
tradition , habits and manners , morals and ideologies ,wants to know about transcendental matters in a
religion and community. This concept which manreflective state of mind. Verbal combat such as
develops consciously or unconsciously for himselftheorizing and lecturing are just intellectual exercises
gives the basic foundation to his life as a theory ofand are of no value at all. Feeling the truth and
the of the world and the individual and an art of livingpracticing it in life is all about the importance of
social or national life even on discordant notes , andphilosophy in life. Knowing about the Self is beyond
thus shaping his whole attitude to life , it givesthe approach of the science and the scientists who
expression to the whole animated world .Thispride themselves on their inventions and discoveries,
concept is nothing but the philosophy of life withouthave come to realize that their success is confined to
which Man is none but a frog lying deep in the mud .the knowledge and observation which are unable to
Hence we can say that each and every mantake them to the ultimate cause lying beyond their
whether educated or uneducated, has his owncommon reasoning and calculation. A well known
philosophy based either on his personal experiencesscientist, Eddington remarks that scientists have
or on one borrowed from others. But to live life inchased the solid substance from the continuous liquid
totality, Man needs a philosophy based on universalto the atom, from the atom to the electron, and
experiences, leading him from the finite to the infinite.there they have lost it.
For the establishment of good and perpetualSome people believe that philosophy has no practical
coordination between human life and nature, it isimportance because it deals with such a thing which is
indispensable to scrutinize life and the universe as abeyond our perceptibility and understanding of
whole with reference to the ultimate cause wellday-to-day life .Actually it talks about the Self and
manifest in all existence. And philosophy is the mostthe Absolute which are not possible for a mortal like
efficient attempt in this direction, making an impartialMan to know in an ordained period of time . They
approach to all problems and aspects of life andsay like that because they are suffering from dualistic
existence .It, being the ground of all knowledge andintuition which is capable only to reason with the
experience, helps us explore into our life in terms ofpresent state of mind and not to establish and justify
its extent, nature and value. The perfection of lifethe pursuit for the highest goal .In fact , they need
,the quest of Truth , the cultivation of righteousnessto have an integral intuition , guiding them to accept
, the attainment of freedom and bliss , and thephilosophy in life to attain God , freedom , and
appreciation of beauty are the points which createsimmortality .Today Man on earth is living the life of a
the hub of philosophy and thereby make a viablehunter who is chasing his quarry in the wilderness of
fetus casketing the whole cosmos. Therefore, wethe hedonistic world beyond which lies the sweet
can say it is philosophy which sums up the whole lifeplum whose taste is even more ecstatic than the
and without it life is just like an unexplored island.joyful feeling following his success in the present
No doubt, philosophy is the greatest need of life, butsearch . As a result, the present search of science is
philosophical knowledge in true sense of the termunable to unfold nature to the infinite. Hence science
cannot be had through sense-experience which isbased on senses and reason must be allowed to go
confined just to appearances. In this context, Hegelfurther into philosophy based on integral intuition,
says that philosophy is the knowledge of that whichwhich opens the door to mysticism and helps man
is eternal, of God is, and what flows out His nature.envisage the Truth.
The purpose of philosophy given by Hegel is alreadyIt is quite evident here that philosophy is the best
ingrained at best in the Vedanta which offers akind of healing which doesn't only soothe our body
cornucopia of knowledge and wisdom, unfolding theand mind but also removes the cataract of ignorance
real and sacred lore of the Eternal. According toto see the Truth. Thus philosophy is an elixir which
Swami Sivananda, the true philosophy is based onspurs us to wake up from our dogmatic slumber
intuition and is meant to justify rationally one's faith inwhich seems to have sealed our spirits.
Truth. That is to say, learning philosophy is having a