What is philosophy?

An abstract principle drawn from series of acts!
The language of the principle is that of philosopher. He may have his own meaning to chosen words. He may have those meaning in mind which may be related to his life but totally unrelated to us. Why read philosophy? If read, why claim to understand it from words without experiencing it. We do not experiment with fire or chemicals without safety, why start to apply philosophy without caution. Philosophy could be anything from religion to humanity. From compassion to enlightenment. But that is not relevant. How easily we accept things on the basis of our logic or reasoning. In other words a philosophy which supports our way of thinking is acceptable and the one which challenges our belief or reasoning, is unacceptable or worse blasphemy.

Bhagwad Gita is a Hindu scripture of global interest. It does not matter that hardly any one is interested in reading it in entirety. The words like KARMA are now part of global vocabulary. But the myths involving the term KARMA over shadow the meaning. However what piqued most was a stanza in Gita which called upon it to be hidden knowledge not to be revealed upon every one. That part was astonishing and with humble intelligence as I have, It was bewildering as to why a modernist like Sri Krishna would espouse the esoteric cause.

Philosophizing is an act of generalization of human behavior. Idea is to find a general solution to certain routine problems. It appears that Philosophy is dangerous. Languages are inadequate and attempting to answer abstract questions without any factual foundation can complicate things in the similar way as organized religion propagate and distribute a flight plan for living life to its followers who, tired as they are with daily problems of life, accept the flight plan as eternal way of life. But it has not helped.
Often, with the use of intelligence we start using philosophy to justify stupid actions. Therefore before embarking upon any philosophy do check the bent of mind before reading the same and the tilt if any, after reading the same. Mind is a beast, which feasts on reasoning and logic without caring for its relativity. Never use a philosophical statement to justify an action for it may be wrong. It is a double edge sword. The ultimate philosophy is to stay away from philosophy. Knowledge of self is the supreme knowledge.

© Sandeep Bhalla