Vichara

Part of a series on
Hindu philosophy
Āstika
Samkhya Yoga Nyaya Vaisheshika Mīmāṃsā Vedanta Advaita Vedanta Vishishtadvaita Dvaita Dvaitadvaita Achintya Bheda Abheda Bhedabheda
Nāstika
Cārvāka Ājīvika
Other schools Shaiva Pratyabhijña Pashupata Siddhanta Tantra
People
Acharyas Nyaya Akṣapāda Gotama Jayanta Bhatta Raghunatha Siromani Mimamsa Jaimini Kumārila Bhaṭṭa Prabhākara Dayananda Saraswati (Arsha Vidya) Advaita Vedanta Gaudapada Adi Shankara Vācaspati Miśra Vidyaranya Sadananda Madhusūdana Sarasvatī Ramakrishna Vivekananda Ramana Maharshi Siddharudha Swami Narayana Guru Sivananda Saraswati Chinmayananda Saraswati Nisargadatta Maharaj Dayanand Saraswati Nigamananda Paramahansa Vishishtadvaita Nammalvar Alvars Yamunacharya Ramanuja Vedanta Desika Pillai Lokacharya Manavala Mamunigal Dvaita Madhvacharya Jayatirtha Vyasatirtha Sripadaraja Vadirajatirtha Raghavendra Swami Achintya Bheda Abheda Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Jiva Goswami Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada Tantra Shakta Abhinavagupta Nigamananda Paramahansa Ramprasad Sen Kamalakanta Bhattacharya Bamakhepa Anandamayi Ma Others Samkhya Kapila Yoga Patanjali Vaiseshika Kanada Dvaitadvaita Nimbarka Shuddhadvaita Vallabha Acharya
Poet-Saints Purandara Dasa Kanaka Dasa Jagannatha Dasa Vijaya Dasa Gopala Dasa Basava Allama Prabhu Akka Mahadevi Dnyaneshwar Sankardev Jayadeva Namdev Ramananda Kabir Tulsidas Guru Ravidass Mira Bai Narsinh Mehta Surdas Samarth Ramdas Tukaram Eknath Janabai Brahmanand Swami Tukdoji Maharaj Tyagaraja Annamacharya Kancherla Gopanna Nayanars Muthuswami Dikshitar Syama Sastri
Yogin Nigamananda Paramahansa Sri Aurobindo Paramahansa Yogananda
Philosophers Ananda Coomaraswamy Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Swami Gahanananda Ravi Shankar

Vichāra (Sanskrit: विचार) means deliberation; its root is वि (prefix to verbs and nouns it expresses) – चर् (to move, roam, obtain knowledge of).^[1] It is the faculty of discrimination between right and wrong; it is deliberation about cause and effect, and the final analysis;^[2] it is also the enquiry into the nature of the Atman, Satya, Ishvara and Brahman.^[3] This Sanskrit word, Vichāra, does not have a corresponding word in English. Vichāra is reflection and contemplation upon the meaning of Vedantic truths, and leads the individual to true knowledge, it leads to Brahman, the Universal Self.^[4]

Aitareya Aranyaka (II.iii.2.5) of the Rig Veda tells us that in man alone is the Atman ('Self') most manifest, for man is best endowed with intelligence and discrimination, and who knowing the higher and the lower worlds aspires to achieve immortality through mental things. Taittiriya Upanishad tells us:-

यो वेद निहितं गुहाया परमे व्योमन् |

that all should know Brahman as existing in the intellect in which, Shankara explains, are hidden – a) 'knowledge', b) 'the knowable' and c) 'the knower', as also enjoyment and liberation.^[5] The relationship between the Individual self and the Universal Self reveals the actual source of thought and action; it reveals Brahman; vichāra (reflection and contemplation) results in disinterest in that which is not the source of anything in this world.^[6] Vedanta ( the eternal path) activates vichāra ('inquiry') to increase viveka ('discrimination') to deconstruct vivarta ('false superimposition') to destroy vasanas ('root desires') and thus establish vairagya ('detachment'), become a vidvan ('wise person') and attain vijnana ('self-realization'); these factors combined facilitate in the human aspiration and Divine Dispensation working harmoniously together. ^[7] Vichāra is Atma-vichāra in Advaita Vedanta, but Samkhya is more concerned with Tattva-vichāra, about the nature of the tattvas.^[8][9]

In Samprajñāta or Ekāgra kind of Samādhi , in which the mind remains conscious of the object of concentration and the distinctions of object, idea and name remain, there is vitarka ('deliberation'), vichāra ('reflection'), ānanda ('joy') and asmitā ('sense of I-ness').^[10] Vichāra or discriminating reasoning is one of the five Vedanta methods for awakening spiritual consciousness. Contrary to faith which is concerned primarily with the essence of a thing and not merely with its appearance, reason, which begins with doubt, relies on appearance of things and not on their essential nature. There are three types of reasoning – vada or academic reasoning, jalpa or reasoning in a dogmatic and negative way whether rationally or irrationally, and vitanda or reasoning that seeks only to lay bare defects of or confuse the opponents. In Vedanta, rational reasoning is vichāra that discriminates between the real and the unreal; it dispels prejudices such as irrational doubts, preconceived notions/ideas and personal sentiments to scrutinize the meaning of Truth. Shankara in his commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad explains that Vedantic reasoning reveals the essential meaning of scriptural statement in the context of its goal, proves the logical untenability of all contrary concepts so as to establish the intelligibility of non-dualism and expose the mutually contradictory nature of dualistic views about Reality. The process of Vedantic reasoning is three-fold viz; through shravana , manana and nididhyasana , with the aspirant, endowed with shraddha , reasoning with an open mind. ^[11]

References