We were studying the Mandukya Karika and we are on the last chapter, the fourth chapter,

Alata Shanti Prakarana.

There, Gordapada is dealing with a number of philosophical opponents,

multiple schools which were prevalent at his time, who opposed non-dualistic Ved Vedanth, Dwighta Vedanth.

You know, why is it important to study these ancient philosophical schools, some of which are not active anymore, they are of academic interest.

So what is it to us, especially if we have a spiritual interest, not just, we are not here just to learn an ancient philosophy

just for the fun of it though it is fun but still we are interested in our own spiritual development

in our own spiritual growth what good is it to know those things well those questions are our

questions many of the questions which we have,

we'll see that they are asked by these various philosophical schools.

I remember a monk, a friend of mine, many years ago,

in our Belur Mat, we were talking about this.

And he said that though we don't come across a naiyika or a waiseshishika or a Sankyan in our day-to-day life today,

but there is a nayaika inside us, there is a Buddhist inside us, there is a Santhian inside us.

And we ask these questions.

Sometimes questions are so deep and so profound, so subtle subtle we wouldn't have never thought of

these things the questions anything that we can think of and many things that we

cannot think of these are asked by these schools it's good to deal with them especially

since this is the way of knowledge it's good to clarify things often our

understanding becomes much deeper when it is challenged.

So there is a, it's called Tuna Nikandana Naya in Sanskrit, a figure of speech, which means

when you drive a pillar, a post into the ground, to ram it into the ground so it's firm.

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