13
One Veda, Six Readings
before this →Sāṅkhya & Yoga — The Map and the Method
The six darśanas share a commitment — the authority of the Veda — and disagree about almost everything that follows. That is not a failure. It is the landscape line in action: one reality, six ways of speaking it.
Nyāya
Nyāya — the instrument: pramāṇa and logic
Vaiśeṣika
Vaiśeṣika — the furniture: categories of being
Sāṅkhya
Sāṅkhya — the map: puruṣa and prakṛti
Yoga
Yoga — the method: discipline to kaivalya
Mīmāṃsā
Mīmāṃsā — the command: dharma as injunction
Vedānta
Vedānta — the end: brahman and mokṣa
What each one is for
no single winner
Read them as a division of labour rather than a contest. Nyāya asks what can be known; Vaiśeṣika what exists; Sāṅkhya how the world unfolds; Yoga how to see through it; Mīmāṃsā what must be done; Vedānta what one is.
the prasthānabhedaMadhusūdana’s map does exactly this: it declares
that all śāstra has its purport in Bhagavān, directly or by succession — and then
admits it is reading them from the Advaita vantage. Declared, not disguised.
ONE VEDAthe shared source
SIX VĀKsix ways of speaking it
MOKṢAone aim, six instruments
Beyond the six
Outside the āstika fold stand the nāstika darśanas — Buddhist, Jaina, Cārvāka — which reject the Veda’s authority. The landscape line does not erase them; it simply places them outside the conversation about what the Veda means. They are other ways, about other sources.
introduces →darśanaāstikaprasthānapratyakṣa