Indian and French Philosophical Literature: in Search of Wisdom, Spirituality, and Rationalism

Abstract

The Indian philosophy is enriched with incredible, spiritual wisdom. Indian history is full of examples where the literature was specially designed to promote “the aim of life”. The French literature is known more for its romanticism in the medieval times, pre or post renaissance whereas the Indian literature reflects spiritual romanticism. To begin with the French literature, we found an influence of Granada on the French spiritual literature. It is often said that probably there is no spiritual French writer who has not read Granada, especially of the 17th century. Based on our initial research, we found that French literature is blessed with extraordinary French philosophers. The wisdom in the French literature in fact worked as a catalyst in French enlightenment. Shruti, as per the Indian mythology are the words of god passed on to the mortals and spread verbally through generations. The four Vedas come under this category. Smriti means the literature which must be remembered after listening or reading and can be written. The works like Upanishads, Brahmanas and Puranas come under this category. The very essence of the Indian philosophical wisdom is to transform the metaphysical agony into spiritual peace