The Nyaya School founded by Gotama has its main goal as liberation and the complete cessation of all pain and suffering. The main focus of this school, however, is logic and epistemology. It does not have many followers.

Purba Mimansha of Jaimini lays stress upon work, which chiefly denotes the performance of ceremonial rites. The word Purba means the earlier part of the Vedas (Karma Kanda=work portion). The Vedas are divided into Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. Each one of these Vedas is further subdivided into Karma Kanda and Jnana Kanda (Wisdom portion). The Samhitas, Aranyakas and Brahmanas comprise the Karma Kanda and govern the Hindu ceremonial rites. The Jnana Kanda consists of the Upanishads and are the subject matter of Vedanta. The aim of the ceremonial rites is to gradually purify the mind. This school is also of little importance now. Samkhya School was founded by Kapila. Hinduism stresses that you should first read the scriptures with the help of a Guru (sravana), subject it to rational analysis (manana) and finally meditate about it (nidhidhyasana). The philosophy of Samkhya does the second step by rational analysis of the scriptures. Samkhya is a dualist philosophy with two Ultimate Principles, purusha (the unchanged reality) and prakriti (the matter) and so there is no room for creator God. Samkhya as philosophy declares that the cause of misery arises from union of purusha with prakriti. We are really spirits but we identify with the body. An understanding of Samkhya philospohy is essential to the understanding of Vedanta.

Patanjali, the author of the Yoga system of philosophy gathered together the spiritual practices known to the yogis and built them in to a system. All Indian religious systems, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism accept the discipline of Yoga. Yoga philosophy is allied to Samkhya in its metaphysical concept but accepts God unlike Samkhya. Patanjali accepts that you can get spiritual enlghtenment inspite of belief or disbelief though it is easier if you have faith.

Vedanta (Uttar Mimansha) the last of the six Darshanas is currently the most popular of these schools. Vedanta (Veda+anta) literally means the end of the Vedas where you will usually find the Upanishads. Badarayana (Vyasa) may be considered the founder of this school and his book Vedanta Sutra or Brahma Sutra is a basic text of this system. The Brahma Sutras give a synopsis and classification of the contents of the Upanishads. Vedanta differs from Samkhya in that it talks of One Ultimate Principle called Brahman. It is the basis of all current Hindu systems of religious thought, both dualistic and non- dualistic. This is because most people feel that Vedanta correctly represents Vedic thought. In Vedanta the Ultimate Principle when immanent is called the Atman or Self and when transcendent is called Brahman. Atman and Brahman are identical which, Dvaita School disagrees although philosophers differ about the meaning of this identity. There are now several Vedantic schools of thought which differ on the exact interpretation of the Upanishads, Gita and the Vedanta Sutras or Brhma Sutras. The important schools are: (1) Advaita of Sri Sankara, (2) Vishistadvaita of Sri Ramanuja, (3) Dvaita of Sri Madhvacharya, (4) Dvaita-Advaita of Sri Nimbarka,(5) Suddha-Advaita of Sri Vallabhacharya, (6) Acintya-Bhedabhed of Sri Chaitanya mahaprabhu and (7)Sri Ramakrishna's school, Jay Krishnamurthi and Ramana Mahershi also known as Neo-Advaita..

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