Ancient Indians exhibited a very different mindset for knowledge. Medicine and surgery developed to meet practical needs, astronomy and mathematics developed for unique reason, neither purely spiritual nor purely mundane, in order to perform yagas to meet practical ends and yajnas to achieve spiritual gain.

The Indian philosophy of knowledge comes very close to the Baconan philosophy of knowledge. Truly, Indians regarded knowledge as power because for them knowledge (and thereby, philosophy) was a way of life and this is the reason why for them knowledge was never intrinsic. But, then, it is absolutely necessary to reverse the connotation of the word ‘power’. While the Baconan ‘power’ was meant to experience control over nature, the Indian ‘power’ was supposed to be the instrument to subjugate one’s own self to nature. This is the prime principle which forms the cornerstone of early vedic thought. This radical change in the meaning of the word ‘power’ also explains the difference in world view which can be easily discerned when the belief-systems and attitudes of Indians and Europeans (for our purpose ‘west’ means Europe only) are compared and contrasted.

Ancient Indian believed in identifying himself with nature. Indians, however, did not regard worldly pleasure as ultimate. For them there was something more important and enduring and therefore the conquest of nature never mattered. Indian tradition, surely, includes the ‘present’ life, but it is not restricted to it; goes beyond it.

Indian tradition maintains a certain hierarchy of values. Knowledge, as a way of life, encompasses not only all sorts of values but also it changes one’s own perspective. Accordingly, the so-called spiritual goal in life can be attained only by