Tarka, Vitarka and Kutarka Logic by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

To be able to know yourself or to judge your actions, you need to understand tarka, vitarka and kutarka.

Kutraka is wrong logic. Most people use this logic and get caught up in ignorance. For example, the door is half open means the door is half closed. Therefore, when the door is fully open means the door is fully closed. Another example – God is love. Love is blind. Therefore God is blind.

Tarka is sequential logical understanding which increases scientific knowledge. When sequential logical understanding changes, then scientific conclusions change. For example, pesticides and antibiotics were considered to be very useful and harmless, but they are not proven to be harmful. In tarka, paradigms change.

Vitarka is asking questions to which there are no evident answers such as “Who am I?” “Where am I?” “What do I really want?” There philosophical questions bring forth spiritual knowledge, increase your awareness and bring about the blossoming of consciousness. Atma gyan increases.

The wise know how to distinguish between these three. They will not apply kutarka or tarka for vitarka, or use vitarka for tarka.

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