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Critical Thinking &

Bhagavad Gita

‘Critical thinking is `the intellectual process that

helps a human progress toward an objective
truth’.
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Vedanta
• Vedanta represents the last part of our four Vedas
– Samhita (mantras)
– Brahmana (rituals)
– Aranyaka (hermitage related Brahmanas)
– Upanishads (Philosophy and metaphysics)
• Upanishads – major ones 108 in number of which 10 enjoy primacy
• Vedanta is an `experienced’ science with its own body of knowledge, taxonomy,
vocabulary, technical terms
• Science of the self and its relationship with the divine universe
• Bhagavad Gita brings out the Vedanta in a universal, timeless context
• Preach what you practice, not practice what you preach

‘ When someone says `Science teaches such and such’, he is using the word incorrectly.
Science doesn’t teach anything, experience teaches it’ – Richard Feynman, Physicist,
Nobel laureate.
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Buddhi Yoga
The common thread
• Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18: 57 describes Buddhi Yoga…
• Vedanta is the science of experiencing who you are and
your connection with the ultimate truth
• Critical thinking seeks objective truth in worldly matters
• Vedanta provides the tools that can be applied to this
facet of Truth
• As you embark on this journey, the next stage is to seek
the deeper teachings of Vedanta
• Coming slides will initiate you into a few Vedanta
concepts and principles as it pertains to Critical thinking
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Svabhava
• Inherent personality, temperament and potential
• Nature v/s Nurture. Svabhava represents Nature
• Core attributes – gunas - of an individual
• Representative of the type of person at the core
• SVABHAVA determines drive & impetus for Critical thinking
• Quality of raw thoughts determined by Svabhava
– Includes Raga/Dvesha i.e. extreme likes/dislikes – irrational bias
• Svabhava can be shaped with Svadhyaya/Mananam i.e. Deep
introspection
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Svabhava – Mix of Gunas

• Sattva – Pure + Capacity for deep learning
• Rajas – Passion + Action orientation
• Tamas – Self centered + Indolent
More the Sattva and to a degree Rajas, more the drive for
critical thinking and pursuit of truth. Tamas works against
critical thinking because it nurtures self centredness, laziness,
apathy
• Shreyas–Right action, Do the right thing supported by higher
gunas
• Preyas – Easy path, wrong action supported by lower gunas
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Antahakarana – Our Thinking apparatus

Brain is the hardware, Antahakarana is the software stack

• Chitta – Consciousness, higher level of awareness, stored memory of experiences & thoughts
– Memory can be accessed by Manas and Buddhi

• Buddhi – Seat of our judgment, discrimination and discretion

• Manas – Dynamic, agitated mind - Field of thoughts and desires, source of creativity

– Manas – Can be +ve or –ve depending on quality of thoughts

• Ahamkara is our sense of individual identity and ego, drives achievement

– Ahamkara – Can be +ve or –ve depending on how we exercise it

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Ahamkara – High
• Self obsessed – world begins and ends with the self
• Project fake personas – pretentious, hypocritical
• Opinionated about everything
• Low self esteem – constant comparisons, celebrity worship
• Unable to handle criticism or accept mistakes
• Amenable to flattery – feeds bias
• Slow to learn from others
• Quick to take credit; does not share credit
• Unable to say `I don’t know’
• Put down other opinions
• Poor listener – lacks empathy
• Insecure about position

Impact on Critical thinking -> Negative

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Ahamkara - Low
• Concerned about the world at large
• Authentic personas – not hypocritical
• High self esteem; Resists dominance
• Active and empathetic listener
• Transparent approach
• Shares credit readily
• Asks questions without fear; learns from others
• Accepts criticism and mistakes
• Takes responsibility
• Tends to see things as they are without projecting self

Impact on Critical thinking -> Positive

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Vedanta formula for Critical thinking

• VIEW your thoughts. From the standpoint of the Buddhi

• INQUIRE into the source of the thoughts. Coming from Ahamkara +/-
or/and Manaha+/-
• DETERMINE the quality of your thoughts. Use Buddhi as the filter. Decide:
• YIELD to the thought. Let it become conclusion, conviction or decision
• AVOID the thought. Realize that it is not truth
• MANANAM. Introspect for deeper understanding

VIDYAM. This process, as it becomes more conscious and automatic,

elevates normal thinking to CRITICAL thinking which leads you to Worldly
Vidya. Remember aVidya is Ignorance of the truth in Vedanta !
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Critical thinking framework

• Now we will walk thru a set of CT observations

• Each element will identify the primary source of CT distortion
• A is for Ahamhara where source is high Ahamkara, Bias
• M is for Manas where source is irrational, limited, lazy, erratic,
confused thinking in response
• Often multiple distortions but A or M is primary
• Observe how we can apply the Vedanta CT formula
• Role of Buddhi or Intellect is pivotal
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It is easier to be wrong than accept that you are wrong

A
Minds and Parachutes work when open. Have a mind that’s open to
change when facts change. Confirmation bias naturally goes against our
desire and ability to access information or facts that contradict our held
view. But we need to breathe oxygen into firmly held views. On the one
hand we need to hold convictions. On the other hand, we need to be
amenable to new facts or fresh light on a subject. Over time, we find that
our convictions are held at a deeper level of values or principles and not
superficial levels of ideas or opinions.
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Think beyond tags

A
Liberate self from –isms that create blind loyalty to ideas and ideologies.
The world and language is filled with –isms. Everyone claims to believe in
one –ism v/s some other –ism or a third -ism. Does this stem from a need
to belong to a community of like-minded believers? Is this not herd
mentality? Is this intellectual insecurity? Must challenge yourself to dig
deeper into where you really stand v/s subscribing to any –ism. The other
thing to remember is that we all evolve in our understanding of the world
and that shapes our convictions at various points in time. A famous quote
goes `If you are not a socialist when you are 18, you have no heart and if
you are not a capitalist when you are 30, you don’t have a head’.
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Beware Celebrities!
A
From any background, on topics alien to them. We have Nobel laureates,
movie stars and an assortment of folks with a large media footprint
speaking on unrelated subjects with conviction. Again this is dangerous
for young or immature minds that seek the validation of a successful
person. Strangely this phenomenon afflicts both feudal and meritocratic
cultures. Learn to challenge authority with diligence not arrogance.
To quote Thomas Sowell an African American philosopher, `Of all the
ignorance, the ignorance of the educated is the most dangerous. Not only
are educated people likely to have the most influence, they are the last
people to suspect that they don’t know what they are talking about when
they go outside their narrow fields’.
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Falling for appearances

A
Our instinctive responses vary depending on the pleasantness of the
appearance. Often media will slant the view by showing a picture of a
person with a pleasant expression or an unpleasant expression,
depending on the objective. Repeat images create deeper impressions
which may not align with facts or the truth.
Pretty face NOT necessarily = Good person
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Beware cherry picking

A
Subject data that agrees with your views to the same rigour as data that
does NOT agree with your views. Often select facts are presented to
portray a truth.
Hence the court of law insists on `truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth’.
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Step back and take a look again

A
Separate victim from perpetrator dispassionately. Crimes often evoke a
strong emotion from us and we condemn the perpetrator, as we should,
strongly. But again information presented to us distorts the nature of the
crime and sometimes we even see slanted justification for a crime that
works off our inherent biases.
Example: Recent #BLM riots where many crimes were treated lightly
under the garb of protests. Regular folks sympathized with the
perpetrators of crime.
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Know thy bias.

A
There are many biases listed by folks who study behavioural sciences. All
biases affect Critical thinking so its important to know what your biases
are. For example, we ascribe truth to folks we like and information we
received from them is automatically trusted.
Don’t confuse who you like with who you trust. And trust takes time to
build because trust is based on a track record. Implicit trust in parents is
great but this should not be conflated with judgments you need to make
independently.
By the way this also goes the other way when anything your parents tell
you is discounted !
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My expert v/s Your expert.

A
Everyone has a favorite expert and if you know this expert personally, you
will tend to magnify the expertise. This harms honest assessment of
inputs across sources and leads to biased conclusions.
For example, anytime there is a discussion on employment or the jobs
situation in India we see vastly divergent views. We have our favorite
economists and we will talk up their credentials if we want to believe their
point of view. In the same breath, we will diminish experts who hold a
different point of view.
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Perception is NOT Reality

A
In the corporate world people will tend to say `after all perception is
reality’ to justify their point of view. All further thinking comes to an end.
Firstly, their perception is just their perception. Does not make it
universal reality.
Importantly, belief that perception is reality leads us to the world of spin.
Once we understand that perception is NOT reality but is perception, it
puts us on the path to see the truth.
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Magnify small good acts to cover for big evil acts

A
Technically this is called a hagiography. When you recast the image of a
person or an institution by magnifying less important, minor good acts to
minimize vital, major bad actions.
Question the role models and dig deep especially when they have `larger
than life’ reputations or big announcements of charity. Often, it is people
cleaning up their first act.
It’s so bad today that convictions for major crimes are sought to be set
aside thanks to `otherwise good charitable acts’.
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What is fact vs what is opinion vs what is a rumour?

A
Opinions are often presented as facts. Rumours are also presented as
facts. Separate spin from facts. Often facts are presented with subtle
indications of hearsay or (mis or part)quotes or allegations. Our minds
skim past these nuances and latches on to the hard information points.
Along with existing biases, this makes us latch onto non-facts as
incontrovertible truth.
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Topics are not sacred.

A
Being factually correct is more important than being politically incorrect.
Often a meaningful debate or deeper understanding is distorted or cut
short just because a topic or a politically incorrect view is taboo. It
automatically limits critical thinking.
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First impression not the best impression.

M
Subject first impressions to a deeper thought process. We have learned
that the mind has the capacity to judge rapidly and to that it relies on a
memory base of past experiences and data. However, we can and do have
momentary lapses and when we make snap judgments without the full
weight of our mental faculties, we err. The important thing is to be aware
of the possibility that we could have made incorrect snap judgments and
allow ourselves to correct them.
Common mistake is to judge people based on their CVs or biographies.
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What's the root cause?

M
Seek root causes. Root cause analysis is a formal approach to getting to
the heart of a matter or the ultimate cause of a problem. One technique is
known as the Five Why method. Every successive Why takes you closer to
the root cause.
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Is there a conflict of interest here?

M
Verify conflicts of interest wherever opinion is used as inputs. Most folks
have their heart in the right place and often take presented information
as accurate. If the information is significant in making a decision or a
judgment, verify the presenter’s background for conflicts of interest.
Does the presenter have an interest in my accepting their version? Is it
financial? Direct? Indirect?
Good example is of stock analysts.
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Where’s the stake in the ground?

M
Distinguish between `skin in the game’ views v/s views in the abstract or
Virtue signaling in social media – regular folks in Whatsapp groups and
celebrities in public social media. Recent example is #BLM, long standing
example is Refugees.
Convictions about an issue are developed with more rigour and intensity
when one has skin in the game and is subject to a personal loss or gain. It’s
easy to take a position and convey what sounds virtuous when the beliefs
held make no difference to your condition, one way or the other.
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Nothing’s perfect, rank it on a scale.

M
Valuable key to decision making. Understand the trade-offs, so perfect
does not become enemy of good. Everything in life is a trade-off or some
opportunity lost. If you get more money, you have less time.
Our innate greed to have it all or the drive toward perfection often
magnifies limitations and these shadows cover the full image.
When we judge a situation learn to rate it or rank it on a chosen scale.
Know that there are no perfect solutions to anything. No perfect person.
Put good and bad, right and wrong in context. See what is crucial in that
situation and if the solution is addressing key issues. First order matters
most. A good example is choosing who to vote for where we tend to say
`all politicians are the same’.
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Look carefully before you leap.

M
Analyze inputs and connect to conclusions without creative leaps based
on your preconceived ideas. When we read a set of presented facts and
figures, we don’t know what OTHER facts and figures are missing in this
presentation. Hence, we should not leap to conclusions by either filling in
gaps of understanding based on our imagination, limited knowledge or
biases.
Make an effort to fill out the picture before we conclude.
Most analysis of the Covid 19 situation is guilty of this
Also observe how we react to children’s pictures in the context of a
narrative
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What’s behind the narrative?

M
Follow the money (or power, position, connections, relationships) when
contradictions emerge in points of view. Increasingly, institutions and
their public positions are explained by simply following the money.
Money drives support for points of view and intellectually presented
positions. Lobbying is more respectable because it is stated up front. The
problem is when a neutral front is presented but the truth is that the
neutrality has been `sold’.
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Beware click bait, Seek raw footage

M
Seek verbatim and full quotes to assess, not headlines, paraphrases and
click bait. Always seek out the quote rather than the quote of the quote!
Usually we find this will be different for many reasons. The full quote
conveys a different meaning, is set to some context – either as a response
to a leading question or an event.
Click bait is the new headline spin – the idea is to intrigue not to educate.
After all, ad spends depend on you clicking through the bait.
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Where’s the missing data?

M
Seek data that is omitted anytime input tends to project a strong
conclusion in any one direction. When combined with our biases, we tend
to forget that `absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’.
This also shows up when someone claims something was done for the first
time simply because the person has heard about it for the first time.
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Black. Or white.
M
Recognize binaries – two extreme positions – presented as the only
options. Lack of critical thinking shows up both ways. Painting something
grey when facts make black and white obvious. Conversely not seeing
options between the black and white.
Often, the real options are present in between those extremes. For
example, across political spectrums, economic spectrums and social
spectrums, folks tend to pick and debate binary positions (US politics is a
great example). While debates are interesting and revealing, solutions
cannot be found in these extreme positions but in pragmatic
combinations of ideas and positions.
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Everyone screams about problems. What’s the solution?

M
Attempt to uncover solutions. Most narratives or positions are just
different ways to present the problem. But when you ask `How do we
solve this?’ it leads you to more insight about the problem itself. This can
be an iterative process, like a discipline to improve Critical thinking
abilities.
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Part for the whole.

M
Often, the core issue is not presented but a narrow sliver of this is
presented as the core issue. This misses the larger picture and the
context.
An issue has to framed in a full context and then understood. If we focus
on a narrow element, we miss the wood for the trees. Lack of a full vision
often leads to a distorted understanding of an issue or event.
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Look out for shifting goal posts.

M
Watch how in a debate or discussion, one side keeps shifting the goal
posts or changing the issue anytime the responding side successfully
answers the question or nails the issue with facts.
This goal-post shifting comes across as being incisive but in reality is
obfuscating the issues or refusing to acknowledge when facts disagree
with the narrative being driven.
Usually starts with `But what about…?’
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The Strawman fooleth.

M
The idea here is to respond to a hypothesis by changing the hypothesis
and answering the question that suits the person presenting the `straw
man’. So if the issue or question threatens to expose an uncomfortable
truth, the idea is to attack a straw man to deflect from the main point.
Usually starts with `The question should be…”
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Mixing up cause and effect.

M
This error of thinking is extremely common. We assume the phenomenon
we experience is the effect. Only when we dig deeper, without necessarily
getting to root cause as described earlier, we discover that what we
assume is the effect is actually the cause of other effects.
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False equivalences.
M
Another common mistake in understanding is to wrongly categorize
different ideas in the same bucket and then take a position based by
comparing the misclassified ideas. In common parlance, we talk about
false equivalence as conflating different ideas or in terms of apples and
oranges comparison v/s apples to apples.
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Classic propaganda.
M
Repeat, repeat, repeat till it becomes conventional wisdom. The history of
the world is replete with examples of this type of `Goebbelsian’
propaganda. We have learned history is written and narratives created by
the victors or the ones who hold power. So it’s important to read and
revisit accepted wisdom or ideas taken as truth.
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QED+.
M
Quod erat demonstrandum or that which was to be demonstrated. In
critical thinking apply this concept as `that which HAS been
demonstrated’.
Actions are louder than words and represent evidence. Observe action
and test if aligned with words. Words have a way of overpowering our
emotions and impacting our critical thinking faculties.
Again in complex situations, observe what is evident as incontrovertible.
Use this as a starting point to evaluate beliefs or opinions.
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Confusing time and space.

M
Most commonly seen in people who carry an old memory of a place and
describe that old memory as currently true. Or people talking about their
time in high school in a different country will compare that old experience
to high school in the same place today.
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No one can deny!

M
Anytime you see or hear this line, prepare to protest. For once this is said,
it implies that no other opinion or point of view can exist. Shuts down the
topic from further illumination and hence pursuit of the truth.
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Accepted wisdom is not Truth.

M
Different from propoaganda. Often through a process of conditioning,
accepted wisdoms are passed off as incontrovertible truth. When in fact,
accepted wisdom is lazy wisdom since it’s accepted without any
application of mind. Or Challenging these held views is the first step
towards applying critical thinking.
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Double standards.
AM
Very common source of distortion. As individuals we do this. We are also
subjected to this. Apply one standard to all inputs from all sources. Look
for it within and without.
We judge right or wrong based on who said it or did it and not the merits
of the matter. Selective outrage can be observed across many contexts.
Then again, we use different standards to judge different people. One
standard is set to Perfect and another one is set to zero because it suits
our agenda or bias.
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Some hot topics that need to be reviewed with Mananam.

AM
Political - Trump is bad
History - Aryan Invasion Theory is true
Social - Recent riots in the US - #BLM movement
Cultural - Caste system is evil
Religion - All religions are the same

Big picture views – challenge each of you to revisit your conviction or opinion using
the Vedanta thinking apparatus and formula
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To sign off, I urge the reader to take this framework, use it, make it your
own and go ahead, expand it. Remember that just Thinking is a scalar
while critical thinking is a vector that takes you forward in the direction
of the objective truth.