Darshan

In Indian religions, Darshana, also spelt Darshan, (Sanskrit: दर्शन showing, appearance, view, sight) or Darshanam (darśanam) is the auspicious sight of a deity or a holy person. The term also refers to any one of the six traditional schools of Hindu philosophy and their literature on spirituality and soteriology. The word darshana, also in the forms of darśana or darshanam, comes from the Sanskrit root of दर्शन dṛś 'to look at', 'to view', vision, apparition or glimpse. Darshana is described as an "auspicious sight" of a holy person, which bestows merit on the viewer. It is most commonly used for theophany, meaning a manifestation or vision of the divine, in Hindu worship, e.g. of a deity (especially in image form), or a very holy person or artifact. One can receive darshana or a glimpse of the deity in the temple, or from a great saintly person, such as a great guru. The term darshana also refers to the six systems of thought, called darshanam, that comprise classical Hindu philosophy. The term therein implies how each of these six systems distinctively look at things and the scriptures in Indian philosophies. The six orthodox Hindu darshana are Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedanta. Buddhism and Jainism are examples of non-Hindu darshans. On the significance of darshana in Mahayana thought, Paul Harrison writes: "By the second century CE... the vision of the Buddha (buddha-darśana) and the accompanying hearing of the Dharma (dharma-śravaṇa) are represented as a transformation experience of decisive importance for practitioners, be they who have renounced (mundane life) 'ascetics' or householders." The Abhidharma, collections of systematic summaries of the sutras, mention Darshana-citta, i.e. visions. Indian Mahayana philosophers Vasubandhu and Asanga acknowledged five paths to liberation, of which the third is darshana-marga, the "path of seeing". Nagarjuna, a prominent philosopher of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism, wrote that the wise person perceives tattva-darshana, true reality.