I have been doing some research to try to place Cioran's attack against "Instant India" into context. I am fairly certain he was referring to the commercialization of "pop-philosophy" marketing ...
Here I found something of interest:
Cioran was an unconventional thinker, averse to academic philosophy like the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, whom he venerated as his master. Cioran was of the view that “the university has extirpated philosophy. In my opinion philosophy is not a subject matter of study. It should be lived and experienced. One should be able to philosophise on the streets. …An official philosophy? A career as philosopher? No, please.”
After studying philosophy at the University of Bucharest Cioran went to Berlin as a Humboldt Scholar and studied Husserl and Heidegger. During his stay he became an admirer of Hitler. Like Heidegger, he later distanced himself from Hitler’s movement and attributed the initial fascination to the hastiness of youth.
Indian Philosophy
“Fortunately, I am engrossed in Hindu and Chinese philosophy”, he writes. “What peace! The truth lies there, if it is allowed, to use such a term”. Cioran’s engagement with Buddhism, which as a religion came closer to his world view, is well known. Very few know, however, that Hinduism also played a crucial role in his thinking and that he often turned to Hindu spiritual texts. In his rare interviews, he repeatedly expressed his thoughts on Hinduism and its seminal meaning for his world of ideas: “I consider Hinduism to be the profoundest of all the religions … The great systems are Hindu philosophy, then the Greek philosophy and the German philosophy. The basic advantage of the Hindu philosophy is: In India the philosopher is compelled to practise his philosophy.” It is not just an intellectual exercise. The philosophers of the East are certainly not intellectual charlatans and professors: “Philosophy is not a profession. It is inextricably intertwined with their life.”
Through his intense engagement with the Vedas, Upanishads and Mahayana sutras Cioran’s idea of the delusion of existence stood vindicated. In the true Far-eastern tradition, Cioran does not attach any significance to history: “The negation of history is in conclusion the Hindu philosophy: The action is considered meaningless and futile. Only the cessation of time counts. When one really ponders upon this, one should cease to act and function. One should throw oneself on the floor and weep.”
Cioran, unlike many other European thinkers of the 20th century, tries to explore Western and Eastern philosophies in a unified fashion. He searches and discovers links and parallels between Hinduism and the Catholic mystics like Saint Teresa of Avila or the German, Meister Eckhart, who according to Cioran was the profoundest thinker of the Occident, as his search for truth went beyond the conception of God and culminated in a total void: “Meister Eckhart is actually a thinker who could very well have been born in India, too”.
Cioran is right from the beginning quite unequivocal that thinking in its real sense cannot be and should not be abstract, as thinking, philosophy and religion cannot be separated from real life. Moments of despair and ecstasy teach us the fundamental meaning of life and they are to be aspired to. Cioran termed this the philosophy of unique moments. In the depths of disillusionment lie sublime realisation, and the meaning of life is attained in the ecstasy of imperfection, he once observed. These kinds of observations characterise Cioran’s writing.
The most common accusation against Cioran is of contempt for human beings. He was also termed a misanthrope of the worst sort by some as he maintained that the best thing that could happen to humanity would be its downfall and disappearance. He was relentless in his search for indicators and evidence to corroborate his view that the apocalypse is imminent: the disquietude all round is an augury of doom. In ostensible progress, he saw nothing but a quest for collapse.
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