In India there are six orthodox schools of philosophy which recognize
the authority of the Vedas as divine revelation,
and they generally function as pairs - Nyaya and Vaishesika,
Mimamsa and Vedanta, and Samkhya and Yoga. Those who
did not recognize this authority were the Jains, Buddhists, and materialists.
Even in India where spiritual ideas dominate the culture there were some
who were skeptical of those ideals and held to a materialist view of the
world; they were called Carvaka and their doctrine that this world
is all that exists is called Lokayata.
The materialists did not believe in an afterlife and found sense perception
to be the only source of knowledge, denying the validity of inference or
general concepts. They focused on the senses and the four traditional elements
of earth, water, fire, and air. Consciousness for the Carvaka is
only a modification of these elements in the body. The soul is also identified
with the body, and pleasure and pain are the central experiences of life,
nature being indifferent to good and evil with virtue and vice being merely
social conventions.
This worldly philosophy naturally ignored the goal of liberation (moksha)
or simply believed that death as the end of life and consciousness was a
liberation. However, they also tended to neglect the value of virtue or
justice (dharma), placing all of their attention on the worldly aims
of pleasure (kama) and wealth or power (artha).
Although Carvaka ideas are mentioned in some ancient writings, their
own ancient writings were lost, and much of what we know of the early materialists
is based on criticisms of other schools. However, a famous, ancient drama
called The Rise of the Moon of Intellect (Prabodha-candrodaya) reveals
some of the beliefs of this worldly movement. In this play Passion is personified
and speaks to a materialist and one of his pupils.
Passion laughs at ignorant fools who imagine that spirit is different from
the body and reaps a reward in a future existence. This is like expecting
trees to grow in air and produce fruit. Has anyone seen the soul separate
from the body? Does not life come from the configuration of the body? Those
who believe otherwise deceive themselves and others. Their ancient teacher
Brihaspati affirmed the importance of the senses, maintaining that sustenance
and love are the objects of human life.
For the materialists the Vedas are a cheat.
If blessings are obtained through sacrifices and the victims ascend to heaven,
why do not children sacrifice their parents? How can fasting, begging, penance,
and exposure to the elements be compared to the ravishing embraces of women
with large eyes and prominent breasts?
The pleasures of life are no more to be avoided because they are mixed with
pain than a prudent person would throw away unpeeled rice because it has
a husk. Sacrifices, reciting the Vedas, and
penance are merely ways that ignorant and weak men contrive to support themselves.
Yet upon analysis it was often found that the materialists' theory that
no general inferences can be made contradicted their own views about the
nature of the world. Nevertheless their hedonistic philosophy at times gave
a humanistic criticism of the ethical contradictions of others. In the great
epic Mahabharata a Carvaka is
burned to death for preaching against the bloodshed of the great war and
condemning Yudhishthira for killing thousands to regain his kingdom. They
did criticize sacrifices and valued the arts as a means of pleasure. Hell
they believed to be the pain experienced in this world, but all this ended
in death. Like Epicureans they found that pleasure could be maximized and
pain minimized by detachment (vairagya). Immortality was only found
in the fame one leaves behind for noble deeds performed.
The Nyaya and Vaishesika schools are primarily analytic
and are therefore more concerned with logic and epistemology than ethics.
The word Nyaya means that by which the mind is led to a conclusion.
The Nyaya school formed about the fourth century BC with the Nyaya
Sutras by Gautama. The first sentence declares that supreme happiness
is attained by knowledge of the sixteen categories which are right knowledge,
objects of knowledge, doubt, purpose, example, tenets, inference, confutation,
ascertainment, discussion, sophistry, cavil, fallacy, quibble, futile rejoinder,
and losing arguments. Knowledge comes from perception, inference, comparison,
and verbal testimony. Objects of knowledge are self, body, sense organs,
sense objects, intellect, mind, activity, defects, rebirth, fruit, pain,
and release.
The soul is distinct from the sense organs and the mind which it uses to
make judgments with the aid of memory. Judgments and actions are transitory
but produce karma which causes the union of the soul with the body, the
soul transmigrating from a dead body to another birth. Gautama recognizes
the soul as the cause of the body but also acknowledges parents and food
as other causes as well.
Ethical concerns can be found in the discussion of the defects and the means
of liberation. Gautama mentions three categories of defects as attachment,
aversion, and misconception. Vatsyayana, who wrote the first commentary
on the Nyaya Sutras in the 4th century CE, explains that attachment
can come from lust, jealousy, avarice, greed, and covetousness; aversion
from anger, envy, malice, hatred, and resentment; and misconception from
wrong apprehension, suspicion, pride, and negligence.
Gautama considers misconception the worst sin, because without it attachment
and aversion do not occur. By fruit Gautama refers to what is produced by
activity and defects. These results of action (karma) may occur immediately
or after a long interval. Release is defined as the absolute deliverance
from pain. Release does not occur though because of debts, afflictions,
and activities. However, when knowledge is attained, wrong notions and defects
disappear, removing pain and bringing about release. Since false concepts
are the cause of the chain of events that leads to pain, correct knowledge
is the solution.
Even hatred of pain and attachment to pleasure can bind one. The activities
of mind, speech, and body must be good and not bad but also be performed
without attachment. Selfishness is associated with false concepts, and virtuous
actions emphasize the soul rather than the body and its senses. True knowledge
comes from meditation which is prepared for by good deeds. Gautama recommends
practicing yoga in forests, caves, and on riverbanks. To attain final release
the soul may be embellished by the restraints and observances of the internal
discipline learned from yoga. Study and friendly discussion with those learned
in knowledge is also suggested.
The Vaishesika philosophy is considered the oldest of the six orthodox
schools and may even be pre-Buddhist. The Vaishesika Sutras by Kanada
were written shortly before Gautama's Nyaya Sutras. The word vishesa
means particularity, and this philosophy emphasizes the significance of
individuals. Vaishesika recognizes three objects of experience as
having real objective existence, namely substance, quality, and activity,
and three products of intellectual discrimination which are generality,
particularity, and combination.
The reality of the soul is inferred from the discernment that consciousness
cannot be a property of the body, senses, or mind. However, the life of
the soul's knowing, feeling, and willing is only found where the body is.
Each soul experiences the consequences of its own actions, resulting in
the differences between individuals, from which the plurality of souls is
inferred. Even liberated souls maintain unique characteristics in the Vaishesika
philosophy.
The Vaishesika Sutra begins with the idea that virtue (dharma)
is the means by which prosperity and salvation are attained. The next sentence
acknowledges the authority of the Vedas as the word of God that leads
to this prosperity and salvation. As with Nyaya the supreme good
results from knowledge, in this case of the six predicables mentioned above.
In addition to the four traditional elements of earth, water, fire, and
air, they name ether (akasha), time, space, soul, and mind as the
only other substances. One need not fall back on the scriptures to know
the existence of the soul, because the expression of "I" makes
its reality clear.
The qualities are color, taste, smell, touch, numbers, size, separation,
conjunction and disjunction, priority and posteriority, understanding, pleasure
and pain, desire and aversion, and volition. Activity is going up or down,
contracting, expanding, and motion. Action (karma) is opposed by
its effect which is how it is neutralized. Individuals are only responsible
for voluntary actions, and actions from organic life are considered involuntary.
Worldly good is attained by ceremonial piety, but spiritual value is found
by insight. The highest pleasure of the wise is found in independence from
all agencies involving memory, desire, and reflection, and this knowledge
results from peacefulness of mind, contentment, and virtue.
Pleasure and pain result from the contact between soul, senses, the mind,
and objects. When the mind becomes steady in the soul through yoga, pain
can be prevented. Liberation (moksha) is not having any conjunction
with the body and no potential for a body so that rebirth cannot take place.
The traditional character of this school can be seen from the actions recommended
for achieving merit.
Ablution, fast, abstinence (brahmacharya),
residence in the family of the preceptor,
life of retirement in the forest, sacrifice, gift,
oblation, directions, constellations, seasons,
and religious observances conduce to invisible fruit.1
Progress comes from virtue (dharma), but even this has consequences which neutralize it; for ultimate release cannot occur until even virtue is eradicated in selfless insight. So long as one is dominated by desire and aversion, virtue and its opposite are stored up, preventing liberation. When one realizes that all objects that seem either attractive or repulsive are merely compounds of atoms, their power over one ceases. True knowledge of the soul dispels self-interest in universal awareness. Each soul reaps the harvest of its deeds in this life or a future one, but with liberation it becomes absolutely free. The awareness of the seer is the vision of perfection which results from virtue.
The Mimamsa philosophy is also very ancient, and the Mimsama
Sutra by Jaimini was written about the 4th century BC. This text begins
with the subject of dharma which the Vedas
consider the means most conducive to the highest good. Dharma transcends
sense perception, because the senses only perceive what exists in the present;
dharma in the Mimamsa philosophy has a metaphysical reality that
carries into the future.
The soul also transcends the body, senses, and mind, being omnipresent,
eternal, and many. In Mimamsa the soul is the agent that causes all
movement of the body. Like in Vaishesika, salvation occurs when the
fruits of all good and bad actions are exhausted and the generation of new
effects is stopped. However, in Mimamsa Vedic prayers, rituals, and
sacrifices are emphasized as the means of achieving this. Women as well
as men were allowed to perform sacrifices, but Sudras were still forbidden.
In the ancient Mimamsa philosophy the experience of happiness in
heaven was the ultimate goal.
The ethics of Mimamsa is based on the revelation in the Vedas which are considered as eternal as the
world. The metaphysics of this ethics even comes close to replacing God
as the source of all action that governs the universe. Essentially everything
is determined by character (dharma) or lack of it through the law
of karma or action with its consequences. Not only is the soul as the agent
of action real, but the action itself is a spiritual reality that transcends
space and time, determining the nature of the universe. This unseen force
is called apurva which means something new, extraordinary, or unknown.
Thus dharma or action (karma) supports the universe. If it is ethically
right, it produces enjoyment; if it is wrong, then suffering is experienced.
This force (shakti) of dharma or karma is extraordinary and unseen.
The universe being eternal is not created by this force, but it is shaped
by it. A unity to this universal force is posited to control and guide individuals
in a single cosmic harmony.
Yet humans are free and determine their own destiny by their actions. The
karma from past actions does not limit free choices but is like capital
that can be spent in various ways as it is resolved. The soul usually carries
a mixture of good and evil consequences, and these may cancel each other.
Obligations are actions which must be performed, or one gets demerit, though
there is no merit for doing them. Prohibited actions if done also cause
demerit, but if avoided likewise do not give merit. Optional actions may
produce merit or demerit according to their consequences. Focusing primarily
on the spiritual effects of rituals the Mimamsa philosophy relies
on the Dharma Sutras for guidance
in worldly ethical questions.
The Vedanta school complements Mimamsa's focus on the Vedas
and sacrifices by illuminating the knowledge of the Upanishads as the
end of the Vedas, which is what Vedanta
means. The Vedanta Sutra which was written between the 500 and 200
BC by Badarayana is also called the Brahma Sutra since it
discusses knowledge of Brahman (Spirit) and sometimes Shariraka Sutra
because it concerns the embodiment of the unconditioned self. The Vedanta
Sutra attempts to clarify the meaning of the Upanishads
and is rather terse, but it has been made famous by the commentaries written
by the great Vedanta philosophers of the middle ages, Shankara, Ramanuja,
and Madhva.
If the way of action derives from the Mimamsa theory of karma, the
Vedanta suggests a way of knowledge by the soul of Spirit. The first
chapter of the Vedanta Sutra describes Brahmanas
the central reality and creator of the world and the individual souls. The
second chapter answers objections and explains the world's dependence on
God and its evolution back into Brahman. The third chapter suggests ways
of knowing Brahman, and the fourth chapter indicates the rewards or fruits
of knowing this Spirit.
Badarayana is traditional in that he believes knowledge comes from scripture
(sruti) and other authorities (smriti), though sruti
as revelation is identified with perception and smriti as interpretation
with inference. Scripture refers to the Vedas
and smriti to the Bhagavad-Gita ,
Mahabharata, and Laws of Manu Reason for Badarayana must conform
to the Vedas, but it is nonetheless subordinate
to intuitive knowledge which can come from devotion and meditation. Brahma
as Spirit is considered the light of the soul which is also eternal, though
Brahma is distinguished from the intelligent soul and the unintelligent
material things.
As in Mimamsa individuals are responsible for their own actions and
thus determine their own happiness or suffering. The soul is affected by
pleasure and pain, but the highest Lord is not. Injunctions and prohibitions
exist because of the connection of the soul with the body. Ethical action
helps the soul attain a body fit for knowledge of Brahman which then may
be attained through service, renunciation, and meditation. Meditation on
the highest yields unity with the infinite and knowledge of Spirit (Brahman),
enabling one to stop producing karma and end the cycle of karma and reincarnation.
Badarayana combines earlier views of Brahman as indeterminate intelligence
and a definite personal Lord. While developing itself in the universe Brahman
is still transcendent. Though Brahman is in individual souls, it is not
polluted by their defects. Human purpose comes through knowledge of Brahman
which also results in bliss and the nullification of works (karma).
To obtain knowledge one must be calm and in control of the senses. Works
can be combined with knowledge but those performing them must not be overcome
by passion. Knowledge may also be promoted through special acts such as
prayer, devotion, and fasting. Meditation though should focus not on symbols
of the soul but the reality. Through immobile meditation thoughtfulness
and concentration are increased, and meditation needs to be practiced up
to death. By resolving karma through knowledge oneness with Brahman is attained.
At death the liberated soul is released from the body and does not return
to another.
Kapila, the legendary founder of the Samkhya school, is said to
have been an incarnation of Vishnu or Agni; he probably lived during the
seventh century BC at the time of the early Upanishads. Kapila was endowed
with virtue, knowledge, renunciation, and supernatural power, and taking
pity on humanity taught the Samkhya doctrine to the Brahmin Asuri
who is mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana as an expert in sacrificial
rituals. The Samkhya knowledge of discerning the spirit from nature
is explained in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad.
The word Samkhya means discriminating knowledge and came to mean
number as an exact form of knowledge.
In Asvaghosha's Life of the Buddha (Buddhacarita), Siddartha
is taught Samkhya ideas during his ascetic phase. Aradha describes
nature (prakriti) as consisting of the five subtle elements, the
ego, intellect, the unmanifest, the external objects of the five senses,
the five senses, the hands, feet, voice, anus, generative organ, and the
mind. All of these make up the field which is to be known by the soul. Worldly
existence is caused by ignorance, the merits and demerits of former actions,
and desire. He then explains the problems of mistakes, egoism, confusion,
fluctuation (thinking that mind and actions are the same as the "I"),
indiscrimination (between the illumined and the unwise), false means (rituals
and sacrifices), inordinate attachment, and gravitation (possessiveness).
The wise must learn to distinguish the manifested from the unmanifested.
When the prince asks how this is to be accomplished, Aradha explains the
practice of yoga. Though an orthodox Hindu school, Samkhya did criticize
the killing of animals in the sacrifices.
Samkhya ideas also appear in the Mahabharata
in the portions known as the Bhagavad-Gita
and the Mokshadharma from book 12. In the latter the intellect (buddhi)
controlled by the spirit (purusha) evolves the mind (manas),
the senses, and then the gross elements. The three qualities found in all
beings are goodness (sattva), passion (rajas), and darkness
(tamas). Goodness brings pleasure, passion pain, and darkness apathy.
The knower of the field is emphasized as the spirit (purusha) or
soul (atman), and Samkhya and yoga are considered two aspects
(knowledge and practice) of the same philosophy. The standard 25 Samkhya
principles are enumerated as the eight material principles and the sixteen
modifications completed by the all-important spirit (purusha) or
unmanifest knower of the field.
Ethically the Mokshadharma explains the Samkhya follower as:
Unselfish, without egotism, free from the pairs,
having cut off doubts, he is not angry and does not hate,
nor does he speak false words.
When reviled and beaten,
because of his kindness he has no bad thought;
he turns away from reprisal in word,
action, and thought, all three.
Alike to all beings, he draws near to Brahma (God).
He neither desires, nor is he without desire;
he limits himself to merely sustaining life.
Not covetous, unshaken, self-controlled;
not active, yet not neglecting religious duty;
his sense-organs are not drawn to many objects,
his desires are not widely scattered;
he is not harmful to any creature;
such a Samkhya-follower is released.2
In meditation the soul may be seen by the yoga of concentration and the
Samkhya yoga of discriminating reason as well as the yoga of works.
By knowing all the courses of the world one may turn away from the senses
so that after leaving the body that one will be saved, according to the
Samkhya view. Disciplined purity and compassion to all creatures
are important; the weak may perish, but the strong get free. The field-knower
governs all the strands of the material world. Making thought come to rest
by meditation, perfected in knowledge and calm, one goes to the immortal
place.
The elaborated Samkhya doctrine is attributed to Pancashikha, but
the earliest Samkhya text is the Samkhya Karika from the second
or third century CE by Ishvara Krishna. According to this text the three
qualities of goodness (sattva), activity (rajas), and ignorance
(tamas) whose natures are pleasure, pain, and delusion serve the purpose
of illumination, action, and restraint. The great principle of intellect
(buddhi) which evolves the world, in its good (sattvic) form
has virtue, wisdom, non-attachment, and lordly powers, but the reverse are
its dark (tamasic) forms.
Yet it is the will that accomplishes the spirit's experiences and discriminates
the subtle difference between nature (prakriti) and spirit (purusha).
Uniting with the all-embracing power of nature, causes and effects lead
to virtue and ascent to the higher planes or vice and descent to lower.
Goodness comes from wisdom, bondage from the opposite. Attachment and activity
lead to transmigration. Attainments come from correct reasoning, oral instruction
from a teacher, study, the suppression of misery, intercourse with friends,
and purity. Sattva predominates in the worlds above, tamas in those below,
and rajas in the middle with the pain of decay and death.
Evolution from the will down to specific elements modifies nature and emancipates
each spirit. Just as one undertakes action in the world to release the desire
for satisfaction, so does the unevolved function for the liberation of the
spirit. Thus spirit is never really bound or liberated nor does it transmigrate;
only nature in its manifold forms is bound, migrates, or is liberated. The
pure spirit, resting like a spectator perceives nature which has ceased
to be productive and by discriminating knowledge turns back from the dispositions.
When virtue and other karma cease to function, the spirit of the individual
remains invested with the body by past impressions; but when separation
from the body comes, its purpose is fulfilled as it attains eternal and
absolute independence.
The practice of yoga in India is very ancient, probably even pre-Aryan.
Yoga is mentioned in several Upanishads and its philosophy is described
in the great epics, particularly in the Bhagavad-Gita
portion of the Mahabharata.
The classic text for what is called the royal (raja) yoga is Patanjali's
Yoga Sutras, probably written in the second
century BC, although scholarly estimates range from the fourth century BC
to the fourth century CE. The word yoga has the same origin as the
English word "yoke" and means union. In the Katha
Upanishad the senses are to be controlled as spirited horses are
by a yoke.
The raja yoga tersely described by Patanjali as having eight limbs
is considered the psychological yoga. The Yoga Sutras
begin with the idea that yoga (union) is the control of the modifications
of consciousness, which enables the seer to stand in its own form instead
of identifying with the modifications. The five modifications are knowledge
(perception, inference, and testimony), error (ideas not formed from reality),
imagination (ideas without objects), sleep, and memory (experienced objects).
These are controlled by practice and detachment. Practice requires constant
attention for a long time, and detachment comes from getting free of the
desire for experiences. Mastery of this comes from the spirit overcoming
the qualities.
Meditation can be reasoning, discriminating, and joyful awareness of the
unity of the universe and self or cessation by renunciation and constantly
dissolving impressions, resulting in undifferentiated existence, bodilessness,
absorption in the supreme, or faith, enthusiasm, memory, and wisdom. Intense
practice brings the best results, or it may be achieved by surrendering
to the Lord. The perfect spirit of the Lord is untouched by afflictions,
actions, and their results; it is the infinite seed of omniscience beyond
time, and its symbol is the sacred word. Constant practice of that brings
cosmic consciousness and the absence of obstacles.
The obstacles that distract consciousness are disease, laziness, indecision,
apathy, lethargy, craving sense-pleasure, erroneous perception, lack of
concentration, and unstable attention. These distractions are accompanied
by sorrow, worry, restlessness, and irregular breathing. Cultivating the
feelings of friendship, compassion, joy, and equanimity toward those who
are happy, suffering, worthy, and unworthy purifies consciousness, as does
breathing in and out. Subtle vision modifies the higher consciousness by
bringing the mind stability, as does the transcendent inner light, the awareness
that controls passions, the analytical knowledge of dreams and sleep, and
concentration according to choice.
The lessened modifications become transparent and transformed, and the memory
is purified and empty so that objects shine without thought. The subtle
elements become undefinable nature in the meditation with seed. Beyond discrimination
the oversoul is blessed with direct truth, which is different from verbal
inferences. This impression prevents all other impressions, and control
of even this controls everything in seedless meditation.
The practice of yoga and meditation is enhanced by discipline, self-study,
and surrender to the Lord in order to remove obstacles such as ignorance,
egoism, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life. Obstacles result in
action patterns that cause suffering in this life and the next as virtue
and vice bear the fruits of pleasure and pain, but concentration overcomes
their effects. Future suffering can be avoided if the perceiver does not
identify with the perceived. Discriminating undisturbed intelligence removes
ignorance and suffering by the absence of identity and the freedom of the
perceiver.
The practice of union proceeds through the eight steps of restraint, observances,
posture, breath control, sublimation, attention, concentration, and meditation.
The restraints are not injuring, lying, stealing, lusting, nor possessing
and are called the universal great vows we have often seen before. The second
primarily ethical step of observances is cleanliness, contentment, discipline,
self-study, and surrender to the Lord. Patanjali suggests that destructive
instincts may be overcome by cultivating the opposites of greed, anger,
or delusion. In confirming nonviolence the presence of hostility is relinquished.
Not lying brings work and its fruits, not stealing riches, not lusting vigor,
and from not possessing comes knowledge of past and future lives.
Cleanliness brings protection of one's body, goodness purified becomes serenity,
and single-mindedness conquers the senses. Being content gains happiness.
Discipline perfects the senses and destroys impurities. By self-study one
may commune with the divine ideal, and meditation is successfully identifying
with the Lord.
Stable and pleasant postures (asanas) release tension and transform
thought. Regulating the inhalation and exhalation of the breath (pranayama)
prepares the mind for attention. By withdrawing consciousness from its own
objects the senses are sublimated (pratyahara) and under control.
The last three steps of attention (dharana), concentration (dhyana),
and meditation (samadhi) are the same as the last three steps of
the Buddha's eightfold path. Attention is defined by Patanjali as the original
focus of consciousness, concentration as continuing awareness there, and
meditation as when that shines light alone in its own empty form. These
three work as one in inner control leading to wisdom and are the psychological
steps. As the control of destructive instincts and impressions evolves,
the flow of consciousness becomes calm by habit, and oneness arises in meditation.
As this oneness evolves, past and present become similar in the conscious
awareness.
Patanjali then describes various psychic abilities that can be attained
from the practice of yoga. Supernatural powers may come from birth, drugs,
chanting, discipline, or meditation. Yet he warns that worldly powers are
obstacles to meditation. Only the knowledge of discriminating between goodness
and spirit brings omnipotence and omniscience, and only from detachment
to that is the seed of bondage destroyed in freedom. The soul of the discriminating
perceiver is completely detached from emotion and mind so that with serene
discrimination the consciousness can move toward freedom. Finally the evolution
of transforming qualities fulfills its purpose and stops, cognized as a
distinct transformation. Patanjali concludes,
Empty for the sake of spirit
the qualities return to nature.
Freedom is established in its own form,
or it is aware energy.3
This yoga text has been tremendously influential in India and beyond, and is in my opinion a very positive guide to spiritual liberation as well as being beneficial to ethical development.
The Bhagavad-Gita, which means the song
of the Lord, was written between the second century BC and the second century
CE. It synthesizes many ideas from the Samkhya philosophy and practice
of yoga, but it is also claimed by Vedanta and Hindu philosophy in
general as its greatest work on spirituality. The text is actually contained
in Book 6 of the epic poem Mahabharata
which tells the story of the great civil war that may have occurred in India
as early as about 1400 BC or as late as about 900. These stories will be
discussed in the next chapter, but the dramatic context for the dialog between
the warrior Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna is the beginning of the actual
battle between the rival ruling families, the Kauruvas and Pandavas.
The Bhagavad-Gita is narrated by the sage
Sanjaya who clairvoyantly perceives what is going on and relates it to the
blind King Dhritarashtra. Krishna is an uncle and friend of the Pandavas,
but remaining neutral he allowed one side to use his vassals in battle,
while the Pandava Arjuna got to have him as charioteer although he would
not fight himself. By the time this was written Krishna is considered an
incarnation of the god Vishnu, the preserver, and he teaches Arjuna several
kinds of yoga for achieving union with God. This is the earliest work that
emphasizes the religious worship of God through devotion to an avatar or
incarnation of God which developed into the Vaishnavite faith in medieval
Hinduism.
The poem begins with Dhritarashtra asking Sanjaya what is happening not
only on the field of Kuru but also on the field of dharma (virtue,
duty). Sanjaya describes how both armies are arrayed against each other
blowing their conch horns to show their readiness to fight. Then Arjuna
asked Krishna to position his chariot between the two armies, and there
he saw many of his relatives on the other side, causing him to feel faint
and consider not fighting.
Even though the others are killing, Arjuna does not think it would be worth
it to do so, even for sovereignty of the three worlds let alone an earthly
kingdom. Evil would come to him, he says, if he should kill his relatives.
How could this bring happiness? This family destruction is wrong and would
destroy ancient family duties and bring on lawlessness, which would lead
to corruption of the women and caste mixing. Why should he kill for greed
of royal pleasures? It would be greater happiness for him to be killed unresisting
and unarmed. Thus Arjuna's mind was overcome by sorrow.
Krishna, who is called the Lord, responds by upbraiding Arjuna for timidity
and cowardice that would cause disgrace, urging him to stand up. Arjuna
answers that it would be better to live by begging than be smeared with
the blood of his noble teachers. He does not see what would remove this
sorrow even if he were to win unrivaled prosperity and royal power. Once
again Arjuna declares that he will not fight.
The Lord now tells Arjuna that he is grieving unnecessarily even though
his words are wise. As he is eternal, so are the slain, and all will exist
forever. No one can cause the destruction of the imperishable; though the
bodies have an end, the infinite soul is indestructible and eternal. Like
a person abandoning worn-out clothes takes new ones, so does the soul enter
new bodies. Therefore he should not mourn, because death is certain for
those born, but the soul is eternally inviolable.
According to Krishna Arjuna should look to his duty as a Kshatriya to battle;
to avoid this duty would be evil. If he is killed, he will go to heaven;
and if he conquers he will enjoy the earth. Making pleasure and pain the
same, gain and loss, victory and defeat, he should fight to avoid evil.
From the perspective of universal ethics I have to criticize this justification
of the caste system and war mentality. While I agree that it is our duty
to act courageously and not refuse to act out of cowardice, the principles
of love, freedom, responsibility, health, justice, and others guide us by
the all-important principle of not harming (ahimsa) which is violated
in organized war to a maximum extent. The duty of a kshatriya is to work
for justice and protect lives, not to kill people. Mahatma Gandhi and others
have shown us that we can stand up to wrong and refuse to capitulate to
it without using violence which merely multiplies the wrong and harm. I
think it is especially important to criticize this error in one of the world's
otherwise wisest books so that it cannot as easily be used as a justification
for this violent behavior which had not been purified out of Aryan culture
in that time.
Krishna explains how to use the unified intuition of the Samkhya
philosophy and yoga practice to act without attachment to the fruits of
action. Following the letter of the scripture and performing rituals does
not avail. Staying in yoga with unified intuition and letting go of the
fruit of action one will be free of misery and the bondage of birth. When
in meditation the intuition stands unmoving, union is attained.
Arjuna asks Krishna what such a person is like. When one gives up all desires
in the mind and is satisfied in the soul by the soul, then one is steady
in wisdom. In pain free of anxiety, in pleasure free of desire, the sage
departs from passion, fear, and anger. Withdrawing from the senses like
a tortoise in its shell one should sit unified with the Lord in the supreme
with senses under control. From contemplating objects comes attachment,
then desire, anger, delusion, memory wandering, and loss of intuition until
one perishes. By eliminating lust and aversion while still engaging the
objects of the senses, the self-governing attains tranquillity, clear thoughts,
and steady intuition. The undisciplined have no intuition, no concentration,
and no peace; but by giving up desires, longing, and possessiveness one
attains the holy state of peace.
Once again Arjuna asks if intuition is better than action, why is he being
urged to this terrible action. Krishna teaches that Samkhya knowledge
and yoga action are to be performed but without attachment. To renounce
action and then remember the senses is to be a deluded hypocrite. Maintaining
the body requires action, and so controlled action is better than inaction.
God-produced action originates in the imperishable God of the sacrifice.
Observing what the world needs one should act free of attachment. Even the
Lord must act and set an example for others to act, or confusion would result.
All actions are performed by the qualities of nature; only the deluded self
thinks the "I" is the doer. The deluded are attached to qualified
actions, but the knower of the whole does not disturb fools. He should entrust
all his actions to the Lord, meditating on the supreme soul and not complain.
Even the wise act according to their own nature, and it is better to follow
one's own duty than another's which can be dangerous.
Arjuna asks what compels a person to do harm. The Lord replies that it is
desire and anger from the emotional quality that is injurious. This obscures
knowledge as smoke does fire. The senses must be restrained. Higher than
the senses is the mind, higher than the mind is the intuition, and even
higher is the soul.
Krishna says that he knows his past lives and that as an avatar he is born
from age to age to protect the good and destroy evil-doers in order to establish
justice. By trusting the Lord and being purified by disciplined knowledge
many have attained the Lord. The ancient way of action is for liberation.
The enlightened can see action in inaction and inaction in action. Independent
action is without hope, possession, and envy. God is attained by contemplating
the action of God. Action without desire is consumed in the fire of knowledge.
Yogis practice sacrifice to the divine by restraining their senses, controlling
the breath, and regulating food. Attaining knowledge works better than sacrificing
material possessions.
Krishna does not see Samkhya and yoga as separate, but either practiced
correctly yields the results of both. Though renunciation yoga can lead
to the best, the yoga of action is even better. By putting actions in God
free of attachment one is not affected by evil and attains peace. Unattached
to external contacts the soul united to God enjoys imperishable happiness,
but delights from contact give birth to pain with a beginning and an end.
Enduring the agitation brought on by desire and anger, the united one has
inner happiness and light attaining oneness with God. With sins wiped out
and dualities dissolved the self-controlled attaining nirvana rejoices in
the welfare of all beings.
One should uplift the self by the soul, not lower the soul. The self may
be the friend or enemy of the soul depending on whether the self is mastered
by the soul or not. The self-mastered is peaceful, steadfast, content with
self-knowledge, detached from companions, neutral toward enemies and friends
with impartial intuition. Krishna recommends disciplined moderation in eating
and sleeping, not either extreme. Seeing the soul in the soul one is not
disturbed even by heavy sorrow. Mastering the senses with the mind, the
intuition may then quiet the mind, the soul making it stand still. When
the mind wanders, one should master it by directing the will in the soul.
The united soul observes the soul in all beings, seeing the Lord everywhere.
Arjuna confesses that his mind is unstable and hard to hold back. Krishna
replies that no one doing good suffers misfortune but improves from life
to life toward perfection. Persevering in mental control and cleansed of
guilt one goes toward the supreme goal. The mind absorbed in the Lord practicing
union will know this completely, but deluded evil-doers robbed by illusion
do not. Practicing union one goes to the divine Spirit at death. The light
path leads to liberation from rebirth with God, but the dark path brings
return to reincarnation.
Krishna recommends a path of devotion to him as a way of supreme liberation
and describes to Arjuna his extraordinary characteristics. Then Arjuna asks
to see his divine form, and he is blessed with that overwhelming vision.
When Arjuna asks Krishna who has the best knowledge of union, he replies
that those who worship him with the greatest faith are most united, although
those who worship the imperishable, unmanifest, and omnipresent also attain
him.
Knowledge is better than practice, meditation superior to knowledge, and
renunciation better than meditation. The yogi is a friend of all beings,
free of ego, indifferent to pain and pleasure, patient, self-restrained,
and devoted to God. Those who worship the immortal justice with faith and
devotion are beloved by the Lord.
Next Krishna differentiates nature and spirit, the field from the knower
of the field. The field is composed of the elements, ego, intuition, the
senses and their objects, desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, and consciousness.
Spirit is the cause situated in nature which experiences the qualities born
of nature. Attachment to those qualities is what brings about birth.
The supreme spirit in this body is also said to be
the observer, allower, supporter, experiencer,
the great Lord and the supreme soul.
whoever thus knows spirit and nature
together with the qualities,
even in any stage of existence,
this one is not born again.4
Whoever perceives the same supreme Lord in all beings that never perishes
goes to the supreme goal. The imperishable soul dwelling in the body free
of qualities does not act and is not stained.
Krishna explains that the quality of goodness is bound by attachment to
happiness and knowledge, the quality of emotion by attachment to desire
and action, and the dark quality by ignorance, confusion, neglect, and laziness.
Goodness works by knowledge, emotion by greed, effort, action, restlessness,
and lust, and darkness by negligence and confusion. By transcending all
three qualities the observer perceives and knows the highest and attains
immortality.
Arjuna asks how this may be accomplished. The Lord answers that by sitting
impartially one is not disturbed by the qualities; standing firm one does
not waver, the same in pain and pleasure, self-reliant, equal to blame and
praise, to friend and foe. In devotional union these qualities are transcended
making one fit for God realization. The endowment of the divine comes from
fearlessness, purity, perseverance in knowledge of union, charity, restraint,
sacrifice, spiritual study, austerity, straightforwardness, nonviolence,
truth, no anger, renunciation, peace, no slander, compassion for creatures,
no greed, kindness, modesty, no fickleness, vigor, patience, courage, no
hatred, and no excessive pride.
Hypocrisy, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, and ignorance lead to the
demonic who are untruthful, unstable, and godless. Attached to desire and
accepting false notions, clinging to anxiety ending in death, with gratification
of desire their highest aim, convinced that this is all and using the unjust
means of wealth, they acquire property and slay enemies; but they are wrapped
in a net of delusion, attached to desires, and fall into an unclean hell.
Clinging to ego, force, insolence, desire, and anger the envious hate the
soul in other bodies, and entering a demonic womb are deluded in birth after
birth. One should renounce desire, anger, and greed as the threefold gate
of hell.
An example of the practical experience of the three qualities is how they
are related to food.
Promoting life, goodness, strength, health,
happiness, and satisfaction,
flavorful, juicy, substantial, and hearty foods
are liked by the good.
Pungent, sour, salty, hot, spicy, dry, burnt foods
are wanted by the emotional,
causing pain, misery, and sickness.
Spoiled, tasteless, putrid, stale,
and what is rejected as well as the unclean
is the food liked by the ignorant.5
The austerity of the good is pure, virtuous, and nonviolent; the austerity
of the emotional is hypocritical for honor and respect on earth; and that
of the dark is for the purpose of destroying another. The good gift is given
freely at the proper time and place to a worthy person; the gift given for
a reward or unwillingly is emotional; and the dark gift is given at the
wrong place and time to the unworthy with contempt.
Action according to the three qualities is also described.
Liberated from attachment, not egotistical,
accompanied by courage and resolution,
unperturbed in success or failure,
the actor is called good.
Passionate, wishing to obtain the fruit of action, greedy,
violent-natured, impure, accompanied by joy and sorrow,
the actor is proclaimed to be emotional.
Undisciplined, vulgar, stubborn, deceitful, dishonest,
lazy, depressed, and procrastinating,
the actor is called dark.6
Finally Krishna summarizes his teachings for attaining perfection and God, the highest state of knowledge.
United with cleansed intuition,
controlling the self with will,
and relinquishing, starting with sound, sense objects,
and rejecting passion and hatred,
living isolated, eating lightly,
controlling speech, body, and mind,
constantly intent on union meditation,
relying on detachment,
releasing ego, force, pride, desire, anger, possessiveness;
unselfish, peaceful, one is fit for oneness with God.
Becoming God, soul serene,
one does not grieve nor desire,
the same among all creatures,
one attains supreme devotion to me.
By devotion to me one realizes who and what I am in truth;
then knowing me in truth one enters immediately.
Performing all actions always trusting in me,
one attains by my grace the imperishable eternal home.
Surrendering consciously all actions in me, intent on me,
constantly be conscious of me relying on intuitive action.7
Thus Krishna offers himself as a refuge and guide toward liberation through knowledge and detachment from the fruits of action in one of the wisest and most inspiring books ever written.
1. Vaishesika Sutra 6:2:2.
2. Mokshadharma in Mahabharata 12:295:33-36 quoted in Larson,
G.
J., Classical Samkhya, p. 128.
3. Patanjali, Yoga Sutras 4:34.
4. Bhagavad Gita 13:22-23.
5. Ibid. 17:8-10.
6. Ibid. 18:26-28.
7. Ibid. 18:51-57.