Monday, April 14, 2014

Hinduism and the Inescapable Self

Below are some previous thoughts on an eastern worldview that is beginning to have widespread impact in America:  (Note ontology and metaphysics, as it is used here, means your view about what truly exists in the world.)

One of the most emphasized themes of The Bhagavad Gita (a Hindu holy scripture) is that all action should be engaged in without any attachment to results.  One should not do something for the sake of ‘reward’ or for the sake of some ‘fruit’ that should come from it.  Krishna says, “The awakened sages are free from the anxiety of results… free from expectations and all sense of possession…” (Bhagavad Gita [trans. Easwaran], 68).  The goal of such action is not merely turning away from selfishness per se (although that is part of it), but rather to eclipse the mind into a world that is beyond karma, beyond this world.   

But this is where the dynamic of action gets interesting.  Equally emphasized but in a wholly different direction, Krishna actually has very specific fruits, rewards, goals, and results, that one should set his mind toward (in his actions).  For instance, ones actions are to be for the sake of the welfare of others (BG, 77), for the sake of self-purification (BG, 96), for Krishna’s sake (BG, 78, 106, 157), and even for the sake of self-realization (BG, 98, 118).  Here of course, this does not sound like a philosophy of action devoid of goal-directedness.  So the natural qualification that some would make, is that it is the selfish results and rewards that are really what Krishna is advising against.  Of course, this is now a step back from the stronger claim of purifying one’s mind from any results –which seems to be at the heart of the Bhagavad Gita.  But, second, even granting that qualification, what is a system of action that denounces ‘selfish’ goals, but commands its adherents to remember “Self-realization is the only goal…”? (BG, 98). How would we measure a teaching which says never act for your own sake and then says “work with body, mind, and sense for the sake of self-purification?” (BG, 96).  The self permeates the nature of action here because the self permeates Hindu metaphysics.  It cannot escape it.  It is a worldview that cannot build a genuinely consistent altruistic system –by its very nature– until it abandons a self-permeated ontology.

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