Wk 4 Mon, Jan 23 Wed Bhagavad Gītā Loose ends Read Ch. 7, "The Witness and the Watched" In Hamilton 2001. Indian philosophy: A Very Short Introduction. Edwin Bryant s Ch. 1, Agency in Sāṅkhya & Yoga In Dasti, Matthew and Edwin Bryant, eds. 2014. Free Will, Agency and Selfhood in Indian Philosophy (FWASIP). 1
Through Wk 04 Term Paper Karma, Dharma, Free Will, the BG, Sāṅkhya Synthesis of what learned thus far Fold in Wk04 reflection, no need for separate submission 6-8 pages + Notes, Bibliography Due Sat. 9 am? Bhagavad Gītā Today Papers White 1984. The Bhagavadgītā's Conception of Human Freedom. MacKenzie 2001. "The Five Factors of Action and the Decentring of Agency in the Bhagavad Gītā." 2
Intro to BG The Mahābhārata Epic Disagreement over succession to throne: Pāṇḍu s sons 5 Pāṇḍavas Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva Dhṛtarāṣṭra s 100 sons Kauravas Duryodhana, Duḥśāsana, etc. Other figures: Bhīṣma: patriarch, great-uncle Kṛpa, Droṇa: Martial arts teachers Sanjaya: Dhṛtarāṣṭra s charioteer, play-by-play Kṛṣṇa Vāsudeva: prince, cousin, brother-in-law, charioteer, 3
Some Visuals Bhīṣma Pāṇdvas & Draupdi Duryodhana Saṃjaya & Dhṛtarāṣṭra On the verge of war 4
Arjuna s despair 1. As a Kṣatriya, my duty is to fight this war; not doing so is wrong. 2. But in fighting, I will kill my elders, my teachers, my kin social chaos, wrong. The Bhagavad Gītā itself 200 BCE? 100 CE? Composite vs. Unitary? Integral to MB vs. Interpolation? Timing in plot, Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa s relationship. Interpolations to BG? Revelation? śruti, un-authored, beginning-less smṛti, tradition, Veda, orthodoxy Sāṅkhya basis? 5
Challenges to Orthodoxy Orthodoxy = Vedas, Brahmins; stresses karma (rituals) Newer heterodox systems (Jaina, Buddhist, folk) Karma endless rebirths Renunciation, asceticism Rejection of caste hierarchy Royal patrons: Aśoka, Chandragupta Maurya Direct worship & intercession of gods bhakti Need to counter destabilization of ordered world & society Kṛṣṇa to the rescue! Critical of śruti BG 4.1 Reveals to kṣatriya-s 3.20, Arjuna non-brahmin = new Expounds new ideas disguised as old: 4.2-3: lost tradition of ancient Yoga Personal revelation 7.25-26, 9.1-2, 10.1, 11 Upholder of dharma 4.7-8 God of bhakti 11.54-5, 18.66 6
BG Brief Outline Nature of ātman 1. Arjuna s despondency 2. Kṛṣṇa s response 3. Karma-yoga 4. Jñāna-yoga 5. Brahman, meditation 6. Ātman, meditation Nature of supreme deity 7. Theistic Sāṅkhya 8. Meditation 9. The Sublime Mystery 10. God s powers 11. Theophany 12. Bhakti-yoga BG Outline, cont d Relation between ātman & supreme deity 13. The field & knower 14. The three guṇa-s 15. Puruṣa(-s?) 16. The divine & demoniac within 17. Three-fold faith 18. Recap, conclusion 7
Sāṅkhya & Yoga 6 Schools (darśanas) of Hindu Philosophy 1. Sāṅkhya, Dualistic Discrimination 900 BCE 1000 CE 2. Yoga, translation? 200 BCE 3. Nyāya, Logic & Empiricism ~250 CE 4. Vaiśeṣika, Atomism, Particularism 200 BCE 1 CE, 550 1000 CE 5. Mīmāṃsā, Vedic Exegesis 200 BCE 700 CE 6. Vedānta, Upaniṣads Later Vedic Exegesis 200 BCE 8
Sāṅkhya View (in brief) Radical Dualism Two basic ontological principles underlie the manifest universe 1. pure consciousness, puruṣa 2. matter, prakṛti Final purpose: Attainment of isolation, kaivalya, for puruṣa Disentanglement from material world Not a rejection of reality of the world Qualities, guṇa-s All matter composed of 3 qualities sattva, goodness / intelligence / subjectivity / illumination / purity / harmony rajas, energy / passion / motion & agency / activity tamas, inertia / objective or determinate aspect / dullness / ignorance / torpor 9
David White on BG & Freedom No freedom in action (296) Be free from guṇa-s BG 2.45 Causation of acts not simple, linear, 1:1 process of cause & effect (300). Multiple stimuli Freedom Of the individual To choose alternative courses For whom one acts From limitations Matthew MacKenzie on BG & Action and Agency Five Factors of Action (BG 18.13-15) 1. locus, adhiṣṭhānam 2. agent, kartā 3. instruments, karaṇāṇi 4. effort, ceṣṭā 5. divine fate, daivam Three Constituents of Action Action stimulus: Knower, Known, Knowledge Action: Instrument, Object, Agent 10
MacKenzie, cont d Interpreters Considered: Madhusūdana Sarasvatī, advaitin, c. 1540 1640 CE Rāmānuja, Qualified non-dualist, theist 1017 1137 CE Aurobindo Ghose, Nationalist & philosopher 1872-1950 CE MacKenzie, cont d Autonomy? (144-6) BG 18.16, 18.61 Responsibility? 11