Death, Love Duty: a Therepeutic Triptych - Written by Mouna Krupardini

Bard College Bard Digital Commons Senior Projects Spring 2017 Bard Undergraduate Senior Projects Spring 2017 Death, Love Duty: A Therepeutic Triptych - written by Mouna Krupardini Mouna Krupardini Bard College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2017 Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Feminist Philosophy Commons, Nonfiction Commons, and the South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Krupardini, Mouna, "Death, Love Duty: A Therepeutic Triptych - written by Mouna Krupardini" (2017). Senior Projects Spring 2017. 262. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2017/262 This Open Access work is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been provided to you by Bard College's Stevenson Library with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this work in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Death, Love, Duty: A Therapeutic Triptych by Mouna Krupardini Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College by Piyush Kuthethoor Annandale-on-Hudson, New York May 2017 ii iii A Disclaimer (Letter to the Board) To the Board, I would like to thank you for taking the time to go through Mouna Krupardini’s project, a genuine attempt to develop a guide for moral conduct based on a duty to love that emerges in the face of death. Her work is grounded in ideas from Kierkegaard, Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy and Feminist Care Ethics. It deals with the inevitable moral problems of being an individual with a limited temporal existence that dreads to face death, thereby succumbing to actions of despair. As we become honest with ourselves, we start to realize that the cure for the sickness of existence is in taking upon love of the other as a duty, and the healing process is a continuous striving and duty to exist and bring the other into in the space of love that encompasses all self/ other. Because the first two out of the three schools of thought were prior areas of interest for me, Mouna reached out to me, looking for a platform to test this piece of experimental philosophy (I was grateful to have been introduced by her to the third). Since I had planned to do my philosophy senior project on Kierkegaard; and couldn’t get myself to say anything that he hadn’t said already or would have liked me to say through a thesis; I asked her to send me her work, so that I could merely present and defend it to the board. This is a disclaimer- I do not take any credit for the ideas here. I have merely transcribed her writings into this word document. For this reason, I do not wish to be graded on this Senior Project, but will take it pass/fail. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Piyush Kuthethoor iv v Death, Love, Duty: A Therapeutic Triptych by Mouna Krupardini vi vii This project is dedicated to all sentient beings, truly pure in mind and heart- may they be freed from their suffering by gaining the wisdom to come to terms with death, realizing the highest passion in love, and serving the cause of freeing all sentient beings. viii ix Acknowledgments मात ृ देवोऽभवः । पित ृ देवोऽभवः । आचा셍य देवोऽभवः । अततथि देवोऽभवः ॥ ॐ शान्तः शान्तः शान्तः ॥ Matru Devobhava. Pitru Devobhava. Aacharya Devobhava. Atithi Devobhava. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti. Matru Devo Bhava - Mother is God. I would like to thank the woman who went through the toil of bearing me, nourishing me and teaching me the ways of the world- my entire physical, emotional and mental existence is indebted to my mother. I also am forever grateful for the presence of the divine Mother in my life, because everything I am, do or know is caused by the fertile space of action She provides, manifesting in my life as a good home, good schools, Bard College, Central European University and endless forays into foreign lands and wilderness. Pitru Devo Bhava - Father is God I would like to thank my father, who has showed great concern in times of need, restraint in times of discord, and appreciation and faith in times of dejection and despair. No one has modeled better the willpower to overcome great adversity, and the cheerfulness with which to take on life. I am also awed by the greatness that is Shiva, contemplating whose image has inspired great will and contentment in me. Aacharya Devo Bhava - The Teacher is God I would like to thank all my teachers; who am I but a little machine, recycling and repurposing the valuable lessons you have taught me. I am utterly grateful to my adviser, Daniel Berthold, for introducing me to philosophy, being a playful skeptic, and tagging along with my experiments yet always keeping it real. I thank David Weberman, for introducing me to continental philosophy and Kierkegaard, and teaching me about the stories we humans write about our surplus suffering. Jay Elliot, Maria Kronfeldner and Garry Hagberg - I sincerely thank each of them for making me see how the task of studying philosophy was relevant and pressing x to moral endeavor in our times - discussing the value and purpose of things with them has inspired the vision of this project. I thank Chiori Miyagawa for teaching me to be brave while playing with words. I thank Helena Gibbs for teaching me to see connection and nuance, and making me plunge into the depths of my psyche. I thank Tatjana Myoko and Dominique Townsend for opening the world of the Dharma to me. I am honored to have learnt from my grandfather, Govinda Rao, how to take fate into my own hands. I am grateful for the words of Sadhguru and Ravi Shankar, who from time to time showed me the way back to the mind and the heart. Finally, I thank the brilliance which is Soren Kierkegaard, whose works have been an anchor to my thoughts, whose words have tickled my intellect, and whose different personalities have helped me embrace every side to my existence. Atithi Devo Bhava - The Guest is God I thank every person who has walked into my life- all strangers at first, some who have managed to leave behind an impression, and others who have stayed on. I thank Ojas, Saba, Chris, Bhavya, Puja, Tony, Olesya and Errol for stimulating and insightful conversations in the classrooms and coffee shops of Budapest, a fleeting but intellectually rich moment in my life. I thank Rajdeep and Vikramaditya, who have always given me new ways of seeing the same old things. I thank Aishwarya for showing me how life is celebrated, Ayesha for showing me how to lighten life with humor, and Liz for showing me how to love courageously- the style here is but a reflection of your presence in my life. Finally, I thank Kritika Yegnashankaran for agreeing to be on my board despite not having known me- the enthusiasm and support she has shown this project is heartwarming. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti - Peace! Peace! Peace! Upon the three worlds (Body, Speech and Mind) xi CONTENTS Acknwoledgments………………………………………………………………………………..ix Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 DEATH…………………………………………………………………………………….….....5 Editor’s Foreword……………………………………………………………………......7 Sahara, Samuel. “The Third Eye is The Eye of Death”………………………………......9 LOVE………………………………………………………………………………………...…31 Editor’s Foreword………………………………………………………...…………….33 Singh, Yadleen. “The Workings of Love”……………………………………………....35 DUTY………………………………………………………………………………………...…65 Editor’s Foreword……………………………………………………………...……….67 Jamyang, Rabten. “Mother, not Other”…………………………………………...…….71 A Concluding Caption………………………………………………………………………......99 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………...…….100 xii 1 A Brief Introduction This project sets out on an ambitious quest for a superior way of life- one that is honest, a source of consolation, and resolutely moral- in the face of the inevitable angst of surviving, satisfying, and seeking that shapes human existence. On what principle, if any, should we govern our conduct in the world? Answering the ethical question has bothered philosophers and religious thinkers from time immemorial, yet ordinary individuals have seldom waited for the resolution of philosophical debates or the consensus of theological interpretations to go on with their lives. Many follow the rules set out by the social traditions they find themselves in, whether religious, humanist, materialist or otherwise; some develop their own values, desires and goals, creating and paving personal paths to attain them; and a few go out into the world themselves to sieve through various ways and find the ones most agreeable and reasonable. My path has been like the third- from the phantasmagoria of Hindu mythology crowding my childhood in India, to the lecture halls and libraries of philosophy departments in California, different guides for moral conduct were tried and tested with self-experimental curiosity, in search of the one(s) I could agreeably live by. Many questions about both the objects and nature of my inquiry arose from this search- What if everyone lived like this? What would it take? Can everyone understand or experience this? And on what basis was I finding something agreeable- Its logic? How it made me feel? What it resulted in? On this journey, I met a few individuals whose thinking and impeccable daily conduct left strong impressions that seeped into my ideas and actions. Presented here are writings by three such individuals, a journey through their ideas in a fashion that resembles my personal journey towards a sustainable, adaptable and inclusive guide to moral living.

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