The Ethical Philosophy of Yoga-Vasishtha
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THE ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY OF YOGA-VASISHTHA ABSTRACT THESIS SUBMITTED F EGREE Of UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. JALALUL HAQ DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2008 ,• ii«^ Aiad If I: fe^'--i V r.V>/ J ¥^\ **" V / -/ ABSTRACT Yoga-Vasishitha, a great work of Indian philosophy and mysticism, raises the same ethical questions as earlier raised by Gitd. It is the question of how to reconcile the life of ritual and moral action with the virtue of renunciation. It is, in other words, the question of combining the action with knowledge so that action does not remain fruitful action but becomes synonymous with non-action. The ideal of non-action or actionlessness is required in so far it is the only way to realize the goal of emancipation or moksa. As in Gitd where the kshatriya hero Arjuna begins to think and talk of renunciation from action when he is right in the midst of a battlefield, the hero of epic Yoga-Vdsishitha, the famous Rama, the son of Ayodhya King Dasaratha, expresses his disillusionment and disgust from the life in the world while he is still a young prince and has just returned from his visit to places of pilgrimage and dwellings of saints. Life, Rama thinks, is full of sufferings and sorrow. The pleasures are transitory and deceptive while the pains are permanent and real. The end of life is death and the path of it full of miseries, sickness, fears and frustrations etc. There is therefore no point in living a life of action and involvement. It would be rather wise to renounce and withdraw and concentrate on the higher goal of self-realization and emancipation. Rishi Vasishtha, the family priest of Raghu dynasty, gives a sermon to dissuade Rama from such a course of action. This was much like Krsna in Gitd persuading through his philosophical and moral discourse against Arjuna's resolve to shun kshatriya action of waging war and retire from the active life in general. Since all moral and ethical ideas have ultimately to be referred back to general metaphysical outlook and that, in turn, to one's views about the fundamental questions of source and nature of knowledge, it is found that Yoga-Vasishtha espouses a certain kind of epistemology and metaphysics which is peculiar to its own. Knowledge according to this work is perception and nothing else. It is not reasoning and it is not revelation as contained in the Vedas. But perception is not that of senses but of heart or soul. It indeed covers senses, feelings and all kinds of awareness and consciousness. According to Y-V, this world of experience with various objects, time, space and laws, is a creation of the mind, that is, an idea or kalpana. Just as objects are created by the mind in dream, so also everything is created by the mind in the waking state. Expansion of the mind is sankalpa. Sankalpa, through its power of differentiations, generates this universe. Time and space are only mental creations. Through the play of the mind on objects nearness seems to be a great distance and vice versa. Through the force of the mind, a kalpa is regarded as a moment and vice versa. Mind is not anything different and separate from Brahman. Brahman manifests Himself as mind. Mind is endowed with creative power. Mind is cause of both bondage and liberation. Y-V espouses an extreme version of monistic-pantheistic metaphysics. Going one step ahead of Shankara, it denies even the non- duality of world and Brahman, saying that the question of non-duality arises only when there is at least a notional presence of duality. But there is no such thing even in thought. The God and world are absolutely one and same. Rather than being two realities, they are infact two words for a reality that is just one. The world is an illusion and so is the subjective soul or even the Iswara. Having such a view of knowledge and reality in the background, it could be expected that Y-V recommends the path of knowledge for one's salvation. It indeed does so but in a manner as to include the path of action as well. Moral duty or dharma is important so long as one lives in a society. And so are the rituals. It is always desirable to observe good conduct and shun vice in so far as they are the necessary conditions for the purification of soul and stepping stone for scaling the spiritual heights. Dharma however ceases to be operative once one enters into the stage oisanyasa and renounces all worldly actions and interests. Y-V also believes in the theory of karma. Like Gitd, it too stresses the importance and inevitability of actions. So long as man lives the performance of action is unavoidable. No one can live while being inactive. Actions bring rewards and avoidance of action is fraught with many dangerous possibilities. Even gods became gods through effort and action. It is impossible for any man to attain the goal of moksa by sitting idle. In order to further stress the necessity of action, Y-V introduces the notion of paurusa which comes close to the idea of free-will in western philosophy. Human actions are not determined by one's present or past karma. Man is absolutely free to choose the course of action he desires and is not hindered in this even by God's will. There is also there no such thing as 'fate'. It is true that things happen as they happen but it as also true that man choses his own destiny and works for it as he wills. Y-V regards belief in fate as the belief of fools and ignorants. Great calamities will visit those who do not make effort and wait for things to happen by themselves. In Y-V scheme, dharma has to be performed with purity of heart. It is not externally conforming to the rules but being good at heart. Karma too, similarly, is to be accompanied with knowledge. Karma unaccompanied by knowledge is source of bondage while accompanied by knowledge it is a source of liberation. Karma with knowledge is indeed no karma al all. Action becomes non-action when one performs it with the full knowledge of Brahman and in complete oblivion of worldly indulgences. In the Vairagya Prakaranam of Y-V, it is mentioned that karma (action) and jndna (knowledge) both are necessary for spiritual development. By itself neither action nor knowledge can produce the nirvana (liberation). According to Y-V, action does not mean only the physical action as manifested through the physical body and directed towards external objects. The real action is willing. It is really mental and not physical. Further, Y-V explains that all actions as such do not bind us since the binding element in an action is desire {vasand). If an action, whether physical or mental, is not coloured with desire, its result does not affect the soul. So there is no experience of action which is performed by us desirelessly. While reiterating Gitd's celebrated doctrine of 'disinterested action', Y-V also works upon its other main theme called the idea of "stabilized intellect". In Y-V it is though given the name of "annihilated mind." The underlying presumption here is that since the mind is the source of ail experiences of feeling, willing, desiring etc., this mind must be annihilated in order to end the experiences. When there is no experience there will also be no attachment and when there is no attachment there will be no involvement with the world. The soul forgets its true nature by being involved with the world which causes desire and attachment. There has to be then a constant effort to control and stop the functions of mind. When mind thus becomes stable and does not think even upon its own internal operations, it extinguishes the source of its fluctuations and vibrations. It becomes still and completely at rest. It loses the power of not only consciousness but also self-consciousness. This state is the state of its annihilation. This is also the state where it forgoes all fears and fhistrations, all sense of good and evil or dharma and adharma. In the story of Sikhidhvaja and Chudala, Y-V gives a practical example of how this state of annihilated mind is achieved and what are the necessary implications of it. It is clearly impressed in the story that moksa can be achieved not by living in forest and leading an unworldly life. It can rather be achieved while living in the world and performing all kinds of duties required by one's respective status and station in social hierarchy. It is also stated that once one's mind is stabilized, there does not remain any sense of honour or dishonour or any feeUng of ill-will or enmity against one's tormentor. With no desire or ambition left, one can and must perform one's duties dutifully and faithfiilly as prescribed by sastras. Y-V concludes that the pleasures and pains depend on desire not on the object itself. If desire is permanently and absolutely eradicated from the mind, there will be experience of abiding joy for the individual. When all desires are given up by the heart, one experiences joy within. This is the Joy or Bliss inherent in the Absolute which is our very self. The liberation is achieved when an individual realizes identity with the Absolute. It is possible when one is free from bondage in all its aspects.