Arnold's "The World and the Quietist" and the Bhagavad Gita

1973 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
George Forbes
Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1029
Author(s):  
Jessica Frazier

The idea of a univocal property of ‘goodness’ is not clearly found in classical Sanskrit sources; instead, a common ethical strategy was to clarify the ontological nature of the self or world in such a way that ethical implications naturally flow from the adjustment in our thinking. This article gives a synoptic reading of sources that treat features of ethics—dispositions, agents, causal systems of effect, and even values themselves—as emergent phenomena grounded in complex, shifting, porous configurations. One conclusion of this was that what ‘goodness’ entails varies according to the scope and context of our concern. Firstly, we examine how the Bhagavad Gītā fashions a utilitarianism that assumes no universal intrinsically valuable goal or Good, but aims only to sustain the world as a prerequisite for choice. Recognising that this pushes problems of identifying the Good onto the individual; secondly, we look at accounts of malleable personhood in the Caraka Saṃhitā and Book 12 of the Mahābhārata. Finally, the aesthetic theory of the Nāṭya Śāstra hints at a context-constituted conception of value itself, reminding us that evaluative emotions are themselves complex, curate-able, and can expand beyond egoism to encompass interpersonal concerns. Together these sources show aspects of an ethical worldview for which each case is a nexus in a larger ethical fabric. Each tries to pry us away from our most personal concerns, so we can reach beyond the ego to do what is of value for a wider province of which we are a part.


2019 ◽  
pp. 168-184
Author(s):  
Fred Dallmayr

The chapter reflects a redemptive hope which is sometimes called a “grounded expectation” or chaosmos, which stresses the tension between order and disorder, concord and conflict. To explicate this conundrum, the chapter turns again to Heidegger as a thinker of “difference,” for whom chaos and cosmos both inhabit the “world,” triggering a transformative struggle. To exemplify the meaning of this struggle, the chapter invokes the task of “world-maintenance” upheld, in the Indian Bhagavad Gita, in the midst of an epic battle in the Mahabharata. In the Chinese tradition, world-maintenance involves the striving for a differentiated holism of “all under heaven,” in opposition to an imperially imposed “world order” from above, and urging the cultivation of mutual learning and understanding, fostering genuine mutual respect between cultures and peoples. Heidegger’s “being-in-the-world” from this angle means a wager in favor of a peaceful cosmopolis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 246-249
Author(s):  
Jatin Bishoyi

For Bhagavad-Gita, both individual and society as a whole is dependent on three principal conditions for their existence such as Niskama karma, Svadharma and Loksamgrah.  Loksamgrah is used in a very comprehensive connotation as it not only looks at the collective well-being of this world but the universe as a whole. It is because in Loksamgrah the word ‘Loko’ does not mean only people of this world but all the beings of satyaloka, pitruloka, devaloka, bhurloka and other loka. In Gitarahasya Tilak points out, “The word ‘Loksamgrah’ has been used in the Bhagavad-Gita to mean the maintenance, not only of human beings, but that the human and all others spheres, such as of the Gods etc. should be maintained, and that they should become mutually beneficial”. True to say the recommendation of Loksamgrah on our public life have triggered concerns that public services, ranging from physical world to metaphysical world could become more imperative but in fact, it only would have minimal impact on public life i.e. it only attempts to minimize distress and problems both at individual and society levels. As a whole it could only attempt to inculcate the values of public service and integrity attitude. Radhakrishnan points out that, “Loksamgrah stands for the unity of the world, the interconnectedness of society.  If the world is not to sink into a condition of physical misery and moral degradation, if the common life is to be decent and dignified, religious ethics must control social action”.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. BAYLY

This essay considers the relationship between the Bhagavad Gita as a transnational text and its changing role in Indian political thought. Indian liberals used it to mark out the boundaries between the public sphere they desired and a reformed Hinduism. Indian intellectuals also used the image of Krishna to construct an all-wise founder figure for the new India. Meanwhile, in the transnational sphere of debate, the Gita came to represent India itself in the works of theosophists, spiritual relativists and a variety of intellectual radicals, who approved of the text's ambivalent view of the relationship between political action and the World Spirit. After the First World War, Indian liberals, notably Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, philosopher and later India's second president, used Krishna's words to urge a new and humane international politics infused with the ideal of “detached action”.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaunak A. Ajinkya ◽  
Deepali S. Ajinkya ◽  
Gurvinder Kalra

Indian history is one of the most ancient in the world; replete with many wars, teachings and religious beginnings. Hinduism is one of India‟s most prominent religions with the Bhagavad Gita being one of its most significant scriptures. Many authors have postulated that different psychotherapeutic methods have been used and described in Bhagavad Gita. In this article, we have explored regarding descriptions of the possible use of hypnotherapy in this holy text.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Supratik Sen

I argue that a normative environmental ethical theory can be coherently derived out of the theological matrix of the Bhagavad Gītā. I build upon Ithamar Theodor’s articulation of the Gītā’s underlying unifying structure to depict how the Gītā conceives of three possible relationships with nature. This allows me to tease out three concurrent worldviews in the Gītā—a world-affirming worldview, a world-renouncing worldview and a bhakti worldview, which is simultaneously world-affirming and world-renouncing. I show how three distinct theories of motivation—three different reasons for acting in the world—emerge from the interconnected normative, soteriological and ontological dimensions of each of these three worldviews. More importantly, the motivation to act for the welfare of individuals in nature, such as animals and plants, can be legitimately derived from these three theories of motivation. I contextualize the Bhagavad Gītā’s environmental ethics by placing it within the larger framework of the text’s distinctive multi-layered approach to ethical theory, in which the foundational teleological mokṣa theory grounds and explains the plurality of more superficial normative foundational theories.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venkat Rao Pulla ◽  
Vinod Nayak ◽  
Keshav Walke

Mahatma Gandhiji transformed contemporary capitalists amidst the criticism from leftist quarters that he was working for a compromise in the interests of the Indian bourgeoisie. The purpose of this paper is to present a forerunner of today’s conversations in the world about corporate social responsibility (CSR). Gandhiji not only befriended a number of businesspersons but also advised them to consider their role as a steward of their wealth and businesses that they held. We intend to substantiate his pious intentions derived from his understanding of Bhagavad Gita, which suggested to him that one could enjoy one’s acquired wealth by renouncing it. Persuaded by such moral disposition, Gandhiji argued that it is the surest method to evolve a new order of life of universal benefit of all people in the society as opposed to the order in which most of us live for ourselves without regard to what happens to our neighbour. The paper is based on archival materials representing his conceptualisation and acceptance of trusteeship and the collaborations of the capitalists that lived in his times. 


2018 ◽  
pp. 29-35
Author(s):  
Yulia A. Uimina ◽  

Guru is a spiritual teacher who can help you teach the “truth” those people who need it. The presence of secret knowledge, “a holistic and clear understanding of the nature of reality” that is a feature that distinguishes a guru from a “normal” person or a simple teacher. True knowledge is realized by the spiritual teacher in revelation, in a certain experience, the authenticity of which is of no doubt, and through the sacred texts of the sruti and smriti. New Indian masters, gurus of Neo-Hinduism are modern teachers of wisdom, whose teachings are now widespread all around the world. The main aim of their teachings is enlightenment, liberation in life ( jivanmukta ), occurring through the spiritual perfection of the individual. Neo-Hinduism masters traditionally use three ways to achieve Moksha, described in Bhagavad-Gita and later Upanishads: “the path of knowledge” ( jnana-marga ), the “path of action” ( karma-marga ), “the course of true love” to God ( bhakti-marga )...


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