Unit 5

English 203: 
Literature of the NonWestern World 

Introduction .Explication Questions Review

Reading:   567-624
                          India's Heroic Age: 567-75
                          Ramayana: 576-612
                          Bhagavad-Gita: 612-24

Introduction:

India is a civilization as old as China.  The Ramayana dates from 550 bce.  Arguably it has been even more influential than China.  Its cultural influence stretched from Persia (Iran) through Indonesia & up to Viet Nam.  Indian culture influenced the lives of at least as many people as Chinese culture.  Buddhism was an Indian program adopted by China. So the historical influence was more from India to China rather than the reverse.  India was even more isolated than China.  The Himalayas kept the 2 cultures apart.  The ancient Greek world knew about India (remember Alexander the Great?) but the distances were too great to sustain regular cultural & economic relations.

What is the thing that most fundamentally characterizes Hindus?  The thing they would be most reluctant to give up?  The answer is caste.  Sometimes we talk about "accidents of birth" to "explain" differences in intelligence, talent, health, or personality.  There are no "accidents of birth" in a Hindu outlook.  Your present condition is caused by karma accrued not merely in this incarnation, but in a number of previous incarnations. Dharma & karma are reciprocating forces.  Dharma specifies obligations.  If you meet the obligations you receive the benefit of good karma, which defines a new stage of growth & development that has new requirements or dharma. This may sound arcane, but it is familiar.  Students have various duties & obligations (dharma).  If they fulfill them, they graduate & generally get jobs that specify new & different duties & obligations. If you drop out or fail to meet the obligations of dharma: you drop down to a lower or earlier developmental condition where you are confronted with easier or more elementary duties (dharma).  Caste is the the most objective measure of karmic development.  When Americans "size someone up" perhaps the first they consider is race.  When the British "size someone up" the first they consider is status or class.  When Indians "size someone up" the first thing they think of is caste.

Hindus call their religion or outlook Sanatana Dharma, which means the eternal, inherent order (dharma) in things (cf. Greek idea of logos).  This (& not God) is the authority for moral law (what you must do).  It is very much concerned with the process of human growth & development.  In fact you would do well to think of Hinduism as advice or recommendations concerning stages of human growth & development.  Thus the sanction for failing to do what you ought to do is not punishment inflicted from the outside but a subjective loss.  You simply do not "get it."  For example, no matter how sexual experience is explained to prepubescent children, they cannot "get it," because they have not had the experience.  Moving through pubescence, leaving childhood to become adult, is an apt model for karmic evolution & the associated stages prescribed by varna-dharma & ashrama-dharma.

Hindu Terms:

Dharma: obligation, what you need to do, because it is the pattern of human growth & development. Dharma has 2 major forms: varna-dharma & asrama-dharma. When dharma has been identified in any situation, performing it produces good karma, refusing to perform or doing so badly produces bad karma.

Varna-dharma:caste:

Brahmins: intellectuals
Khastriyas: military, power
Vaiysha: money, business
Sudra: servants, working class
Pariah: outcasts
Asrama-dharma:
students: prepubescent
householder: married, employed
retired: advisor
sadhu: liberated
Marga: a marga is a path (cf. Dao).  All paths lead to the same end: moksha (liberation of the Atman from karma.  Paths are variously effective appealing to specific character types.  Hindu margas include:
       karma: people who take this path have some resemblance to Catholics: they
          seek to perform all the appropriate rituals to produce good karma.  This path
          is illustrated by Rama.
        jnana: this is the path for intellectuals (philosophy /  theology).
       bhakti:  this is the approach advocated by Krishna in the Gita.  This is the path
          of emotional devotion; the idea is to love God constantly.
       tantra: this is way of magic.  Do not be too quick to dismiss it as superstition.
         Anyone who believes in religion as an objective structure believes in magic (the supernatural).

Karma: karma is like fuel for life to burn.  It is also a set of habits, character traits, & propensities.  One’s jiva (ego) is entirely composed of karma.  The Hindu project or goal is to burn up all karma, which means the destruction of the jiva & the liberation of the atman.

 
Atman: unconditional being manifest subjectively; your primal identity; the force that impels or gives you life. We are largely unconscious or heedless of this identity because we are deluded, being attached to the world of karma.
 
Brahman: unconditional being manifest objectively; the cosmic force that impels or produces the universe.
 
Maya: conditioned being; the trace or residuum left by Brahman.  Often translated as illusion, maya cannot be dispelled by an act of will.  Maya offers various life games that will only lose their fascination when we have exhausted the karma that causes us to be involved with them.  Like eating chocolate or whipped cream, maya only loses its power to fascinate when we have tasted enough of it.
 
Jiva: karmic identity; historically produced ego.
Moksha: liberation of the atman from karma; eradication of the jiva or illusion.
Tapas: tantric austerity, ascetic discipline which enhances or magnifies energy/power/libido.
Tantra: esoteric practices (religious discipline), magic, ritualism that has the purpose of magnifying one's energy or power.
Bhakti: intense devotion to some image or icon, e.g., to Shiva, Rama (Vishnu), or Krishna (Vishnu).
Ahimsa: nonviolence. The heroic journey in life development is never demarcated by objective measures (triumphing over an adversary), but always by emotional self-mastery.  Violence indicates both a failure of elementary self-control & profound stupidity.  It is stupid because violence indicates the mistaken belief that force will make an objective difference or decide some outcome forever.  You should recognize that whatever the crisis is, it is composed of maya & it ultimately makes no objective difference which side wins.  It is all smoke & time.  So how stupid is it to do violence in order to triumph?  Triumph for how long & at what personal (subjective) cost?
Shiva: the god of destruction.  He destroys your illusions (karma) to thereby liberate you.

Vishnu: the god who sustains maya or our world thus giving us the chance to burn up our karma to become liberated.  Vishnu periodically sends his avatar into the world to illustrate Dharma.  These have included Rama (& Sita) & Krishna (& Radha).

Hindu Outlook:

Brahman cannot be objectified (made into an object of ego-consciousness as a noun).  It has to be tasted (rasa) or experienced through the process of living a fully realized life.  Only then will you “know” something of Brahman.
 
Buddhism:
 
3 principles of reality:
Anicca: the universe (or God) is a verb, not a noun.  Because it is a process, no shape or form or noun persists indefinitely.
Anatta: change includes you.  You are not exempt for the process of change.  You have no single, ahistorical identity (no soul, no ego) that can persist for long.
Dukkha: in our deluded state we believe that our ego is stable & exempt from change & that it can possess relationships, money, experiences, etc. for eternity.  Because this is impossible, we experience life as disappointing, as suffering.
Buddhist Outlook:
The goal is to deeply understand the 3 principles.  Intellectually understanding them is inadequate.  When one profoundly understands them, one no longer suffers, because the illusion of a stable ego that feels it must be in control of events & must be defended through moral behavior & talk – is gone.  One is simply attentive to immediate perceptions, to reality, instead of being addicted to abstract & illusory games, such as Confucius’ 5 human relationships (family, spouses, jobs, etc.).
 

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  Explication