Buddhism and Bhagawad Gita: The Age of Universal Religions

If you have followed the announcement of Nobel prize for Sciences, there is a curious phenomenon that you may have observed. Many a times, there are joint winners of the prize from opposite  ends of the planet, who happened to work on the same scientific problem. They have either arrived independently at the same solution around the same time or come up with different solutions that were equally effective. We can only wonder how this happens! In much the same way, during the 6th and 5th century of BCE, many enlightened spiritual masters attempted to solve the riddle of human suffering in everyday life. For example, we have Socrates in Greece, Buddha  and Vyāsa in India and Lao Tsu in China, all of whom took on this same problem and arrived at answers that were not very different.

As you may recall, the Hindu civilization had by the 6th century BCE, settled down into many small kingdoms in the Gangetic plains and assimilated the indigenous population into its fold. A process of consolidation of these kingdoms through wars were also going on. The society was getting structured with groups of people assuming different roles like farming, metal working, trading etc. From a religion point of view, the ritual traditions of the Hindu religion and some purāna stories were commonly known but the philosophic  side of the religion remained mostly obscure. If one had an interest in the philosophical aspects, he or she would have to embark on an extensive search to find a suitable teacher or Guru. The reality of the situation was that the Hindu religion was doing very little at that time to help the average person deal with the everyday issues of life. To this scene had arrived Gautama Buddha with his incredible compassion for the sufferings of the common people.

Buddha's  sole quest was  how to avoid the suffering like old age, sickness and death that everyone, both rich or poor, had to undergo. He accepted the prevailing Hindu concept of rebirth and according to him, the soul experienced life in an eternal, recurring cycle returning to life from death through rebirth. Caught into the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth, the soul experiences the same suffering over and over. How does one escape from this? Buddha had found a way and was ready to travel around and spread information on this to everyone on how it could be done. No one had to go searching for Buddha. Instead, he went to them, or at least close enough where they could find him easily.

To enable souls to gain a release from the eternal birth/death cycle, Buddha suggested a method that included four fundamental principles (a.k.a., 'noble truths') and an eight fold path. He called this as the 'middle path'. The 'middle path' was a deviation away from both the purely ritualistic, God-appeasing path as well as the atheistic, 'you only live once' kind of mindless enjoyment. This approach, originally called as 'Baudhayana'  or the 'path of Buddha' later on became the religion of Buddhism and was set apart from Hindu religion.  Though the religion appealed easily to the common people,  it also posed couple of issues. Turning to Buddhism in the way Buddha preached, required a person to become a monk, giving up his societal connections. This was very disruptive to the society's functioning. Secondly, Buddha's insistence on Ahimsa weakened the defensive power of societies, increasing their vulnerability to external aggression. The real need of the time was for a religion that supported one to take on a spiritual path that enabled better life while remaining right in the middle of the society. The Hindu religion came up with a great answer for meeting this need through Bhagawad Gita. (The religion of Buddhism also has evolved since to better address these issues)

Bhagawad Gita, that is found in the middle of the Mahābhāratha epic, was most likely a 5th or 4th century BCE insertion into the original epic that dates back to earlier centuries of BCE. It is thought that Mahābhāratha  was originally composed in 24,000 verses and was later expanded to its current form of 100,000 plus verses. The Vyāsa who was the author of original Mahābhāratha is potentially different from the Vyāsa wo authored Bhagawad Gita. Bhagawad Gita itself appears to have been constructed in three distinct parts that were possibly compiled over different periods of time. The core message of the Bhagawad Gita, as presented in the first part consisting of chapters one thru six,  is that  spiritual transformation is a personal journey that could be undertaken while living right in the middle of the society.  A spiritually enlightened person as well as a non-enlightened person, both may engage in performing the same actions in life but with extremely different levels of internal clarity. And, as Buddha had done, Bhagawad Gita also professed a liberation from the eternal cycle of birth and death for such a person. In contrast to Buddha's middle path, Bhagawad Gita offered a path of synthesis that skillfully combined Spiritual knowledge, Devotion, Meditation, Yoga. It offered an interpretation of the Hindu religion that could be practiced equally well by a hermit in an Himalayan cave as well as a warrior in the middle of a battlefield.

A real life example of this transformative spiritual journey is found in the story of Sage Valmiki. He had an amazing life journey from being a wayside robber in the forests to becoming a renowned spiritual master. Sage Valmiki was also a highly imaginative, creative poet. He managed to metaphorically etch his own spiritual journey within the epic of Ramayana while painting the picture of a perfect human being in Lord Rama. (For more detailed reading on Ramayana and Valmiki, check this blog post http://oupanishadam.blogspot.com/2015/03/ramayana-autobiography-of-rishi.html )

It will be delusional to play down the role of faith and belief in religion. As the  human society expanded,  the chaos and uncertainties only continued to increase. And, in times of uncertainty, what has served the individuals and society well is faith in order brought about by a higher, omniscient and all-powerful being, referred to as 'God'. As the influence of Buddhism declined and popularity of the Purāna stories increased, the Hindu religion strengthened itself with a new found means of temple worship of Purānic Gods. The spiritual masters went along with this trend, again skillfully embedding spiritual principles within the iconography of the God images and temple rituals. More on this major transformation that defined the final shape of Hindu religion as we know it today, in the next blog post.

Meanwhile, grab a copy of the Bhagawad Gita if you haven't yet. It is a book that can help you tremendously! (You can find a quick summary of what Bhagawad Gita offers on this blog post: http://oupanishadam.blogspot.com/2014/02/bhagawad-gita-what-is-in-it-for-you.html)

Darshana: The Age of the Philosophers

Since we had talked about the story-centric Purāna and Ithihāsa last time, let's start this discussion with a good story. The story below from the Kenopanishad (approx. 750 BCE), is also indicative of an important turning point in the history of Hindu Religion.

The Devas: Indra, Agni, Vāyu, Surya

Once the Devas, the divinities we saw in the Vedas, had an epic battle with their 'not very nice' cousins, the Asuras. The Devas won the battle and were celebrating the victory, gloating over the powers they had used to defeat the Asuras. At that time a strange looking, mystical figure appeared little away from where they were assembled. Unsure of who this mysterious being  was, the Devas asked Agni, the God of Fire,  to go and find out. Agni approached this strange being and asked 'who are you?'. The being responded asking who Agni was. Agni pompously answered, 'I am the Lord of Fire and I can burn anything down'. The being threw a dried blade of grass in front  of Agni and said, let me see you burn this. Agni gave a contemptuous laugh and just glanced at the blade of grass with the tip of a flame. Nothing happened. Now he tried to go at the blade of grass with all his fire power. Again nothing happened to the grass. Agni was half scared and half ashamed of himself and went back to the Devas saying he was unable to find out who the being was. The Devas now asked Vayu, the God of wind, to go and find out who the being was. The same events  repeated with Vayu  who in spite of his hurricane power,  was unable to make the blade of grass move even an inch. Now, this got the King of Devas, Indra, all worried and he said 'I will go myself and find out'. As soon as Indra approached the strange being, it vanished and in its place appeared the Goddess Uma, adorned in her beautiful white clothes. She told Indra,' That strange being you were trying to know is Brahman;  all of you Devas  have your powers that is bestowed by him'.

Why is this story important? First of all, it boldly admits the limitation of powers of the  divinities worshiped by the rituals. Secondly, it points to the single, higher truth that is to be known through inquiry and wisdom and not rituals. The depiction of 'Wisdom' as a woman is an universal mythological theme spanning the oriental and occidental cultures. Essentially, what we are witnessing here in the story is the beginning of critical philosophical inquiry in India.

The early Upanishads  as well as the Samhita part of  Veda, share the visions of truth that the Rishis had seen. But they don't detail out how the answers were arrived at or why the knowledge shared by them is valid. This is the fundamental difference between Religion and Philosophy. Religion relies on faith and credibility of the messenger to support the answers and the means it professes whereas Philosophy relies on the logical validity of its analysis to justify the conclusions it arrives at. Same time, we have to keep in mind that a philosophical inquiry is more of an intellectual exercise where as a religious inquiry is a quest for personal transformation. And, we see in history  a number of brilliant philosophers who happened to lead not so an exemplary life.

Sage Yagnavalkya (Sage of Brihadāranyaka Upanishad)

The questions posed by in a philosophical inquiry as well as religious inquiry are more or less the same; where did all these in the world originate from? what is the true nature of things? how did all these come into being? Philosophy, specifically epistemology, is also concerned with the process of knowledge, examining how reliable are our means of knowledge. We see examples of such analysis  In the early Upanishads like Chāndogya and Brihadāranyaka, appealing to logic rather than faith for validating conclusions . Later on, the scope of this type  of critical philosophical examination in the Hindu religious system expanded, resulting in the emergence of Hindu schools of philosophy known as 'Darshana', or 'Insights'. Six of these Darshanas are namely, Sāmkhya, Nyāya, Vaiseshika, Purva Mimāmsa, Utthara Mimāsma and Yoga are recognized as part of the Veda. The rise of philosophical thinking during this time period was

Aristotle and Plato

not limited to India alone. The pre-socratic Greek philosophers had also started to lay down the foundation for western philosophy approximately around the same time as Chāndogya and Brihadāranyaka upanishads were being compiled. There are also considerable number of parallels between the thoughts of later Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle with that of their Indian counterparts in Darshanas.

The six Darshanas can be classified into two broad types, the objective analysis and subjective analysis. The Sāmkhya, Nyāya and Vaiseshika are objective analysis focused whereas the Purva Mimāmsa, Uthara Mimāmsa and Yoga are subjective analysis focused. Objective analysis is an analysis approach that is focused on the nature of things with the intent of explaining everything from a physical perspective.  The oldest school that took this approach is the Sāmkhya. We know very little about its originator, Sage Kapila and his original text on the subject is not available today. Whatever we know about Samkhya comes from later works that are an elaboration of the original text. Sāmkhya introduced the concept of Purusha (manifests as consciousness) and Prakriti (manifests as matter and nature) that was leveraged by the other later schools o philosophy. The Vaiseshika school proposed that everything is composed of foundational elements and atoms with generic and particular properties. It's proponent was Sage Kanāda. The Vaiseshika thought process was later reinforced using logic and epistemology in the Nyāya school that was proposed by Sage Gautama. The Nyaāya and Vaiseshika schools had significant overlaps and merged in later days.  

Sage Patanjali (Author of Yoga Sutra)

The subjective analysis focused Darshanas were more focused on the nature of mind, intellect, conscience, cognition, cause/effect relations, soul etc. The oldest of these three schools of thought is the philosophy of Yoga. Though a proper compilation of Yoga thoughts happened in 2nd century BCE by Sage Patanjali, the approach was already prevalent in the centuries preceding. The Yoga philosophy also draws heavily from Sāmkhya. The next younger philosophy is Purva Mimāmsa that offered an abstract concept of power inherent in rituals and incantations. It proposed a way of living based purely on the rituals specified in the Brāhmanas. The Uttara Mimāmsa philosophy, more popularly known as Vedānta, is the youngest and most popular of all these schools of thought. While relying on the analytical approaches that other schools of philosophy used, Vedānta pointed towards a truth that lies beyond the means of objective knowledge.  The Sanskrit word Vedanta means end of knowledge. Uttara Mimāmsa inherited this name from the subject matter of its analysis that transcended regular knowledge as well as its foundation on Upanishads which are found at the end of Veda. The foundation text for Uttara Mimāmsa is the Vedānta Sutra which is better known as Brahma Sutra.

All these sound like academically interesting subjects that are incomprehensible to ordinary minds. What does Religion have to offer to the common man to enable him or her to deal with the issues they face in everyday life? Admittedly there was a major shortfall on the part of religious and philosophical thinking in making this connection with ordinary people. But that vacuum didn't last too long. Next time, we will look into how  India's religions addressed this question.