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Krishna

THE MAN AND HIS PHILOSOPHY

Chapter 14: Action, Inaction and Non Action, Question 9

 

 

Energy Enhancement           Enlightened Texts            Krishna            Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

 

 

Question 9

QUESTIONER: A PART OF MY QUESTION REMAINS UNANSWERED. DO YOU THINK THE GEETA WILL BE COMPLETE IF SHANKARA'S SUPRA-MORALISM AND TILAK'S ACTIVISM ARE MADE INTO ONE PIECE? BECAUSE THE SUPRA-RATIONALITY THAT YOU SPEAK ABOUT IS ECHOED BY SHANKARA, NOT TILAK; THE LATTER IS OUT AND OUT A MORALIST. ON THE OTHER HAND TILAK, NOT SHANKARA ECHOES YOUR POSITIVISM, YOUR DYNAMISM. SHANKARA IS FOR RENUNCIATION.

It is true. Shankara is a supra-moralist.

A moralist is action-oriented; he says do this and don't do that. Shankara says every action is illusory; whether you practice asceticism or indulge in stealing makes no difference. In sleep now you dream you are a robber, and then you dream you are a saint; it does not make any difference in your waking state. On waking you say both robber and saint are dream stuff, they are meaningless. For this reason nothing is moral or immoral for Shankara. There is no way to choose between morality and immorality, just as there is no way to choose between two dreams. Choice is possible only between two realities. Because the world is an illusion to Shankara there is no place for morality in his philosophy. Shankara's vision is supra-moralistic; it transcends morality. The principle of inaction is bound to go beyond morality.

When Shankara's commentaries on Indian philosophy were translated into the languages of the West, they were thought to be supporting immorality. Thinkers of the West said that Shankara's vision upheld immorality. If such a view that nothing is right or wrong -- that all actions, like dreams, are the same -- gains ground, then people will go off the track; they will simply sink into the mire of sin and degradation. And it is not surprising if the West reacts in this manner. Western people have lived down the centuries, have been brought up on the food of Judaic philosophy, which has ceaselessly harangued them to "Do this and don't do that." Their whole religion and culture are based on the Ten Commandments, which clearly enunciate what one should do and should not do. So it is no wonder that they reacted sharply to shankara's thinking and called it immoral.

Certainly Shankara's thinking is not IMmoralist, because immorality is a choice against morality. Shankara stands for choicelessness and for this reason he is supra-moralistic. He does not ask you to be moral or immoral, a saint or a thief; he does not ask you to become anything. He is against becoming; He is for being what you are. In fact, he is for non-being. This is really a trans-moral vision.

Tilak, on the other hand, is a moralist. He believes there is a choice between a good action and a bad one, between what one should do and one should not. According to him religion consists of shoulds and should-nots. He really is for action. For this reason he does not call the world unreal. It is real. The visible world is true for Tilak; it is not maya or illusion. In the midst of this reality we have to decide what is right and what is not right. And religion simply means choice of the right, virtuous, good. It is true that Tilak holds a wholly contrary viewpoint to that of Shankara.

You ask whether it will make the thing complete if we combine Shankara's supra-moralism with the activism of Tilak. No, it will not be complete that way. And there are reasons for it.

The basic reason we cannot make some thing whole by putting together its parts. It is like we break up a person's body into pieces and then put the parts together to make a whole person again. It is simply impossible. If the person is whole then his parts will function in unison, but separate parts put together cannot make a person whole again. Parts put together don't make a whole; it is a different thing however, that a whole consists of many parts.

My vision of Krishna takes in both Shankara and Tilak, but just a mixture of their viewpoints will not make a complete philosophy of Krishna. There is yet another reason why a blending of Shankara and Tilak will not make a complete Krishna. There are a thousand views about Krishna; Shankara and Tilak represent only two. Even a combination of all the thousand views cannot make a complete Krishna.

Putting different parts together is a mechanical process, it cannot be organic. We can break up a machine into its parts and remake it by putting the parts together again. But we cannot do the same with a live, organic body. Please bear in mind this fundamental difference between organic unity and mechanical togetherness. While a mechanical combination is equal to the totality of parts, an organic unity is much more than the sum total of its parts.

For example. if we make a list of all the ingredients that make up a human body -- like iron, copper, sodium, aluminum, phosphorus and the rest of it, they will be worth four to five rupees, not more, Nine-tenths of a human body is water, which does not cost anything at the moment. And the rest of these things are available in the market. If however, you put them all together in the right proportions they cannot create a live human body. They cannot. A live body is much more than the sum total of its parts, although it cannot be without these parts.

An organic unity exists in Krishna's philosophy of life, although it has a thousand different parts. And every part has been interpreted differently by different persons. Ramanuja says one thing, Shankara says another, and Nimbark says something else Even Tilak, Arvind, Gandhi and Vinoba speak in different voices. And if you collect all these different views on Krishna, they cannot re-create the organic unity that Krishna is. There is no difficulty in putting them together, but you will not find Krishna in this amalgam. And it is also true that if Krishna is present, then all these parts plus something much more will be there.

Leave aside a blend of Shankara and Tilak -- even if you blend all the commentaries on Krishna, it will not do. It will be a mechanical, dead unity. It will be nothing more than an arithmetical addition.

What I have been saying here is not a commentary on Krishna; I am not interpreting him. I have nothing to do with commentary. Therefore I am not afraid of contradictions; they are there. Contradictions exist in Krishna himself, and I cannot do a thing about it. So I am not commenting, I am just unveiling Krishna before you. I am not trying to impose myself on him, I am only unraveling him exactly as he is: right and wrong, moral and immoral, rational, irrational and transrational. As Krishna himself is choiceless, neither do I pick and choose any thing from his life. I am presenting him to you exactly as he is.

I am aware I am going to be in difficulty on this score. It is going to be the same difficulty that Krishna had created for himself. For thousands of years people have been struggling to interpret and understand what Krishna said in the GEETA. In the same way, what I am saying now will need to be interpreted and you will all strain yourselves to under stand it. I am unveiling Krishna in his entirety with out caring for the inconsistencies and contradictions inherent in his life and teachings. I don't care if one of my statements about him is going to clash with another statement that I may make subsequently. I will go on revealing his life and philosophy as it authentically is. I want to give you Krishna whole and in one piece.

So what I am saying to you is not a commentary.

 

Next: Chapter 14: Action, Inaction and Non-Action, Question 10

 

Energy Enhancement           Enlightened Texts            Krishna            Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

 

 

Chapter 14

 

 

 

 
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