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My Note on Gita to Dr.A.L. Basham
It is in this context that I gave a note to Dr. A.L. Basham,
the distinguished scholar of ancient Indian history and
culture and author of The Wonder that Was India. (Professor of
the Department of Oriental Civilization, School of Oriental
Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia)
when he delivered his Heras Memorial Lecture for the year
1964, at the Heras Institute of India History and Culture, at
St. Xavier College, Bombay. In response to my note Dr. Basham
recast his third lecture on Religious life in Ancient India
and a reference to the same, appears in the published version
of the lectures entitled Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture
(Asia).
My note was as follows:
“The Hindu view of salvation with all the secondary emphasis
on the conscientious carrying out of the duties attendant upon
the three subsidiary goals of dharma, artha and kama- piety,
pleasure and profit- had the sole effect of turning one’s
attention from the problems of this life. Individual became
concerned with his salvation, his attainment of moksa by
shedding away the entire karmic mundane coil, and social
fellowship was all forgotten
“Such an inculcation, though admittedly perhaps not
intended-one can exonerate the Hindu view of salvation from
such an implicit assumption, because what it meant on its
positive side was an escape from the self-centered life , a
release into a fuller and wider consciousness Here and Now,
(Cf. Platonic and Upanishadic conceptions ) had the
undesirable effect of cultivating a studied indifference to
and negation of this life as merely an illusion to be wondered
at, got exasperated by, but never to be challenged.
“The negative side of the eminently noble view of salvation
only flourished, making the individual blind to everything
else- and of course, very, honorably too – and concentrate in
an ivory tower of the ascetic deal, musing with an immense
self complacent feeling on the utter hopelessness and the
vacuity of all human endeavor.
“The consequent lack of the development of a practical and
social and secular ethic did indeed have grave repercussions
on the subsequent evolution of the Indian history. India did
remain shackled in medieval times, till late in the nineteenth
century and it would not be unfair to say that even now this
tradition-bound worldview is the chief obstacle in the way of
the emergence of a modern way of life, embodying humanistic
social principles of State policy. How far do you think this
criticism is valid?
“My point is that in ancient India the ascetic ideal gained an
upper hand out of all proportion and relegated everything else
to the background. It created an overall climate of world
weariness crystallized in an attitude that life is no doubt an
intolerable burden to be borne, but it is not given us to
question why it is so? We can only wait and pray.”
“Was this not natural consequence of placing too great an
emphasis on the other worldly goals? And did it not result
into an socially apathetic ethic? To say this, is not to deny
that Hindu view of life is not elastic enough to admit of such
an all embracing ethic, but the fact remains that somehow too
individualistic an interpretation negated its inherent
strength.
“It is true that Bhagwad Gita asked one to give up the fruits
if action themselves. But nevertheless, one is unable to make
out the ethical content of the action- individual or social-
so eulogized. One is constrained to say that the Gitaistic
view of action does not go beyond the individual performance
of duties towards the attainment of one’s salvation.
“And moreover, there is another difficulty. You may act in a
disinterested spirit, and renounce the fruits of action, but
the point is whether you have acted at all. Dr. Radhakrishnan
has interpreted this philosophy to mean that the question is
not what shall I do to be saved, but in what spirit shall I
do? Detachment of spirit and not renunciation of the world is,
what is demanded from us. Action done in a disinterested
spirit does not bind or sully the soul”….
“But this leaves the question unanswered: How such concern got
itself translated in some tangible action as distinguished
from merely individual efforts for his metaphysical welfare?
Did it transcend into the social sphere around him? What
exactly are the implications of ancient Indian view of life-
Negative or Positive, and how did such a view react on life
around?”
... Continued
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