Bhagwat Gita – Ramana's Musings

Philosophy And What It Means To Me.

“Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.”

Despite having written before about my tryst with philosophy in my blog, it is still nice to be able to revisit my story from a different perch as it were.

I approach the topic with a historic perspective highly personal in nature as, I am deeply involved in the study of philosophy. I was not always so and hence this approach.

I was burning both ends of the candle in the late seventies of the last century when a dear friend, concerned about my well being put me in touch with Transcendental Meditation. I learnt it and started practicing it in earnest with amazing results. While practicing, I also studied the first six chapters of the Bhagwat Gita translated and commented on by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

This continued till 1983 when on a dare, I attended a ten day Vipassana camp and got hooked to that form of meditation which I continue to practice till today. That little adventure also led me to study Buddhist philosophy.

Two more synchronistic developments that led to further incidents that got me thoroughly involved in Indian philosophy.

While on a business visit to Chennai, another dear friend insisted that I accompany him to a lecture on Vedanta by Swami Paramarthananda. That got me further interested and when the same friend on a visit to Pune requested me to take him to a colleague and fellow Sanyasi of the Chennai Swamiji, I did and met Swami Satswarupananda of Pune.

I not only met him, but became his student and studied Vedanta under him in our Guru Shishya Parampara for fifteen years.

He finally retired to full time sanyasa to Rishikesh after instructing his students in Pune that Shravanam. (Learning) and Mananam (Internalising the learning) were over and the time had come for them to focus on Nidhidyasanam. And that is what I have been doing since the last many years.

In the meanwhile, I also had the privilege of meeting Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the Guru to both the Swamijis mentioned earlier, both at Anaikatti, his head quarters and in Pune during two of his visits.

Having bored my readers with that background, let me now explain what Vedanta, means to me.

In the Vedantic system, one goes through various stages of life with four goals called the Purushartha.. Having crossed the first three fairly successfully, I am at the last stage of my progress to achieve Moksha.

End of my story.

To understand the contents of my post, please do use the links given for various words without which, it will be difficult to.

This is my take on this week’s Friday 4 On 1 blog posts where Conrad, Sanjana, Shackman and I write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been suggested by Sanjana. Please do go over to the other two blogs to see what they have to say on the same topic. Thank you.

Nature Vs Nurture.

I love this topic. And I will deliberately take one specific definition of the word Nature and one of Nurture to write about a favourite topic for me.

Nature:

a : the inherent character or basic constitution of a person or thing : essence
b : disposition, temperament

Nurture:

1. training, upbringing

~ Merriam – Webster.

I learnt many moons ago as part of improving my communication skills, that when a child is born it just has Instinctual Drives (which became id in psychology text books). It subsequently is taught other things and this process is what makes for the ego and it eventually grows into an adult and learns to think for itself and this becomes the super ego. Instead of making a big song and dance about it, one very smart physician Thomas A Harris MD, came up with a simple to understand book called “I Am Ok You Are Ok. Who called the three stages as Child, Parent and Adult.

Child is our ‘Felt’ concept of life

Parent is our ‘Taught’ concept of life
Adult is our ‘Thought’ concept of life

Now that the background to my understanding has been established, I can start pontificating.

If our ‘felt’ concept of life that is the instinctual drives are a given, that concept gets buttressed by what is ‘taught’ to us, our grown up state must be one that is totally conditioned by factors beyond our control. It is at this point that our ‘thought’ process should take over and modify the concept of life to one which will enable us to live harmoniously with ourselves and others.

So, going back to our definitions, our ‘nature’ is formed by instinctual drives and buttressed by ‘nurture’.

So, why Versus? Why not And?

In the Indian philosophical system ‘nature’ is called swadharma. Let me not reinvent the wheel and use Raghu Apte’s commentary on the Bhagwat Geeta.

“The concept of ‘Swadharma’ mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita has two elements. ‘Swa’ represents attitude, aptitude, natural inclination and inborn qualities in an individual. An individual portrays a unique, incomparable and a bit rigid disposition almost throughout the life span. Individuality (‘Swa’) as such is an intricate blend of nature and nurture. In this context, nature means innate qualities and preordained fate. Nurture (external impacts like environmental, social, political and so on) keeps shaping an individual throughout the life span. An individual responds to the external factors in a specific way according to the individual nature (‘Dharma’).

‘Dharma’ also refers to a framework which sustains the world. Establishment of dharma means provision of a social framework which facilitates a meaningful interaction between an individual and the external reality. It provides an opportunity to each member of the society to utilise the natural talents and to act according to the natural inclination. Establishment of Dharma ensures that an individual gets truly satisfied by living a meaningful and creative life. The society too gets benefited from his talents. Swadharma – Dharma is a bridge which connects an individual’s well being with the social well being. The philosophy suggests that life is neither accidental nor meaningless. Each individual takes birth at a specific moment, in a specific situation, with a preordained life mission.

“I would distinguish what is commonly called choice among men, and which is a partial act, the choice of the hands, of the eyes, of the appetites, and not a whole act of the man. But that which I call right or goodness, is the choice of my constitution.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.”

In modern times, what we see as conflict within individual personalities is due to the going against this Nature and Nurture combination due to a different kind of conditioning, primarily rooted in aspiring to be something different from what one is due to Swadharma. The Vs instead of the And.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where eleven of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Shackman. The ten other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maxi, Maria SF, Padmum, Paul, Shackman, The Old Fossil and Will. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!

Self Help.

The widest variety of books in any bookshop can be found in the “Self Help” sections. The one industry that did not suffer during the recent recession is the self help industry. In fact, it is reported to have grown faster than ever before.

What does that say about all those people who are willing to spend money to improve themselves? From what condition of existence to what? Why is there such a strident demand for such advise? Why are these people not satisfied with the status quo?

The answer is in one word. Conditioning. We must de-condition ourselves, if that is the word/phrase to use.

Uddhared ātmanātmānaḿ

nātmānam avasādayet

ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur

ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ.

Bhagwat Gita Ch VI Verse 5.

uddharet — one must deliver; ātmanā — by the mind; ātmānam — the conditioned soul; na — never; ātmānam — the conditioned soul; avasādayet — put into degradation; ātmā — mind; eva — certainly; hi — indeed; ātmanaḥ — of the conditioned soul; bandhuḥ — friend; ātmā — mind; eva — certainly; ripuḥ — enemy; ātmanaḥ — of the conditioned soul.

One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.

Bandhur ātmātmanas tasya

yenātmaivātmanā jitaḥ

anātmanas tu śatrutve

vartetātmaiva śatru-vat

Bhagwat Gita Ch VI Verse 6

bandhuḥ — friend; ātmā — the mind; ātmanaḥ — of the living entity; tasya — of him; yena — by whom; ātmā — the mind; eva — certainly; ātmanā — by the living entity; jitaḥ — conquered; anātmanaḥ — of one who has failed to control the mind; tu — but; śatrutve — because of enmity; varteta — remains; ātmā eva — the very mind; śatru–vat — as an enemy.

For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where eleven of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by yours truly. The ten other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maxi, Maria SF, Padmum, Paul, Shackman, The Old Fossil and Will. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!