The Perfectibility of Human Nature in Eastern and Western Thought

Chapter 7 The Perfectibility of Human Nature in Hindu Thought

Chapter 7 The Perfectibility of Human Nature in Hindu Thought Hindu thought adopts the presuppositions of the Indian worldview outlined in the previous chapter—namely, the ideas that creation is beginningless, that our personalities are structured by the karma or memory traces of previous actions and thoughts, that we are reborn from past lives, and that this process of birth-death-rebirth will continue until release from rebirth is realized. For Hindus such a release or moksa and is understood as the perfection of human nature and the end-goal of the various spiritual disciplines or yogas provided by the tradition. What these yogas offer are ways of overcoming or purging the karmas that are obscuring the divine atman, which is the true self within. Once the last obscuring karma is removed then one realizes that one’s true self is not one’s body or mind but rather the divine atman (pure being, consciousness , and bliss) within. In that moment moksa or release from rebirth is realized, and for Hindus that is the goal of perfection that all must eventually achieve. As to the question of whether moksa is realized at the moment of death or during life, there are differing views. But the idea that perfection or moksa is realized while one is alive became popular in Hindu thought and was given the name jivanmukti, which means “embodied liberation.” We will begin our study of Hindu thought by examining the ideas about human nature and its perfectibility found in the Hindu scriptures, the Vedas, and then go on to consider the interpretation given to the idea of jivanmukti by thinkers such as Sankara, Ramanuja, Patanjali, Ramana Maharshi, and Vivekananda. HUMAN NATURE IN THE VEDAS Ideas of human nature in the early Vedic hymns (c. 1500–1000 BCE) are embedded in mythic and ritualistic contexts. In the early Vedas 125 126 The Perfectibility of Human Nature humans are treated as more earthly and temporal beings than in the later Upanishads and subsequent Hindu thought. In the Vedic hymns persons are referred to by the terms purusa (person), atman (breath), and jiva (life).1 In the Rig Veda (RV) the word jiva designates a living breathing being—as, for example, in “Rise, woman and go to the world of living beings (jivas)” (RV 10.2.2.8), while the term atman is used in a cremation prayer to Agni in which the self (atman) is seen to be different from the body: “Agni, consume him not entirely. . . . Let the eye repair to the sun, the breath (atman) to the wind” (RV 10.1.16.3). In addition to evoking “breath,” atman can refer to the body (RV 10.8.7.8) and the “whole person” (RV 10.12.12.5–6). Atman is also used to imply “existence” or “life force” (RV 7.6.12.6) as well as to designate one’s essential identity (RV 9.4.18.3). In the Brahmanas, the commentaries on the early Vedic hymns dated c. 1000–800 BCE) humans are described as animals, but they are the preeminent animals and rulers of all other animals in that they are able to perform rituals with power to influence the universe. This power comes from the association of humans with Brahman, the divine principle.2 The Vedic approach offers a body-oriented view of human nature, as evidenced by its emphasis on the human as the agent of ritual and sacrificial acts. Yet there is a pervasive holism of body and consciousness in Vedic views. While the person is seen dualistically in Greek thought, in the vision of the Vedic rsis or seers the person is a unity of embodied consciousness that requires the codependent action of both body and consciousness in order to carry out the required ritual and sacrificial actions.3 The supremacy of humans over other animals is seen in the human intelligence and the ability to know the future, which leads to the desire for moksa or freedom from worldly limitations. In the Vedic view such freedom is achieved by ritual action informed by the knowledge of dharma or righteousness. The capacity to understand and act according to the requirements of dharma is what makes humans superior to animals and capable of achieving perfection. According to the Veda the highest potential of humans is not found in the exercise of their superior rational power to achieve dominion over the earth and its creatures. Indeed, in the Vedic view...