chapter 6 the poetics of sublime and the transcendental...
TRANSCRIPT
Chapter 6
The Poetics of Sublime and the Transcendental Self in
The Gita The Sublime in Ancient Philosophy
The first known study of the sublime is ascribed to Longinus’
Peri Hupsous/Hypsous or ‘On the Sublime.’1 This is thought to have
been written in the 1st century AD though its origin and authorship
are uncertain. For Longinus, the sublime is an adjective that
describes great, elevated, or lofty thought or language, particularly
in the context of rhetoric. As such, the sublime inspires awe and
veneration, with greater persuasive powers. This treatise was
rediscovered in the sixteenth century, and its subsequent impact on
aesthetics is usually attributed to its translation into French by
Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux done in 1674. Later the treatise was
translated into English by John Pultney in 1680, Leonard Welsted in
1712, and William Smith in 1739 whose translation had its fifth
edition in 1800.2
Eighteenth Century
The development of the concept of the sublime as an aesthetic
quality in nature distinct from beauty was first brought into
prominence in the eighteenth century in the writings of Anthony
Ashley Cooper, the third earl of Shaftesbury, John Dennis later
wrote, in expressing an appreciation of the fearful and irregular
forms of external nature and Joseph Addison's synthesis of concepts
of the sublime in his “The Spectator”, and later the “Pleasures of
the Imagination” were the next contributions. All of them had,
within the span of several years, made the journey across the Alps
and commented in their writings of the horrors and harmony of the
experience, expressing a contrast of aesthetic qualities.3
John Dennis was the first to publish his comments in a journal
letter published as “Miscellanies” in 1693. It gives an account of
crossing the Alps where, contrary to his prior feelings for the beauty
of nature as a "delight that is consistent with reason", the
experience of the journey was at once a pleasure to the eye as
music is to the ear, but "mingled with horrors, and sometimes
almost with despair."4
Joseph Addison embarked on the grand Tour in 1699 and
commented in that "The Alps fill the mind with an agreeable kind of
horror."5 The significance of Addison's concept of the sublime is that
the three pleasures of the imagination that he identified; greatness,
uncommonness, and beauty, "arise from visible objects" (sight
rather than rhetoric). It is also notable that in writing on the
"Sublime in external Nature", he does not use the term "sublime",
but uses terms that would be considered as absolute superlatives,
e.g. "unbounded", "unlimited", as well as "spacious", "greatness",
and on occasion terms denoting excess. Addison’s notion of
greatness was integral to the concept of the sublime.
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke's concept of the sublime was developed in “A
Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful.”6 Burke was the first philosopher to argue that the
sublime and the beautiful are mutually exclusive. The dichotomy is
not as simple as Dennis' opposition, but antithetical to the same
degree as light and darkness. Beauty may be accentuated by light,
but either intense light or darkness (the absence of light) is sublime
to the degree that it can obliterate the sight of an object. The
imagination is moved to awe and instilled with a degree of horror by
what is "dark, uncertain, and confused." While the relationship of
the sublime and the beautiful is one of mutual exclusiveness, either
one of them can produce pleasure. The sublime may inspire horror,
but one receives pleasure in knowing that the perception is a
fiction.
Burke's concept of the sublime was an antithetical contrast to
the classical notion of the aesthetic quality of beauty as the
pleasurable experience described by Plato in several of his
dialogues and suggested ugliness as an aesthetic quality in its
capacity to instil feelings of intense emotion, ultimately creating a
pleasurable experience. Beauty was, for St. Augustine, the
consequence of the benevolence and goodness of God's creation
and as a category had no opposite. The ugly, lacking any attributive
value, was formlessness in its absence of beauty.
Burke's treatise is also notable for focusing on the
physiological effects for the sublime, in particular the dual
emotional quality of fear and attraction noted by other writers.
Burke describes the sensation attributed to the sublime as a
'negative pain' which he called delight, and which is distinct from
positive pleasure. Delight is taken to result from the removal of pain
(caused by confronting the sublime object) and is supposedly more
intense than positive pleasure. Though Burke's explanations for the
physiological effects of the sublime experience (such as tension
resulting from eye strain) were not taken seriously by later writers,
his empiricist method of reporting from his own psychological
experience was more influential, especially in contrast to Kant's
analysis. Burke is also distinguished from Kant in his emphasis on
the subject's realization of his physical limitations rather than any
supposed sense of moral or spiritual transcendence.7
Immanuel Kant and the Concept of Sublime
In his Critique of Judgment, Kant investigates the sublime
stating, "We call that sublime which is absolutely great". He
distinguishes between the "remarkable differences" of the Beautiful
and the Sublime, noting that beauty "is connected with the form of
the object", having "boundaries", while the sublime "is to be found
in a formless object", represented by a "boundlessness". Kant then
further divides the sublime into the mathematical and the
dynamical, where in the mathematical "aesthetical comprehension"
is not a consciousness of a mere greater unit, but the notion of
absolute greatness not inhibited with ideas of limitations. The
dynamically sublime is "nature considered in an aesthetic judgment
as might that has no dominion over us", and an object can create
fearfulness "without being afraid of it.” He considers both the
beautiful and the sublime as "indefinite" concepts, but where
beauty relates to the "Understanding", sublime is a concept
belonging to "Reason", and "shows a faculty of the mind surpassing
every standard of Sense”. For Kant, one's inability to grasp the
enormity of a sublime event such as an earthquake demonstrates
inadequacy of one's sensibility and imagination. Simultaneously,
one's ability to merely identify such an event as singular and whole
indicates the superiority of one's cognitive, supersensible powers.
Ultimately, it is this "supersensible substratum," underlying both
nature and thought, on which true sublimity is located.8
Schopenhauer and the Concept of Sublime
According to Schopenhauer, the feeling of a beautiful object is
pleasure in simply seeing a benign object. The feeling of the
sublime, however, is pleasure in seeing an overpowering or vast
malignant object of great magnitude, one that could destroy the
observer. In order to clarify the concept of the feeling of the
sublime, Schopenhauer listed examples of its transition from the
beautiful to the most sublime as follows:
A) Feeling of Beauty– It is the experience of light reflected off a
flower. In this experience there is pleasure from a mere perception
of an object that cannot hurt the observer.
B) Weakest Feeling of Sublime– this experience can be
compared to seeing light reflected off stones. This experience gives
pleasure from beholding objects that pose no threat, yet they are
devoid of life.
C) Weaker Feeling of Sublime– This experience can be described
as the sight of an endless desert with no movement. It is rather a
detached kind of pleasure from seeing objects that could not
sustain the life of the observer.
D) Sublime– There is sublime experience in turbulent nature. It is
pleasure from perceiving objects that threaten to hurt or destroy
the observer.
E) Full Feeling of Sublime– Then there is an overpowering
turbulent nature. This experience gives pleasure in beholding very
violent, destructive objects.
F) Fullest Feeling of Sublime– This feeling is one that transcends
the worldly pleasures. It is like experiencing the immensity of the
extent and the duration of the universe. This gives the observer the
pleasure of the knowledge of his own nothingness and oneness with
Nature.9
Post Romantic and Twentieth Century
The experience of the sublime involves a self-forgetfulness
where personal fear is replaced by a sense of well-being and
security when confronted with an object exhibiting superior might,
and is similar to the experience of the tragic. The tragic
consciousness is the capacity to gain an exalted state of
consciousness from the realization of the unavoidable suffering
destined for all men and that there are oppositions in life that can
never be resolved, most notably that of the "forgiving generosity of
deity" subsumed under "inexorable fate”. Thomas Weiskel re-
examined Kant's aesthetics and the Romantic conception of the
sublime through the prism of ‘semiotic theory’ and psychoanalysis.
He argued that Kant's 'mathematical' sublime' could be seen in
semiotic terms as the presence of an excess of signifiers, a
monotonous infinity threatening to dissolve all oppositions and
distinctions. The 'dynamic sublime', on the other hand, was an
excess of signifieds. Here ‘meaning’ was always over determined.10
According to Jean-François Lyotard, the sublime, as a theme in
aesthetics, was the founding move of the Modern period. Lyotard
argued that the modernists attempted to replace the beautiful with
the release of the perceiver from the constraints of the human
condition. For him, the significance of sublime's is in the way it
points to an ‘aporia’ in human reason. It expresses the edge of our
conceptual powers and reveals the multiplicity and instability of the
Postmodern world.11
There has also been some resurgence of interest in the
sublime in Analytic Philosophy in the last 15 years as in the
Postmodern or critical theory tradition. Analytic philosophical
studies often begin with accounts of Kant or other philosophers of
the 18th or early 19th centuries.
Poetics of Sublime in the Study of The Bhagavad Gita
This section deals with the central idea of Postmodernism-
‘poetics of sublime and its application in the study of The Bhagavad
Gita in The Mahabharata. According to Lyotard, there is space, an
‘outside’, or ‘real’ which is not dependent upon any constructions.
This space will remain sublime.12 This idea is an affirmation of the
Kantian idea of sublime as the ultimate incommensurability of
reality as a pure idea. Kant divides the human mind into three
faculties: understanding, reason and judgment. They are the priory
laws of understanding which determine the experience of the
world.13 In other words all knowledge is determined by the
concepts. These concepts are applied to the sensory world through
the imagination in its capacity to form images. The highest faculty
of the mind is reason and idea is a product of this faculty. The
sublime is connected to the sphere of pure ideas. Sublimity is the
experience of an object which invokes an idea of reason which is
radically indeterminate. One can not formulate, know or judge it. In
short, imagination can excite ideas that cannot be realized or
represented in any sensory form. The sublime transcends all the
faculties of reason and it is a glimpse of the inaccessible plenitude
that leaves an impossible self-conscious wrestle with words in the
hopeless struggle to embody it. Postmodernism in art or Philosophy
asserts the unpresentable in presentation itself. Therefore,
Postmodern art exists as a radical subjective fictionality that refuses
mimesis, organic unity and consensus. It offers multiple
perspectives that refuse to resolve into some transcendent or more
profound whole.
Postmodernism admits a notion of the value of the aesthetic as
a form of non-utilitarian autonomy. It is resistant to any form of
conceptualization and is, therefore, unrepresentable, it is a form of
the Kantian realm of pure reason. The art of the sublime remain in a
sphere resistant to conceptual understanding. To experience the
sublime is to recognize the inadequacy of the values produced in
conceptual thought or experienced through sensory modes. It is
acknowledgement of the existence of that which can not be
thought, analyzed, presented through any determinate form.
Postmodernism is a form of resistance to the banal and
automatising effects of modern life. Any attempt to realize the
sublime as a blue print for political or historical action would
dangerously conflate the different language games, the spheres of
the speculative or ideal and those of the cognitive and practical.
Existence may be aestheticised, but the aesthetics must not be
used to underpin political ideologies which set out to produce new
cultures through rationalized ideal frameworks. The language
games of aesthetics are valuable as models of disagreements
motivating the reader with a desire to go beyond the analytic and
the conceptual, offering a continuing sense of the ‘as if’. Here the
sublime remains a never to be realized beyond.
The sublime has many dimensions, not only aesthetic but also
ethical, philosophical, psychological, political, linguistic, rhetorical
and sociological. The sublime may also induce the readers to think
specifically about the political motives of actions.
The idea is that there is a mysterious affinity between
abstraction and the sublime. Words have some advantages. They
bear emotional associations and they can evoke what is spiritual
without referring to what is visible. One can, by using words, create
combinations impossible to make in some other way. Art inspired by
the aesthetics of sublime, and aiming at powerful effects, can and
must neglect imitation of beautiful models and should devote
themselves to combinations that are astonishing, unusual and
shocking.
According to Kant, the principal effect of the sublime might be
rendered as a negative sign of inadequacy of imaginative power in
relation to the ideas of reason. Something is presented in a subject
which is ultimately unpresentable, though conceptually understood.
Lyotard is spellbound by the formula-‘presenting the unpresentable’
and by the idea of negative presentation. According to him in
painting artists want to make clear that there is something
conceivable that is absolutely not to be seen and not to be made
visible. He ponders over how it is possible to make visible that
which is impossible to see and answers the question by referring to
Kant who talks about ‘formlessness’ as a possible indication of the
unpresentable. According to Lyotard, Kant discusses abstraction
when describing imagination experiencing infinity. Infinity is a
negative presentation. Following Kant’s view that experience of the
sublime is the result of a subjective encounter with something
which is absolutely great that one can theoretically reflect on the
linguistic means which can be used by a subject who wants either
to express the sublime or to evoke the sublime in a receiver. The
subject is confronted with an overwhelming feeling.
The most basic way of representing the sublime is in
representing sublime objects. The linguistic way of representing the
sublime signals a desire to represent something and is an avowal of
the failure of language. The sublime allows the readers to correlate
miscellaneous linguistic phenomena and perceives them in a new
light.
The sublime is not a genre. It is a fluid movement across
generic boundaries. Nevertheless, the sublime has an effective
structure and rhetoric. So it might be thought of as an extended
mode. The investigator tries to study The Gita in The Mahabharata
in the light of the idea of the sublime. Here words evoke the
spiritual by creating an atmosphere that is impossible to make in
some other way. Art inspired by the aesthetic of sublime creates
powerful effects by combinations which are astonishing, unusual
and shocking. In the Mahabharata, the concept of transcendental-
self or Atman serves as an example of presenting the unpresentable
in Postmodern terminology. Following Kant’s view that experience of
the sublime is a result of the subjective encounter with something
which is absolutely menacing. One can theoretically reflect on the
linguistic means that can be used by a subject who wants either to
express the sublime or to evoke the sublime in a receiver. Then he
is confronted with something absolutely great or absolutely
menacing and expressing an overwhelming feeling. Arjuna
confronts such a situation in the battlefield. He is placed in a
situation in which his whole way of life is challenged and the only
way out of this situation is to opt for a course of action based on the
strength of one’s intuitive perception of reasons to support them.
Arjuna encounters such an experience in the battlefield when he
beholds Krishna in his divine form. It is described in The
Mahabharata in the following words:
And Krishna stood transformed before his bhakta speaking
from many mouths, seeing with numberless eyes, carrying
countless weapons, wearing divine raiment and garlands,
heavenly perfumes, of endless visions and marvels irradiate,
boundless. His face was turned everywhere, the nebulae were
his ornaments. If a thousand suns rose together into the sky,
their light might approach the splendour of that being.12
This gives Arjuna an absolutely overwhelming and menacing
feeling. In other words he experiences the sublime, the formless-
transcendental, imperishable which no words or form of art can
express.
The Sublime in Samkhya Yoga
Arjuna is confused about his choice to fight .his mental agony
and conflict of ideas is clear from his talks to Krishna. He says that
nothing on earth or heaven can cure him of his conflicts. The effect
of this sorrow on him is that it physically disables him. He is
numbed or dazed intellectually. Krishna tries to arouse Arjuna from
his inertia or lethargy. The verse 12 in Samkhya Yoga states, “Never
was there a time when I did not exist, or you, or these rulers of
men. Nor shall all of us cease to be hereafter.”13 It states that
existence is never non-existent, including the individual and the
whole humanity. Verse 16 in Samkhya Yoga says, “The unreal can
never come into existence, and the real can never cease to be. The
wise philosophers have known the truth about these categories (of
the real and the unreal).”14
The idea of existence is made clearer in this verse .The terms
‘bhava’ and ‘abhava’ (becoming and non-becoming) are used in the
Nyaya-Vaishesika Philosophy. In this system, the term ‘abhava’
(non-becoming) is the last of the seven ‘padarthas’. Even ‘sat’
existence (existence reality) is not different from the notion of
‘dravya’(substance),hence even the mind is a substance. Substance
in this context and meaning is considered –‘paramanu’(basic
building blocks of matter)Verse 20 of Samkhya Yoga states, “He
(this self) has neither birth nor death. Nor does he cease to be,
having been in existence before: unborn, eternal, permanent and
primeval, he is never killed when the body is killed.”15
The sublime self is never born and never dies. It is sublime, not
subject to any process of evolution. The sublime nature of the self is
spoken of as having no materiality, it has a transcendental
existence. Verse 25 of Samkhya Yoga states the nature of self,”
Knowing Him (self) to be unmanifest,inconceivable,and
unmodifiable,it is improper to mourn for him.”16 The eternal self is
beyond thought. The same idea is dealt in the Upanishads as the
fourth state-‘turiya’.
All forms of manifestations are real only in certain frames of
reference. Such realities are referred to as ‘Maya’ in the ‘Vedanta’.
The manifested is bounded on either side by the unmanifested, and
both ends dissolve into ‘Purusha’,(pure spirit).According to Sankhya
Philosophy the ‘Mulaprakriti’(root-nature avyakta) in the event of
death or dissolution the three stages of beginning, middle and end
merge without differentiation into the notion of ‘avyakta’
(ambiguity).
Karma Yoga- the Sublime Action
This chapter deals with the ‘karma yoga’ or sublime action.
‘karma’ and ‘yoga’ go naturally together. The sublime action in a
man who is able to restrain the self by the self is to be understood
as forces of life acting them out in him. What is necessary has to be
permitted, as breathing is necessary for a living organism. The more
fundamental the actions are, the less will be the choices left. Verse
4 in Karma Yoga states, “By non-performance of action a man does
not gain the state of spiritual passivity (or the state of egoless,
actionless called ‘naishkarmya’). By mere external abandonment
(samnyasa).He does not attain to perfection.”17
The term ‘naishkarmya’ does not mean a physical non-
performance of any action. It is a detachment of the mind in which
the mind itself ceases to be and one becomes one with the ‘atman’.
When the ego identifies itself with the body, he becomes an actor or
one who involves in works. In the egoless state one becomes a pure
witness. The two concepts dealt with in this section are; samnyasa
(renunciation) and ‘sidhi’ (attainment). We are familiar with ‘sidhies’
in the context of ‘yoga’ and samnysa in the context of rituals. The
central idea put forth in the verse is that one cannot have ends and
means separate. They are organically and unitively linked. It is a
state of the observer becoming the observed. Verse 5 in Karma
Yoga states, “No man can ever remain even for a moment without
performing any action. The impulses of nature deprive him of
freedom in this respect and compel him to act.”18 In this verse it is
clear in this verse that the motive drives for all actions are the
natural propensity (guna) of the person.
The Gita takes action in its most comprehensive sense here as
the binding of the entire humanity. ‘Karma’ or necessary actions
arise out of a situational need for action. Such action is even
deemed to be a form of worship. Therefore, Arjuna is called upon to
act in response to a situational necessity. Verse 8 in Karma Yoga
states, “Perform your prescribed duties. For, action is superior to
inaction. If you are totally inactive, even the survival of the body
would become impossible.”19 Here the necessity and inevitability of
action are made clear. In the first line action is said to be
‘jyayah’(superior) to inaction. The word ‘nityam’ refers to actions
where there is no option left. Even the body metabolism is a
function and therefore action. ‘Karma’ has to be understood in a
comprehensive sense in this chapter. Verses 42&43 in karma yoga
make the sublime nature of ‘karma’ clearer. It is written, “The
senses are great, they say. Superior to senses is the mind, and
superior even to the mind is the intellect. What is superior even to
the intellect is He, the Atman.”20 It is added, “Thus knowing Him
who is superior even to the Buddhi and controlling the lower self
with the higher, kill that tough enemy in the form of lust, O mighty-
armed Arjuna!”21
Here sublime action is acting in response to a situational
necessity, detached to both the means and ends. Communion with
the spirit purifies the intellect, mind and senses. It liberates the
senses from the dominance of its basic nature and gives an
impersonal point of view. Non-attachment is possible only when the
mind assumes the attitude a witness. This is possible only when
the mind can shed its basic natural tendency to see the world as an
object of instinctive satisfaction or sensual enjoyment. The
experience of the sublime action involves a self-forgetfulness where
personal fear is replaced by a sense of well-being and security when
confronted with an object exhibiting superior might, and the doer of
the action ceases to exist. There will be only the action, or a process
or a state where the observer and the observed merge into a
unified consciousness.
Jnana- Yoga as the Sublime Knowledge
This chapter deals with the elusive, subtle and sublime
knowledge. Time and duration are discussed here as the fourth
dimensional aspect of the subject of wisdom. Wisdom has a
dynamic nature here. It is notable that after discussing all the ritual
practices and social divisions in different chapters, it aptly
concludes that wisdom like fire burns all dross of action and rituals
in it. This chapter makes clear the concept of ‘samnyasa’ or
renunciation. The idea of renunciation is to be understood as life
lived with the insight of ‘yoga’ or unity of understanding and
wisdom as the perennial way of life. Verse 6 of Jnana yoga tells,
“Though birth less and deathless, and the lord of the all the beings
as well, yet I (the eternal Being) take birth by My inherent
mysterious power (Atma-mayaya) employing the pure or Sattva
aspect of My material Nature (Prakrit).”22 Manifestations of the
absolute are described here in terms of relativism. The ‘avatara’ of
the divine or coming into existence of the unmanifest into
existence, ’sambhavam’(becoming) is the subject matter discussed
here. The word ‘maya’ has reference to the ‘Vedanta’ which means
unreal, that is the world is unreal. ‘Prikriti’ (nature) is treated as a
co-partner in the principle of ‘maya’. Manifestation of the absolute
is like a transparent crystal placed on a red silk appears to be red,
though it is only in appearance.
The Gita is not concerned with social obligations but it is
concerned with the harmony between the inner and outer life of an
individual which is the yoga to lead a person to know the Sublime.
In verse 14 of Jnana yoga it is stated, “Actions do not affect Me. Nor
have any desire for the fruits of action. Whoever knows Me to be so,
is not bound by Karma.”23
This verse discusses the wisdom of the absolute or the
knowledge of the sublime. The subject matter of discussion is the
possible ways of activity open to a man who lives in the relativist
society. Here it is made clear that the sublime remains untouched
by all actions. There is no desire for any result of an action. It is in
understanding such neutrality that the way to understand the
absolute or the sublime is found. Here the action and doer of the
action are free from the bondage of action. Therefore, the sublime
knowledge liberates a man from all bondages.
A wise man always revalues his position in society because he
is constantly aware of the sublime. His life is full of wonder and
mystery .No text of the past has made it definite because it defies
all predictions and representations. A wise man is simply aware of
the knowledge of sublime. In verse 18 of Jnana Yoga Krishna says,
“He who sees work in ‘no work’ and ‘no work’ in work, he is
wise among men. Even while doing all work, he remains established
in Yoga.”24 This verse epitomises the sublime knowledge. There is
an obvious paradox in the verse. It is better to leave the paradox as
such because the sublime knowledge cannot be expressed logically
in language. It is the meeting ground of all paradoxes. Such
paradoxes can be understood only with the knowledge of the
sublime. The heightening of the mystery in The Gita enhances its
glory. Mystery is inevitable in a text dealing with the knowledge of
the sublime. It is only the wise who is clear about the non-duality
that understands the sublime.
In the present context, it is stated that there are ambivalent, I-
polar aspects to the soul of a man which are related as the instinct
with intelligence. What instinct is convinced of may not be
acceptable to intelligence. The soul or the absolute sublime is the
meeting place of opposites. Wisdom is the knowledge of the
sublime. The last phrase ‘Kritsnakarmakrit’ ( while still engaged in
all possible kinds of action) shows that one set of actions has to be
reduced in terms of the other and both cancelled out into a certain
unitive neutrality, irrespective of whatever actual or virtual
activities are implied in a situation. The doer of an action engages
himself in the action in such a way that he does not depend on
anything outside it. He is always a contented man, free from worries
and expectations. This idea is made clear in verse 21 of Jnana Yoga
Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “One who is free from desires, whose mind
is well-controlled, and who is without any sense of ownership, incurs
no sin from works, as his actions are merely physical.”25 Here all
the actions in which a person engages physically are in a nature of
reflex actions. The phrases “yatachittatma” (one of subjugated
relational self), “chitta” in the verse are the aspect of consciousness
that is capable of attaching to an idea or object, and “aparigrahah”
(without possessiveness) denote two additional requisites for a man
of wisdom, giving a deeper qualification than just being free from
attachments.
Knowledge of the sublime or wisdom is said to be superior to
all other forms of sacrifice. All the sacrifices have their origin in
some sort of action. They are necessarily dualistic in that respect.
The knowledge of the sublime transcends such conditions.
Verse 33 of Jnana Yoga tells, “O scorcher of enemies sacrifice
involving knowledge is superior to sacrifice with material objects:
for, O son of partha, all works without exception culminate in
knowlegde.”26 A priest pours butter or burns valuable objects in a
Vedic sacrifice. The verse here categorically states that wisdom is
far more important than all such practices. The expression
‘parisamapyate’ (comes to a supreme culmination) gives primary
importance to wisdom or knowledge of the sublime. All actions are
finally burnt away or discarded by the unitive wisdom of the ‘yogi’.
This idea is made clearer in the verse 37 of Jnana Yoga. Arjuna
is told, “Just as well-kindled fire reduces a heap of fire-wood to
ashes, so does the fire of divine knowledge reduce all sins (works)
to ashes.”27 The relation between action and wisdom are not simply
mechanically opposite but when there is wisdom or the knowledge
of the sublime, action vanishes as darkness vanishes in the
presence of light. Then there is only the pure intelligence without
any duality.
Karma -Samnyasa-Yoga – the Poetics of Sublime
There are six systems in Indian Philosophy:
1) Nyaya-Vaiseshika(School of Philosophy that deals with life as a
bondage, suffering and liberation of the soul) 2) Samkhya-yoga
(One of the oldest systems of Indian Philosophy that maintains
clear-cut dualism between ‘purusha’ and ‘prakriti’)3) Purva
Mimamsa (School of Philosophy that regards The Veda as eternal
and authorless) 4) Uttara Mimamsa( The last part of the Vedas
which consists of the Upanishads).
There are two sides to each of the four systems; one side is
rational, while the other deals with practices. However, the final
doctrinal aspects which belong to The Vedanta are restated by
sages like Vyasa. There are opposing tendencies and altering
movement from orthodoxy to heterodoxy or from reason to faith in
the growth of the spiritual and philosophical thought of India.
‘Nyaya’ is rational, logical and orthodox in origin, while ‘Vaiseshika’
is heterodox and religious in origin. Samkhya is rational and
heterodox while Yoga is theistic and permits an ‘Isvara’ as an
alternative for its discipline. There is interplay of atheism and
theism between these two schools. ‘Purvamimamsa’ represents the
orthodoxy which is primarily concerned with ‘Vedic ‘rituals. The
‘Uttaramimamsa’ is neither heterodox nor orthodox as it is found in
‘the Gita’. The complete meaning of the wisdom or the poetics of
sublime in The Gita is one that the reader has to formulate for
himself. Verse 4 & 5 of chapter 5 in ‘Communion Through
Renunciation’ (the karma-samnyasa-yoga) it is stated, “It is only the
childish and not the wise that speak of samkhya (or knowledge
accompanied by abandonment of work) and Yoga (or communion
through detached and dedicated work) as different. A person well
established, even one of these, attains the end that is the common
goal of both (That is, in the means they employ, they look different,
but their end or ultimate purpose is identical).”28 It is added,“The
state which one attains by Samkhya, the same state is attained by
Yoga too. He, who sees both ‘samkhya’ and ‘yoga’ as one, sees
indeed.”29 This verse is an attempt to look upon pure and practical
aspects of life unitively. Here ‘samnyasa’ is not rejection of action
purposefully or wilfully but it is seeing action through inaction and
vice versa. There is a disowning of attachment in a doer of the
action. The Gita is emphatic about abolishing the distinction
between samkhya and yoga.
The self or Atma’ is pure, transparent and untainted. Lower
instinctive aspects of the self are transcended. The self has its
movements in a plane which is independent of the worldly mundane
activities. It is in this sense it says that the usual activities of the life
does not affect the self or ‘Atma’. Verses 8 &9 of karma-samnyasa-
yoga state, “I (the self) do naught: only the senses are occupied
with their objects –this should be the conviction of one who is
detached in action and established in the truth ( that he is the
Atman), even while seeing, hearing touching ,smelling, eating,
conversing, holding, walking, giving up, winking and even
sleeping.”30
These verses make clear the vital, automatic and reflex
functions which are incidental to physical existence. All such actions
take place on a plane of biological order involving no attachment or
identification. They are treated as incidental to social life in general
by a man of wisdom. In other words, a man of wisdom dissociates
himself and maintains detached neutrality.
The self is an active or passive non-agency. The self is
characterized by perfect neutrality. It is well expressed in the verses
14&15 of Karma-samnyasa-yoga, “In regard to all beings in this
world, the sovereign soul is not the cause of the sense of agency,
nor of actions, nor of the fruition of actions. It is nature that does all
this.”31 Lord Krishna adds, “The all-pervading Being does not accept
the sins or merits of any one. Knowledge of the Divine Spirit is
veiled in ignorance, and therefore, beings are duluded.”32 This verse
refers to the sublime as the supreme in the phrase ‘prabhu’
(supreme). A ‘yogi’ who is untouched by his mundane existence is
aware of the sublime. He is aware of the self or soul as the sublime
and this sublime is ‘vibhu’ (the pervading one). The sublime is
innocent and free from all limitations. There is a total ruling out of
all forms of attachments in action in the verse here, it is clear in the
line, “na karmaphalasmyogam”(non-attachment to actions)
emphasising the non-duality of the sublime.
Jnana-vijnana Yoga as the Poetics of Sublime
This chapter is an attempt to understand the absolute nature
of reality or the sublime not in terms of philosophy but through
intuition and contemplative synthesis. Contemplation is possible
from an identity of subject and object through intuition. Sublime is
revealed in its own light. There is a bi-polar relation between the
‘yogi’ and the absolute or sublime. Knowledge of the sublime results
from such a relationship which refers to the immanent and
transcendental, subjective and objective, pure and practical aspects
of reality at the same time.
Verse 5 of Jnana-vijnana Yoga tells, “This O mighty armed, is
My lower nature. Know that, as different from it, is My higher nature
forming the source of all Jivas and support of the whole universe.”33
The two aspects of the absolute or the sublime are referred to here
by the terms ‘apara’(immanent) and ‘para’ (transcendent). These
dual aspects are treated as the nature of the absolute unitively. The
phrase ‘dharyate’(sustains) derive from the same root ‘dharma’ but
it does not suggest physical support of the world by the absolute,
but it is the principle of existence or life force running through the
phenomenal world.
Raja-Vidya Raja-Guhya Yoga as the Poetics of Sublime
The nature of the subject matter of this chapter is clear from
the title itself. It is made clear that the absolute or sublime is
detached to both good and bad alike. This neutrality is the highest
level of the sublime. The importance of knowing the absolute as the
sublime principle is made clear in this chapter.
Verse 4 of Raja-Vidya Raja-Guhya Yoga states, “All the
world is pervaded by Me, the Unmanifested Being. All objects
subsist in Me, but I in them.”34The sublime nature of the absolute is
brought out in this verse. It is insisted that the absolute is sublime
without form, it is unmanifest. It says that beings exist in the
absolute but the absolute does not exist in them. The relation
between absolute and existence is a wonder and mystery. This
sublime nature of the absolute is heightened in the next verse 5 of
Raja-Vidya Raja-Guhya Yoga,” And yet objects do not abide in Me!
Behold My mysterious Divine Power! Source and support of all
objects, and yet not abiding in (i.e. limited by) them!”35 Manifested
beings do not have existence in the absolute. The phrase
‘mamatma’ (self of the absolute) makes the relation subtler still, as
this self which is said to be the vital urge is the emanation of all
beings.
Kshetra-kshetrajna-Vibhaga Yoga as the Poetics of Sublime
This chapter is concerned with the most subtle aspect of the
sublime. Arjuna puts the question in three couples of concepts; one
concept is based on the idea of ‘prakriti(nature) and
‘purusha’(spirit),another pair is based on the concept of
‘kshetra’(the field) and the ‘kshetrajna’(knower of the field). The
third pair is subtler that is ‘jneyam’ (that which is to be known) and
‘jnanam’(knowledge or wisdom). It can be seen that concepts
belonging to different branches of knowledge are brought together
for highlighting the idea of the sublime.
Verse 1 of Kshetra-kshetrajna-Vibhaga Yoga states, “This body
O son of Kunti, is called the Kshetra, the field (because the fruits of
action are reaped in it). He who knows it (as his property) is the
Kshetrajna or the spirit who knows the field. So say those versed in
this subject.”36 The two definitions here, one of the field and the
other as the knower of the field are the different aspects of the self
or the sublime. The duality here is not to emphasize their distctness
but for the purpose of discussion. In the next verse, the field and
the knower of the field are treated unitively. In verse 2 of Kshetra-
kshetrajna-Vibhaga Yoga it is said, “Know Me, O scion of the Bharata
race, to be the Kshtrajna(the Spirit) in all Kshetras (bodies). The
knowledge of the distinction between Kshetra and Kshetrajna alone
is real knowledge according to me.”37
This verse highlights the nature of wisdom or sublime. Knowing
the sublime is to understand the relation between the field and
knower of the field. Lack of understanding this leads to many errors
of judgement. It is the field that evolves and not the knower of the
field. While the ‘samkhya’ philosophers thought of the field and the
knower of the field as separate, here it is presented as belonging to
one unified cetralised value. The knower of the field suggests unity
but when it is said that he is in every field, it may suggest
multiplicity. Thus, unity and multiplicity are counter poised, or set
against each other to cancel out both in favour of the absolute
sublime. The sublime is the only subject matter of wisdom.
The poetics of the sublime reaches its height in the verses 14,
15&16 of Kshetra-kshetrajna-Vibhaga Yoga. It says, “By His power
the faculties of the senses function, but sense organs He has none.
He is the support of all things, but they do not affect him. He
transcends Nature and its functions, but these constitute the
objects for His enjoyment.”38
The sublime is explained in paradoxical statements in this
verse. It says that it is in the senses but it does not have senses. It
is possible to experience the sense of sight in dreaming without the
use of sense organs. In the second instance, it says that it is
unattached but it supports all. The idea will be clear. The space is
understood as the supporter of all things to exist. The third paradox
is that it says that it has no qualities but perceives all qualities. This
idea becomes clear when it is understood that the absolute is
sublime. It has no modalities of nature called ‘gunas’. Arjuna is told,
“He is within and without all beings. Though unmoving, He looks like
one moving (because He is everywhere). He is both far and near- far
to the ignorant and near to the knowing ones. Owing to subtlety, He
cannot be known like gross objects.”39
Here again there are three paradoxes. The absolute is said to
be the sublime principle which can only be known but never
explained in language. Therefore it is said, “He (the Brahman)
whom aspirants seek to know, is the impartial whole, yet does He
seem to dwell in all beings as if divided into many. He is the
generator and supporter of all beings, and their destroyer too.”40
Here also the first paradox is the undivided becoming divided.
It suggests that all divisions are only in appearance. The second
paradox is between ‘bhutabhartri’(supporter of existence) and
‘jneyam’(what is to be known). The third pair of paradox is between
that which holds back and release for expansion. It is the centrifugal
and centripetal principle in science. All the examples in this verse
are meant to bring out the underlying idea of equalisation,
neutralisation and cancelling out of counterparts into the central
idea of the sublime.
The idea of the sublime is concluded in this chapter in verses-
31& 32 of Kshetra-kshetrajna-VibhagaYoga. Verse 31 is, “That
highest Self, being the immutable and unoriginated Spirit beyond
Nature, is free from all action and stain, though dwelling in the
body.”41 Verse 32 tells,” Just as the all-pervading Akasa, because of
its subtlety, is not stained by anything, so this Atman, though
abiding in all bodies, is never affected by any impurity.”42
Conclusion
The self or ‘I’ feeling of an individual is the individualised ‘I’
ness of egocentricity. It is a socially conditioned state and all
conditioned states are non-existent. Therefore, ego has no
existence. The ego and experience of it are founded on ignorance.
Most of the people are engaged in activities to obtain self-
gratification. A wise man realizes that the physical organism and
mind are integral parts of the phenomenal universe. Changing and
becoming are part of the universal system. A wise man will also
manifest these factors. He will act like any other person in the
worldly affairs, as it is a physical necessity of existence. A ‘yogi’
maintains an inner serenity even in the midst of such activities. He
will keep himself a neutral hero.
The self is equated with the meaning or value (‘ananda’) of
existence that operates within the wide field of consciousness
(‘chit’).It ranges from the infinitude of the unconscious to the
finitude of conscious awareness which is called the pure
consciousness (‘turiya’). In this quality of awareness no duality or
possibility of duality exists. The dichotomy of subjects and objects is
not present in it. In addition to that there is a vast area of subjective
awareness which includes the dream state. Finally, there is
awareness of the division between the known and knowledge.
Knowledge can be subtle or concrete. The concrete aspect refers to
the empirical experience of the physical world. Only when all of the
above aspects of consciousness are included in a unified notion of
the self, there is awareness of the self. One who experiences the
self as being comprised of the concrete, the subjective, the
unconscious and the transcendental has no difficulty to understand
that the concreteness of one’s own entity is one with the
concreteness of the physical universe. In the same way he is aware
that consciousness of the objective world and the meaning of the
cosmos are not different from the consciousness experienced within
his own personal self. This awareness is obtained only through
meditation to realize the non-differentiation between personal and
universal self. A wise man having this insight will be able to see all
actions as part of the flux of becoming which is natural to the
phenomenal aspect of the universal self.
In the process of becoming, there are various movements that
include contraction to a point, expansion into wide dimensions and
motion upwards, downward and horizontally. In all these natural
functions and their outcome, there is no agency that wills. The
varieties are constituted in such a way that physical and chemical
properties are produced without intervention of any personal will.
People attribute personification to natural events like the ‘sun
shine’. In fact it is the nature of the sun to shine. There is no ‘will’
that directs it. The sunshine and biological process belong to the
same order of physical events. Man is an integral part of the
universe.
The mind is capable of feeling, reasoning and willing. Feeling,
for example, is a response to an experience as pleasure or pain.
Mostly people seek pleasurable experiences and try to avoid pain.
Usually experiences are self-related. One says, “I am happy”, “I am
angry” and so on. In all cases, there is an unmistakable
identification with the ‘I’ consciousness. Therefore, almost all
transactions in life are structured and modified by three aspects of
the mind; feeling, reasoning and willing. The ‘I’ consciousness
assumes the role of an agency as the enjoyer, knower and actor but
the Gita says that such identifications are mistaken identities of the
self. The true self is pure consciousness. When consciousness is
mentioned, it does not suggest the awareness of knowing things,
people, events, or ideas. Knowledge is not supposedly available
without the dichotomy of the knower and the known. The Gita
rejects this view and suggests that all effects are the modulations of
the consciousness. Pure knowledge is a state of the observer
becoming the observed, when there is only observation without the
knower, knowledge and the known.
The self can be compared to the sky and the sun. The sky is
the universal concept of the void. The Budhist School of Nihilism
compares ‘nirvana’ (emancipation) to the great void of ‘sunyata’
(nothingness), it agrees with the non-qualitative
absolute-‘nirguna’(free from all attributes). It has no function. The
second analogy given is of the sun. The sun has no particular
motive. It simply radiates its effulgence. Yet so many things are
caused by the sheer presence of the sun, such as the motion of the
planets, the earth becoming hospitable, the solar energy getting
into various kinds of alchemy to life of all sorts on this planet. In the
same way in the mere presence of the self, many actions take place
but the self does not involve in them as the agent of the action.
According to the Gita a man of wisdom attains a state of
transcending all actions and the urge to act. In a state of
absorption, the witnessing consciousness has nothing to witness
except itself which is called ‘atmajnana’ (knowledge of self
realization).The pure existence of the self is seen manifested in and
as the existence of individual entities. Such entities come and go.
Differentiations of the undifferentiated may occur in time and space
and fade into the unknown.
In terms of pure duration, the existence of things is to be
treated as relative reality. Only the self has absolute existence. The
self is the source of all awareness and nothing can illuminate the
self that is not its own pure awareness. All items of awareness at
the individual level originate at a certain point in time within the
consciousness. They dissolve into the same consciousness after the
relative existence. The individual self awareness is relative, though
it may seem to be ones own. All individual entities of awareness are
illuminated by the absolute or sublime.
This introduces the readers to the holistic vision of total
awareness of the self. A clear understanding of thise will enable one
to discover the relevance of individualised existence. These forms
emerge as the result of individual notions that imply a number of
specific values. Such values range from joy, satisfaction, sense of
fulfilment or peace. There is a division of awareness of the self as
the unconditioned and conditioned.It is called
‘nirupadikam’(unconditional) and ‘sopadikam’(conditional)
respectively. When a man observes a pot and comments “this is a
pot”, the pot becomes a means (upadi) which modulates his
awareness into the specific features of it.
Therefore, the world is being and non-being together. Its
beingness belongs to pure knowledge and its non-beingness to
ignorance. In order to reach at the notion of the unconditioned self,
one has to be able to think of the immanence of a consciousness
that has the quality of transcendence. When the pure consciousness
is confined to a limit, it produces the central locus and a boundary.
The central locus produces the notion of individualisation and that
notion is recognized as the ‘I’ in the case of human beings.
Repeated recourse to such confinement and recurrence of the idea
of ‘I’ makes one egotistically oriented. Thereafter the ego alone
becomes real and the experience is considered valid only when it is
an affectation and expression of the ego. In other words, a person
becomes a conditioned consciousness and a stranger to the
unconditioned consciousness from which his individuation is
derived. In fact the unconditioned state of awareness is the reality
and it is always the present.
The self can be compared to a light that can see and is always
witnessing whatever it illuminates. Its experience of such
illumination ranges from the witnessing of empirical transactions
with gross objects in the wakeful state. In and all through
experiences runs a golden thread of pure consciousness. This is not
affected by the changing modes of consciousness that occur in the
shifting of interest from one item of experience to another.
Comprehension of this pure consciousness is obliterated in the
minds of most of the people because people are so much engrossed
by things illuminated by the self.
‘I’ consciousness in notions such as “I am happy”, the term ‘I’
stands for the ego. Although its epistemological status is that of the
non-self, the ego is neither the non-self nor the self. It is a negative
shadow of the self. Therefore consciousness neither refers to the
cognizing agency of the ego nor to any factor of the non-self made
specifically interesting by any particular value. Such a state may be
described as awareness of an awareness that does not necessitate
the dichotomy of the seer and the seen. The non-differentiated
consciousness of the self prevails at all times. It is like the ocean
that though seems to take many forms of waves never in fact
changes its fundamental nature as water. The non-differentiated
state of consciousness can be identified as self-realization by
recapturing. Intellectually the nature of the self can be said to mean
the pure existence that neither originates nor does cease to exist
over time. What one perceives through the action of the senses and
conceives by the action of the mind comes into existence at a
certain point in time. It follows that the existence of such
perceptions and conceptions are ,in terms of pure existence, things
of relative validity. Knowledge of the existence of such entities
originates from the stream of consciousness and vanishes after
presenting the idea of the objects. From the above it is evident that
most items of our consciousness are only relative notions and not
an ever-abiding awareness.
A wise man has an understanding of the transactions in the
world of objectivity. He is no less sharp in worldly affairs. He may
have a better sensibility to appreciate but he is cognizant of the fact
that it is only an ego dealing with non-self entities. Actual
knowledge is to see the rope as a rope. It is called ‘yatharthajnana’
(the real knowledge). It is the beingness of knowledge. It is not
necessary for a great teacher to come and inform that the right
knowledge is to see the rope as rope. Knowledge of the sublime is
calling one’s attention to what one misses in the endless pursuit of
details and precision in the empirical world of search. Knowledge of
the sublime enables the individual to transcend the empirical and
transactional those are the fixations in which it is riveted. This is the
most basic way of representing the sublime in language that
invokes the feeling of sublime in the reader. The sublime allows the
readers to correlate miscellaneous linguistic phenomena and
perceive them in a different light. But the most interesting aspect
of the sublime is the fact that it seems to embody a very particular
theory of language and a complete mode of relationships between
the participants in the process of communication. In this model of
language, notion such as identification, imagination, emotions, and
communication play the main role.
NOTES
1 Monroe C Beardsley, "History of Aesthetics". Encyclopaedia of
Philosophy. Vol. 1. (London: Macmillan, 1973.) 27.
2 - - - 30-32.
3 - - - 35-38.
4 - - - 39-41.
5 - - - 49.
6 - - - 53.
7 - - - 59.
8 Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment. trans. J.H. Bernard
(London:Macmillan, 1951) 18- 32.
9 Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation,
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1975)39.
10 Thomas Weiskel, The Romantic Sublime (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1976) 58.
11 Jean-François Lyotard, Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime,
trans. Elizabeth Rottenberg. (Stanford University Press, 1994)19.
12 20-22.
13 Swami Tapsyananda, Srimad Bagavad Gita,
(Madras : Sriramakrishna Math, 1984)46.
14 Tapsyananda,46.
15 Tapsyananda,47.
16 Tapsyananda, 49.
17 Tapsyananda, 51.
18 Tapsyananda, 87.
19 Tapsyananda,88.
20 Tapsyananda,89.
21 Tapsyananda,103.
22 Tapsyananda,103.
23 Tapsyananda, 119.
24 Tapsyananda,22.
25 Tapsyananda,124.
26 Tapsyananda,125.
27 Tapsyananda,130.
28 Tapsyananda, 132.
29 Tapsyananda,149.
30 Tapsyananda,149.
31 Tapsyananda,151.
32 Tapsyananda,153.
33 Tapsyananda,153.
34 Tapsyananda,195.
35 Tapsyananda,236.
36 Tapsyananda,237.
37 Tapsyananda,237.
38 Tapsyananda,337.
39 Tapsyananda,337.
40 Tapsyananda, 342.
41 Tapsyananda,343.
41 Tapsyananda,350.
42 Tapsyananda, 350.