Reflecting upon Sri VyAsa's Ethical approach to story telling
Reflecting upon Sri VyAsa's Ethical approach to story telling
(Background)
The blog is a reflection or Mananam, triggered by Sri Vishwa Adluriji's profound insights on the topic of Sri VyAsa's ethical approach to
storytelling.
I. Introduction: Prof Adluri's
observation on Sri VyAsa's ethical approach to storytelling.
Professor Sri Vishwa Adluriji - a leading exponent and expert on
Mahabharata, and my teacher of the HUA course on Mahabharata War, made a remarkable observation, about how Sri VyAsa humanizes the Mahabharata,
by virtue of his poetic, narrative approach. This poetic narrative approach
laced with metaphors and similes and focused on the "specificity"
w.r.t individuals, is an ethical lens, through which Sri VyAsa presents people,
events, discussions and philosophical deliberations. If not for this poetic,
narrative approach, the events of the past would be reduced to a set of events,
compiled with scientific temper but of no humanistic or spiritual value.
Professor's viewpoint is that to describe inanimate objects - a
dry scientific approach would suffice. But when it comes to talking about human
beings, we need a narrative which enables us to understand and connect with the
human condition (it's glory, frailty, divinity, aspirations and emotions, so on
and so forth). This is where poetry plays a significant, role.
Poetry laced with similes and metaphors, preserves the
distinctions at individual level. The individual is more than just line item in
a large spreadsheet. Sri VyAsa spends adequate time, with several characters
painting us a word picture of the character traits (say for example
of Abhimanyu) as viewed from different standpoints - the standpoint of the
father (e.g. Arjuna's view of Abhimanyu), mother (e.g. Subhadra's view of
Abhimanyu), teacher (e.g. Sri Krishna's view), and so on and so forth.
The ethical appraisal of Sri VyAsa's project, namely Mahabharata
can be better understood, if we understand the very philosophical basis of
ethics, in light of Upanishadic wisdom. For this I resort to the Advaita Siddhanta' s interpretation of the Upanisad. This forms Section II of this blog
post.
Section III - briefly touches upon the two main objectives of Sri VyAsa's story telling (seen in light of Prof Adluri's comments), knowing which we may appreciate the purpose of Mahabharata, properly.
Section IV - Summarizes the reflection.
II. Basis of Ethics: Upanishadic vision of Advaita.
ātmaivedam agra āsīt puruṣavidhaḥ, so’nuvīkṣya
nānyad ātmano’paśyat, so’ham asmīty agre vyāharat; tato’haṁ nāmābhavat, tasmād
apy etarhy āmantritaḥ; aham ayam ity evāgra uktvā, athānyan nāma prabrῡte yad
asya bhavati.– 1.4.1 BrihadAranyaka Upanisad
Translation: In the beginning, this (universe) was
but the Self as Purusha. He reflected and found nothing else but himself. He
first uttered, ''I am He''. Therefore, he was called Aham. Hence, to this
day, when a person is addressed, he first says, 'It is I,' and then says the
other name that he may have.
As the BrihadAranyaka Sruti above indicates, every one, in
essence has their existence or Being, rooted in the One, Only and Original “I”
or “Aham” - namely Brahman.
Advaita Siddhanta (through Sruti, Gita, Brahma Sutras and
Bhagavan Adi Sankara's commentary) establishes beyond doubt that this “I” or
Aham or Sense of Being, is Brahman - the unqualified, attributeless, reality -
indicated by words – Satyam (Absolute existence), JnAnam (Absolute
knowledge), Anantam (Infinity) (Tai. Up Brahmadanda
Valli).
We can infer on this Advaitic premise that the individual's
commitment to an ethical living, is rooted in the individual's essential
identity with the world around him. I don’t become angry with myself,
when I accidentally bite my own tongue. Similarly, my interaction with
the people, world around me, is grounded in my understanding and acceptance, of
the non-dual nature of Reality - a sense of Oneness.
To make this point about non duality further, I quote another
Sruti (Mandukya verse 7). According to this Sruti, my Being is revealed to
be ekātmapratyayasāram (Self-evident Consciousness) prapancopaśamam (that
into which the duality abides) śāntam (peace), śivam (auspiciousness) advaitam (non-dual).
The last word - Advaita is the key.
This Oneness of Existence is the basis
of Ethics, according to Advaita.
I am not implying that ethical living is possible only to the
Jeevan Mukta or the realized soul, to whom prapancopaśamam is an
accomplished fact (i.e. He sees everything is verily One). Such Jeevan Muktas
are indeed rare, as Sri Krishna Himself acknowledges - vaasudevah sarvam iti sa mahaatmaa sudurlabhah [Gita
7.19].
What I am implying here is, even an
intellectual understanding of this Advaitic truth or the vision
of Oneness of existence, puts our ethical bearings on stable
philosophical ground and helps evolves one's ethical quotient.
The foremost exponent on this topic of Ethics
and Advaita, is Swami Vivekananda. Let us conclude this Section II with a quote
from Swamiji.
“What is the watchword of all ethical codes?
"Not I, but thou", and this "I" is the outcome of the
Infinite behind, trying to manifest Itself on the outside world. This little
"I" is the result, and it will have to go back and join the Infinite,
its own nature. Every time you say, "Not I, my brother, but thou",
you are trying to go back, and every time you say "I, and not thou",
you take the false step of trying to manifest the Infinite through the
sense-world. That brings struggles and evils into the world, but after a time
renunciation must come, eternal renunciation. The little "I" is dead
and gone”
- Volume 2 – jnAna Yoga talks / title:
Realization
Now that I have made my point of how ethics, is firmly
rooted in Upanisadhic wisdom (i.e. Advaita Siddhanta), we have to proceed to
reflect upon Sri VyAsa's narrative approach, in Mahabharata.
III. Sri VyAsa's Ethical Narrative Lens
The main purpose of Sruti (i.e. Upanisads), is to reveal
to us the divine dimension of our Being and eventually help us transcend all
duality and recognize our infinite non dual nature.
So Sri VyAsa, as teacher rooted in Sruti, is solely concerned
with (a) ethical human upliftment and (b) eventual self-transcendence (i.e.
discover our infinite nature and thereby put an end to suffering)
Hence, it becomes unavoidable for Sri VyAsa as the Itihaasa
Karta (composer of Itihaasa), to take up the events of the past and present
them to us, through the poetic-narrative story telling lens -
to accomplish the aforesaid dual objectives.
If Sri VyAsa had gone about drafting Mahabharata like a modern-day
historian or scientific chronicler, his presentation of facts of the past,
would be highly dehumanized (as Prof Adluri pointed out, in the class). So,
empathy is the key here and the need for student of
Mahabharata to emotionally relate to the various characters - thier respective
thought process, choices and travails. This is where poetry,
laced with similes and metaphors play a huge role !
At one level (Pravrtti) Sri VyAsa helps us recognize the human
condition borne out of Avidya (or Ignorance of our Infinite Dimension) and the
consequent actions, choices and struggle for perfection. By doing so, he is being ethical in his treatment of the characters of the epics. ---------------> Important
At another level (Nivrtti), he helps us recognize the changeless
amidst the changeful i.e. Self of the nature of pure consciousness, the Brahman of
the Vedanta, the Vaasudeva of the Pancharatra, the Pasupati of
the Paasupatas etc. Thus, Sri VyAsa also shows the door to liberation. This way he is being ethical in his treatment of the student or the reader of the epic. ---------------> Important
Now both these dual objectives, (at Pravrtti and Nivrtti level)
can only be achieved, by offering a story telling device - a narrative which is
immersive and impactful on the reader.
Then and Then only will the study of Mahabharata, be a transformative experience, to the reader
Human being lives in thier own narrative, as to who they are, what this world around means to them (i.e. thier relation with this world). Sri VyAsa aspires to influence his/her view of the world, life in general, and Self - by painting an more enrichening narrative, through the poetical, layered narrative in Mahabharata.
Hence, resorting to poetry (which facilitates the emotional connect between the reader and the characters) and layered narrative story telling techniques (which operate on the reader at various psychological levels), becomes not only important but also necessary.
So the important thing to note, reflect upon and accept eventually, when it comes to the critical appraisal of Mahabharata is that even though the content of the narrative is based on events in the past, it is the narrative itself that has the dominant upper hand of influence, upon the reader (rather than the historicity of the events).
Thus ensuring, we not only connect with our ancients, but also be guided by Upanishadic wisdom, to felicity. Sri VyAsa essentially de-hypnotizes us (who otherwise spend our life harboring the notions of our finite, limited individuality) thereby enabling us to eventually recognize our infinite dimension.
This dehypnotization project, viewed
through the ethical narrative lens of Sri Vyasa is called Mahabharata.
If we don’t understand this psychology behind Sri VyAsa's
narrative lens, we end up oversimplifying Sri VyAsa’s presentation of
Mahabharata as being ONLY an historical account – i.e.
everything that is depicted is historical or reject things in Mahabharata that
have no historical value (a very western notion of history centric
thinking).
Such a limited view of Mahabharata is gross
injustice to not only the ancients - our human ancestors about whom we are
studying, but also an injustice to humanity at large, which would be otherwise
be deprived of the Upanishadic wisdom and vision of Oneness.
To repeat the central theme of this blog post - By learning to appreciate the Ethical
Narrative Lens fitted by Sri VyAsa, (as Prof
Adluri pointed out), we make the best out of our Mahabharata study experience,
whereby we learn about our ancients, by empathetically connecting with them and
in the process evolve as an individual and eventually transcend all limitations
(including the individuality itself).
IV. Summary:
(1) Prof Adluri's point about the importance of ethical poetic
narrative adopted by Sri VyAsa - laced with poetry (simile, metaphors), is key
to understanding how we must view, study and thereby benefit from Mahabharata.
(2) This ethical lens prepared by Sri VyAsa, does justice to : -
a) the characters in the epic (our ancients) by presenting them in humanistic light, with which we can relate and also learn from them
&
b) also, to the student of the epic - i.e. you, me, for whom this is a spiritually transformative experience.
(3) The ethical narrative lens of Sri VyAsa has two components : -
a) Upanishadic wisdom (Advaita ~ which sets the basis for the
practice of ethics, as discussed in Section II)
&
b) Immersive story telling experience, delivered to us - via
poetry, simile, metaphors - which essentially dehypnotizes us and offers us a
narrative lens set by Sri VyAsa ! (as discussed in section III).
(4) These two aspects, humanizes the events, reveals the concern for the individual - both in the text and the reader of the text. Thus Sri VyAsa, through his dehypnotization project (a.k.a Mahabharata) is preparing and guiding me/you - the reader, to eventually transcend all limitations and achieve the summum bonum of life - Moksha.
This is the Key !
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