Easy to Understand Tao to Ching and Bhagavad Gita
I have been reading some ancient philosophy for one of my courses, and I stumbled upon some fascinating concepts in the two books I want to talk about today. These are incredible texts that have shaped societies throughout millennia, and their profound messages should be read by anyone who is seeking to broaden their view of the world. This is my intepretation and is by no means what the texts actually mean, though it's pretty hard to know what the author/s truly meant by these words. Reading these books left me with more questions than answers, and that's good!
The Bhagavad Gita is often referred to as one of the foundational texts of Eastern philosophy and religionspar excellence. Its incredibly simple yet poignant lyrics have earned it the title of one of the most read sacred texts alongside the Bible, the Quran, and the Tao Te Ching and the most popular book in Hindu religious literature. It is part of a longer epic poem, the Mahabharata, and takes place before a battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, who had been on the verge of war because of Kaurava Prince Duryodhana's jealousy and cruelty despite the families' blood relationship. Pandava Prince Arjuna is accompanied by Krishna, the incarnation of his chosen deity, Vishnu. The text, written around the 2ndcentury BC, is essentially a dialogue between the two and it speaks about war, duty, the Eternal, and the purpose of life and how to fulfill it.
On the other hand, the Tao Te Ching is a collection of poems allegedly written by Lao-tzu, a mysterious figure who lived between the 6th and 4th century BC. The book is primarily concerned with how to live a balanced life in harmony with "the unnamable" process of the Universe—the Way—and unleash the eternal power that resides within each of us. It mentions effortless action and the voluntary renunciation of a way of thinking too attached to the material as a way to achieve quietude. The text has served as an essential foundation for anything from religious to political philosophy around the world and across the centuries.
Both books deal with how one should behave in life; they both offer us their own definitions of the purpose of life. While the Gita explicitly claims that the sole purpose of life is the purification of material existence through spiritual discernment and the absolute transcendence of mental and bodily phenomena, the Tao Te Ching prescribes a harmonious existence the purpose of which is to coexist with the natural order of things through effortless actions.
The Bhagavad Gita often speaks of the Brahman, the supreme Reality that lies beyond human perceptions and limitations, as something which an individual can attain. According to the Gita , the world we know is constrained by the gunas—forces that compose the universe of mind and matter, which are the origin of suffering, death, and any other experiences bound by physicality. When Arjuna struggles with deciding whether to fight and kill his blood relatives, Krishna explains to him that the material world is superficial in the grand scheme of things. If he realizes that, then any action will be alike because of Arjuna's detachment from what allows him to discriminate[1] good and bad in the first place. Krishna is assisting Arjuna in understanding that everything that belongs to the gunas—body and mind alike—is destined to perish and suffer. Hence Krishna's words that one "must overcome the gunas" and "be free from the pairs of opposites" (p. 43). According to the Gita , the path one ought to take in life should lead one from material existence back to the Eternal from which everything comes. The Eternal "cannot be manifested to the senses, or thought about by the mind. It is not subject to modification" (p. 41). Since we know this, we should not attach ourselves to any mental state, thereby overcoming the superfluous. Here the purification of one's existence from all material attachments and reunion with the timeless, the Brahman, is the purpose of life. Given that "the world is imprisoned in its own activity," one "must perform every action sacramentally, and be free from all attachments" (p. 50). Krishna does give Arjuna, or any other, the power to make a choice, as he indicates when he says to "let a yogi choose either when he leaves this body: the path that leads back to birth, the path of no return" (p. 95). But Krishna clearly stresses that the path of no return should be the objective, which can be best summarized when he utters the following words: "thinking about sense-objects will attach you to sense-objects; grow attached, and you become addicted; thwart your addiction, it turns to anger; be angry, and you confuse your mind; confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience; forget experience, you lose discrimination; lose discrimination and you miss life's only purpose" (p. 46).
When it comes to the Tao Te Ching , we do not encounter any explicit reference to a fixed purpose of life like in the Bhagavad Gita . The book resembles more a guideline of how to live life in harmonious balance than a statement of what the objective of life is. However, it alludes to the idea of abandoning the anthropocentric view of the world we have held for so long and giving up our mental constructs to the natural way of things to live a life of integrity devoid of excess and unnecessary complications. Similar to the Gita , the Tao Te Ching assigns the cause of physical problems to material existence; in fact, "the reason we have disaster is because we have a body. If we didn't have a body, we wouldn't have disaster" (13, p. 26). And like the Gita , Lao-tzu tells us that we ought to overcome disaster. To do so, we should "display the undyed and preserve the uncarved, reduce self-interest and limit desires" (19, p. 38). In other words, to get rid of problems, one should seek simplicity and overcome selfishness and superfluous desires. Unlike the Gita , however, the Tao Te Ching does not mention absolute transcendence and communion with the Eternal; rather, Lao-tzu says that "the world is a spiritual thing" (29, p. 58) and our goal is to do our work, whatever that may be. And "when [our] work is done, retire" (9, p.18). An important concept that is required to carry out this "mission" is non-action, the idea that we should neither force our actions nor attempt to control their outcomes. Lao-tzu says that this is precisely what we need to do to allow the world to take over: remove any effort and give in to the effortless way of things. To fulfill life, the sage is effortless: "To act is to fail, to control is to lose. Sages therefore don't act thus they don't fail; they don't control thus they don't lose" (64, p.128). In a way, this is like what the Gita refers to as detaching ourselves from sense-objects, but instead of invoking deities, the Tao Te Ching says that "mastery of the world is achieved by letting things take their natural course. If you interfere with the way of Nature, you can never master the world" (48, p.96). In other terms, if we don't look up to and learn from nature, we ultimately fall prey to the hurdles that are an inevitable component of the material realm as it is perceived by our minds. Given the extensive emphasis on the natural flow of things and the effortless nature of Nature in the Tao Te Ching , it is safe to conclude that the purpose of life as expressed in the book is to perfect non-action and follow the natural flow of the material world with detachment from superfluous worries and complications while still taking part in the one life we are certain of having.
As explained in the previous paragraphs, the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te Ching both talk about the purpose of life in their own ways. The former states it literally and the latter alludes to it. In the Gita , the purpose is to rid life of the materiality that is a hindrance to spiritual fulfillment and the purification of existence. To do so, one must focus on spiritual discernment and the subsequent absolution from the constraints that inevitably come with physical existence. In the Tao Te Ching , the goal is to perfect non-action by removing any effort in the activities one carries out and giving in to the natural way of things. To do so, one must practice doing for the sake of doing as opposed to doing for the sake of collecting or receiving. This will lead to a good, simple life, and that ought to be the finish line.
There are some concepts in both the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te Ching which I really like. For instance, I agree with both when they claim that the source of all problems is the attachment we have to material manifestations that stems from our mind and is reinforced by our body. Putting natural causes of suffering (i.e., the death of a loved one or a terrible illness) aside, I think most of our suffering comes from contrived mental concepts. Much of our misery comes from having expectations that do not materialize or obsessively fixating our mind on an outcome without benefitting from and enjoying the work we put in at all. But I don't think that that is the purpose of life and I don't agree that we should completely overcome materially-bound problems. Instead, I think we should confront the suffering and hardships we inevitably encounter with resolution and determination by making commitments and taking responsibility to do our best to improve the situation. Yes, it is important not to overstress what the Tao Te Ching calls the "superficial" and not be attached to results; but it is even more important, in my opinion, to have concrete goals to work toward. By having goals, we automatically envision a sort of reward or achievement towards which we can work diligently and grow as a result. We should try to minimize the effects of negative experiences like the texts suggest, but we shouldn't get rid of our problems altogether. Rather, we should use them to better our lives.
Moreover, I view life more from a scientific viewpoint than from a spiritual one. This does not really contrast the Tao Te Ching more so than it does the Gita. From a scientific approach, it is impossible to ascertain whether the "purification of existence" leads to the absolution of all materiality; it is inconceivable and empirically unverifiable. Thus, it is more logical to me to live within the realm of certainty and be concerned about this short span we have during which joy, misery, and everything in between frequently alternate. Suffering and all other emotions are such an integral part of being alive in the sense of conscious experience that their removal, as prescribed by the Gita and less explicitly by Lao-tzu, seems to go against the very intricacies that make us human. I do believe that fundamentally we are one with everything, which is also supported by science; but I think that controlling our mind and getting rid of attachments is a dull alternative to experiencing happiness, despair, sadness, fear, surprise, and so on. It may be a misinterpretation of mine, but it seems like the texts point to a world where emotions are neutral, they don't exist. Yet emotional responses are so engrained in our brain that they make us feel alive. Whether they are "real" or not, we can't know for sure, but they certainly feel so. We should treasure them and their products, for they compel us to take action and influence the decisions we make about our lives, which brings me to the purpose of life.
I differ from the Gita when it states that if we don't detach ourselves from "sense-objects" we "miss life's only purpose" (p. 46). I don't think life's purpose is one, and I don't think that life's purpose is to eliminate the quest for life's purpose in the first place. Purpose is something we can create throughout our lives. By committing ourselves to preestablished goals and taking responsibility for our actions and the consequences they produce, we assign importance and give purpose to our life in the sense that we create a framework within which to operate. When we generate meaning—by having a clear goal—our actions will be tailored toward that goal and will give us purpose. Accomplishment and rewards should not be neglected like the texts suggest, for they propel us forward, and that is essential to living a fulfilled life. Also, the Tao Te Ching's take on life's purpose entails non-action as a way to achieve a simple, moderately happy life via a distinction between the immutable (inexpedient) and everything else (superficial). But I think a more useful distinction is that between inexpedient and expedient goals within the limits of the mutable world. When we orientate our lives toward an inconvenient goal—something that requires prolonged struggle and dedication to be achieved—we give life meaning and make it worth living.
In simpler terms, the purpose of life has little to do with eliminating completely what constitutes life as is the case in the Gita or detaching oneself from the products of our actions as is the case in the Tao Te Ching and more to do with fully absorbing the myriad emotions we encounter throughout life and establishing a lucid vision for the future toward which we can work, thanks to which we can ameliorate, and by which we can create meaning.
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