Epilogue: Incorporating Ideas from the Mahabharata

In this anthology, we insert a review as a supplement that provides relevant ethical insights on the richest document available on society, polity and value system of ancient India. Analysis of a critique is made as a nested analysis, originated by Indian Logician, Bimal Krishna Matilal. This rich discursive confluence is highlighted to identify the gap in the moral philosophical literature. Chakravarti is shown to circumnavigate the philosophy of Matilal by providing a relevant ‘philosophical interpretation and the possible universal message of the epic.’ There, moral ideas and duty-based ethical duties listed in the Mahabharata that can be divided into three categories: Universal duties (sadharana dharma-s); Duties emanating from the concept of debt (ṛṇa); and Duties relative to one’s station of life (varnasrama-dharama). In the grand scheme of the epic, four virtues have been identified as the principles underlying all virtuous acts. These are: truth, forgiveness, sympathy to others and non-attachment to the objects of the senses, and they are interconnected in the sense that ‘each is a necessary and sufficient condition for the rest. Truth has a loftier dimension than ‘the implicit idea of justice, the cosmic moral principle that gets manifested in all spheres of existence.’ Chakravarti links ṛta in the human context with the concept of mokṣa, the ultimate freedom. This existential conception of freedom, thinks Chakravarti, lies at the basis of the freedom of choice. When one’s transformation is complete, one is free to perform moral acts in the right spirit, ensuring the well-being of all spontaneously. Truth merges with non-violence and forgiveness. One requires extra-ordinary moral sensitivity to reinterpret ṛta suitably for each age, though. This is the view of both Chakravarti and Matilal. Emphasis on intuition and imaginative vision leads Chakravarti to give up reason-based morality, and locate a resonant spiritual message of the epic in the writings Rabindranath Tagore. Chakravarti’s interpretation of the Gita is off the beaten track, yet it successfully throws light on two important concepts of the Gita, svadharma and karmayoga in consonance with ṛta. His comments and conclusions are provocative enough to generate a lot of debates. I hope this brings into focus ethical insights, as readers engage with him the progress of detachment from sensual pleasures, and attainment of peace in a state of equilibrium away from the shackles of worldly attachment in moral philosophy.