I mention the Skeptics here because many parts of the Gita reflect this ideology, not as explicitly, and to the extent that the Skeptics argued, but there are some glaring similarities between them. The Gita, for example, argues that the trivial ideas and objects that we encounter in this world are meaningless, and interfere with our understanding of Atman, and thus inhibit progress towards Moksha. The idea that what we concern ourselves with distractions of this world is not limited to this religion, or even to a few; it is fairly widespread. The difference, and what leads me to make the connection between the two, is that they seem to believe in a "nothingness" after death, a release from any and all distractions, unlike more Judeo-Christian religions and beliefs, which promise riches in the next world.
Of course, as the title suggests, this is a pre-critical thought on the connection between the two, but I find it interesting that this idea permeates throughout several different cultures, and it is so well articulated and explicitly outlined within the Gita. I think this would make for an interesting research article, though it may have, and probably has, been done. Now that I think about it, I recall a peer of mine making parallels between the gymosophists, "relatives" of the Skeptics, and Hinduism.
I think you are right in drawing a connection between the Western and Eastern perspectives of death (at least as far as the Gita and our own grounding in Judeo-Christian culture serves) - but I would dig even a little deeper than you have here.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Christian conception of Jehovah really isn't that far from the Gita's conception of Atman (or Brahman - the difference between them is still a bit confusing though); from which we are all derived, which dwells within each of us, to which we all ultimately return through the surrendering of our egos (whether through meditation or prayer, which I perceive to serve the same purpose of, as Krishna puts it, "one-pointedness").
I agree that there are parallels to Jehovah, or Yahweh, depending on which section of the bible you're looking at. His name translates, as the Old Testament (and Torah as it were), to "I am that is."
DeleteI think that it's important to realize, though, that at the end of life, it is expected in those faiths to go to heaven. One is reunited with God by being in heaven. I think it's important to draw the line there, because returning to Brahman is a state of nothingness; a release from consciousness in this world, and a reprieve from the problems that our short lives contain. Thanks for the comment, it has given me a lot to think on.
Actually, traditional Judaism is surprisingly uninterested in afterlife of any sort. Late Christian reinterpretation of the Torah, of course, projects this notion onto it retrospectively.
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