Excellent thread by the wise @SaamaanyaJ about Moksha. To add to that, the genius of the Hindu civilisation has also been to inculcate such Shraddha by embedding high philosophy in the arts, culture, legends and storytelling as accessible pedagogical tools for the masses (1/n)
Take even Moksha. One of the stories that even my 2 year old pesters me to tell her every couple of days is āGajendra Mokshamā. The appeal to someone at that young age is the drama of an elephant and a crocodile etc. But it plants a seed that an infant mind cannot graspā¦(2/n)
ā¦.but will not only inculcate Shraddha, but in doing so will allow the flowering of that high philosophical thought later. Similarly just recently was discussing the Carnatic song āBrochevarevaruraā on Twitterā¦.(3/n)
ā¦the whole tonality and bhava that the song evokes - through both its music and lyrics is to beseech and implore the divine for protection- again the Shraddha to seek liberation or Moksha. And the lyric even has a literary allusion to Gajendra Moksham..(4/n)
ā¦in the line āÄturamuga karirÄjuni brÅcina vÄsudÄvuįøavu nÄ«vu gadÄā (āarenāt you the one who rushed to save the King of elephantsā (that is Gajendra)). Our culture is replete with such references. (5/n)
The takeaways are threefold 1. High philosophy is embedded in culture (unsurprisingly since it was inspired BY such high philosophy) and hence the pursuit of culture acts as a pedagogical tool to learn such philosophy 2. A goal such as Moksha isnāt seen as an unattainableā¦(6/n)
ā¦massive jump, rather it is a step by step path to traverse (in fact multiple paths) with tools and a scaffolding to do so for ordinary humans 3. That path is self reinforcing as every step also inculcates the Shraddha to go further (7/7)
Loading suggestions...