GOVERNING LAWS
Hinduism’s elevation of the idea of a law-governed universe to a key metaphysical principle corresponds better to philosophy and science than to Western religions which typically accept supernatural influences or miracles wherein God or His agents interfere with the natural course of events. The cycle of birth, life, and death (or creation, persistence, and destruction) in Hinduism takes on a more linear pattern in Western religions: compare the phrase “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” with the principle of samsara. Some scientists such as Hoyle argue the universe is eternally cyclic, but the majority of cosmologists seem to converge on a defined beginning at the Big Bang and an eventual end of the universe as a state of motionless subatomic particles (the Big Freeze). Nevertheless cosmology leaves open the possibility of a kind of cycle of recurring creativity should the hypothesis of the multiverse be true.
Freedom is more controversial. As in Hinduism, most religions appear to support human free will, and many provide for a release from material bondage in the form of spiritual immortality. However divine intervention may work as an obstacle to free choice and God’s infallible foreknowledge can be seen as regulative thus handcuffing humans with predestination. Likewise freedom from the physical world or death is typcially contingent on conformity with divine edicts, and for Christians, belief in Christ as the sole means to salvation; and, for Moslems, the acceptance of the teachings of the Prophet. On the other hand, science is premised on pure determinism while philosophers argud both positions, with Kant’s moral argument being the paradigm for free agency.
Likewise karma has analogues in other traditions, such ‘cause and effect’ in pure science and divine judgment in Western theology. Philosophy offers an ambiguous facsimile; that is, since human choices are based on the unavoidable limits of human knowledge, the full consequences of moral actions become unpredictable, hence psychological and perhaps even ontological dimensions of fate and fortune stand in for karma.
The word gunas in Hinduism is most closely mimicked in the West by the word ‘essence.’ Some philosophers such as Aristotle emphasize human essence as rationality; others such as Marx and Freud emphasize physical drives, and still others such as Sartre believe existence preceded essence altogether. Nevertheless, most of us concede some unalterable, deep-seated personality traits preside over our lives.
Last, most religions assert the inescapable objective of human existence is the return to the divine source, but most philosophers seek a less lofty summum bonum such as happiness or contentment (ataraxia) – the obvious exceptions being Plotinus and Spinoza. Science seems to deny any objective at all for human life other than perhaps self-preservation and sexual reproduction for maintenance of the species.
(third continuation next post)
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