Abstract

In the history of Indian philosophy, dharma has been re-evaluated and challenged multiple times by various schools of thought: is it is an injunction from above or one codified in scriptures? What happens when a scripture is authorless and what is then the validity of dharma? Can one follow dharma if it brings unfavorable results? It is in this context that Bhagvad Gita attempts to deal with dharma in a fictional context of a battle and in doing so raises more complex questions - it addresses the very paradox laying at the heart of dharma in a paradoxical manner. This paper looks at dharma in an ontological sense: the living dharma of Gita is a significant intervention, since Gita attempts to explain and thus justify the paradox of one’s being by proposing life of living dharma (not living a life of dharma).

Details

Title
Bhagavad Gita: The Paradox of Dharma and its Ontology
Author
Abilash Chandran Ramchandran
Pages
59-73
Section
Articles
Publication year
2020
Publication date
2020
Publisher
CHRIST (Deemed to be University)
ISSN
0975332X
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2499884599
Copyright
© 2020. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.