Socrates: The vEdAntin of Athens -- #14: CONCLUDED

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Dear friends,

 

This is the last of postings on the series " Vedantic echoes in Socratic

Thought " that I have dispatched to the T'venkatam Group List.

 

In this concluding posting is reproduced parts of the famous dialogue between

SOcrates and his disciples Simmias and Cebes, just days before the Master's

death in Athens. It contains a brilliant exposition by Socrates of many

philosophical strands in traditional Greek thought. At many places, however,

during his wonderful discourse a keen student of Vedantic philosophy can easily

recognize the strong resonance of ancient Vedantic thought, concepts and themes

--- viz.: “sarira-sArira sambhandaâ€, “karma-bandhaâ€, “samskAraâ€,

“tri-guNaâ€, “atma-shuddhiâ€, “mumukshuâ€, “kaivalyAnubhavam†and

“mOkshAnandamâ€.

 

Those of you who have been following this series of postings of mine, please do

enjoy this concluding one and share your feedback/views.

 

Best Regards,

Sudarshan MK

 

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Socrates: If at its release the soul is pure and does not drag along with it

any trace of the body, because it has never willingly associated with it in

life; if it has shunned it and isolated itself because that is what it always

has practiced --- I mean doing or living philosophy in the right way and really

getting used to facing death calmly; now wouldn’t you call this “practicing

death†(even while living)?

Cebes: Most certainly.

 

Socrates: Very well; if this its condition, then it departs to the place where

things are like itself – invisible, divine, immortal and wise; where, on its

arrival, happiness awaits it, and release from uncertainty and folly, from fears

and gnawing desires, and all other human evils; and where (as they say of the

initiates in the Mysteries) it really spends the rest of the time with divine

beings (“muktAtmAs-“ in Vedantic parlance). Shall we adopt this view Cebes

or some other?

Cebes: This one by all means.

 

Socrates: But I suppose, if at the time of its release the soul is tainted and

impure; because it has always associated with the body and cared for it and

loved it, and has been so beguiled by the body and its passions and pleasures

that nothing seems real to it but those physical things which can be touched and

seen and eaten and drunk and used for sexual enjoyment, making it accustomed to

hate and fear and avoid what is invisible and obscure to our eyes but

intelligible and comprehensible by philosophy --- if the soul is in this state,

do you think that it will be released just by itself, uncontaminated?

Cebes: Not in the least.

 

Socrates: On the contrary, it will I imagine, be permeated by the corporeal,

which fellowship and intercourse with the body will have ingrained in its very

nature through constant association and long practice.

Cebes: Certainly.

 

Socrates: And we must suppose my dear fellow, that the corporeal is heavy,

oppressive, earthly and visible. So the soul which is tainted by its presence is

weighed down and dragged back into the visible world through fear of the

invisible and hovers about tombs and graveyards. The shadowy apparitions which

have actually been seen there are the ghosts of those souls which have not got

clear away, but still retain some portion of the visible; which is why they can

be seen.

Cebes: That seems likely enough Socrates.

 

Socrates: Yes it does Cebes. Of course, these are not the souls of the good, but

of inferior people (“baddhA-s†as per Vedantic terminology), and they are

compelled to wander about these places as a punishment for their bad conduct in

the past. They continue wandering until at last, through craving for the

corporeal, which unceasingly pursues them, they are imprisoned once more in a

body. And as you might expect, they are attached to the same sort of character

or nature which they have developed during life. (“poorva-janma-vAsana†in

the parlance of Vedanta).

Cebes: What sort do you mean Socrates?

 

Socrates: Well, those who have cultivated gluttony or assault, or drunkenness,

(“tamasâ€) instead of taking pains to avoid them, are likely to assume form

of donkeys and other perverse animals; don’t you think so?

Cebes: Yes, that is very likely.

 

Socrates: And those who have deliberately preferred a life of injustice,

suppression, and robbery with violence (“rajasâ€) become wolves and hawks and

kites; unless we can suggest any other more likely animals.

Cebes: No, the ones you mention are exactly right.

 

Socrates: So it is easy to imagine into what sort of animals all the other kinds

of soul will go, in accordance with their conduct during life.

Cebes: Yes, certainly

 

Socrates: I suppose the happiest people and those who reach the best destination

are the ones who have cultivated the goodness of an ordinary citizen, so-called

“temperance†and “justiceâ€, which is acquired by habit and practice,

without the help of help of philosophy and reason.

Cebes: How are these the happiest?

 

Socrates: Because they will probably pass into some other kind of social and

disciplined creature like bees, wasps and ants; or even back into the human race

again, becoming decent citizens (“sAtviksâ€).

Cebes: “Very likelyâ€

 

Socrates: But no soul which has not practiced philosophy, and is not absolutely

pure (“suddha-sAttvaâ€) when it leaves the body, may attain to the divine

nature (“parama-padamâ€); that is only for the lover of learning. This is the

reason, my dear Simmias and Cebes, why true philosophers abstain from all bodily

desires and withstand them and do not yield to them. It is not because they are

afraid of financial loss or poverty, like the average man who thinks of money

first; nor because they shrink from dishonor and a bad reputation, like lovers

of prestige and authority.â€

Cebes: No, those would be unworthy motives Socrates.

 

Socrates: They would indeed Cebes. And so those who care about their souls and

do not devote themselves to the body dissociate themselves firmly from these

others and refuse to accompany them on their haphazard journey; they believe

that it is wrong to oppose philosophy with her offer of liberation and

purification, so they turn and follow her wherever she leads.

Cebes: What do you mean Socrates?

 

Socrates: I will explain. Every seeker after wisdom (“mumukshuâ€) knows that

up to the time when philosophy takes it over his soul is a helpless prisoner,

chained hand and foot in the body, compelled to view reality not directly but

only through its prison bars, and wallowing in utter ignorance. And philosophy

can see the ingenuity of the imprisonment, which is brought about by the

prisoner’s own active desire, which makes him first accessory to his own

confinement. Well, philosophy takes over the soul in this condition and by

gentle persuasion tries to set it free. She points out that observation by means

of eyes and ears and all the other senses abounds with deception, and she urges

the soul to refrain from using them unless it is necessary to do so, and

encourages it to collect and concentrate itself in isolation, trusting nothing

but its own isolated judgment upon realities considered in isolation, and

attributing no truth to any other thing

which it views through another medium in some other thing; such objects, she

knows, are sensible and visible but what she herself sees is intelligible and

invisible. Now the soul of the true philosopher (“mumukshuâ€) feels that it

must not reject this opportunity for release, and so it abstains as far as

possible from pleasures and desires and griefs, because it reflects that the

result of giving way to pleasure, fear, pain, or desire is not as might be

supposed the trivial misfortune of becoming ill or wasting money through

self-indulgence, but the last and worst calamity of all, which the sufferer does

not take into account.

Cebes: What is that Socrates?

 

Socrates: When anyone’s soul feels a keen pleasure or pain it cannot help

supposing that whatever causes the most violent emotion is the plainest and

truest reality; which it is not. It is chiefly visible things that have this

effect, isn’t it?

Cebes: Quite so.

 

Socrates: Is it not on this sort of occasion that the soul passes most

completely into the bondage of the body?

Cebes: How is that?

 

Socrates: Because every pleasure or pain has a sort of rivet with which it

fastens the soul to the body and pins it down and makes it corporeal, accepting

as true whatever the body certifies. The result of agreeing with the body and

finding pleasure in the same things is I imagine that it cannot help coming to

share its character and its diet, so that it can never get clean away to the

unseen world, but is always saturated with the body when it sets out, and so

soon falls back again into another body, where it takes root and grows.

Consequently it has no share of fellowship with the pure and uniform and divine.

Cebes: Yes, that is perfectly true.

 

Socrates: It is for these reasons Cebes that true philosophers exhibit

self-control and courage; not for the reasons that most people do. Or do you

think it’s for the same reasons?

Cebes: No certainly not.

 

Socrates: No indeed. A philosopher’s soul will take the view which I have

described. It will not first expect to be set free by philosophy and then allow

pleasure and pain to reduce it once more to bondage, thus condemning itself to

an endless task; no, this soul brings calm to the seas of desire by following

Reason (“vivEkamâ€) and abiding always in her company, and by contemplating

the true and divine and unambiguous and drawing inspiration from it; because

such a soul believes that this is the right way to live while life endures, and

that after death it reaches a place which is kindred and similar to its own

nature, and there is rid forever of human ills. After such a training, my dear

Simmias and Cebes, the soul can have no grounds for fearing that on its

separation from the body it will be blown away and scattered by the winds, and

so disappear into thin air, and cease to exist altogether.

*************************

 

CONCLUDED

 

 

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