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Continuing our discussion of the Bhagahvad Gita. We spend much of the episode trying to understand how the metaphysical, ethical, and epistemological claims of the Gita can be understood together, rather than as being fundamentally at odds. Is the proper interpretation of Krishna’s teachings dualist or monist? Each option seems to solve some puzzles while presenting us with new ones. How are we to think about a religious text which gives us a very thoroughgoing pantheist account of reality – all is one, the individual self is an illusion – while also containing specific, ethical guidelines for correct action, and promising that said correct action will ultimately result in the liberation of the individual from the suffering of being trapped in the cycle of death and rebirth? Or is this way of approaching the Gita borrowing far too much from the Western tradition? We end by emphasizing the central importance of practice and direct experience to any possible understanding of Krishna’s words.
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Continuing our discussion of the Bhagahvad Gita. We spend much of the episode trying to understand how the metaphysical, ethical, and epistemological claims of the Gita can be understood together, rather than as being fundamentally at odds. Is the proper interpretation of Krishna’s teachings dualist or monist? Each option seems to solve some puzzles while presenting us with new ones. How are we to think about a religious text which gives us a very thoroughgoing pantheist account of reality – all is one, the individual self is an illusion – while also containing specific, ethical guidelines for correct action, and promising that said correct action will ultimately result in the liberation of the individual from the suffering of being trapped in the cycle of death and rebirth? Or is this way of approaching the Gita borrowing far too much from the Western tradition? We end by emphasizing the central importance of practice and direct experience to any possible understanding of Krishna’s words.