Essay Question:
Q. In the following excerpt from the Chandogya Upanishad (Part 4, Ch 4) how is 'truth' defined?
(Not more than as many words as are necessary)
(Satyakama) came to Gautama the son of Haridrumata and said: "Revered Sir, I wish to live with you as a brahmacharin. May I approach you, as a pupil?"
Gautama said to him: "Of what ancestry are you, dear friend?" Satyakama said: "I do not know, Sir, of what ancestry I am. I asked my mother about it and she replied: ‘In my youth I was preoccupied with many household duties and with attending on guests when I conceived you. I do not know of what ancestry you are. I am Jabala by name and you are Satyakama.’
I am therefore, Sir, Satyakama Jabala."
Gautama said: "None but a true brahmin would thus speak out. Fetch the fuel, dear friend; I shall initiate you. You have not departed from truth."
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Satyakama & The Truth
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6 comments:
Honesty.
The bit about the essay question was slightly tongue-in-cheek. Discussion is allowed if thought to be useful! Otherwise, it probably speaks for itself.
I related it back to an earlier conversation about 'emotional truth'. There is also absence of imitation.
Fidelity
I think that this is a "princess and the pea" scenario.
Honesty is a mark of "a true brahmin", although plainly not the only aspect of truth.
Probably this is an attempt by the Chandogya tradition to set aside the fruitless obsession with caste as defined by birth. The Buddha did the same thing - distinguished between the "born Brahmin" and the "true Brahmin", ie someone who behaves morally.
Satyakama ("Truth-lover") dramatizes this in being portrayed as not only the child of a sudra, but even worse, the product of rape or more probably prostitution.
The story is also interesting in that either:
- it challenges our notion of this age being 'super-pure' or
- the example of Satyakama would have been unimaginably shocking to a society that believed in and stuck to the caste rules.
In the first case, it challenges our nostalgia. In the second, it challenges whether the rigid 'sticking to the rules' is as important a qualification as being completely without self-deception?
I agree when Kevin says this is, "plainly not the only aspect of truth". But Satyakama is seeking initiation at this point? Further 'truths' will no doubt be revealed. His qualification to receive 'truth' is his straightforwardness?
(We can take these as abstract discussions but there is mindfulness of the relation to our particular 'situation'.)
I think the second option is closer to the truth.
Personally I don't have a view that that age was "super-pure". I think most people were the same as they have always been. If you read other sources, such as the Aesop-type animal stories, you pretty quickly get a picture of a world much like ours, but with more conventions. A lot of the Upanishadic writers appear to be in conflict with traditionalist critics - notably Yajnyawalkya in the Brihad.
Yes, it's not the only aspect of truth - but just as the princess's ability to detect a pea is not her sole princess-like quality, so Satyakama's honesty bespeaks his other qualities and fitness to receive wisdom.
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