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Indeterminism Versus Determinism: The Seventh Prapāṭhaka of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

Much has been written and said about determinism in Indian philosophy and religion, but not enough heed seems to have been paid to many statements and theories advanced by the Indian literati in their attempt to offset the enthralment of man by the automaticism involved in such deterministic doctrines as those of karman and the ensuing saṁsāra.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1976

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References

1 The story is so well familiar and popular that it has been published in India as a book for the use of primary-school children. It is the third and fourth fable of Book IV (Sandhi) of the Hitopadeśa.

2 Prastāvanā, 31–3.

3 Ed. Francis Johnson, London, 1884 (2nd ed.).

4 Somatism: A basic concept in India's philosophical speculations”, Philosophy East and West, Univ. of Hawaii, XVIII, 4, 10 1968, 271.Google Scholar

5 Sénart's interpretation of karoti in the context under (f) and (g) as “on sacrifie” seems to miss the point. Karoti here means “one acts in the light of what has been previously cognized and resolved upon”. Cf. the discussion of the concept of karma in ChU later on.

6 It is one of those cases where the twain of grammar and metaphysics affords such an elegant rendezvous.