Indian Ethics Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The yajna-cakra is set out in the Bhagavad-gita.

In chapter 3 (verses 14-16), the Gita describes a wheel of mutual dependence: beings come from food, food from rain, rain from sacrifice (yajna), and sacrifice from action. One who does not keep this wheel turning, Krishna says, lives in vain. It is part of the Gita's case for doing one's duty as an offering.

The Brahma-sutras are aphorisms on the nature of Brahman, while the Astavakra Gita and the Avadhuta Gita are Advaita texts on the nature of the Self and liberation; none of them develops the cycle of sacrifice, rain and food.

Answer: C

Svadharma is like Bradley's idea of "My station and its duties".

Svadharma, stressed in the Bhagavadgita, is one's own duty fixed by one's station in society (varna and ashrama). Bradley's essay in Ethical Studies argues that a person realises himself by fulfilling the duties of his particular place in the social organism. Both tie duty to one's position in a community.

Mill and Bentham judge acts by consequences for happiness, and Kant's duty is universal, binding every rational being alike, not relative to one's station.

Answer: D

Purity of means was insisted on by Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi held that means and ends are inseparable: 'the means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree'. A good end cannot be reached through violent or untruthful means, so satyagraha must be truthful and non-violent at every step.

K. C. Bhattacharya wrote on the subject as freedom and on 'Swaraj in Ideas', M. N. Roy developed radical humanism, and J. Krishnamurti rejected organised methods and authority; none made the purity of means his central doctrine as Gandhi did.

Answer: A

The sthitaprajna is compared to a tortoise and the ocean.

In chapter 2 of the Gita, the person of steady wisdom withdraws the senses from their objects as a tortoise draws in its limbs (2.58). Desires enter him as rivers flow into the ocean, which is filled yet stays unmoved (2.70).

The cow is not one of the Gita's images of the sthitaprajna, which rules out B and D, and 'ocean and stream' leaves out the tortoise.

Answer: C

Rta is closely related to Satya.

In the Rgveda, rta is the cosmic and moral order by which the world runs regularly and rightly. The hymns pair it constantly with satya, truth; both arise from tapas in the creation hymn (Rgveda 10.190), and later dharma inherits the idea.

Dhyana and samadhi are stages of Yoga meditation, and asteya (non-stealing) is one of the yamas; none is the Vedic counterpart of rta.

Answer: A

The brahmaviharas are found in Yoga as well as Buddhism.

Buddhism teaches four sublime abodes: metta (friendliness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy) and upekkha (equanimity). Yogasutra 1.33 recommends the same four attitudes, maitri, karuna, mudita, upeksa, to clear the mind.

The Carvakas have no such meditative ethics, so B and C fail. The Gita praises friendliness and compassion (12.13), but does not set out the four as a group, so 'Yoga as well as Buddhism' is the best answer.

Answer: A

The sadhana is eightfold.

In Patanjala Yoga, the goal (sadhya) is kaivalya, the isolation of purusa from prakrti. The means (sadhana) is astanga yoga, the eight limbs: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi (Yogasutra 2.29).

The path is a fixed discipline, not something done as we wish or left to accident. Devotion to Isvara is one optional aid, not the whole method, so 'God's wish' is also wrong.

Answer: D

For Jainism the goal of life is moksa.

Jainism holds that the soul is bound by karmic matter, and its final aim is liberation: stopping new karma (samvara), shedding the old (nirjara) and regaining infinite knowledge, perception, bliss and energy. The three jewels, right faith, knowledge and conduct, are together the path to it.

Dharma, artha and kama are worldly ends at most, and in Jain metaphysics 'dharma' even names the medium of motion. None of them is the ultimate goal.

Answer: A

Kama is the fruit of artha and dharma.

In the scheme of the purusarthas, dharma regulates and artha supplies the means, and the enjoyment of desires (kama) results from wealth gained and used within the bounds of dharma. Classical texts on the trivarga present kama as following from artha that is pursued within dharma.

Moksa is not a cause of kama. It is the separate, final end that transcends desire, so every option including moksa fails.

Answer: A

The dictum highlights propinquity.

Bentham's felicific calculus measures a pleasure by intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity (nearness in time), fecundity, purity and extent. Preferring a pigeon now to a peacock tomorrow values a pleasure for being near at hand rather than remote.

Certainty concerns how sure a pleasure is, fecundity its tendency to produce further pleasures, and purity its freedom from accompanying pains. The saying turns on today against tomorrow, that is, on time.