Indian Ethics Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The correct sequence of the Āśramas is Brahmacārya, Gārhastha, Vānaprastha and Sannyāsa, option C. These are the four stages of life, from the student, to the householder, to the forest dweller, and finally the renunciant.

Option A begins with the householder and option B with the forest dweller, which skips the student stage. Option D puts the householder last, after renunciation, which is against the order of the stages. Only option C follows the order of life.

Answer: D

The notion of Brahmavihāra is found in Buddhism, option D. The four brahmavihāras are the sublime states of loving-kindness (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), sympathetic joy (muditā) and equanimity (upekkhā), and are cultivated in Buddhist meditation.

Advaita Vedānta (option A) and Dvaita Vedānta (option B) have their own ethics and disciplines, but they do not use this term for these four states, and so option C, both, is wrong as well. The word is a technical term of Buddhist practice.

Answer: A

Hatred and attachment belong to the kleśas, option A. In the Yoga school of Patañjali the five afflictions are ignorance, egoism, attachment (rāga), aversion or hatred (dveṣa) and clinging to life, and they are the causes of suffering.

Cittabhūmis (option B) are the levels of the mind, such as scattered and one-pointed. Yama (option C) and Niyama (option D) are the first two limbs of Yoga, the restraints and the observances, and they are the disciplines that help to remove the afflictions and are not the afflictions themselves.

Answer: C

The moral criterion of the Chārvāka is hedonistic, option C. The Chārvāka materialists hold that pleasure is the only end of life and that the pleasure of the present life is to be pursued.

The intuitive criterion (option A) rests on an inner sense of right, and the rationalistic criterion (option B) rests on reason, as in Kant. The eudaemonistic criterion (option D) takes the well-being of a whole life as the aim, which is wider than the Chārvāka's pleasure of the senses and was held by Aristotle.

Answer: B

The root meaning of the Gita's doctrine of Niskama karma is doing action without attachment, that is without desire for the fruit of the action.

Doing action as an instrument of God, for others or for attaining liberation adds a purpose or a belief, which the Gita does teach in places, but the central meaning of niskama is the absence of attachment to the fruit.

The Gita calls this skill in action, yoga in the sense of equanimity in success and failure.

Answer: D

All the reasons given are correct: the Bhagavadgita is held to be the most important work for its harmonious philosophy of life, its synthesis of action, devotion and knowledge, and its moral teachings. Because each of the first three is a valid ground and the question asks about the importance of the work, the last option, all the above, is the correct choice. Because all three listed grounds hold, the option all the above is chosen and no single reason is singled out.

Answer: A

The correct order of the Purusharthas is dharma, artha, kama and moksa, the first option. Moksa is the final goal, and dharma governs the pursuit of wealth and pleasure. The order that puts moksa before artha and kama, or dharma after moksa, or kama before artha, does not follow the traditional order, which is why the question says all the others are wrong. The order reflects the Indian view that dharma regulates the pursuit of artha and kama, and that moksa is the final end.

Answer: A

Brahmacharya is the means to meet the Rsi-rna, the debt to the sages, so the first option is correct. The traditional doctrine of three debts holds that the student discharges the debt to the sages through study of the Vedas in the stage of brahmacharya, the debt to the ancestors through the householder's life and offspring, and the debt to the gods through sacrifice. The other options name the debts to the ancestors, gods and men, which are met in other ways. The theory of the three debts is found in the Brahmanas and the later law books.

Answer: A

The enjoyment of the fruits of karma that has not yet begun to act is called Sañcita Karma, the official key.

In Indian thought the stored-up karma of all past lives, whose results have not yet started to ripen, is the accumulated karma, sañcita. The Prārabdha karma is the part that has begun to bear fruit and shapes the present life.

The Sañcīyamāna karma is the karma being collected now. Anārabdha is a wider name for all karma that is yet to begin to act, which includes the accumulated karma, so a reviewer may see it as a rival, but the stem asks for the stored karma, and the key adopts that.

Answer: A

The debt to the gods (Devarṇa) can be repaid by performing yajña.

The Vedic tradition speaks of three debts with which a person is born: to the gods, to the sages and to the ancestors. The debt to the gods is paid by sacrifices and worship, that is yajña. The debt to the ancestors is paid by having a son who continues the line, and the debt to the sages by study of the Vedas.

So giving birth to a son is the way to pay the ancestors and not the gods, and the options 'both' and 'neither' are wrong for that reason.