Читать книгу The Rise of Wisdom Moon - Krishna mishra - Страница 39

introduction

of action, and, oppositely, the withdrawal or turning away from that course. Though the verse nicely introduces the terms as they apply to our individual, active undertakings, we must recognize further that the distinction in question may be invoked in some rather different contexts. In Buddhist idealist philosophy, for instance, it pertains to perceptual processes, pravrtti referring to the proliferations of consciousness which constructs the world as we perceive it, and nivrtti to the inversion of that process in meditation, where our constructions are dissolved as tranquility and insight develop.15 We should be aware, too, of the cosmological significance of these concepts in Brahmanical thought. In this case, pravrtti indicates the emanation of the phenomenal world through the agency of maya, creative illusion generating the world of appearance, while nivrtti is the dissolution that occurs when maya’s work is undone.

Several of these strands of meaning are beautifully woven together in the introduction to the commentary on the “Bhagavad·gita” attributed to the renowned Advaita Vedanta philosopher Shankara (eighth century).16 While it is not certain the Krishna·mishra had precisely this text in mind when he composed “The Rise of Wisdom Moon,” he was no doubt thinking of closely similar materials. The philosopher’s words, therefore, will help to clarify some essential elements in the structure of the play:

The Lord, having created this world, desired to make it endure. Having first produced the lords of creatures—the sun and the others—he caused them to maintain the law (dharma) whose characteristic is engagement (pravrtti), ________

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