Читать книгу The Rise of Wisdom Moon - Krishna mishra - Страница 41

introduction

The oscillation between active engagement in the maintenance of the world and withdrawal from it is thus characteristic both of the divinity and of kings.

For Krishna·mishra, in sum, the dichotomy of pravrtti and nivrtti functions on three basic levels: macrocosmically, it defines the order governing the universe as whole, and microcosmically, it describes individuals’ patterned engagement in and disengagement from mundane activity. But it also operates mesocosmically, in relation to the order of the monarchal state, wherein the righteous king must achieve that delicate balance whereby martial force is neither oppressive nor overextended, and peace is not confounded with pusillanimity. The equilibrium that must be achieved here is further accentuated by Krishna·mishra in the general structure of his work. For the first three acts, in which Magnus Nescience and his gang enjoy the upper hand, concern engagement in mundane activity in the life of the individual who is bound to samsara, while the final three acts are dedicated to nivrtti, here the soteriologically valued withdrawal from worldliness through which enlightenment may be won.

Much has been made of the apparent synthesis of Advaita Vedanta philosophy with Vaishnava devotionalism, or bhakti, that characterizes “The Rise of Wisdom Moon.” My own belief is that this has been somewhat overblown, the result of reading the play through the lens of the later sectarian devotional movements that sometimes appropriated it. One author has even gone so far as to characterize Krishna· mishra’s religious attitude as a “fanatic zeal for Vaisnavism” (Bose 1956: 161), but this is surely misleading. For several ________

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