Ethics in Indian Philosophy

This unit traces how ethics grew out of the earliest Indian scriptures — the Vedas and Upanishads — and how two great non-Vedic traditions, Jainism and Buddhism, built their own systems of morality around non-violence, self-discipline and enlightenment.

1.0–1.1 Introduction: What is Ethics?

In ancient India, there was originally no distinction between religion and philosophy. Philosophy's main aim was a "quest for values," so it stayed closely tied to religion. Life had to be lived on moral principle — but philosophy didn't stop at morality; it pushed toward a higher, "trans-logical" and "super-moral" experience from which morality itself draws its sanction. Importantly, ancient Indian thought did not see wealth (artha) and pleasure (kama) as opposed to righteousness (dharma) — all three were meant to work together.

1.2 The Vedas

Religion, philosophy, rituals, civic conduct, and social relationships in Vedic society were guided by codes called Smritis, based on the sacred authority of the Vedas.

Karma vs Jnana

The Vedas distinguish between the fruits of two paths:

Through Jnana, the soul enters a state of bliss — but this bliss is not permanent; the soul eventually changes its abode again (an early seed of the doctrine of transmigration).

A World-Affirming Outlook

• The Vedic rishis did not see this world as evil, nor did they preach salvation as escape from it.
• This world is seen as good, blessed by the Gods — a "sojourn," a stepping stone toward the higher world.
• There is no pessimism in Vedic religion or philosophy; there's no conflict between Dharma, Artha and Kama — life is harmonious with a single objective: to be good.
• Vedic people lived close to nature, viewing it with awe and devotion, composing hymns that always ended in a request for blessing.

Vedic sacrifice was seen as an exchange — worshippers pleased the deities to receive rewards, approaching them not with extreme modesty but as a friend, while still showing full reverence to the "maker of the universe."

1.3 The Upanishads

The Upanishads are both religion and philosophy. As religion, they explore the truth of the inner world and the divinity of life; as philosophy, they unify the "science" of the inner world with the outer world.

Unlike the Vedas' emphasis on ritual, the Upanishads claim salvation comes through knowledge/realisation, not just faith and ritual work. Ethics here is pragmatic: the seeker realises that "the good" is whatever leads toward Brahman, and "the bad" is its opposite.

Three Branches of Duty (Chandogya Upanishad II.23.1)

"He who stands firm in Brahman attains life eternal."

The Character of the Self-Realised Person

The Upanishads did not abolish rites and rituals outright but substituted them with meditation and introspection — for example, visualising the horse in the Ashvamedha sacrifice as a symbol of the whole universe, or seeing the sacrificial fire as made of "the Sun as fuel, solar rays as its smoke, the moon as its cinder."

The Parable of Prajapati's Disciples — "Da"

God, Man, and Demon each asked Prajapati (their Guru) for one final teaching. He uttered a single syllable: "Da." Each interpreted it according to their own nature:

1.4 Jainism

Jainism claims great antiquity, with its earliest prophet Rsbhadeva mentioned even in the Vishnu and Bhagavata Puranas. It existed alongside the Vedic age but rejected animal sacrifice in favour of non-violence. Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara, admitted all aspirants irrespective of caste or gender, spreading Jainism widely through peaceful proselytisation.

The Three Jewels (Ratnatraya) — Path to Moksha

These three jewels combine the Bhakti marga of Bhagavata, the Jnana marga of Vedanta, and the Karma marga of Mimamsakas — working together "like a medicine to cure a sick mind": faith in its efficacy, knowledge of its use, and actual right conduct.

The Five Great Vows (Vratas)

Jainism's Worldview

• Jainism does not believe in an Omnipotent Creator — it believes in a universe governed by natural law.
• It warns against superstitious ignorance (three mudas: loka muda, deva muda, pasandi muda) and discourages rites/rituals aimed at pleasing gods.
• To achieve salvation, Jainism advises giving up eight arrogances: intelligence, temple worship, noble family, caste, physical/mental strength, magical power, tapas and yoga, and personal beauty.
• Monks are of two types: Swetambaras (white-clad) and Digambaras (sky-clad/without cloth); monastic codes are far stricter than for householders.

1.5 Buddhism

Buddhism holds that Samsara (the cycle of rebirth) and Avidya (ignorance) are two things we must escape. Kama (desire) is the root cause of bondage; the moment "Mara" (the evil/temptation) leaves, one becomes enlightened.

The Five Precepts (Panca Sila) — For the Layperson

1. Abstain from taking life
2. Abstain from taking what is not given
3. Abstain from sexual misconduct
4. Abstain from false speech
5. Abstain from intoxicants that cause heedlessness

The Eight Precepts add three more (for stricter discipline): abstaining from eating at the wrong time; from singing, dancing, music and garlands; and from luxurious beds/seats and over-sleeping. Monks and nuns follow between ten and sixteen precepts, with the key features being no money and no physical comfort-seeking.

Three Refuges & Three Essentials

Wisdom (Prajna) begins with Right View, which leads to Right Intention; these guide Ethical Conduct — Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort; which lead to Concentration — Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Together these form the Noble Eightfold Path.

Right View: Two Levels

The Three Truths of Life

• Karma: Every action of body, speech, and mind leads to a karmic result. Once done, the result cannot be reversed — so complete consciousness of one's actions is essential.
• The Three Characteristics: Everything that arises is impermanent — mind, body, and even suffering itself.
• Suffering (Dukkha): Birth, aging, sickness, death, and not obtaining what one wants are all suffering. Craving is the proximate cause of suffering; the Noble Eightfold Path leads to its cessation.

1.6 Comparing the Four Traditions

Jainism and Buddhism do not talk of a Creator or divine power — emphasis is entirely on conduct. Yet all four traditions share belief in karma, rebirth, truth, virtue, kindness, charity and mercy — the essence is the same even though presentation differs.

Aristotle's parallel idea (referenced in this unit for comparison) holds that man has three natural states: vegetable (physical, maintained by exercise), animal (emotional, governed by instinct), and rational (mental, the most important, since it is uniquely human self-awareness). Courage, for Aristotle, is the moderation between cowardice and recklessness — virtue lies in the right action, at the right time, for the right reason.

This unit surveys how ethics was expressed through the great epics, the Bhagavad Gita, religious devotion (Bhakti), classical philosophical schools, codes of social and political conduct, and even through art and drama.

2.0–2.1 Introduction

Medieval Indian society was largely governed by Vedic law, transmitted through secondary texts — Dharmashastras, Puranas, and Itihasas (histories). Society was organised by varna (class) and ashrama (stage of life), and performing one's duty accordingly was considered dharma — righteous living, "the sustainer of the universe in a symphonic harmony."

2.2 Ethics in the Epics

The Ramayana and Mahabharata are the two great epics/historical records that repeatedly remind humanity of the moral order within social structure.

Ramayana: Rights and Duty as Two Sides of a Coin

Similarly, when Dasaratha calls an open-house discussion to declare Rama the heir-apparent, he questions the assembly on whether they have genuinely exercised their own will — an early example of the value of free expression. A similar open discussion occurs in Ravana's court.

Mahabharata: The "Grey Areas" of Dharma

Vyasa shows that dharma and adharma cannot be neatly divided into black and white. Characters portray "grey" areas of morality across different stages of life, and the epic's narration across six generations unfolds society's changing value system.

2.3 Ethics in the Bhagavad Gita

The Gita — Krishna's dialogue with Arjuna at Kurukshetra — begins by teaching the imperishable nature of the Self. Self-knowledge is the means to salvation, and the pre-requisite for self-enquiry is an ethical life called Karma Yoga.

Karma Yoga: Proper Action + Proper Attitude

Since one cannot remain actionless even for a moment, Krishna says: channel action well. Action is threefold, based on the three gunas — sattva, rajas, tamas — with sattvic action (benefiting the most beings) being ideal. The right attitude is accepting the consequence of action as the grace of God.

Svadharma — "Take and Give"

A society prospers when dharma is followed fearlessly. One "consumes the world," so it is essential to reciprocate — else one is a thief. Svadharma (one's own duty) must be performed for the well-being of society, and the standard of righteous living is set by role models: whatever a famous figure does becomes the norm others follow. Krishna warns Arjuna that if he — a famous warrior — abandons his dharma in crisis, ordinary people will imitate the failure, causing social disruption.

2.4 Religious & Philosophical Ethics

Religious Ethics — The Bhakti Movement

The Bhakti movement was almost a reform period when the older value structure seemed to crumble. Intense devotion spread as a unifying movement across the country, with religion offering a "clean," disciplined path toward the Lord. Devotion was expressed at three levels:

Religion also personified abstract virtues symbolically — faith (shraddha), anger (manyu), intellect (dhi), patience (dhrti) — associating humility, non-injury, purity and dispassion with devotion itself.

Bhartrhari's Vairagya Shatakam — On Dispassion

Bhartrhari observes that every sense pleasure carries an intrinsic fear: fear of losing family reputation, fear of tax on wealth, fear of insult for the self-respecting, fear of enemies for the strong, fear of old age for the beautiful, fear of debaters for the scholar, fear of criticism for the virtuous, fear of death for the body-attached. Only detachment gives true fearlessness. Life is a set of opposites (dvandvas) — birth/death, youth/old age — and the goal is to maintain balance through both favourable and unfavourable circumstances (a theme echoed in the Gita).

Philosophical Ethics — Orthodox & Heterodox Schools

Classical philosophical schools treated ethics as the pre-requisite for — or even the very means to — liberation:

Vedanta's Four-Fold Qualification (Badarayana)

1. Discrimination between the ephemeral (everything but the Self) and the eternal (the Self)
2. Dispassion for results in this world and other worlds
3. Six-fold discipline: mastery of mind, mastery of senses, performance of one's ordained action, forbearance, faith, concentration
4. Desire for liberation itself

2.5 Social & Political Ethics

Manusmriti — Social Ethics

Manu, "considered an extreme moralist," recommends charity as the highest value for the current, degraded age (kaliyuga). Common duties for the first three varnas are charity, scripture study, and ritual performance, while specific duties vary:

Manu lists five great sacrifices: study/propagation of scriptures (brahma-yajna), worship of ancestors (pitr-yajna), worship of gods (deva-yajna), service to mankind (manushya-yajna), and care of animal/plant life (bhuta-yajna). He defines dharma as wisdom, good conduct, and a tranquil mind — and reminds that in death, "no person or relation will follow but only one's conduct."

Bhartrhari's Nitishatakam — Ethics for the Laity

Good company "removes sluggishness in thought, motivates to speak truth, elevates self-respect"; bad company should be abandoned "as even one abandons a snake."

Chanakya's Arthashastra — Political Ethics

The Arthashastra treats transgression of law by rulers as a punishable crime. It lists three-fold duties of a ruler:

In Chanakya Neeti, an uneducated person is called "a scentless flower"; knowledge, Chanakya says, "yields fruits in all seasons," and no land is alien to a learned man. Dharma is the one eternal principle — unlike wealth, prosperity, life, or youth. Famously, Chanakya cautions against being too simple: "In the forest the smooth, straight trees are felled whereas the crooked ones stand unharmed."

2.6 Ethics through Aesthetics

A less-noticed strand: art itself reinforced moral standards. Bharata's Natyashastra — the earliest available text on Indian dramaturgy — says that drama (Natya) emerged specifically to re-establish a diminishing value system, as people had become overpowered by anger and jealousy, forgetting their duties. Natya used audio-visual storytelling to present the structure of dharma to all sections of society.

Later, aestheticians like Abhinavagupta elevated performing art to a "spiritual journey," while the Buddhacharita of Asvaghosha is credited with creating a wide impact on peace, giving rise to shanta rasa (the sentiment of tranquillity) as a separate emotional category in Indian aesthetics.

This unit covers the great 19th-century reform movements — the Brahmo Samaj of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and the Arya Samaj of Swami Dayananda Saraswati — which reinterpreted traditional Hindu values in dialogue with Western modernity.

3.0–3.1 Introduction

"Modern Hinduism" grew largely out of radical reform movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Though these movements had relatively few followers and never replaced traditional Hinduism, some — like the Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, and Ramakrishna Mission — remain influential. They emerged from growing contact between Hindu thinkers and Western thought, culture, and religion.

3.2 Raja Ram Mohan Roy & the Brahmo Samaj

Ram Mohan Roy's lifelong aim was to recreate human brotherhood by rediscovering the harmony underlying all religious striving — placing him as the last link in a chain of Indian religious reformers stretching back to Kabir and Nanak. He championed Western-style education for Indians on a scientific basis, yet his deep study of Hindu culture kept him from embracing Western materialism.

The Five Fundamental Principles of the Brahmo Samaj (founded 1828)

1. There is only one God, creator and saviour of the world — spirit, infinite in power, wisdom, love, justice, holiness; omnipresent, eternal, blissful.
2. The human soul is immortal, capable of infinite progress, and responsible to God for its doings.
3. Man's happiness in this world and the next consists in worshipping God in spirit and truth.
4. Loving God, holding communion with Him, and carrying out His will constitute true worship.
5. No created object is to be worshipped as God — God alone is infallible.

Since no single person is infallible, Brahmos respect all great religious leaders and hold that truth can be gleaned from every scripture — making the Brahmo faith "truly eclectic," universalist in nature, "dogmatically undogmatic."

3.2.1 Areas of Brahmo Reform

Women's Education & Status: Education, primarily reserved for men, was extended to Brahmo women from the 1860s–70s. Women were allowed to pray alongside men, and in 1881 the Barishal (Bengal) Brahmo Samaj appointed the first woman Brahmo preacher, Manorama Mazumdar.

3.3 Swami Dayananda Saraswati & the Arya Samaj

Dayananda stressed unity among all Hindus for the well-being of the whole country. He was radical yet pragmatic: he personally rejected food taboos but publicly maintained them so as not to be cut off from the wider Hindu community and lose his influence.

An Ethics Based on the Vedas

Dayananda wrote an extensive bhasya (commentary) on the Vedas — partly to counter contemporary Orientalist commentaries he considered inferior, and partly to give Arya Samaj members a reliable reference. He held that:

• The Vedas literally contain all the wisdom of God and are therefore universal.
• The Vedas carry no historical references, since they antedate all history.
• The Vedas proclaim pure monotheism — not the "henotheism" that modern Indologists claimed.
• The Vedas contain all scientific truth, and nothing in them could offend morality.

Bringing the Vedas out of "the sanctuary of Brahmanical dominance" and making them accessible to all Hindus, irrespective of caste and creed, is considered the strongest reason Dayananda came to be called "The Luther of India" (per scholar Jordens).

An Ethics Supporting Hindu Nationalism

Dayananda began his career as a British loyalist, even remarking that expelling the English would leave reformers like himself with "throats cut like mere sheep" by orthodox Hindus. Yet he later became a paramount figure of North Indian Hindu nationalism, envisioning a mythical Vedic "golden age" of the Aryans where crime, poverty, and adultery were unknown.

Sri Aurobindo praised Dayananda's "grandiose intellectual courage" in reclaiming the Vedas from being seen as "an ancient document of barbarism." Yet Dayananda's rationalism also had a limitation — his total rejection of the Bhagavatam, Puranas, and Brahmanas is described as "a mistake... the nadir of his genius," since his black-and-white thinking left no room for symbolic or mythic interpretation.

This unit covers four towering contemporary thinkers — Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and Amartya Sen — who reconciled the forces of Indian tradition with modernity, showing that moral values, while ultimate, are rooted in real, existential human conditions.

4.0–4.1 Introduction

Contemporary Indian thinkers were shaped both by India's cultural/religious heritage and by Western empiricist, utilitarian, agnostic, humanistic and analytic ideas — especially the thought of John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Herbert Spencer, Tolstoy, and Wittgenstein — which together generated a more secular and rational strand of ethics.

4.2 Ethics of Swami Vivekananda

Vivekananda pioneered India's rationalist movement in ethics and religion — the "dynamic counterpart" of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. He read Shankara's Advaita into Ramakrishna's teaching, producing what he called Practical Vedanta — Vedantic truth applied to everyday, social life, not confined to caves and forests.

Six Characteristics of Practical Vedanta

True Religion vs Institutional Religion

True religion is personal religion — one is born into a tradition but must transcend its external forms (dogma, ritual, image) to reach direct, mystic realisation. In service, Vivekananda held that "the receiver is greater than the giver," because for that moment the receiver is God himself — a reversal of the cold, transactional charity he criticised in European society ("Here, take this and go away").

Religion, for Vivekananda, is not a system of dogmas but a matter of experience: "It is not what is found in books... it consists in realisation." He believed strongly in the possibility of a Universal Religion:

4.3 Ethics of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's central lesson to the world: "non-violence is the law of our species." He gave communal harmony the highest priority for national integration — not as lip service, but as "an unbreakable bond of unity" resting on equal respect for all religions.

Ahimsa — More Than a Personal Virtue

Gandhi transformed the ancient principle of ahimsa (non-violence) into:

• A potent means of collective struggle against social and economic injustice
• The basis of a decentralised economy and decentralised power structure
• A guiding principle for one's individual life in relation to nature and other people

The unity of existence — which Gandhi called "the truth" — is realised through practising ahimsa, which requires "reducing oneself to zero" and reaching the furthest limit of humility.

Equality of Religions — Five Grounds

1. The unfathomable, unknowable character of the one God over all
2. The never-ending forms of divine revelation and human religious response
3. The centrality of the law of non-violence enjoined by all religions
4. The existence of errors and imperfections in all religions
5. The conviction that all religions are evolving toward fuller realisation of truth

Gandhi believed ethics, not "Christology," constitutes fundamental Christianity — and the same holds for every religion: "where there is boundless love and no idea of retaliation whatsoever it is Christianity that lives."

Gandhi's global influence is well documented: Nelson Mandela adopted Gandhian techniques in South Africa (confirmed by former President De Klerk), and Martin Luther King Jr. openly credited Gandhi as the source of his operational tactics for the American civil rights movement.

4.4 Ethics of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Radhakrishnan presented Hinduism as relevant to the modern person "threatened by one's own inventions," offering a vision toward greater human solidarity. He held that humans are by nature value-seekers, striving for truth, beauty, and goodness — and that ethical principles function as unconditional commands guiding humans to their "real self."

Radhakrishnan gave a spiritual interpretation to evolution: after the emergence of the human, a further "spiritual evolution" becomes possible, the spirit in the human being a promise of the highest future development. The self can be proven through the analysis of "spiritual consciousness" — though "the voice of the spirit is completely silent in none," seers simply listen to it better; misuse or disuse can destroy the powers of the spirit just as any capacity can atrophy.

Intuition and Reason Are Not Enemies

Radhakrishnan insists intuition and intellect are "not only not incompatible but vitally united." Insistence on intuition is often wrongly confused with anti-intellectualism — but "intuition which ignores intellect is useless." To know better, "we must become different" — our thoughts and feelings must be deeply harmonised, since "intuition is not only perfect knowledge but also perfect living."

He believed morality enables humans to rise to a higher plane and conceived of a Universal Religion transcending all creeds and dogmas, fulfilling the aspirations of humanity. Humans achieve their higher destiny by uniting with Isvara through jnana (knowledge) and intuition — with total perfection possible only when the whole human race is liberated together, and all released souls become one with the Infinite.

4.5 Ethics of Amartya Sen

Sen proposes evaluating people's well-being by their "capability to achieve valuable functionings" — a fully modern, economics-grounded ethical framework known as the Capability Approach.

Sen vs Utilitarianism vs Rawls

Sen's key example: a physically handicapped person may need more resources than an able-bodied person just to achieve the same mobility — so equal resources do not mean equal capability. Similarly, raising the social and political participation of traditionally oppressed groups may require more than mere access to resources — it may require dismantling entrenched social, economic and political structures altogether. Since Rawls' theory assumes a liberal society of roughly equal citizens, Sen argues that inequalities from human diversity get postponed to legislative/judicial processes or reduced to a matter of charity, rather than being addressed head-on.