PURUSHOTTAMA BILIMORIA

Graduate Theological Union and University of California-Berkeley

Paper Title: “Grief and Dharma: Secularization of a Sacred Emotion”

Abstract

The presentation begins with the disenchantments of the survivors on both sides of warring clans as they woefully bear witness to the horrendous carnage ensuing the epic (Mahābhārata) battle, and the constant rebuke that Yudhiṣthira, head of the Pāṇḍava clan, faced from Draupadī for wandering the earth without finding a stable foundation for Dharma or grounding it in firm absolutes. We liken Yudhiṣthira to Mahatma Gandhi facing the near-collapse of the Indian subcontinent as it was being rent apart with communal violence on the eve of its Independence. But we also compare Yudhiṣthira with Hamlet, the tragic grief-ridden character, who is equally bewildered and confused by the array of emotions and sensations that overwhelm his lingering body upon news of death of and the ghostly encounter with his murdered father.  With this as the context, we take the occasion to explore recent thinking on the 'hard emotions', in particular, grief, sorrow and mourning, and link the challenging inner and social condition to the calling of Dharma (righteous law, normatively worthy action).  Drawing from some comparative work (academic and personal) in the study of grief, mourning and empathy, we shall discuss the treatment of this tragic pathos in classical Indic literature and modern-day psychotherapy.  We shall demonstrate, despite being secularised, these emotions continue to serve as the sites of imagination at a much more personal and inter-personal level that are not antithetical to a Dharmic (sacred) quest despite their haunting presence even when 'the four walls collapse around one in the intensity of duḥkha (suffering, sorrow)'.

Purushottama Bilimoria is Honorary Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Studies at Deakin University and University of Melbourne; also a Visiting Scholar and Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley and Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and Shivadasani Fellow of Oxford University. His research focuses on classical Indian philosophy and comparative ethics; Continental thought; cross-cultural philosophy of religion, diaspora studies; bioethics, and personal law in India. Recent publications are Indian Ethics I (co-edited anthology; Ashgate 2007, OUP Delhi 2008; paperback 2015),  Sabdapramana: Word and Knowledge (Testimony) in Indian Philosophy (revised reprint, Delhi: DK PrintWorld, 2008); Emotions In Indian-Thought Systems (with A Wenta) (Routledge 2015), and co-edited  Indian Ethics Vol II (Springer 2015)