Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c5.s10: The Ego, Prides and Prejudices

Vāda in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c5.s10

Language: English

The Ego, Prides and Prejudices

c5.s10.1

It is difficult to judge the subtle levels of ego and prejudices that percolate any debate. In *Kāmagītā* of *Mahābhārata*, Kāma (desire) is made to say:

c5.s10.2

No living being can defeat me without any appropriate method, though some try hard to kill me

c5.s10.3

with a weapon they know to be powerful. For them, I emerge anew in that very weapon.

When for example some people try to destroy me by means of sacrificial rituals, ceremoniously giving away various kinds of precious gifts, I, Kāma, appear in their minds again, in the form of craving for heaven or reputation, like a pious soul reborn as a living moving sentient creature.

c5.s10.5

When some people try to destroy me by constant contemplation of Veda and Vedānta, I reappear in their philosophical egos, imperceptibly as the elemental soul is present in a subtle form even in immobile plants.

c5.s10.6

. . . The learned one exerts himself to get rid of me by striving to attain liberation (*mokṣa*). I dance and laugh at him, because he sits right in the middle of his burning desire for freedom.

c5.s10.7

Thus I am one Perennial force, never to be killed by any embodied being, unless he adopts appropriate technique.⁶⁰

c5.s10.8

Śaṅkarācārya initially refused to enter into a debate with Bhāratī, the wife of Maṇḍana Miśra, with a male chauvinistic attitude, which was softened when Bhāratī convinced him that debating with her will not be below his dignity — though she is a woman.⁶¹

Linked texts (1)

Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit