Forum for higher wisdom

  ARISTOTLE’S DOCTRINE OF GOLDEN MEAN                                  by T K Jayaraman IRS (Rtd)   The   soul   has   an   irrational   as   well as   a   rational   part-the   irrational part includes feeling, desires, appetites. A virtuous soul is a well-ordered soul, one in which the right relation exists between reason, feeling and desire. Aristotle ’ s doctrine of G olden Mean is well-known. Every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice. Courage is a mean between cowardice and rashness; liberality, between prodigality and meanness; proper pride, between vanity and humility; ready wit between buffoonery and boorishness; modesty, between bashfulness and shamelessness. Some virtues do not seem to fit into this scheme; for instance, truthful...

  PLATO’S TRIPARTITE SOUL by T K Jayaraman IRS (Rtd) Teaches Western Philosophy, English and French at Indian Institute of World Culture       Plato ’ s “Republic “is the most well known of his works. In most of these works in the form of dialogues, Socrates is the principal character. Republic contains ten parts. In part four, Socrates compares a city with human soul. He defends the analogy of the city and the individual and proceeds to distinguish three analogous parts in the soul with their natural function. By using instances of psychological conflict, he distinguishes the function of the rationa l part from that of the appétitive part of the soul. Then he distinguishes the function of the spirited part from the functions of the other two parts. The function of the rational part is thinking, and that of the spirited part the experience of emotions, and that of the appétitive parts the pursuit of bodily desires. Socrates explains the virtues of the ind...

  Animal Soul and Spiritual Soul  Contributed by S L Peeran Ancient uncouthness   Our ancient barbaric lore of million years Continues to work in our subconscious. Where millennium years of cultural breeding Fails, it erupts within with all its force.   The ineptitudes, the inborn waywardness Uncivilized mind, the illegitimacy Of living, the have not deprived feeling Breaks the barriers of refinement.   The sexual urges grips the mind, Pleasures offered by the taste buds, The numbness, high feelings of intoxicants, Breaks the sobriety of civilized ways. Green snake within, burning passions, greed Hatred, stroke the fire within for violence.                                          S L Peeran Imam Al Ghazali says on this topic in his monumental work, “The Alchemy of Happiness” as follows: The effect of death on the compo...

  PYTHAGORAS (   570 BC - 500 BC) By T K Jayaraman IRS (Rtd) Teaches Western Philosophy; English and French at Indian Institute of World Culture Bengaluru You are quite familiar with his name as a geometrical theorem is named after him. Pythagoras was the founder of the Pythagorean School of philosophy. They were not as much concerned with substance as the other Pre-Socratic philosophers. They were concerned with form and the relations of things.They were mathematicians and tried to explain things with the help of numbers.     Pythagoras was born in Samos and immigrated to the Greek colonies in Southern Italy in 529 BC. He fled to escape the tyranny of Polycrates. He settled in Crotona and founded an association whose objectives were ethical, religious and political. He was concerned with virtue and moral life. Individual should have self control. He should subdue his passions to harmonise his soul. One should respect the authority of elders, teachers and Sta...

  Shanti Parva of Mahabharata Contributed by Lover of Ancient Knowledge   Ideal rulers in an republic is described in the Shanti Parva. In Ancient India of Rishis the ideal was realized and rose to a perfect civilization. Now India is abysmally degraded.  Excerpt from wiki pedia:-    The  Shanti Parva  ( Sanskrit :  शान्ति पर्व ;  IAST :  Śānti parva ; "Book of Peace") is the twelfth of eighteen books of the Indian Epic  Mahabharata . It traditionally has 3 sub-books and 365 chapters. [1] [2]  The critical edition has 3 sub-books and 353 chapters. [3] [4]  It is the longest book among the eighteen books of the epic. The book is set after the war is over- the two sides have accepted peace and  Yudhishthira  starts his rule of the  Pandava  kingdom. The Shanti parva recites the duties of the ruler,  dharma  and good governance, as counseled by the dying  Bhishma  and variou...

 THEORY OF FORMS- PLATO by T K Jayaraman IRS(Rtd) Theory of Forms is attributed to the Greek Philosopher Plato. Let me explain what it is. We say that an object is beautiful. A flower is beautiful. A girl is beautiful. A temple is beautiful and so on. But what is “beauty “? Nobody can answer that question satisfactorily. Here comes Plato. According to him, there is a form of perfect or ideal beauty. Where is it? It is in a realm which is different from our world of matter. It is not matter. It is beyond this material world. Like this for every quality which we can think of, there is an ideal or perfect form in the realm of Forms. If you think of something good in our world of sense perception, be sure it is not perfectly good. That perfect object is in the realm of Forms. It is not In Time and Space. It is eternal. The cat which we see is not the perfect cat. The perfect cat is in the realm of Forms. According to Plato, only a philosopher can apprehend the Forms. For Plato, our wor...

                         Teachings of Guru Nanak Ji Gurū Nānak Ji  ( Punjabi :  ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ  ( Gurmukhi );  گرو نانک  ( Shahmukhi );  Gurū Nānak ;  [gʊɾuː naːnəkᵊ] ,  pronunciation ; born as  Nānak  on 15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539), also referred to as  Bābā Nānak  ('father Nānak'), [1]  was the founder of  Sikhism  and is the first of the ten  Sikh Gurus . His birth is celebrated worldwide as  Guru Nanak Gurpurab  on  Katak Pooranmashi  ('full-moon of  Kattak '), i.e. October–November. Nanak is said to have travelled far and wide across  Asia  teaching people the message of  ik onkar  ( ੴ , 'one God'), who dwells in every one of his creations and constitutes the eternal Truth. With this concept, he would set up a unique  spiritual , ...