1957/04/01 by J. A. B. van Buitenen · 3 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Indian and Buddhist Studies #Indian History and Philosophy #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
paper · doi:10.2307/1396832
openalex publication_date 1957/04/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/18
THIS PAPER is meant to provide some historical background on the question of the distinction between dharma and moksa in Indian thought. The Indian context requires that we view moral values -I shall hereafter avoid the term-first in relation to different eschatologies. Very roughly, we may distinguish two. First, the conception of an after-life which, though interrupted by intervals of heaven and hell, remains on the same level as the present life, and, although its varying degrees of spirituality (caitanya and related terms) encompass the entire range from worm to Brahmi, cannot be regarded as essentially different from human life. This is samisara, transmigration, usually involving the doctrine that a certain soul continues from life to life in an embodied existence, the facts of his body and his life being largely dependent on what acts the individual has performed in former such lives, yet affording limited scope for gradual self-perfection-but on the same level-by meritorious acts.