Hindu Concept of Self

As Stroup writes, there are three basic elements with which Hinduism concerns itself. The first is the nature of the universe, the second is the nature of human society, and the third is the nature of the person, the individual, or the self.

Stroup notes that these three concerns are inter-related; Hinduism deals with them as parts of a single whole, rather than as independent elements of existence. As we explore the Hindu concept of self, we must keep in mind that we cannot understand the self except in the context of society and the universe. To the Hindu, the self is meaningless outside of its relationships with the world around it.

Stroup writes that the self has long been a subject of "speculation and interpretation within Hinduism. The nature of personhood has been as intriguing and perplexing a subject as the nature of the starry heavens above . . . No simple or single interpretation has developed within the religion regarding the person . . . One of the persistent strands of interpreting (it) is to view (it) as a microcosm. The person stands in contrast to the macrocosm, the universe or that which exists outside man" (Stroup 129).

As Smith writes, the Hindu concept of man is founded on the belief that he is a "layered being . . . First and most obviously, man has a body. Next comes that portion of his mind and experience that he is aware of, his conscious personality. Un

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true self in Hinduism is the impact that this awakening has on one's view of one's own death. If one believes that one's self, one's identity, one's very existence, is the same as one's body, one's physical existence, then the thought of death will be the source of great terror. In other words, if one sees death as the final end of one's existence, of one's self, then death is a thing to be feared. One's own body will be seen as an enemy of sorts, because it is subject to death at any moment, and ultimately must die and leave the individual without any existence whatsoever, and certainly no self. If one identifies with the body, or the surface and material self, then all of life will contain within it a grain of terror. The seeking of pleasure will be seen as a means of at least momentary escape from this terror of death, from this recognition that death awaits around every corner potentially, and that therefore there is nothing in life but momentary distraction from that horrible inevitability. The point of Hinduism, however, is to enlighten the individual, to help him discover that the body is not the self, and that, in fact, the self is not subject to death at all. This seems to be a simple notion and a liberating one
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Approximate Word count = 3113
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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