 Hello, today we begin with the third module of this course, which is, as you can see the screen, it is Ethics in the Indian Tradition. Now, till now we have been talking about various moral theories, we have talked about Metaethical Debates, and which have mostly been from the western perspective, with the western analytic perspective of moral philosophizing. Now, surely many of us would be curious about what happens, or what is what has happened, and how has the Indian Tradition, the Indian Philosophical Tradition grappled with the problems of Ethics, what is our lineage or philosophical heritage, about debating the problems of moral philosophy. Now, this module is dedicated to tackling this issue about Ethics as it takes place in the Indian Tradition. Now, there may be a lot of notions about Ethics that we have in India, that the Indian Tradition is perhaps more, some would say, lays great emphasis on Ethics. We all have an intuitive idea, as we are, as Indians raised in this country, and this Tradition, there is a certain strong unifying factor. Now, many people have said that, well we are strictly not one nation, we are diverse cultures, but then in our heritage, there has been significantly strong thread connecting all our various regions and states. So, we can have something called the Indian Philosophy, or something called the Indian Tradition, because despite of the various differences, the history of the country has been united. In fact, the history of the subcontinent. So, boundaries, currently imposed national boundaries do not limit our cultures, or our philosophical tradition, Indian Philosophy comprises of seven schools of Indian Philosophy. This is the Indian Philosophical Tradition, where we have been thinking, our forefathers and ancestors have been debating on philosophical problems. Now, let us first talk about what is Indian Philosophy. Now, this is a very difficult subject to grapple with, because there are varied opinions and justifications of the same. Now, homogeneity is not that much of an Indian traditional feature, as is it in the western traditions, which makes it easier to generalize and theorize. So, the average, just as the average Indian is maybe a mathematical or average, but a statistical average, but there are wide variations in the average Indian ethos or average Indian culture. Now, Indian Philosophy in from ancient times, and India has a rich and long tradition of philosophizing, and philosophy was given great importance from the times of kings ancient India, ancient Indian subcontinent and forward. So, generally it is regarded that Indians philosophy has six plus one ancient seven schools of Indian philosophy, plus one I say, because it means there is one school called the Charvaka school, which is the school of the Indian materialists, and unfortunately, their text has been destroyed over time, and what we are talking about is all more than two millennia back. So, Charvaka is referred as the seventh school, because there is continuity or there is a similarity between the six schools, and many of their texts remain. So, Charvaka does not have that much of a substanciation, but because of the Purva paksha or the foreground described, the Indian philosophical debates had to describe a Purva paksha, or which is the foreground of the debate to be taken place. So, every philosophical debate had to start with the explanation of the size of the debate, and in this from the Purva paksha of various debates, the Charvaka philosophy can be picked up. So, of course, there are many myths regarding Indian philosophy, one that it is completely otherworldly, because we do have one entire school of Indian philosophy dedicated to materialism, and which regarded physical entities as the ultimate real entities. Now, that a part where every Indian philosophical school has its ancillary school of ethics, and it has its claims, it has its ethical systems. Now, how would these compare to the western moral theories that we have come across? We will see this over this module, when we talk about the various Indian schools of theory. Now, what is it? What is ethics in Indian tradition? How are we today? Are we a religious nation? Are we a spiritual nation? Are we a moral nation? Are we a moral nation? Are we a moral nation? Are we a ritualistic nation? There are various opinions that we receive, and it is not an easy job to stick with one, because the truth is a little more complicated in this case, because how are we? What is our moral standpoint? What is, are we a non-nation, are we a dishonest nation, or can these questions at all be asked about general people at large? Well, those are applied questions that do come up, and those are talks of common room debates. But, we will see how theorizing has taken place in the Indian tradition, and what are the key concepts that have been used, and how have we arrived at the various theories? Well, the first issue that we talk about is Dharma. Now, Dharma is something that anybody raised in Indian, with an Indian upbringing would be familiar with. But, what is this notion of Dharma? Many people have called this as the corner store on the foundation, or the bedrock of ethical theorizing in the Indian tradition. What is the meaning of Dharma? Does it mean ethics? Does it mean duty? Does it mean quality? Does it mean ethos? What does it mean? Now, this is a question that is, many philosophers have also come across to say that well, Dharma as a concept cannot be translated into English term, and definitely not religion. So, our first point of engagement would be the notion of Dharma. What do we mean by Dharma? Whether it is, how best can we understand it, and how is it a part of moral theorizing in the Indian tradition? Now, after we talk about Dharma, we are going to talk about the theory of Karma. Now, this is a theory that we have talked about that has been very frequently, and fondly, and prevalently talked about that. In fact, it has also become a word in the English dictionary, Karma. So, Karma would mean the cycle of actions and their deserts. Now, what is the Indian theory of Karma? If at all there can be one, what are the sources of the, what are the texts we refer to? We will talk about them also. There are a Prasthanatraya, the three texts that comprise the base of Indian theorizing in ethics. Bhagavad Gita is one of them. The Brahma Sutras is another. Now, the theory of Karma is something that we would engage with and find what is, how is it explicable in modern terms? Now, we will in the course of this module find that there, what is, how is Indian metaphysics or Indian epistemology relate to Indian ethics? Is Indian ethics deeply otherworldly? So, let us explore what is, what are the various perspectives to the debates in Indian philosophy and what are the presuppositions for the Indian theorizing in ethics, that is Indian ethics definitely dependent on the notion of God. Well, there have been, most of us may be more familiar with mythology or the Indian mythology. Mythology brings forth many of these debates in a very engaging form. Some of these debates could, interesting debates could be like about the loyalty of Karna as a character in Mabharat to doing the right thing or doing what is just and his loyalty to his friend Duryodhan. Now, a moral engagement or moral theorizing comes about when we have a conflict between two things that are right, two choices that are both necessary, but cannot both be met and sometimes and mostly one at the cost of the other. So, this is where Indian mythologies have raised various debates. And then well, has it been ritualistic? Well, very often we have had the notion of Pancha Satis and after which Sita has been left out as a Sati. Now, these are examples of mythological stories that have engaged with the notion of ethics and brought forward the problem of the problems of or of the moral existence that human beings lead and what is and what are the moral problems that one comes across and how people have tackled it. So, of Ram, of Sita's test by Agni Pariksha as it said test by fire and these are all examples of moral problems raised in Indian mythology. Well, apart from the theory of Karma, the next we talk about is, we talk about Nishkam Karma, which is again another theory of action. And Nishkam Karma is, I am leaving out the diacritical marks for the timing, but there is a system of diacritical marks to put down terms of Sanskrit in English alphabets. Now, Nishkam Karma is again, what many of us would be familiar with the various things that happen is, that the desire less action is that possible is that futile and what is the deeper debate in that. Well, then apart from Nishkam Karma, we go ahead Gandhi and Ethics, which perhaps talks about the modern day version of Gandhi, seen as an ethical spiritual leader. Of course, this is something that we would be tackling towards the end. So, in fact, there may be a minor correction of the syllabus, which would be mentioned on a website. I hope it is updated by the time you have access to it. So, we can actually go to the Purusharthes or the various goals of human life that are to be pursued in a human life. So, these are roughly divided into four, which is learning, material prosperity or living by the pleasures or enjoying the pleasures. Meanwhile, being just and doing the duty as it is, and thereof is the final Purusharthes or the aim or goal of life is Moksha liberation. We will talk about all those four Purusharthes, when we talk about Purusharthes. Then, when we go ahead, we will talk about the Buddhist, Buddhist Ethics and Jain Ethics, followed by finally, it would be Gandhian Ethics. So, there will be, we talk about Buddhist Ethics, how Ethics or Moral Philosophy has been tackled in Buddhism, how the Jains have tackled their Ethics. Then finally, we talk about Gandhian Ethics. In this, we will also be trying to cover as many Ancillary Problems that come up. Now, we need to think or we need to collate that what would be our basic knowledge about Indian Ethics, that how apart from folklore and culture that we have been raised in, that what has been the notion of Moral Theorizing in the Indian Tradition. So, when we engage with some of the texts that is referred to and we will find out well, how Moral Theorizing has taken place and whether Indian Theorizing has been Moral or not, and this will raise some of the crucial problems in the Theorizing of, in Moral Theorizing that takes place in the Indian Tradition. So, let us proceed to know more about what is, how Ethics takes place in the Indian Tradition.