Consciousness,
Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume
1 Number 1, April 2000
_______________________________________________________________
The
Evolution of Awareness:
Parallels
and Contrasts in the Bhagavad Gita and Macbeth
by
Michael
Larrass
Outstanding
works of art such as the Sphinx, the Mona Lisa, or Shakespeare’s Macbeth
are expressions of archetypal truth in their respective eras. The degree
to which they succeed in revealing this truth is reflected in their appreciation
by the collective consciousness from which they have emerged and even by
following generations.
The
dialogue of the Bhagavad Gita in the ancient Mahabharata
epic from the high culture of Vedic India and Shakespeare’s Macbeth
seem to have met the highest standards of archetypal truth as they have
never ceased to maintain a dominant role in scholarly and artistic appreciation,
commentary, and enactment. Both the Bhagavad Gita and Macbeth
contain the archetype [1] of the loss and restoration
of natural law and cosmic order as well as that of the ambiguity of values
and the search for moral guidance in a time of change, thus exemplifying
Lord Krishna’s statement in the Bhagavad Gita: Whenever the natural
order is decaying and disorder prevails, O Bharata, then I create Myself.
[...] To protect the righteous and destroy the wicked, to firmly establish
order, I take birth age after age. IV. Many aspects of the Bhagavad
Gita can indeed be found again in Shakespeare’s masterpiece, either
in analogous or dialectic form.
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
The
violation and restoration of natural law and order occurs outside the literary
confines of the story in the Mahabharata epic. The core of the Bhagavad
Gita is the dialogue between Arjuna and his spiritual guide, Lord Krishna.
The
“Great Archer”, Arjuna, is about to fulfil his duty as warrior and maintainer
of law and order to fight against the evil Duryodhana and his army who
have usurped leadership in the country and are disrupting the social order.
Torn
between his duty which requires him to fight against family, friends, and
teachers, who are in the ranks of the enemy, and his natural human love,
he approaches Lord Krishna, asking him for guidance. Lord Krishna enlightens
him on “dharma”, the “allotted duty” of the warrior and the five virtues
of the enlightened to fight evil irrespective ofthe
offender and thus uphold natural order and maintain evolution. |
The
violation or, more precisely, suspension of natural order and the disturbance
of normal cause/effect relation is in the centre of the play; it is highlighted
by no less than five facts: Macbeth kills his king, who is also
his relative, although he has been greatly honoured by him,
while the king is a guest in his castle; the murder is committed
while the king is asleep. (I.7).
The
suspension of natural order and the ambiguity of values is present throughout
the play, from the moment when the witches declare the confusion:“Fair
is foul, and foul is fair” (I.1) through Banquo’s “So foul and fair a day
I have not seen” (I.3), the nightlike day and Duncan’s horses devouring
each other following the murder (II.4) and Macbeth’s “But let the frame
of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer” (III.2) until the battle of
Dunsinane where “industrious soldiership” puts an end to Macbeth’s ambiguous
rulership and “thoughts speculative” (V,4). |
However,
there are significant differences between the two works, which we will
examine in detail.
Cosmic
Law versus Personal Law
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
My
limbs fail and my mouth is parched, my body quivers and my hair stands
on end.
I
see adverse omens, O Keshava*, and see no good from killing my kinsmen
in battle.
I
do not desire victory, O Krishna, nor a kingdom, nor pleasures. Of what
use will a kingdom be to us, or enjoyments, or even life, O Govinda*? (I.)
My
nature smitten with the taint of weakness, confused in mind about my natural
duty, I pray Thee, tell me decisively what is good for me. (II.)
*
different names of Krishna |
Why
do I yield to that suggestion
Whose
horrid image doth unfix my hair,
and
make my seated heart knock at my ribs
Against
the use of nature? Present fears
are
less than horrible imaginings.
My
thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes
so my single state of man, that function
Is
smothered in surmise. (I,3)
I
have no spur
To
prick the sides of my intent but
Vaulting
ambition, which overleaps itself. (I,7)
|
Arjuna’s
intention is the re-establishment of the order destroyed by the evil-minded
son of Dhritarashtra (I.). His dilemma is that he is torn between his
love of his kinsmen and his duty to rid the country of the disease of lawlessness.
He expects no personal advantage from his victory: “having killed them
I should enjoy only blood-stained pleasures in this world.” (II.) Suspended
in doubt as to the morally right path of action, he asks Lord Krishna,
his charioteer, to reign in the horses between the two armies. In the trinitarian
symbolism of chariot (= body), horses (= senses), and charioteer (= Self),
Arjuna represents the uniting personality or ego which has freedom of choice
to be carried away by the senses and/or emotions or to be ruler over them.
Arjuna turns to his master for enlightenment and the path to a behaviour
integrating his personal desire and the common good.
Macbeth’s
motive, on the contrary, is personal power. His upset emotional state is
due rather to the onrush of his destructive fancies. Swaying between his
weak loyalty and his reckless ambition, the last barrier keeping Macbeth
from murdering his king: If we should fail, -is
shattered by his wife’s scornful challenge: “We fail! / but screw your
courage to the sticking place / And we’ll not fail.” (I.7) Following
this, his questions are merely technical - the moral issue is neutralised.
Even though his doubts reappear after the murder, the course of action
shows that, rather than by any moral qualms, he is more motivated by the
desire to prevent Banquo from profiting from his crime.
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
Therefore,
remaining unattached, always do the action worthy of performance. Engaging
in action truly unattached, man attains to the Supreme.
[...]
Moreover, even looking to the welfare of the world, you should perform
action. (III) |
Things
ill begun make themselves strong by ill. (II,2)
For
mine own good
All
causes shall give way. I am in blood
Stepped
in so far, that, should I wade no more,
returning
were as tedious as go o‘er. (III.4)
And
wish the state of the world
Were
now undone. (V,5) |
Severed
from his natural humankindness and ultimately even counteracting
the guidance of the supernatural inasmuch as it is opposed to his personal
interpretation of the prophecies, Macbeth strives to become a law unto
himself. Eventually the last moral restraints are overruled by the desire
for sheer self-preservation - the world might fall to pieces if that were
the condition for neutralising the natural law of cause and effect that
unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles V,1 and crime calls
for punishment.
The
Approach of the Transcendent
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
As
men approach me, so do I favour them; in all ways, O Partha, men follow
My path. (VI)
I
pray Thee, tell me decisively what is good for me.I
am Thy disciple. Teach me, for I have taken refuge in Thee. (II)
With
these apparently opposed statements thou dost, as it were, bewilder my
intelligence. So, having made Thy decision, tell me the one by which I
may reach the highest good. (III) |
Stay,
you imperfect speakers, tell me more. [...] Speak, I charge you. I,3
[...]
deny me this
And
an eternal curse fall on you! let me know.
[...]
filthy hags!
Why
do you show me this? [...]
How
now, you secret, black, and midnight hags! What is ‘t you do? IV,1 |
The
way man approaches the Transcendent is different from one individual to
another. The answer to man’s question is according to his approach. Arjuna’s
approach is that of a disciple who recognises the authority of the master
and perceives the contradiction in the master’s teaching as stemming from
his own intellectual weakness (“apparently” [...] “as it were”). Macbeth’s
approach is that of a fair-goer who wants to have his hand read, but has
no particular respect for the palm reader. In fact, the manner in which
Macbeth addresses the weird sisters is altogether insulting. Of course,
the witches are secret and black, but Krishna (krsna = black) is the embodiment
of black in the same sense as the “black hole” in astrophysics [2].
The Transcendent having no particular objective attribute, it is always
the subjective human mind that projects its own appreciation onto the attributeless.
The way man sees the Transcendent is therefore identical to the manner
of his approach and the appreciation of the teaching.
The
way man approaches the Transcendent is also different from one culture
to another. As fictional persons, Arjuna and Macbeth thus exemplify the
approach of the Transcendent in their respective times. This gives the
Bhagavad Gita and Shakespeare’s play their special meaning.
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
Though
I am unborn and of imperishable nature, though Lord of all beings, yet
remaining in My own nature I take birth through My own power of creation.
(IV)
|
[..]
for none of woman born
Shall
harm Macbeth. (IV,1)
Macduff
was from his mother’s womb
Untimely
ripped. (V,8) |
Similar
to the shift in the perception ofthe
Transcendent from that of a divine teacher to that of merely supernatural
powers, it is fitting that the restoration of natural order in Macbeth
is not the work of the Eternal (“unborn”), but that of Macduff, whose supernatural
quality (“none of woman born”) announced by the witches resides uniquely
in Macbeth’s credulousness. The same goes for the witches’ prophecy that
Macbeth will not be defeated until Birnam wood moves to Dunsinane Hill.
Whereas the disciple of the Divine is rewarded with the vision of the cosmic
forms of Krishna in the Visvarupa Darshana (XI.), the witches’ novice Macbeth
is led to his destruction by “fatal visions” and “false creations” and
by accepting the report of the moving forest and Macduff’s revelation that
he was born by Cesarian as relevant truth.
The
Corruption of Woman
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
When
the forgetfulness of natural duty prevails, O Krishna, the women of the
family become corrupt,
and
with the corruption of women, O Varshneya (2), intermixture of castes arises.
This
intermixture leads only to hell, both for the family and its destroyers.
(I)
|
Come,
you spirits
That
tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And
fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of
direst cruelty! [...]
That
no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake
my fell purpose [...]
Come
to my woman’s breasts,
And
take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers. (I.5) |
The
function of Lady Macbeth in the murder is anything but accessory; whereas
Banquo remains within the realm of sanity - “A heavy summons lies like
lead upon me, / And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers! / Restrain
in me the cursèd thoughts that nature / Gives way to in repose (II.1),
it is she who makes the difference between Macbeth’s merely playing with
the idea of murder and executing the act. She knows that her husband’s
nature “is too full of the milk of human-kindness / To catch the nearest
way.” (I.5) As an antidote to this she invokes the destruction of her motherly
affection which seems to be for her the epitome of the weakness inherent
in the human condition: “I would have plucked my nipple from his
boneless gum, / And dashed his brains out.” (I.7) Considering the punitive
mechanics of the play the fact that her punishment is more severe than
that of her husband’s, indicates her transgression must also have been
greater. Whereas the role of woman in Vedic civilisation was that of maintaining
parental and social integrity, Lady Macbeth is the very motor of its destruction.
Her lack of circumspection is precipitated into the ultimate loss of self-awareness
when she takes her own life.
The
Parody of Honour and Wisdom
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
Whence
has this blemish, alien to honourable men, causing disgrace and opposed
to heaven,
come
upon you, Arjuna, at this untimely hour? Partha! Yield not to unmanliness.
It is unworthy of you. Shake off this paltry faintheartedness. Stand up,
O scorcher of enemies. (II)
Moreover,
men will ever tell of your disgrace, and to a man of honour ill fame is
worse than death. (II) |
Was
the hope drunk,
Wherein
you dressed yourself? hath it slept since,
And
wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At
what it did so freely? Art thou afeared
To
be the same in thine own act and valour,
As
thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which
thou esteem’st the ornament of life,
And
live a coward in thy own esteem? (I.7) |
It
is also she who reverses the idea of honour. Rather than strengthening
the moral basis that would prevent her husband from killing his own kinsman
(the basis from which Arjuna is able to perform his natural duty) she makes
the unnatural act a prerequisite for gaining honour and self-esteem.
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
You
grieve for those for whom there should be no grief, yet speak as do the
unwise. Wise men grieve for neither the dead nor for the living. (II)
|
The
sleeping and the dead are but as pictures; ‘t is the eye of childhood
That
fears the painted devil. (II,2) |
One
of the most fundamental points in Lord Krishna’s teaching is his call to
action, when he removes Arjuna’s illusion as to the essence of those who
kill and are killed in the course of evolution by opening his mind to the
eternity of man’s true nature.
Lady
Macbeth’s taunt is equally destined to overcome doubt, but here the universal
wisdom is narrowed down to a specific interest. Thus overstepping her natural
boundaries and assuming the authority of an all too imperfect teacher,
she sets off the course of action which, transgressing the safe boundaries
of dharma (natural vocation, abilities, and duty), will destroy
all bonds of honour and respect and gravely upset the social order.
The Heat of Action
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
Pondering
on objects of the senses, a man develops attachment for them; from attachment
springs up desire, and desire gives rise to anger.
From
anger arises delusion; from delusion unsteadiness of memory; from unsteadiness
of memory destruction of the intellect; through the destruction of the
intellect he perishes. (II)
|
A
dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding
from a heat-oppressed brain. II.
The
expedition of my violent love
Outran
the pauser reason. (II,3)
After
life’s fitful fever (III,2)
Strange
things I have in head that will to hand,
Which
must be acted ere they can be scanned (III,4)
From
this moment
The
very firstlings of my heart shall be
The
firstlings of my hand. (IV,1) |
Lord
Krishna’s explanation of the mechanics of disaster almost precisely outlines
Macbeth’s dramatic itinerary: returning from a battle where, “with his
brandished steel /Which smoked with bloody execution [he] carved out his
passage” (I.2), he meets the witches in a state of mind one may assume
to be no less heat-oppressed than during his famous monologue. Once he
has heard the prophecy he muses: “If Chance will have me king, why, Chance
may crown me, / Without my stir?” (I,3), but is quickly carried away by
his “horrible imaginings”.
His
wife certainly does nothing to alleviate the pressure, but rather encourages
her husband’s murderous delusion. Whereas in the talented warrior dynamism
and intelligence are in perfect balance, Macbeth, for all his valour, is
obviously all too much a man of action: “If it were done when ‘t
is done, then ‘t were well / It were done quickly.” (I,4) In his double-talk
after the murder he involuntarily caricatures himself; substituting ambition
for love, the self-analysis could not be more precise. The later events
give him the pretext for making this innate flaw his motto.
This
is in stark contrast with Arjuna’s desire to attain equanimity and detachment
as prerequisites of impartial action for the common good, but is at the
same time just another corollary of the vision of life as a “fitful fever”.
The lack of the awareness of his own divine nature causes him to perform
action without regard for its wider implications, relying exclusively on
that “security [which] is mortal’s chiefest enemy”.
Restful
Alertness versus Slumbery Agitation
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
He
whose happiness is within, whose contentment is within, whose light is
all within, that yogi, being one with Brahman, attains eternal freedom
in divine consciousness. (V)
For
supreme happiness comes to the yogi whose mind is deep in peace, in whom
the spur to activity is stilled, who is without blemish and has become
one with Brahman. (VI)
|
Methought
I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more!
Macbeth
does murder sleep,” - the innocent sleep;
Sleep,
that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,
The
death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm
of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief
nourisher in life’s feast; -
[...]
“Glamis
hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall
sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!” (II,2)
You
lack the season of all natures, sleep. (III,4)
A
great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep and
do the effects of watching. In this slumbery agitation [...] (V,1) |
The
Bhagavad Gita’s uniqueness lies in the dual teaching of Sankhya
and Yoga. Sankhya is the theoretical teaching of the paths
to reach the Divine, Yoga is the practical means. The practical
aspect of the Bhagavad Gita is the teaching of the steps that lead
to the actual experience of higher states of consciousness beyond the classical
states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping. They are characterised by the
experience of oneness with the cosmos which excludes any emotion of personal
ambition, enmity, or desire of possessions.
The
state of being “one with Brahman”, the yogi’s being “deep in peace” is
the absolute opposite of Lady Macbeth’s “slumbery agitation” or Macbeth’s
“restless ecstasy” (III,2). The ancient texts of many cultures refer to
their respective “Golden Ages” in which natural order, it seems, prevailed
as a result of their rulers’ ability to maintain order in their own high
state of awareness. The decay of inner order led to the decay of society.
In this decadent society, only the mimicry of lawfulness and higher states
of consciousness remained in the form of written codes and sleep.
The
same mechanism that has lowered the level of the dialogue between Man and
the Transcendent from that between Arjuna and Krishna to that between Macbeth
and the three weird sisters has also reduced the higher levels of consciousness
to that of a nightmare-like state of apparitions, sleep-walking and obsessive
actions. Rather than asking for enlightenment in Brahman consciousness
(brahmi cheetna, the highest state of awareness), Macbeth is merely
calling for the alleviation of “these terrible dreams / That shake us nightly.”
(III,2) At the same time, he is keenly aware (similar to Scene I,4 where
he enumerates the reasons for not killing his king) that his sleeplessness
is directly linked to the upheaval in natural order he has caused. He has
not only murdered a person; he has annihilated even the lowest level of
human consciousness.
Memory
and Oblivion
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
Let
a man raise his self by his Self, let him not debase his Self; he alone,
indeed, is his own friend, he alone is his own enemy.
He
who has conquered his self by his Self alone is himself his own friend;
but the Self of him who has not conquered his self will behave with enmity.
(VI) |
To
know my deed, ‘t were best not know myself. (II,2)
Come,
we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
Is
the initiate fear, that wants hard use:
We
are yet but young in deed. (III,4) |
“Smrtir
labdha - I have regained memory” (XVIII) can be considered as the culminating
point of the Bhagavad Gita, when Arjuna confirms that Lord Krishna’s
intellectual teaching and authentic revelation have led him to remember
that his own personal self and the cosmic Self are essentially the same.
Macbeth, on the contrary, would rather take refuge in forgetfulness. The
encounter with his murderous self is too frightening even for the seasoned
warrior who prefers to delude himself in thinking that his qualms are just
the weakness of a devil’s novice and can be taken care of by good sleep
and an increased pace of action.
Time
and Eternity
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
There
never was a time when I was not, nor you nor these rulers of men, nor will
there ever be a time when all of us shall cease to be.
As
the dweller in the body passes into childhood, youth, and age, so also
does he pass into another body. This does not bewilder the wise. [...]
He
is never born, nor does he ever die;
nor
once having been, does he cease to be.
Unborn,
eternal, everlasting, ancient,
he
is not slain when the body is slain. (II) |
But
here upon this bank and shoal of time
We
‘d jump the life to come. (I,7)
Life
‘s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That
struts and frets his hour on the stage,
And
then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told
by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying
nothing. (V,5) |
The
loss of memory of the cosmic dimension of the self is also reflected in
the perception of time. Arjuna’s vision is opened to the fundamental eternity
of individual existence first by the intellectual teaching of reincarnation,
then in the vision of the cosmic forms of Krishna (vishvarupa darshana,
XI). This larger comprehension puts his own acts into proper perspective
and frees them from excessive personal motives. For Macbeth, the voice
of the Divine has turned into the laughter of the witches, and the isolated
individual is left with no guidance but his own scheming, doubt and nihilism.Whereas
Arjuna is led to experience the security of mortal existence embedded in
immortality, Macbeth is led to the anti-vision of life surrounded by the
death of body and meaning.
It
is interesting to note that Macbeth’s nihilistically grandiose monologue
has provided the substance for many treatises and the titles to several
books, proof of the fascination this condensed version of our modern worldview
has so long held for the spectator, not least for the reason that it stirs
the memory of the very truth it seems to defeat.
The
Teaching of Yoga in Malcolm’s dialectics
|
Bhagavad
Gita
|
Macbeth
|
|
Satya
(truthfulness)
Ahimsa
(peacefulness)
Asteya
(absence of greed)
Brahmacharya
(celibacy)
Aparigraha
(non-acceptance of other’s possessions)
VI. |
Malcolm’s
self-confession in IV,3
|
|
Malcolm’s
dialectic confession is something like Shakespeare’s exposition of his
dramatic procedure in the entire play: turning the tables. Whereas Arjuna
under the guidance of his divine teacher strives to exemplify the five
virtues of a yogi, Macbeth, merely aiming at the attributes of royalty,
becomes the embodiment of vice. Will Macbeth’s motto Things ill begun
can right themselves by ill outlive its inventor? Malcolm enumerates
the countervalues to Yoga - “intemperance, avarice, desire [of]
jewels and this other’s house, uproar [of] the universal peace”
- in order to test Macduff’s loyalty not merely to the person of a king,
but to the essence of royalty. Macduff’s “O my breast / Thy hope ends here”
(IV,3) is the definite “No” to all machiavellistic speculation and power-play.
Conclusion
Two
conclusions can be drawn from this comparison, one factual, the other of
a more hypothetical kind: The “heat-oppressed brain” and feverish action
are the pivot of Shakespeare’s play, placing it in opposition to the serenity
of Lord Krishna’s instruction. Hotheadedness is commonly equated to disorder
of thought and action and reduced awareness, which is ultimately the cause
of unlawful behaviour. The archetype of loss and restoration of natural
law and cosmic order has its basis in the human mind.
In
Macbeth’s case, this would account for the collapse of his loyalty and
circumspection as well as for his perception of time and human existence
in their limited and “mortal” dimensions, for his restlessness and insomnia
and, ironically, for the lack of efficiency in his actions - the very plot
of the play is based on the continual flaws in his murderous undertakings.
Shakespeare’s
play takes up the same points as does the Bhagavad Gita to drive
home the archetypal truth that the destruction of natural order always
destroys the offender. Few at that time of world-wide exploration, hectic
trading, and increasing social and international conflict would have listened
to the dialogue of Arjuna and his divine teacher; the “cultural temperature”
was to high for that approach. It is part of the artist’s genius to know
which approach he has to take to catch the contemplator’s or spectator’s
attention: either directly by expounding the right and evoking consent
or indirectly by expounding the wrong and evoking disapproval. Both lead
to the same end, but depend in their efficiency on the cultural context
and the level of consciousness of a society. The message had to be adapted
to the social context. Could it be that the message came from the land
of timelessness?
Here
the hypothesis begins: when, in or about 1606, Shakespeare finished his
play Macbeth, Britain was just beginning her centuries-long endeavour
of exploring and subjugating India. In 1600, the East India Company had
been established and British soldiers and merchants were making inroads
into the vast subcontinent.
It
is a historical fact that invaders very often are invaded themselves, if
not by force of arms or money, then by a sort of cultural seepage. It is
unlikely that at that early time of the encounter between the declining
Indian civilisation and the flourishing British Empire any quantifiable
knowledge of the timeless wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita would have
reached the individual called Shakespeare. But it is an equally unquantifiable
fact that great writers have their own channels of perception which enable
them to draw, at the appropriate time, their inspiration from a vast global
reservoir containing the total knowledge of the Divine and Man.
Footnotes
Works
Cited
Shakespeare,
William. Macbeth. New Swan Shakespeare. Longman, Burnt Mill, 1960
The Bhagavad Gita Translation by Franklin Edgerton Harvard Oriental Series
38-39 Harper & Row, N.Y., 1965,and
Translation by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1967