The interplay of destruction and perfection in Hinduism

What is it about?

An almost mythological narrative of the occident says that with the European Enlightenment man began no longer to leave his fate to superordinate instances, but to take it into his own hands with courageous confidence in his own powers. Apart from the fact that this topos of self-determined man characterizes the mythologies and heroic epics of numerous, also non-European cultures, it seems at least conspicuous in the modern European narration that its ideal of self-development as well as social and individual perfection is bound to the idea of constant progress. Using the example of some central Hindu ideas, I will try to sketch from a cultural-psychological perspective that individual perfection can also be thought as possible in cosmological ideas in which constant dissolution and destruction are emphasized as the principle of all being. Finally, some brief reflections will be given on how such conceptions can contribute to a more comprehensive analysis of certain aspects of contemporary Indian society and politics.

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Photo by Conscious Design on Unsplash

Photo by Conscious Design on Unsplash