Dialogue with the World is a modest attempt at understanding the concept of the body in the works of two remarkable philosophers one from the West and the other from the East. Maurice Merleau Ponty and Sri Ramanuja representing two great philosophical traditions are philosophers who made unique contributions towards creative and convergent thinking focusing on the body as an Incarnate Consciousness. Merleau Ponty weaves his world of experience centred on the ensouled body, the individualised consciousness. Ramanuja on the contrary sees the last link of the all pervading synthesis in the absolute consciousness Brahman which is for him characterized by a world body containing both sentient and non sentient beings all of which are his attributes. Merleau Ponty and Ramanuja stand for a human and divine synthesis respectively. For both of them the body and consciousness human or divine exist in an intrinsic interrelationship. For Merleau Ponty only the animated human body can create a human world. Similarly for Ramanuja the world body which Brahman effects around him is totally guided and sustained by Brahman alone. The human self contains a deeper profundity in virtue of the very consciousness that has been embodied which makes it ever seeking and self transcending. The wonder of subjectivity and the splendour of consciousness embedded in the body and ever in dialogue with the world if understood exhaustively and interpreted with an inner openness will certainly lead us to new meanings of the and the divine.
There are no reviews yet.