Nietzsche and Avvaiyar

Nietzsche and Avvaiyar: Beyond Good and Evil and Vinayagar Agaval

Dr.S.Sridevi           

How does the western mind read Indian thought? This question emerges when we come across the presence of India thought in Schopenhauer and therefore in Nietzsche. The concept of treating good and bad as the same is typically Indian. In Mahabharatham, the last part of the story deconstructs goodness of the Pandavas, by making Dhuriyodhanan sit in the Heaven. As a king he did his duty, Narathar explains to the visiting Yudhishtran. He says further that it is very difficult to think beyond good and evil when one is burdened with this body that has its own prejudices. Once the soul leaves this body it has no distinction between the good and the bad. It realizes that every action is predestined, designed by the universal power. Men act according to this design. It liberates one from the bondage of birth.
For a sample of Indian thought I have taken the famous hymn of Avvaiyaar on Ganapathi, where the saint poet asks God to help her integrate the energies of body, intellect and the soul for liberation. Once the mind becomes aware of the limitations of the prejudices given by the body, it achieves freedom. Such a state gives bliss. When the second part of the seeing beyond good and evil is ignored, i.e. the self liberating itself from itself, this strategy becomes a powerful one making a superman out of an ordinary one. Such a man knows how to operate his energies and he becomes a success in practical life. Nietzsche concentrates in this aspect of looking beyond good and evil.

Richard Schacht in his book Nietzsche says that Nietzsche has either been ignored or caricatured. Fascist and racist ideologues had used Nietzsche for explaining their ideologies. Any one aiming for power would be attracted to this philosophy of tackling people not bothering about their images in active life. It makes a leader very powerful, as it liberates him from preconceived notions of character analysis. It extends his possibility of commanding. It helps him realize all the people are the same and can be managed. The political frame work and Nietzsche’s background have his works the political platform for interpretation.

Russell viewed Nietzsche as a literary philosopher in his book History of Western Philosophy. He says, “He invented no new theories in ontology or epistemology; his importance is primarily in ethics, and secondarily as an acute historical critic” (687).  Nietzsche did not prefer weaker minds and expected only tough responses to life. Russell does not appreciate the power philosophy in the tradition of Schopenhauer in Nietzsche’s works: his noble man is only concerned with his power. Interestingly, Schacht refers to the picture of Russell’s Nietzsche as “absurd” (p.x).

Human philosophies are born out of historical experiences teaching the mind new perspectives. As Mind adjusted itself to the environment, after it created systems for utility purposes, it began describing it, analyzing its features, questioning the validity of itself all the time.

“Nietzsche was temperamentally attuned to nihilism”, says R.J. Hollingdale. He was the “precursor of the coming general nihilism”. His thoughts were destructive of “former certainties”. There is some “dangerous element” in his thought (p.4).

Nietzsche himself acknowledges this quality in his philosophy and he refers to the formula of “Beyond Good and Evil” as a “dangerous formula”, in his book Beyond Good and Evil. We are not “free thinkers”. Travel confines us. “Preferences and prejudices” are “agreeable nooks”. Nietzsche says:

Having been at home, or at least guests, in many realms of spirit;  having escaped again and again from the gloomy, agreeable nooks in which preferences and prejudices, youth, origin, the accident of men and books, or even the weariness of travel seemed to confine us; full of malice  against the seductions of dependency which lie concealed in honours, money, positions, or exaltation of the senses; grateful even for distress and the vicissitudes of illness, because they always free us from some rule, and its “prejudice”, grateful to the God, devil, sheep, and worm in us;…” (p.32).

How does the Indian thought of “maya” or “representation” get portrayed by the western mind is an interesting question as taken by Schopenhauer. Thinking beyond good and evil is an Indian concept that helps one to achieve detachment. Nietzsche portrays it as a power system.

Spiritual concepts can be interpreted as power systems. Prayer for instance is a method that is expected to give strength of mind. Priests have always been powerful in any society. With the Descarthian division of religion from philosophy, western thought has centered on reason only. Philosophy has broken away from theology in the west, whereas in India the tradition still continues. Spiritual energy is created in philosophical thought. The question is if we can read Nietzsche from an Indian perspective. 
Detachment if practiced well becomes an ingredient for leadership. To Nietzsche it appears very clearly. To the Indian mind it does not stop with that; it aims at moving beyond to the next birth, leaving all bonds here; the soul avoids further bondage from its actions; it has to reach God, an element westerners have kept away from logical analysis after the seventeenth century.

When Schopenhauer and Nietzsche have come under the impact of Indian thought, it is only partial; they have taken the material aspects of Indian thought; they have not accepted the element of God and the concept of previous birth and next birth; they have not accepted the concept of the soul traveling, taking various forms in its journey. The Indian concept of detachment, becomes a system of power building. Helping the super man to be born, one who is not bowed down by sorrow or happiness, a great man.

The concept called “iruvinai” ( Vinaayagar Agaval, line, 30), referring to the causes of good and causes of evil, is strange to the western mind. It is so caught in its philosophy of kindness and self-sacrifice; it does not want to see beyond. Nietzsche studies the sentiment of surrender and sacrifice. The morality that aims at self-renunciation has to be analyses thoroughly for serious implications he suggests (p.25).

We have to question these elements in human thought as there is “self-contradiction” in human mind. It is a kind of “logical violation” and man in his “pride”, has wanted to believe in free will. There is a desire to bear responsibility or actions. Man wants “to absolve God”. There is no “non-free will”. We have only “strong and weak wills” (p.15).  Further he argues the “weak willed” can  “pose as  “la religion de la souffrance humaine”; that is its  “good taste”” (p.16). This is the reason why Indian thought calls both good and bad as creating the prison of actions. Man does not know his own motives. His  “instinct of self-preservation” (p.9) stops him planning completely selfless activities. To achieve an ultimately clean soul, one needs to think beyond both good and bad.

Schopenhauer refers to Indian philosophy which aims at the treatment of human attitudes as illusion. He says in Will and Representation: “The Vedas and Puranas know no better simile for the whole knowledge of the actual world, called by them, the web of Maya, than the dream: only the philosopher strives to be awake” (p.17). The immense distrust in human nature colours Indian thinking. When Nietzsche  took these values to the western world, the critical thought branded his thought as nihilistic. Or striving towards the ultimate liberation from human actions is considered as Nazistic or fascistic, encouraging terrorism. Indian thought is neither nihilistic nor does it direct towards any fascism. It aims at the liberation of the soul from the bondage of the body.

Schopenhauer writes further: “Reason can always only know; perception remains free from its influence, and belongs to understanding alone” (p.25). Western philosophical inquiry system ignores human irrational perceptions that are fundamental for understanding the phenomenon. Indian system tries to think beyond perceptions trying to put all elements together in an effort to understand life. The literal style of writing of Nietzsche’s shows distrust of rigorous philosophic discourse. Thinking beyond perceptions help us to think beyond identities. Liberation from identities, from the body, is the aim of Indian thought as revealed in Indian philosopher poets.

What is evil? It is something that threatens the general sentiment. When we have studied the element of good, it becomes necessary to study the components of evil. Nietzsche writes:

The lofty independent spirituality, the will to stand alone, and even the cogent reason, are felt to be dangers: everything that elevates the individual above the herd, and is a source of fear to the neighbour, is henceforth called evil; the tolerant, unassuming, self-adapting, self-equalizing disposition, the mediocrity of desires, attains to moral distinction and honour (p.67).

The lines can very easily be misinterpreted. They sound as if the writer is supporting selfishness. What he is trying to do is to show the goodness in evil; it does not pretend; it is just strong will; it shows originality; it does not put on shows; it dares to think on its own. What is perceived as evil is not actually evil. Similarly, what is perceived as good is not actually good. Goodness hides selfishness. Evil hides goodness. Bernard Shaw was so impressed with this idea that he wrote Devil’s disciple to show how evil is well hidden in a good human heart and vice versa. World literature and universal thought has always emphasized this idea. In India it has evolved in a strong philosophic system that is present in oral traditions and written traditions.

Avvaiyaar says: “Teach me to know myself” (line 55).  We all know about our good qualities. We refuse to accept our bad qualities. It takes a lot of courage to be aware of our evil. Avvaiyaar asks God to give her the ability to learn about herself.  This is the Indian ideal. Nietzsche studies the pre-history period when morality was not yet born. Roughly ten thousand years back the concept of 'Know Thyself' must have been born, he argues. The morality that was born was an “intention-morality” (p.25). There is a materialistic expectation in even the desire for self-knowledge. Human thought cannot escape the self-preservative quality, is his argument. This does not mean he throws away the significance of morality. He just points out the self-centeredness of any philosophic argument.  In India such thought is considered absolutely natural. It is not seen as an attitude against morality. It is seen as a step beyond the established attitudes. Avvaiyaar writes:

Remove the sins of my previous birth

Make me without thoughts and ideas

Clear my mind from prejudices

Teach me light and darkness is the same (lines 56-59)

The evil abhorred by the human mind contains in itself goodness is Indian philosophy. India has created concepts like kaanal neer, the sunshine on the sand. Schopenhauer mentions it discussing the ancient wisdom of Indians. One cannot say whether what one sees is true or not. It can be the rope or serpent. The world is basically a matter of representation. If we think it is rope it is rope, and if we think it is snake, it is indeed snake (p. 8).  A detached mind has to see more than what is obvious. It is not attached to any particular thought or ides. Release me from such prisons of thought, Avvaiyaar pleads.

Nietzsche gained notoriety as a destroyer of moral truths. Moral meaning is outside the scope of science. A scientific analysis will teach us our world is ruled by the rule of chance. Hollingdale further says that at this point that the “moral anarchy” suggested by Nietzsche paves way to “naïve violence” becoming an aspect of the “fascist Nietzsche” (5). Nietzsche anticipates Auschwitz. When we look back European response to Nietzsche in the twentieth century, it does look like as if his words gained more relevance during the twentieth century. Nietzsche does read like a prophet from this perspective.

Hollingdale also agrees to this perspective and says that Nietzsche foresaw quite clearly “That Twentieth century Europe would be violent, amoral and nihilist”(p.7). Ted Hughes in his poems repeatedly describes this violent, amoral, nihilistic world. The nothingness suggested in Nietzsche’s works came to be interpreted as black nihilism. Nietzsche’s respect for the East was very high. He refers to the Orient as “profound Orient” (p.34). The German society was highly aware of Indian society and knowledge systems and he says:

The wonderful family resemblance of all Indian, Greek, and German philosophizing is easily explained. In fact, where there is affinity of language, owing to the common philosophy of grammar – I mean owing to the unconscious domination and guidance of similar grammatical functions – it cannot but be that everything is prepared at the outset for a similar development and succession of philosophical systems (p.14).

We have to read the interpretations of Nietzsche from the perspectives of how his works were published and by whom and for what purpose along with the history of twentieth century. The immense pain witnessed by the era brought out a new life to philosophy as the people wanted to understand the religion of the west and tried to see if it had anything to do with the strong dogmas that led to such great destruction.  The Right did have a lot of issues, is one of the major elements of thought released after the Second World War. Nietzsche’s thoughts did become current now used by various people from various positions. The western mind is trained by concepts like forgiveness and self-sacrifice, very sure of its righteousness and could not understand the concept of detachment. The Indian mistrust of goodness or evil is looked upon as nihilism.

It could be the fact that Nietzsche had Polish roots, gave him the clarity and objectivity and the necessary emotional distance to view the German life around him with distaste. He objected to the political ambitions of the Bismarckian Empire.

How can redefine the thing, is the constant question of human intellectual energy. Metaphysics and materialism go hand in hand configuring the altitude of itself. Human ambition dreams of perfection, trying to reach beyond its creation of morality structures.

What is morality? The basis of moralizing is an effort of the mind to rationalize cause and effect. It keeps trying to evolve logic for behaviour: What will be the cause of this result? What will happen as a result of certain actions?

The Karma theory arose when man could not justify cause and effect. Certain variables present in history cannot be explained in a scientific manner within the time span of our life. These variables are present due to one’s actions in the previous birth, Karma theory tells us.

The misinterpretation of Karma theory is why move, why act, as any dynamics now does not decide the end, as the end is directed by the dynamics of the previous birth. Mind observes, forms perceptions and is caught within it, as Nietzsche says.

It also tries to move beyond these perceptions as the example of Nietzsche shows. What are the usual perceptions? Heaven and Hell. This perception of Heaven and Hell takes the fear of man with it. Heaven is bright and hell is dark. This perception must have been born when man lived in caves when his confidence went low during the night.

Light was a reassuring structure and human mind froze it into a metaphysical unit, called Heaven. Light came to signify faith, hope, knowledge, and divinity – the whole compressed into a concept called God. Darkness automatically came to represent all qualities thrust against light. Man’s thought moved between the framework of Light and Darkness, the hero and villain.

Epics, dramas, and songs were born within this morality of the mind. When we look at the historical development of human thoughts, we meet a time when these ideas were being born. We have to constantly remind ourselves about this period.

Jacques Derrida shows the impact of Nietzsche on his philosophy when he analyses “universal thought”. There is an “anxiety about language”(p.1). Derrida discusses Maurice Blanchot’s thought: “Only pure absence – not the absence of this or that, but the absence of everything in which all presence is announced – can inspire, in other words, can work, and then make one work”(7). Language represents human emotions and prejudices and it is extremely difficult to think beyond these structures.

Thirumoolar (who lived around 8^th century A.D.) writes similar thoughts in his Tenth Thirumurai. One who perceives beyond these established emotions and ideas can be called the wise men. Thirumoolar calls them as “Atruninraar” – the detached. He says, “ Virtue is the food of the detached” (155). Thiruvalluvr has a chapter called “Neethaar Perumai” (Chapter 3, Arathupaal). The ten verses discuss the greatness of objectivity, going beyond good and evil. Intelligence is the ability to analyze emotions. These emotions are the result of man’s five senses. (Verse 27) The wise man reaches beyond these spheres of human thought (p.79). Thirukkural is dated back by two thousand years.

This is basically Indian system of  thought that has been present in Indian philosophy, in oral traditions and has reached the West.   Schopenhauer read the Volumes of Asiatic Researches brought out by Sir William Jones. Thoughts are conditioned by subjectivity and they exist only for the subject “The world is representation” and  this “basic truth was recognized by the sages of India, since it appears as the fundamental tenet of the Vedanta philosophy”(3), he argues.  The world and will are representations of human mind. These thoughts found their roots in Indian thought. Schopenhauer quotes from Asiatic Researches:

The fundamental tenet of the Vedantic School consisted not in denying the existence of matter, that is, of solidity, impenetrability, and extended figure (to deny which would be lunacy), but in correcting the popular notion of it, and in contending that it has no essence independent of mental perception; that existence and perceptibility are convertible terms (p.4)                 

Mental perceptions become systems of thought. The existence of these systems is convertible. Perceptibility is flexible. In Indian thought we refer to this as “maya” or illusion. The wise man or the philosopher constantly searches for the real truth beneath these perceptions that can keep changing their quality all the time. Derrida’s contention that meaning shifts is born from this position. Derrida says, “Speaking frightens me because, by never saying enough, I also say too much” (p.9). Meaning escapes us, taking its nature from the situation, time and place. There is a flexibility attached to it. He quotes Merleau-Ponty who said, “My own words take me by surprise and teach me what I think”(11). Writing is only the representation of our emotions and our thoughts derive from our emotions.  Writing can free itself from this nature of subjectivity in expression.

Derrida argues that structuralism refuses to acknowledge this fluidity of writing itself. He says,

Structure is then the unity of a form and a meaning. It is true that in some places the form of the work, or the form as the work, is treated as if it had no origin, as if, again, in the masterpiece……- the wellbeing of the work was without history (15).

The history of writing goes to its emotional foundation having a good and evil. This is a kind of division of humanity. What is good for one section may not be good for another section. Post structuralism studies the impermanence of the Word. It questions the fixed nature of language.  What is the history of language? How are words born? Why do we have representations for things we have not even seen? These are questions post structuralism has taken up. The questions sound very familiar to the Indian mind. These questions have been in Indian mind for a few millenniums.

Schopenhauer writes about human power to create sign systems that has brought in so many languages, cultural artifacts and so on:

The world is my representation: this is a truth valid with reference to every living and knowing being, although man alone can bring it into reflective, abstract consciousness. If he really does so, philosophical discernment has dawned on him. It then becomes clear and certain to him that he does not know a sun and an earth, but only an eye that sees a sun, a hand that feels an earth; that the world around him is there only as representation, in other words, only in reference to another thing, namely that which represents, and this is himself (p.3).

Nietzsche was completely influenced by Schopenhauer. Christopher Janaway writes in his book Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche’s educator that Nietzsche was thoroughly affected by the “terrifying grandeur” of Schopenhauer’s philosophy, quoting the words of Nietzsche himself.  Nietzsche came under the influence of Schopenhauer during his student days. “Nine years later, at the age of 30, he had published The Birth of Tragedy and three of his Untimely Meditations” (p.4). Janaway writes: “Instinctive sexuality is at our core, interfering constantly with the life of the intellect. To be an individual expression of this will is to lead a life of continual desire, deficiency, and suffering” (p.2).

Avvaiyaar takes up this issue in her Vinayagar Agaval. The poem blends three elements – body, intellect and soul. Through yoga it stimulates the body, teaches the intellect to think beyond good and evil and trains the soul to liberate itself. Indian mind has not rejected irrational God and the next birth. It aims at living in this world with a trained body and mind and plans for the next birth too. Avvaiyaar begins her verse with an invocation to God:

Oh! Lord beyond words- pure wisdom

Elephant Lord! Showering miracles, blessings

Your feet are soft and pink like the Lotus

Your anklets are ringing musically

You are dressed in soft clothes with golden chains

Your bright beauty is striking (p.8).

The specialty of the Indian philosophic thought is to accept metaphysics. It borders on the philosophical model provided by Emmanuel Levinas. Bringing God within a rational philosophical framework is negated by the western philosophical model framed by the logical method of Aristotle and Plato. Derrida put it as “the subjectivity of religion” (p.138). The subjective nature of religion has made the westerner keep it outside philosophical frames. Avvaiyaar integrates religion and philosophy just like Thirumoolar, though Thiruvalluvar does not refer to particular God, but only as God. Whatever it is, the Indian philosophy has accepted God into philosophy.

Avvaiyaar asks God: “Destroy the illusion of birth” (line 18). Further she says, “Teach me to control five senses” (line 27) and “Destroy both good and evil in me” (line 30). Godliness is closely associated with wisdom.

Thirumoolar says in the same vein asking God to help the human mind to dissociate from this illusion of life:

The ones who know themselves know God

The ones who know themselves are virtuous

The ones who know themselves become philosophers

The ones who know themselves acquire Godliness. (Verse 251- Book 1, P.154)

This attitude does not allow moral fanaticism, as when we know ourselves, we come to see the presence of contradictory perspectives in our mind. Knowing ourselves, which is also the Greek philosophic tradition, is integrated into religion in India. Nietzsche warns us against “moral fanaticism”(p.59), in Beyond Good and Evil. Nietzsche questions the morality of Greek thought that explains evil as the result of ignorance. The subjectivity created by emotions are with us through out our life. Our fundamental nature is “accustomed to lying”(p.61). Art derives from this point, he argues further. How do we explain art and philosophy? Indian thought merges them into one. It asks God to integrate body, intellect and soul.

A mature civilization like India has learnt to unlearn certain thought regulars to re-understand  or redefine its creations and has created concepts to help people to tackle life in a particular manner. It can be a sign of human evolution. We need to move beyond the usual conceptions of good and evil, the only to be detached from this birth; to avoid carrying the burden of action that might lead to another birth; to treat life as maya helps us to think beyond good and evil; looking at life as impermanent helps a soul to travel fast; these are steps for the soul that has to be achieved with the help of a well trained body and intellect; one cannot negate the body and intellect, instead these elements have to be trained.  We want to break free from the rigidity of narrow thinking and move beyond.

Nietzsche’s quest is the human search for liberation from the result of actions. He does try to go beyond the concept of “representation” of Schopenhauer. Reality is “our world of desires and passions” or “impulses”. It cannot be an “illusion”. In reality “everything still lies locked in a mighty unity”. This further develops into “self-regulation, assimilation,…synthetically united .. as primary form of life”. Later “it is commanded by the conscience of logical method”(p.27).  Illusion means that whatever appears alone is not the meaning, as meaning  is the constitution of what is seen and what is unseen.

Nevertheless, he does continue his argument of thinking beyond representations and perceptions. The philosophical system in which he found himself allowed probably only this much, as even this is found strange by his contemporaries. The western single minded development of intellectual analysis has negated the other two important issues – body and soul. Therefore when Indian thought is taken abroad it gets filtered, only one part of three is taken, that changes the meaning. Going beyond good and evil, in India is not to become a powerful individual, but to reach God. Did practicing detachment make people more powerful should be another separate study.

Avvaiyaar would call it the liberation from the twin actions of good and evil. She says: “Cut the twin chains and remove darkness” (line 30). Her 72 line philosophical, yogic, hymn foregrounds the need to liberate one from the results of good and bad actions.  From a materialistic perspective, it does help us live in peace, giving us a neutral attitude. Avvaiyaar ends her hymn thanking Vinayagar for teaching her the Panchatcha Mantram that helps the soul reach God:

You have taught me the meaning of five letters

It is embedded in my heart

You have taught me a philosophic bearing

I surrender at your feet, you wise One! (lines 69-72)

Should we include theological discussions in intellectual systems, is a current question. When the east meets the west, the west dismisses eastern thought for this very reason.  India has rejected pure philosophy and has included God into its thinking. Emmanuel Levinas understood this need for including the Beyond in philosophy, understanding life only with the help of intellect may not be possible.

Works  cited

Avvaiyaar. Vinayagar Agaval. Explanatory notes by Vijayarangan. Chennai: Ganapathy Pathippagam, 2009.

Derrida, Jacques. Writing and Difference. London: Routledge, 2001.

Hollingdale, R.J.  Nietzsche.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1973.

Janaway, Christopher. Willing and Nothingness: Schopenhauer as Nietzsche’s Educator. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.

Russell, Bertrand. History of Western Philosophy. Routledge, 2004.

Schacht, Richard .  Nietzsche.  Routledge,  1985.

Schopenhauer, Arthur. Vol. 1. The world as will and Representation. Tran. E.F.Payne. Dover Publications, 1966.

Scrift D. Alan. Nietzsche and the Question of Interpretation: Between Hermeneutics and Deconstruction. Routledge, 1990.

Thirumoolar. Vol.1.Thirumanthiram. Explanatory notes by A.Manickam. Chennai: Varthamaanan Pathippagam, 2004.

Thiruvalluvar. Thirukkural. Explanatory notes by P.S.Acharya. Chennai: Narmadha Pathippagam, 2006.