According

guage. Physical pleasures such as eating and drinking
drag a person down. If his faculties are tuned in
the opposite direction, he sees the truth as intensely
as he sees the phenomenal world! Swamiji says repeatedly:
‘Get up and manifest the divinity that is
already in you’, give up this making and breaking of
mud pies. You are perfect already; learn to manifest
it. Again: ‘Immortal man, dreaming mortal
dreams!’ The difference between Plato and Indian
thought seems to be that the latter considers mukti,
liberation, the birthright of every human being; for
Plato, very few achieve it.
Those who have achieved the ‘good’ in Plato’s
republic would not be allowed to stay in the ‘upper
world’. They would be forced to become guardians
or ministers of state for the welfare of the general
public. They may view this as unjust and repugnant,
but the aim of the state is the greater good, the welfare
of the state as a whole, and the guardians must
sacrifice themselves to serve it. Here Plato gives the
meaning of the word ‘republic’ as res plus publica,
the welfare of the state. He feels that young people
who show the right character and qualities must go
through rigorous training to become future guardians.
He goes on to mention that the state ought to
nurture and educate them to be kings of the hive, to
rule in virtue and wisdom, not for wealth. Since the
guardians have no taste for governance, they would
be the wisest rulers. Thus, the state as a whole prospers
and its citizens achieve the best they are capable
of: ‘The release of the prisoners from chains, and
their translation from the shadows to the images
and to the light, and the ascent from the underground
den to the sun … this power of elevating the
highest principle in the soul to the contemplation
of that which is best in existence, with which we
may compare the raising of that faculty which is the
very light of the body to the sight of that which is
brightest in the material and visible world ’ (194).
The dialectic proceeds through ‘study and pursuit
of the arts’ so that we perceive not just an image
but the absolute Truth. It leads to knowledge of
true existence and the true nature of each material
thing. ‘The eye of the soul, which is literally buried
PB August 2009
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: A Vedantic Reading 37
in an outlandish slough, is … lifted upwards’ (195).
The reference to the eye of the soul is in some ways
reminiscent of Shiva’s third eye, though of course
that has a much deeper and broader connotation.
The discourse finally attains a ‘conception of the
essence of each thing’. This whole exercise of drawing
up a blueprint for the ideal state and for the
nurturing and training of philosopher kings is not
a ‘dream’: ‘When the true philosopher kings are
born in a State, one or more of them, despising the
honours of this present world which they deem
mean and worthless, esteeming above all things
right and the honour that springs from right, and
regarding justice as the greatest and most necessary
of all things, whose ministers they are, and whose
principles will be exalted by them when they set in
order their own city’ (202).
There are too many echoes, too many similarities
and parallels between Plato’s allegory of the
cave and Indian thought. I have quoted extensively
from Swami Vivekananda. Apart from the depth
and sweep of his insight, the point of course is that
he relied extensively on the Upanishads and other
scriptures, which definitely pre-date Plato. And
the voice of the Upanishads reverberate eternally:
‘I shall tell you in half a couplet that which has
been stated in millions of Vedanta books: Brahman
alone is real, and the world illusory; man is
none other than Brahman.’ 7
P
References
1. Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (London: Taylor
& Francis, 2009), 7.
2. Plato, The Republic, trans. Benjamin Jowett (New
York: Dover, 2000), 177–8.
3. Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy
(London: Allen & Unwin, 1946), 143.
4. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 9 vols
(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1–8, 1989; 9, 1997),
2.119.
5. Her Devotee-Children, The Gospel of The Holy
Mother Sri Sarada Devi (Chennai: Ramakrishna
Math, 2002), 185.
6. The Republic, 180–1.
7. Ātmabodhaḥ: Self-knowledge, trans. Swami Nikhilananda
(Madras: Ramakrishna Math, 1967) 222.
477