I had a hard time finding songs that relate to liberation so I went ahead and chose songs about peace and just finding you. I feel like that’s something that can be reached once one gains liberation. Many, not all, Hindus believe that liberation is that ultimate goal in life. Moksha, the sanscrit term used to describe this ultimate goal frees a person from samsara. Samsara is the continuous cycle of death and rebirth and is to be avoided by any believer of Hinduism. If I was a follower of Hinduism, I probably would also want to avoid this never-ending cycle of switching bodies. One of the ways to reach liberation is to renounce earthly desires. One must overcome the fear of death as well. Westerners are infamous for being greedy and desiring mundane things like wealth, popularity and fame. Therefore, finding songs about fame and success was very easy. We want more than we need; I suppose is what I’m trying to get at. If we begin to limit our desires to things that are actually important and live off of those, then we begin to understand the mindset of a Hindu that is trying to attain moksha. We can learn from Hinduism that it is indeed more humbling to do things in moderation that to drown in constant self-indulgence.
What is success according to dharma? In worldly terms, success is measured solely by looking at a person’s professional and personal life. Well-paying jobs, educated spouse, and intelligent children are considered to be good signs of a successful life. According to Sri Swami Sivananda, there are ten tips that one must consider to achieve success. I can’t list all of them, but one of them is to “Live in the present. Forget the past. Give up hopes of the future.” Another one says, “Life is thy greatest gift. Utilize every second profitably.” If you’re interested in knowing about the remaining eight tips, you can visit this link: http://hinduism.about.com/od/gurussaints/a/success.htm J
SUCCESS SONGS
Fergie, “Glamorous”, other, 2007
Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, “When you Believe”, R&B, 1998
Drake, “Successful”, Hip-Hop, 2010
Lady Gaga, “The Fame”, Pop, 2008
Turn the Page
Liberation( peace)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-KAvPbO8JY George Harrison, “Give me love”, Rock, 1973
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqOU2ox_tk8 Eagles, “Peaceful Easy Feeling” Rock, 1972
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXCSxLIJD9k Billy Joel, “ River of Dreams”, 1993
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5kmCgVhADY The Who, “Who are you”, Rock, 1979
Elvis Costello
I think you took an interesting approach to finding songs about peace and finding yourself due to your frustration over finding songs for liberation. I've found that most of the Hindu aims seem to be interchangeable when it comes to finding songs because they overlap in so many different areas. (BTW, love you're use of Elvis Costello, I love him)
ReplyDeleteI really like how you mention that success is not only about their professional life, but the professional combined with the personal life. Your examples were things I would have never thought about pop culture's judging of success, like the educated spouse and intelligent children. These are probably some of the most positive and healthy examples of success because wealth and popularity tend to have adverse effects, while intelligence does not. I also really enjoyed your music selections as well as Sri Swami Sivananda's ten tips.
ReplyDeleteI think that the aim of liberation was also hard to find. I completely agree with you about success relating to Hindu dharma. The four aims of Hinduism like you pointed out do not encourage things in excess but rather smaller quantities to ultimately achieve moksha. I found that more often then not songs about success or previous aim of pleasure are depicted as overindulgent and not used for unselfish reasons.
ReplyDeleteI kind of felt that the liberation aim was not that hard to find I found it rather easy to find songs about feeling free and feeling like there is no frustration or angry in you.Tthe Liberation aim to me was closely related to the pleasure aim which was more prevalent to me in the last blog. I like how you related blog moreso on the ideas of Hinduism than just saying what was different or similar in finding songs, for those who couldn't find a way to do this you summed it up very well.
ReplyDeleteI think that many people, including myself had trouble deciding on liberation songs, so we took a different approach to it. I also found songs about "just finding you." One of the songs I posted was "Ridin Solo" by Jason Derulo. This song was about being out of a relationship, being single, and independent and just being all about yourself for once. I think that though Hinduism believes that liberation is the ultimate goal, people in American society view it as more of a present state of life to aim for, rather than wanting to be freed from everything in the future. Also, it's interesting that you started talking about how we should limit our desires to things. In terms of success, if we limit success to worldly and materialistic things, I don't believe that the Hindu definition of liberation can be reached, since liberation means being free from everything.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that for the LIberation aim you chose songs about "finding you". I totally agree that in American culture that is what we may think of as success, but in Hinduism wouldn't you think liberation is moreso about losing you? Separating oneself from the self (or jiva) is a way to escape moksha and attain ultimate liberation. It's interesting how American's focus so much on ourselves and finding ourselves and Hindu's just want to escape themselves.
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