KNOW THYSELF AND MEANING OF LIFE

Abstract

Gnōthi sauton – ‘Know Thyself’ – is written on the wall of Apollo’s temple at Delphi, and those who seek Apollo’s guidance should first know themselves before they could seek guidance to their actual situations. For Socrates, and for most philosophers after him, ‘the unexamined life is not worth the living’ and the most important knowledge to be pursued was self-knowledge. Paradoxically enough, Plato engaged in Dialogues for self-knowledge showing that self-knowledge is gained through others; it is a fundamentally a social form of knowledge. So, for instance, according to Plato, by gazing into the eyes of your lover, you gaze into a window of the self. Rather than the Cartesian cogito ergo sum – I think, therefore I am – the classical tradition advocated sumus ergo sum – we are therefore I am. It is in conversation and collaboration that one would know thy self. The Indian classical tradition identified atmavidya (self knowledge) with brhamavidya (knowledge of the
Absolute), because Reality is one without a second. For St Augustine, ‘God alone knows who he truly is’ and his prayer was ‘Let me know myself and know thee.’ More importantly atmavidya is seen as atmasakshatkara (selfrealisation) showing that the question is ontological rather than epistemological; know thyself is actually an invitation to become thyself.