The kingdom within the hut: Ethical education and story -telling in the “Yogavāsistha”

This dissertation explores a difficulty haunting Advaita (non-dualist) philosophy as developed in the Yogavāsistha : the significance assigned to morality in a world considered to be an illusion, specifically a dream. If the world is a dream and sentient beings just figures in a dream, why is there such a demand for goodness and decency? Anything goes in a dream. One can lie, steal, and kill with impunity. There is no substantial ‘I’, no substantial ‘thou’ to harm and be harmed. And yet, virtue in conduct and character is not just prized but demanded by ancient Indian philosophers. In this dissertation, I explore the conceptual connections between an illusory world, story-telling, and the virtuous activities of the liberated sage. My main contentions are that Vasistha's concept of the world-as-illusion has significant similarities with fictional stories and that the world-as-story analogy provides the link between morality and illusion.