In this set of aims, success was the easier theme to find throughout American (and in my case British) music. Similar to the pleasure aim, one of the things we want in life is to be successful. I’m sure that in most of our minds the flow chart is the following: success = money = stability = happiness. In Hinduism this may be another “get it out of your system” aim; become successful so you can become content with life, then when that contentment later turns into restlessness devote your life to achieving liberation. In this case the interpretation of success in Hinduism does mean wealth and fame, so it does directly relate to the theme of success found in Western music. However, I think Americans tend to focus more on the journey. Everyone loves to hear a good success story about a poor, destitute individual rising to wealth and greatness.
Liberation was the hardest out of all four aims to find. Even some of the songs I have are stretching the definition of liberation pretty thin. Reading and interpreting the lyric is almost necessary because of the lack of straight forward meaning. I think this is just because (unless you’re like The Beatles who were influenced by Hinduism) Americans don’t have an accurate understanding of the concept because we weren’t raised with those ideals. The songs that I did find conveyed a generalized sense of freedom. Then when I started thinking about how the four aims related to each other and to Western music I didn’t see any connection at all, liberation seemed completely separate. Then I realized that we can use the other three aims to feel the simple emotion: happiness. We desire things that define the other three aims so that we can achieve a sense of happiness outside of our everyday reality. However, this sense of Western liberation is getting away from one material reality by focusing on other material ideals from the same world. Hinduism focuses on leaving everything material behind and realizing that atman (the true self) is identical to Brahman (the ultimate, eternal reality).
I had a difficult time finding liberation songs too. And I think that some of mine were stretched as well. It's hard to tell what a song is really about unless you listen hard and try to decipher the deeper meanings of songs, which it may or may not have. In which then we're just trying too hard. Which may have been why so many of us had difficulty. It always seems that you can never find what you're looking for and then you find it when you're not.
ReplyDeleteI found that I had the same problems as you with liberation. Your explanation of our materialistic culture is spot on. No wonder we have so few songs about getting away from our cars and houses to achieve a greater state of being. Most of the songs that I used focused on a completely different form of liberation rather than that of the Hindu's aims. I am sure that The Beatles are one of the only western bands that would have ever sung about liberation in the same context.
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