"Whether an object which has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object? Whether a ship which was restored by replacing all and every of its wooden parts, remained the same ship?"
Somewhere in the 1st Century CE Greece, the great philosopher Plutarch is compiling an argument that deals with the constant change and the state of flux of the world, ans which is also known as "Theseus's Paradox", "grandfather's axe", and "Trigger's Broom". Plutarch, in his seminal "Life of Theseus" elaborates:
"The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, in so much that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same."Plutarch's argument is apparently based on his predecessors, mainly Heraclitus, who has extensively contemplated on the idea of change, and whose writing have striking similarities with those of the Charvaka, Sankhya and then Buddhist cannons of his era.
When treated strictly as a philosophical thought experiment, the strongest supporting argument for "Theseus's paradox" can be found within the premises of Shunyta - dependent origination, eternal change, ans non-self.
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In this 2013 film by the same name - "Ship of Theseus" - debutant Bollywood director Anand Gandhi renders the following Prakrit verse with some very powerful imagery to portray this millennia old theology of agnosticism, atheism, compassion, impermanence and the so-called the philosophy of change, which captures the essence of many eastern "religions" being practiced by no less than a billion people today.The original verse of this now extinct Charvaka tradition survives in the oral traditions in Gujarati language. For this adaptation, the director translated them back first from Gujarati into Prakrit, and then into English. From the song "nAham jAnAmi kampI dEvam na daIvam", the first line below captures the Prakrit verse from the video using devnagari script, followed by its English translation as it appears on screen.
Naham Janami (song)
नाहं जाणामि कंपि देवं न दईवं, णत्थि इसरो णियन्ता ।
There are no celestial beings I know of, there is no god
णत्थि सग्गभूमि ण णिरयं ।
Neither heaven nor hell
णो जगकत्ता णो विकत्ताय ण य जगईसरो कोवि ।
Neither a preserver, nor an owner of this universe
ण रक्खओ ण भक्खओ ।
Neither a creator nor a destroyer
ण य कालाईओ आदित्ठो दन्दनाईओ ।
No eternal judge
कम्मुणो चेव दण्डं । (2)
There is only the law of causality
हं सयमेव सट्ठा भोत्ता य मे सुहदुह - पियाप्पिअसंजोगाण ।
I take responsibilities for my actions and their consequences
अप्पसरियो जीवो सव्वाण सुहुमतिसुहुमेसु ।
The smallest of creatures have a life-force just like mine
नत्थु कोवि कयापि दुहिओ मया ।
May I never cause any harm to anybody
सया मे इइ संवेअणा ।
May I always have such compassion
सच्चस्स मग्गा बहवे, सच्चो य एगरुबो णवरं ।
The truth is multifaceted, and there are many ways to reach it
समया मे मणो दुव्विहअवस्थासु ।
May I find balance in this duality
मम पत्थणा - निज्जरउ अन्नाणकंमं ।
I pray, may my karma of ignorance be shed
शुद्धसासयरुवो हं इइ अत्थु मे सद्दंसणंअन्ते - ण य भवउ चवियं,
May my true self be liberated from the cycle of life and death
मे पयं मोक्खमग्गओ ।
And attain moksha (by walking the path to nirvana/liberation)
