Abstract
The author of the Yogavīsistha Mahīrīmī yana has liberation (moksa) foremost on her or his mind and this focus appears to relegate virtue (dharma) to poor relation status. Yet, Rīma's question to Vasistha is, 'How should one live in this world?' This signals a strongly ethical stance and opens another avenue of exploration; the possibility that the teachings on the realisation of liberation are concomitant with the teachings regarding the embodiment of virtue. The aim of this paper is to flesh out the admittedly skeletal frame of virtue by comparing the theories in the Yogavīsistha with Aristotle's elaboration of virtue in the Nicomachean Ethics. I argue that, in spite of fundamental metaphysical differences between the two philosophers, the stages of moral development described in the Yogavīsistha harmonise with Aristotle's theories and provide insights into problems that arise in Aristotle's work.
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