| Sumario: | The Ṛgveda, with its ritual transactions, is implicitly predicated on a view of pleasure, that is, transactional. Pleasure is the product of the rewards for giving in ritual contexts. The Taittirīya Upaniṣad (TU), in contrast, contains a more explicit consideration of pleasure. The text alludes to Ṛgvedic pleasure in terms of the symbolism of food (anna). It offers alternative theories of pleasure, which are dispositional, that is, dependent on self-control, asceticism, and internal judgment. The article examines this work of the TU and considers the psychological dilemma associated with an objectless state (mokṣa) which may, or may not, be pleasurable. The central argument is that the post-Vedic developments in the psychology of the self and the morality of self-restraint developed into the discovery of distinct types of affective states.
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