God - an investigation - Part 8 - Advaita - an uncertain state of being..

“Advaita” is a beautiful word:  Its esoteric meaning indicating a precarious sense of Non-duality, a kind of dialectic cul-de-sac that points to nowhere. The Hindu mystics coined this term realizing early in their introspective adventure that the Universe will remain a composition of polar opposites, only as long as one continues to verbalize and pigeon-hole experiences – otherwise all that it is:  is merely a continuum that oscillates between being and non-being: like music- which in its essence, is a delicate, intangible flow of absorbing silences interspersed with accentuating noises. One without the other cannot exist, and the Human ear needs to hear those “silences” as much as those noises in-between to recreate the magic within the brain. Our ‘core self’ abstracts the minutiae of this process of Silence/Noise from the lens of consciousness, and coalesces discrete pieces of experience into a wholesome flow, which we know and admire as Music. The funny thing though is that neuroscience has categorically proved that there is no single unifying agent within the body that’s stitches together this seamless reality for us. It seems to be manifestation born out of a confluence of many different parts of the Human organism and its environment. Though, we would like to believe that there is a singular entity within us that inhabits this body and governs its destiny. In reality, Neither Science not Religion (in its true sense) actually advocates or pursues this idea. The notion of a 'self' as a pattern- oscillating within a certain degree of uncertainty, depends upon the level of its magnification. Just as, when our blood stream is observed under the powerful glare of a microscope, we see a million cells and microbes jostling, pushing, and devouring each other. And if one were forced to take sides, we would definitely want certain micro –organisms to win against others. At a higher level of abstraction, it is an insane position to take; because it is this very “warfare” that keeps the organism alive and kicking. So it is with everything else. Nothing is certain and static. If at all, anything can be considered as constant, it is the pattern that life and living exhibits, which leads to a sense of a “core self”. The moment we put our finger to it, it disappears like a mirage, receding forever from the net of conceptualization. Hence the sages were reluctant to call it “Ekam” or oneness. Because, when we posit a “one”, then its polar opposite of the second is born, and so on ad-infinitum. So, all that they wanted to indicate is its state of ambiguity – “A cloud of unknowing”, as a medieval Christian text describes this condition; where pathways of intellectualization ends, and intelligence is born.

Advaita, then is symbol of “That”, which essentially cannot be pointed to. Very significantly, the portion of the Vedas that deal with this inner conundrum is almost towards the end of it. After a long tirade of liturgies, rituals and theologies that abound in the four books of Vedas, the verses of the Upanishads that contains this non-dual philosophy (Advaita) is an abrupt break, a paradigm shift, a quantum leap into a qualitatively different dimension. The stark poetry of its verses, the austere cadence of its utterances seem to be a pivotal point in Human intellectual history. The concept and awe of a heavenly Godhead seemed to give way to a participatory dance of creation and destruction, where Man realizes his role as a spectator, and an actor at the same time - A diaphanous state of being.

Interestingly, the Upanishadic dialogues does not impose this idea on its listeners. Oftentimes, one would find that the master take a young student on long winding, hair-splitting journey of discursive reasoning and logic - chiding him, pushing him to exercise his intellect as sharply as he can; before giving him the news that all this mental jugglery is of utterly no use whatsoever in the search within. The intense reasoning folds into itself, just as the restless waves of the ocean merge into still waters. And in that split moment of conscious indecision, the individual breaks into a new dimension of awareness. The Japanese call this experience “Satori”, or the Chinese “wu”.

Another important insight of Vedanta offers is that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the world. The restless struggle of the individual to make sense of this seemingly mad state of affairs is merely an illusion, a mirror tainted by dust. Contrary to educated opinion, this is not a fatalistic position to take, but a deeply factual truth that is difficult to digest. Social theorists may argue that such a viewpoint ridicules the tremendous improvement made by man over millennia, and calling them illusory only makes a mockery of Human progress. Well, the point is, none would want to deny material prosperity achieved, but to call it growth or progress is merely a Human idea or concept, and may not necessarily be true in the cosmic scale of measurement. The fundamental question that Advaita then posits is: “Who is this ‘I’ that strives so hard”, and any serious inquiry into this “Koan” or intellectual puzzle, will keep receding like a mirage until the very question becomes futile; and in the wake of such futility shatters all claims to our megalomaniacal attachment of bettering the world. However, this is not to say that we should not be making the effort at all. In fact in one of the stunning commentaries on Vedanta, The Bhagavad Gita – The master categorically states that one cannot remain inactive even for an infinitesimal moment, but let’s not take it too seriously that it spoils the fun of it. It is in this context, Vedanta uses the term “Maya” - to denote a state of play, a game.

So, the term “Advaita” denotes an uncertainty, a conclusion-less movement of life. And once, we understand the deep import of not having answers to every question; to be able to revel in a state of childlike acceptance of whatever happens; not strive to pull ourselves up by tugging at our bootstraps; begin to intuit the essential wriggly nature of this Universe that lies outside the trappings of categories or symbols – then this timeless wisdom codified in our Upanishads begin to make sense and an abiding peace descends on our restless souls – weary and tired from the hustle and bustle of existential paradoxes.

God bless…