Questions never end …!

Our curiosity towards the real essence of life as we experience the same has never abated and perhaps never will … for every question that one seems to answer, there are many where we do not have information. The insatiable appetite for information is a result of us seeking the elixir which gives happiness and takes us away from pain…materialistic pursuits beyond a point do not help and thereafter one explores other ways including lure to give up all worldly pleasures or to explore other avenues like spirituality for the answers.. but this again has riders.., the search therefore is unending and at some point starts to question … who we are and what is the real truth if any… which could lead us to the eventual state of happiness and peace..! I had written a piece earlier in 2022 called “Search through illusion…for the real essence of life” where I did explore some concepts on creation alongwith the concept of illusion in life …..however some questions still remained and continue. This article also explores the same with some additional concepts like Duality and NonDuality …to see how we can link them to one’s objective of finding happiness or peace. Let me start by recounting some of the things what I said in that article…

Out of the many theories or writings on creation of human life perhaps ‘Vedanta,’ one of the treatise on philosophy of Hinduism, does provide a hypothetical concept to understand the same….Vedanta propagates that there is only one reality…and it is called Brahman. Brahman is a metaphysical concept of referring to the ultimate unchanging reality, that is uncreated, eternal, infinite, transcendent, the cause, the foundation, the source and the goal of all existence. One can also refer to it as God, Universal Soul or Divinity or simply the Creator.. As I said earlier there is still a debate as how creation took place but ….Brahman or the boundless energy as per the treatise did create an illusion of movement, a manifestation of time and space where the physical universe made an appearance. In the creation process it also created multiple connected energies which made an appearance as mind – body organisms which are distinct yet under the same perception, with a part of that energy resting in them … as Atman and an awareness which said ‘I am an individual’. It’s then through the mind, the thoughts that pass continuously through it and the knowledge or information accessed through the five senses that these mind body organisms create a unique perceived identity for the individual … which is also known as Ego. It’s the Ego and the mind which creates as well as develops that illusory identity which then is seen as distinct from the source or Brahman…and it is that moment where one steps into the world of duality … for we then start to live with duality of the universal soul which is always unchanged and the illusory created self which takes the the identity developed through the machinations of the mind. The duality once created cannot be changed or reversed and is probably perpetual for the thoughts as well as the mind do not stop. The greater the distance between the original soul and the illusory identity, more the suffering is the theory unless one can bring them closer or find another theory…

Key realisation though, is that we live our lives engulfed in duality… not wrong, for all our sources of information, knowledge which we perceive or assimilate through our sense organs helps develop to this illusion…. Also the distance between our illusory identity is likely to increase rather than diminish and perhaps this is also one of the key reasons which contributes to our unhappiness or lack of peace. There is then a dilemma which needs to be recognised… for duality may be perpetual and therefore also the separation..! Perhaps this is also the moment in our spiritual journey where one needs to understand the concept of Non-Duality (again through the Advaitha Hindu philosophy ) whose basic tenets are that firstly ..Everything is one, secondly that there is no separate self and finally ‘This is it’ …the final feature that the present that one is experiencing is the final destination and not some new magical destination of the future.If Non Duality is the truth then the Brahman and the Atman is the same and all the actions and the subsequent separation is a figment of imagination by the mind just like the illusory entity it creates. Quite the opposite of what we have discussed. Confusing….isn’t it??

The real learning that one can draw from the above discussion or hypothesis perhaps is not a simple mantra … for a peaceful and a happy life but a series of probable truths around which one can structure one’s life. These probable truths are-

1. There is a single, unchanging reality behind creation and one can call it Brahman or the Source or the Divinity…

2. Understand that everything is one and interconnected…,the essential principle of Non-Duality but for that understanding to happen one needs to experience as well as define Duality. Non Duality though abstract needs to be part of our acceptance when one looks at it as part of spiritual awareness even though one continues to live as well as act in a world engulfed with duality.

3. Seeking …even though it is an essential feature of one’s dualistic existence needs to be replaced with acceptance and faith.

The best conclusion one can draw is that life like its creation is a paradox and at times a conflicting one …Accept it…peace will hopefully follow! Have a lovely week and happy reading ….