The sun in all its splendour slips into the shadows ..quietly having completed another cycle of 12 months though not without the evening of noise and revelry we have accepted as a defacto ritual that one performs ..either as send away gift or in anticipation of new tidings..!The following morning the sun shows up again in all its splendour …what we then celebrate as the new dawn ….something we do everyday of our life..so what’s changed and why is this dawn different from the other one’s? In the real essence, nothing has changed …though if one were to look at through prism of the mind, lot of change..for instance,we have completed the year 2023 and now entering 2024, we are a year older, we have an additional year of experience, we have recollections of things done well in the past and we have hopes and aspirations which we feel will translate into facts as we look to the year 2024 perhaps! Unfortunately that is the dilemma most human beings live with, a dilemma between reality and perceived reality or an illusion, a dilemma of duality … which is real provided we learn to recognise it.. What better time than the perceived beginning of a new year to discuss the same … or is it excersising the mind too much though it plays a major role in this duality..!
Our ancient Hindu philosophy, 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 Conciousness or simply the Creator.. Part of that reality also exists within each human being and is the individual soul or Jeev Atman.. However while the universal soul or pure conciousness does not change, the individual soul does get coloured through thoughts as well as the operation of the mind creating another reality one can call the Reflected Conciousness. It helps us with information from our sense organs in setting up for us our individual identity, in other words our ‘Ego’ which helps us deal with the physical world… so the duality of existence is established in essence as soon as the soul enters the physical body. Our measuring pegs of existence specially time eg the minutes, days and years too are a result of the mind and reflected conciousness. Assuming this reality to be a fact what are we celebrating today … for nothing has .. ‘Changed’… and what has, was perhaps an illusion…
Therefore…stepping back into my dual existence let me wish that the New Year 2024 … brings the best of health, happiness as well as prosperity to your lives but with an important rider that… one recognises, accepts and acts knowing that our salvation .. is the path to divinity within us for that is the truth irrespective of what the illusion leads us to believe…
Our perceptions within the reflected conciousness may not change for ‘Maya’ …the key operative for the illusion is virtually permanent along with duality of our existence, and the only route availiable to go back to the Pure conciousness or Divinty is to ..a) recognise this duality and ..b) think as well as act as if one understands about this illusion.
This is my first article for this year and I chose a philosophical/ spiritual topic to kick start the year…the other mundane expressions on topics like music travel, hospitality and some more will follow …but this is the truth..which one must understand! Have a nice week..!
MusingsbyTimmy 