Advaita-The unwritten law!
Hello all,
Namaste! Hope all of you had a great week where you were able to balance your Dvaita, dual nature to get a glimpse of the Advaita, oneness behind everything. Last week we tried to peel back layers of our own material reality to get some clues on Advaita, the oneness. But this oneness we cannot perceive with our two physical eyes. Through those eyes, we only see the duality-black/white, good/bad, negativity/positivity, genders, sides, and divisions. This is how the material reality exists.
But to see the oneness, our mental eye, the 'Ajna chakra' that lies in between the eyebrows need to be opened. This is the sacred energy center of intuition and vision. If you see the God Shiva or Goddess Parvathi of the Hindu religion, they are usually depicted with a third eye in the middle of the forehead. This is the implicit guidance for us humans to focus on developing a vision for our own life using the intuition we have been provided.
Intuition: What is intuition? Do we, as humans any time give importance to our own intuition? Aren't we always looking outside for leadership and guidance nowadays in this modern world? But does anyone outside of us really know, who we are? They have not gone through every experience we have gone through. Same with another person. Each one has gone through their own very tailored life experiences. So, each person is wearing their own filter. So, how can anyone truly guide us? Of course, we can always listen to guidance from leaders. But ultimately our life decisions should truly come from our own intuition and vision for our life. Nothing can trump that.
So, only with a very fine-tuned intuition we can sense or perceive the oneness underlying everything in this Universe. There is an unwritten law that accompanies, Advaita. If we have to truly realize or perceive the oneness, we should discard the notion of a group, the other, infidel or alien. We cannot judge another person, animal, tree, or even an inanimate thing like a stone due to the outside differences and judge it as lower to us in status. Isn't that what we as humans are doing, day in and day out?
According to the intellectual, material or power capacity we perceive to have for ourselves, we judge others as our equal, above, or below. This tenet completely nullifies the law of 'Oneness'. If we cannot accept the oneness that weaves everything, how can we even assimilate the concept of Oneness or Advaita in our own life? We live and die in the concept of Dvaita, duality, fostering every avenue of division, group, class, culture, race, religions and political parties.
Look everywhere. Isn't the human race reeling in these divisions and groups? We have progressed so much in the internet, technology, innovation, Science, and brain power. But in the emotional and social realm, aren't we still behaving as the barbarians of the middle ages? We cannot stand another who has a different opinion than us. Can't we accept and tolerate another human being as having different opinions, but cut from the same fabric of the Universe?
As long as we keep this notion of us and the others, the doors to the higher wisdom and knowledge remain tightly shut. One cannot capture Advaita, without accepting the Dvaita nature of everyone. We don't have to become cultureless, voiceless, and characterless as some of the dictatorships of the world are trying to do. That also is against the Universe. We humans are not the same. Each of us has gone through very different life experiences, not even in this lifetimes, but in innumerable lifetimes. So, asking humans to behave as from cookie cutter molds also is against the Universe.
Humans are not mass produced from a factory assembly line. So, stripping off every culture, religion, or their innate attitudes also is very much wrong. Nazis did that in the 1930s, dehumanizing everyone. Today, the propaganda of Communism also is trying to do the same thing, making everyone out of the same mold or factory line. No, that is not correct. Each human is very different in their attitudes, behaviors, and innate knowledge. We should respect that difference while accepting the oneness underlying everything. The different colors in a brilliant rainbow, or the vibrant dance of difference in the oneness of the Universe.
As mentioned, even saints and sages used to have a tough time to come to terms with this aspect. So, here let me elaborate on three episodes where a saint had to come to terms with this fact. It is not easy. The Universe or the Brahman is a very tough Master. He/She is eternally patient and bring the stick or the carrot until the Soul learns it's lesson, whether a normal being or a Self-realized saint. These are mythological stories that happened in the 8th century and around 1800. So, I can only so much prove the authenticity of it. But if a story, even if a myth is helping to bring out valuable and ethical concepts, why not make use of it?? So here they are.
Adi Shankara: Adi Shankara was a Hindu philosopher and saint who lived in the eighth century. At that time Hinduism was divided among itself as different groups. Each group ardently and vehemently worshipping a deity whether Shiva (Saivism), Devi (Shaktism), Vishnu (Vaishnavism) or another. There used to be fights and debates about which group is better than the other. Shankara tried to streamline Hinduism more into one religion with very different shades. But he also had his cup of trials and tribulations. Here are three stories, the last one with another ascetic.
Adi Shankara challenged by a chandala : Adi Shankara was born into a high caste Brahmin family of Kerala in the eighth century. Brahmins were considered as the top caste consisting of educators, priests, and teachers. They were given respect everywhere for their wisdom and knowledge. (Believe me, even in Brahmins, there are people who have no interest in knowledge and wisdom. It is many times just pure perception. But there are also fantastic philosophers as well as true educators in Brahmin caste as well. Eg. of great Philosophers, mathematicians-Sarvepilli Radhakrishnan, Srinivasa Ramanujan).
Any way Adi Shankara due to his knowledge was well respected everywhere. Once in Varanasi after finishing bath Adi Shankara was going to the temple. Then before him, a chandala (lower caste, most probably of the butcher) appeared before him with his four dogs. As per the custom, those days Shankara indicated by hand to the scandals to move far away as the 'Chandala' was considered an outcast.
Then the Chandala asked whether Shankara was asking the body to move or the Soul to move. Realizing his mistake, Adi Shankara answered in five verses called 'Manisha Panchakam' the gist of which was, a self-realized person is not supposed to consider the outer trappings such as caste. Until then he had the notion of he was from a higher caste.
Adi Shankara realizes the value of Shakthi (Prakruthi): Adi Shankara was the devotee of Shiva. So, he always considered previously the male Gods to be of a higher stature compared to the female Goddess it seems. Then in such a case the nature or Prakruthi in Sanskrit is considered as a Goddess. The energetic aspect of this Prakruthi, Shakthi (pure energy in Sanskrit) wanted to make Adi Shankara aware of his own mind with this divisions.
Once when Shankara was going with his devotees, he suddenly fell to the ground, with absolutely no energy to stand up, sit, or walk. Due to this sudden mishap, as any human does, he cried 'Amma' (Mother). Then suddenly Shakthi (The Goddess) appeared in front of him and asked, "Why are you now calling me? You only regarded the male Gods, especially Shiva as 'all in all'. Now you yourself realize you need Shakthi (energy) after all, isn't it?".
Shankara realized the Gods/Goddess, male/female all are the different manifestations of the same Brahman or Universal intelligence. Being a Self-realized person he should never judge a being, whether a female or a Goddess according to their outer appearance. This most probably later made him a devotee of the Goddess and he composed a classic, 'Saundarya Lahari', a sacred hymn dedicated to the divine feminine. (Just a question. How many males consider females as of equal status? Yes! Females are biologically different. But don't they also have the same equal citizenship of this world? Not quarter or three quarters, but full citizenship. Yes, I am saying this very much standing as a female in this lifetime.)
A mentor of Ramakrishna Paramahansa meets Kali: I don't fully remember this story. There was a mentor (don't remember the name) of Ramakrishna Paramahansa (another Hindu saint) who was all about Shiva and Advaita. In the Biography about Ramakrishna Paramahansa, I have come across an episode where this particular yogi, when he went to river Ganga encountered the Goddess Kali as a Universal force that created huge waves on the river.
The yogi in that experience realized the same Brahman can exist as a God or Goddess and the one pursuing oneness, Advaita should not judge the Brahman according to the form the 'highest intelligence' come across to the human eye. This anecdote again shows how even saints and sages fall into the trap of body consciousness many times forgetting the true 'Soul' nature of a being.
The unwritten law: So, anyone who is interested or even desiring to come out of the material reality of duality and illusion (Maya), has to keep this unwritten law in mind. If we judge others according to their race, skin color, creed, caste, religion, class, political affiliations, gender, political bias or anything, we are always deemed to be broiled in the duality (Dvaita) and the related chaos. For that person, the bigger doors of higher perceptions always remain closed.
When we are totally broiled in the Dvaita, how can we even first understand Advaita? Only after understanding it, later the realm of experiencing can ever come into the picture. Now, you can ask isn't understanding and experiencing the same thing? No. For example, showing an Ice-cream can make you understand the qualities of an Ice-cream. It is sweet, creamy, with different flavors, colors and would melt in your mouth. But is that experiencing? No. To experience, one has to eat an Ice-cream.
Same way only after first understanding and assimilating the concept, we can even think of experiencing Advaita. But how many are ready for it? Aren't the human race totally in the iron grips of the Dvaita, or more of Maya- the glitz and glam of the material world? So, has the human race even reached the stage of understanding the concept of Dvaita, to slowly proceed to the levels of Advaita?
But isn't Advaita, oneness the real solution to all the problems the world is having? When we treat the other with respect, recognition and sacred knowledge that they are also a small part like us weaving the big cloth called Brahman (Universal intelligence), aren't we suddenly finding ourselves being part of a grander design? Then would the pettiness that we humans take part in, does it even matter? Won't each being find themselves doing a purpose greater than themselves? Won't we as a human race start finding progressive solutions to dire problems like climate change, water shortages and the way Earth is getting hotter day by day?
But a bickering, fighting human race, how can it even see the forest for the trees. Every other day dawns with humans fighting about every small thing under the Sun, whether it is trade, political notions, religious divisions or geographical differences. But without heeding to that 'unwritten law' of 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself', the doors to Advaita is forever closed to the human race.
Now, whether to open that door of Advaita, oneness or not, that is always a human's free will and choice!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday!😉
Next week: Nimitta-Symbolism!
Credits: Images and links from Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay.com
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
All rights reserved to Jayasree Padmanabhan and SwaroopaBlog.
To my Blog readers: As all of you know, the European Union has passed laws regarding the collection of the user data. This is just to inform all my EU blog readers, I just use Google Analytics, which Google provides, to look at from where readers are reading my blogs. I also use Specific feeds to use their service for a subscription list. I don't collect or intend to collect user data to sell or provide to third-party applications. Regards,
SwaroopaBlog.
Disclaimer: This is a personal blog. The opinions and perspectives shared here are that of the author/owner only. Even though the author/owner will try to research well before posting the information, the author/owner of this blog does not make any portrayal of the accuracy or correctness of the content on this blog or the links provided. The author/owner will not be liable for any omissions or inaccuracies occurred. The author/owner will not be liable for any damages or losses due to the use or display of this blog. These terms and conditions can change at any time.
This blog is purely for informational purposes only.
©Jayasree Padmanabhan and Swaroopa LLC, 2019- Eternity
Namaste! Hope all of you had a great week where you were able to balance your Dvaita, dual nature to get a glimpse of the Advaita, oneness behind everything. Last week we tried to peel back layers of our own material reality to get some clues on Advaita, the oneness. But this oneness we cannot perceive with our two physical eyes. Through those eyes, we only see the duality-black/white, good/bad, negativity/positivity, genders, sides, and divisions. This is how the material reality exists.
But to see the oneness, our mental eye, the 'Ajna chakra' that lies in between the eyebrows need to be opened. This is the sacred energy center of intuition and vision. If you see the God Shiva or Goddess Parvathi of the Hindu religion, they are usually depicted with a third eye in the middle of the forehead. This is the implicit guidance for us humans to focus on developing a vision for our own life using the intuition we have been provided.
 |
| Vision for our own life! Image credits-Pixabay.com |
Intuition: What is intuition? Do we, as humans any time give importance to our own intuition? Aren't we always looking outside for leadership and guidance nowadays in this modern world? But does anyone outside of us really know, who we are? They have not gone through every experience we have gone through. Same with another person. Each one has gone through their own very tailored life experiences. So, each person is wearing their own filter. So, how can anyone truly guide us? Of course, we can always listen to guidance from leaders. But ultimately our life decisions should truly come from our own intuition and vision for our life. Nothing can trump that.
So, only with a very fine-tuned intuition we can sense or perceive the oneness underlying everything in this Universe. There is an unwritten law that accompanies, Advaita. If we have to truly realize or perceive the oneness, we should discard the notion of a group, the other, infidel or alien. We cannot judge another person, animal, tree, or even an inanimate thing like a stone due to the outside differences and judge it as lower to us in status. Isn't that what we as humans are doing, day in and day out?
According to the intellectual, material or power capacity we perceive to have for ourselves, we judge others as our equal, above, or below. This tenet completely nullifies the law of 'Oneness'. If we cannot accept the oneness that weaves everything, how can we even assimilate the concept of Oneness or Advaita in our own life? We live and die in the concept of Dvaita, duality, fostering every avenue of division, group, class, culture, race, religions and political parties.
Look everywhere. Isn't the human race reeling in these divisions and groups? We have progressed so much in the internet, technology, innovation, Science, and brain power. But in the emotional and social realm, aren't we still behaving as the barbarians of the middle ages? We cannot stand another who has a different opinion than us. Can't we accept and tolerate another human being as having different opinions, but cut from the same fabric of the Universe?
As long as we keep this notion of us and the others, the doors to the higher wisdom and knowledge remain tightly shut. One cannot capture Advaita, without accepting the Dvaita nature of everyone. We don't have to become cultureless, voiceless, and characterless as some of the dictatorships of the world are trying to do. That also is against the Universe. We humans are not the same. Each of us has gone through very different life experiences, not even in this lifetimes, but in innumerable lifetimes. So, asking humans to behave as from cookie cutter molds also is against the Universe.
 |
| The divisions gripping the material realm! Image credits-Pixabay.com |
Humans are not mass produced from a factory assembly line. So, stripping off every culture, religion, or their innate attitudes also is very much wrong. Nazis did that in the 1930s, dehumanizing everyone. Today, the propaganda of Communism also is trying to do the same thing, making everyone out of the same mold or factory line. No, that is not correct. Each human is very different in their attitudes, behaviors, and innate knowledge. We should respect that difference while accepting the oneness underlying everything. The different colors in a brilliant rainbow, or the vibrant dance of difference in the oneness of the Universe.
As mentioned, even saints and sages used to have a tough time to come to terms with this aspect. So, here let me elaborate on three episodes where a saint had to come to terms with this fact. It is not easy. The Universe or the Brahman is a very tough Master. He/She is eternally patient and bring the stick or the carrot until the Soul learns it's lesson, whether a normal being or a Self-realized saint. These are mythological stories that happened in the 8th century and around 1800. So, I can only so much prove the authenticity of it. But if a story, even if a myth is helping to bring out valuable and ethical concepts, why not make use of it?? So here they are.
Adi Shankara: Adi Shankara was a Hindu philosopher and saint who lived in the eighth century. At that time Hinduism was divided among itself as different groups. Each group ardently and vehemently worshipping a deity whether Shiva (Saivism), Devi (Shaktism), Vishnu (Vaishnavism) or another. There used to be fights and debates about which group is better than the other. Shankara tried to streamline Hinduism more into one religion with very different shades. But he also had his cup of trials and tribulations. Here are three stories, the last one with another ascetic.
 |
| Adi Shankara with his disciples! Image credits-Chitrashala Press [Public domain] |
Any way Adi Shankara due to his knowledge was well respected everywhere. Once in Varanasi after finishing bath Adi Shankara was going to the temple. Then before him, a chandala (lower caste, most probably of the butcher) appeared before him with his four dogs. As per the custom, those days Shankara indicated by hand to the scandals to move far away as the 'Chandala' was considered an outcast.
Then the Chandala asked whether Shankara was asking the body to move or the Soul to move. Realizing his mistake, Adi Shankara answered in five verses called 'Manisha Panchakam' the gist of which was, a self-realized person is not supposed to consider the outer trappings such as caste. Until then he had the notion of he was from a higher caste.
Adi Shankara realizes the value of Shakthi (Prakruthi): Adi Shankara was the devotee of Shiva. So, he always considered previously the male Gods to be of a higher stature compared to the female Goddess it seems. Then in such a case the nature or Prakruthi in Sanskrit is considered as a Goddess. The energetic aspect of this Prakruthi, Shakthi (pure energy in Sanskrit) wanted to make Adi Shankara aware of his own mind with this divisions.
Once when Shankara was going with his devotees, he suddenly fell to the ground, with absolutely no energy to stand up, sit, or walk. Due to this sudden mishap, as any human does, he cried 'Amma' (Mother). Then suddenly Shakthi (The Goddess) appeared in front of him and asked, "Why are you now calling me? You only regarded the male Gods, especially Shiva as 'all in all'. Now you yourself realize you need Shakthi (energy) after all, isn't it?".
Shankara realized the Gods/Goddess, male/female all are the different manifestations of the same Brahman or Universal intelligence. Being a Self-realized person he should never judge a being, whether a female or a Goddess according to their outer appearance. This most probably later made him a devotee of the Goddess and he composed a classic, 'Saundarya Lahari', a sacred hymn dedicated to the divine feminine. (Just a question. How many males consider females as of equal status? Yes! Females are biologically different. But don't they also have the same equal citizenship of this world? Not quarter or three quarters, but full citizenship. Yes, I am saying this very much standing as a female in this lifetime.)
A mentor of Ramakrishna Paramahansa meets Kali: I don't fully remember this story. There was a mentor (don't remember the name) of Ramakrishna Paramahansa (another Hindu saint) who was all about Shiva and Advaita. In the Biography about Ramakrishna Paramahansa, I have come across an episode where this particular yogi, when he went to river Ganga encountered the Goddess Kali as a Universal force that created huge waves on the river.
The yogi in that experience realized the same Brahman can exist as a God or Goddess and the one pursuing oneness, Advaita should not judge the Brahman according to the form the 'highest intelligence' come across to the human eye. This anecdote again shows how even saints and sages fall into the trap of body consciousness many times forgetting the true 'Soul' nature of a being.
The unwritten law: So, anyone who is interested or even desiring to come out of the material reality of duality and illusion (Maya), has to keep this unwritten law in mind. If we judge others according to their race, skin color, creed, caste, religion, class, political affiliations, gender, political bias or anything, we are always deemed to be broiled in the duality (Dvaita) and the related chaos. For that person, the bigger doors of higher perceptions always remain closed.
When we are totally broiled in the Dvaita, how can we even first understand Advaita? Only after understanding it, later the realm of experiencing can ever come into the picture. Now, you can ask isn't understanding and experiencing the same thing? No. For example, showing an Ice-cream can make you understand the qualities of an Ice-cream. It is sweet, creamy, with different flavors, colors and would melt in your mouth. But is that experiencing? No. To experience, one has to eat an Ice-cream.
Same way only after first understanding and assimilating the concept, we can even think of experiencing Advaita. But how many are ready for it? Aren't the human race totally in the iron grips of the Dvaita, or more of Maya- the glitz and glam of the material world? So, has the human race even reached the stage of understanding the concept of Dvaita, to slowly proceed to the levels of Advaita?
 | |
| Different colors in a rainbow- Advaita-Oneness! Image credits-Pixabay.com |
But isn't Advaita, oneness the real solution to all the problems the world is having? When we treat the other with respect, recognition and sacred knowledge that they are also a small part like us weaving the big cloth called Brahman (Universal intelligence), aren't we suddenly finding ourselves being part of a grander design? Then would the pettiness that we humans take part in, does it even matter? Won't each being find themselves doing a purpose greater than themselves? Won't we as a human race start finding progressive solutions to dire problems like climate change, water shortages and the way Earth is getting hotter day by day?
But a bickering, fighting human race, how can it even see the forest for the trees. Every other day dawns with humans fighting about every small thing under the Sun, whether it is trade, political notions, religious divisions or geographical differences. But without heeding to that 'unwritten law' of 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself', the doors to Advaita is forever closed to the human race.
Now, whether to open that door of Advaita, oneness or not, that is always a human's free will and choice!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday!😉
Next week: Nimitta-Symbolism!
Credits: Images and links from Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay.com
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
All rights reserved to Jayasree Padmanabhan and SwaroopaBlog.
To my Blog readers: As all of you know, the European Union has passed laws regarding the collection of the user data. This is just to inform all my EU blog readers, I just use Google Analytics, which Google provides, to look at from where readers are reading my blogs. I also use Specific feeds to use their service for a subscription list. I don't collect or intend to collect user data to sell or provide to third-party applications. Regards,
SwaroopaBlog.
This blog is purely for informational purposes only.
©Jayasree Padmanabhan and Swaroopa LLC, 2019- Eternity
![Chitrashala Press [Public domain]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ravivarma.jpg){kind=link}
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