Adwaita - My Interpretations

I had been reading some articles on this philosophy for a while. I gave it a thought. And here are my interpretations and findings or a review rather of things that I have read and observed.

Word ‘adwaita’ can be defragmented into two parts. ‘a’ and ‘dwaita’. ‘a’ is not and ‘dwaita’ is two. So in simple words ‘adwaita’ is not two or not different or all is one.

So now what the theory says and how can it be applied in practice. Theory says everything in this universe is actually one soul. All is one. Like it’s said that our Vedas have neither beginning nor end. Vedas the almighty and the humans for that matter are actually just reflection of each other. Now the big question is “If all is one, then what’s the need of religious structure with temples and God where God is held to be almighty?”

This question bugged me again and again. I found satisfactory answers in Vivekananda’s philosophy. But before we go there, let’s take a look at evolution of man.

First, man was living in caves. Slowly he started to live in groups. One of the basic feelings of human being is ‘fear’. So during the course he must have feared something. May be wild animals or lightening or fire or heavy winds. A stage comes beyond which the thinking capacity of human stops. So when man came across this mental block, he perhaps came up with an idea of almighty. There must have been times or even today we face times when there is no logical explanation to offer. This vacuum was filled with concept of almighty or god. Over the years concept of god grew stronger, so basically man needed something where he can rely, based on which he could believe and this need basically gave birth to god.

During the early times the sages must have recognized this need. Now there job was basically to make this world a better place. They also needed some power or authority using which they could tame the evil powers in society. We know that not everyone in society is born genius and hence they need to be given a proper direction. Some times force is needed for proper establishment so all these must have given birth to the religious structure.

What basically sets the world in motion? It’s faith, it’s self confidence. God is a medium to get to a higher level of faith or self confidence. So in religious system the great sages used the god factor to good effect to infuse faith in individuals. They know that the common man feared god. So they termed ill doings as punishable by god in this life or next. So to sum up, religious system was basically built because not everyone has high level of self confidence. The Hindu religious system for that matter is really very scientific. The food items that are cooked on festivals are actually according to weather at that time. Or mantras chanted actually have definite phonetics which then activate different energy points in the body. However not every detail can be explained to common man so sages wrapped this all up with a coating of religion.

So all these developments basically gave rise to Dwaita philosophy. As god was held a supreme and hence slowly people started to forget the origin and the fact that the thing that they call ‘God’ actually resides within their own selves.

So Shankaracharya refreshed it all and he restated the fact that ‘All is one’. Now can this philosophy be implemented? I would like to give a simple example. “When a person is in a temple and some ill thought comes to his mind, what is his immediate reaction? – ‘Oh!, This is wrong I should get rid of this thought’. Now when is outside temple does he tend to apply same standard to his thoughts? ” Well he doesn’t. No one does for that matter.

And now why is this the case..? It’s mainly because we have good structure for basic education in this regard, but there are no advanced courses available..! one has to go deep in oneself and give it really good thought.

Without a doubt 'dwaita' philosophy is so very vital in the beginning or rather it's the only way forward. The question is, how early can we manage to proceed further than that.

The earlier we start, may be the farther we will manage to go. A world would be so beautiful place if everyone starts to realize this and hence eventually starts to treat everything around him as godly.

Still today, I find myself confused in these contradictory yet supplementary thoughts. But giving thought on this is at least a start I guess of this long self exploration…

To be continued.....

-Devendra Oak.

©Devendra Oak.

Unknown...

The clock is showing 1.30 am and here i am blogging on a subject that's not a subject!
Yet another paradox you can say! I was wondering about random thoughts we all get all the time and hence came up with The Title...



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#A while ago i was thinking about what might it feel like to die, but then i laughed at myself having assigned feeling to death! I thought about people's near death experiences. But still it's impossible to figure out... Atleast for now! :-) but feeling that we are not here for eternity definately brings a wake up call! Ah how am i going to sleep today...




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#Then i thought about why do we think? Is it a brain's way of diverting our focus! That reminded me of a question asked in a community that.. Can we really do multitasking or is it just like computer where just 1 job runs at a time. But i guess we got multiple processers in the form of brain, mind and nervous system. Yet another fun thought!
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#just discovered something interesting. While typing with dictionary on. You get word 'stop' with same combination of numbers as for word 'runs' . Try it ...
Type 7867 with dictionary on, on mobile and flip to see next word..!! Many times in life things are that way. Hard to call it a co-insidance!! ....




...#saw a beautiful rainbow today! Big arch around the hill. As if it was hill's crown! Nice colours.. But got soon washed away by rain.. And where do those colors go i thought. Do they actually get spread on earth giving the beautiful after rain shades? Then there were birds flying in a file from below the bow! ... It was an amaazing sight...




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#i had many other thoughts in mind when i started typing. But now i have to search for them.. Well my brain has slowed after day's work.. It deserves a shut down now...




... Ending session at 2.00 am...




- devendra.




# p.s. There is no copyright symbol on my mobile... :-(



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That thing called luck- #2 Planets and the luck factor.

I think the prime thing that’s always related to anybody’s luck is the planets! At the beginning let me make it clear that I will be discussing all the sides of this topic so everyone please do read till the end.

First of all the traditional side. Well as we know whenever the kid is borne he is bound to a thing called ‘patrika’. On good as well as bad occasions even before logical reasoning ‘patrika’ comes out of the drawer. I myself have been reading on this subject for quiet a while now and it really is fascinating. Now how does astrology claim to forecast future? When a child is borne based on positions of different planets in the space at that time his kundali is mapped out. Different planets are assigned with different features and powers. Based on their positions at any given time in space and in patrika possible outcomes are predicted. So in a way it’s believed that all these planets play a role in determining outcome. Or in other words they play a role in determining luck. I don’t want to go into accuracy of the system but over the years the particular field has grown on and it’ll be very skeptical to deny the existence.

The counter views to this system were given by Agarkar, Savarkar and co. As they put it planets are mere bodies revolving in space just like earth. It’s hard to believe them to have an effect over humans. Off course looking through a scientific view the thoughts put forward by these people sound more acceptable however I think it’s important to consider the condition of the society when all these people put forward these thoughts. It was time before India got independent. Many false beliefs and blind faiths had grown deep in the minds of people. People had lost their vision and had started to believe they themselves are helpless to change the situation around. Hence the kind of comments made by the said philosophers are more time specific.

Now my perception is ‘patrika’ kind of talks about prarabdha. As I mentioned in earlier article it’s not just our present actions but also our past actions determine the outcome. Perhaps planets have some gravitational effect over our bodies. Nevertheless it’s impossible not to consider the astrological factor however it should be seen as measurement and at times guide line for determining the luck factor.

Discussion on praktana, prarbdha and karma in next article.

©Devendra Oak.

Knowledge is not always a priviledge...

We all carry this heavy load of knowledge about something or someone which we wish we didn’t have. It could be holding a secret or some unnerving information about your loved one. This article is based on such times when u feels, “Ah! I would have been better of not knowing this….”

Again I had the same dream. It was like this dream was following me for past few months. I felt like it had become my shadow during sleep. Shadow…, so true!, for I could not really see its interior in finest detail. I could see an arrow being shot. Just an arrow would come swirling through the wind. I could never see any archer with a bent bow and string resonating after the release. I could see nothing else. I never understood who I was in the dream. It was like just a part of some film was projected in front of me through my eyes, a 3d film with a frightening arrow piercing the wind. Every time I saw that arrow I gazed hard in the opposite direction for any other sight but there was never any. I could just hear the whistling sound it made on its trajectory. It was like some invisible veil was blocking everything else making it inaccessible to me!

Does it have any hidden message? Does it talk about the future? Has it anything to do with me if at all? They say dreams are pathway joining past, present and future! I used to wonder. But in the end I would comfort myself saying these kinds of things only happen in fairy tales not in real life. But again my other half would say then why have you encouraged yourself to dream big!

I got out of the bed. It was impossible for me to sleep now. I went in the kitchen to make myself coffee and turned on soft music. Hot cup of java really cheered me up! Richard cladman’s symphonies were playing in the background! After a while I laid back in the sofa just listening to the piano with eyes closed. Before I realized anything I was back in the wonderland of dreams. I was freefalling, as if bunjy jumping just that I could see no water below. There was very solid hard land. I tried to lookup and a shivering sensation went through my spine. I had severe pain due to an arrow stucked right below my ear. I tried to reach for it but before I could succeed land came in touching distance. I let out a loud shout and woke up still shivering with fear. Involuntarily my hand reached out for the neck only to find hairs drenched in sweat.

Were the dreams in anyway related to each other? If they were had they been trying to convey any message? Was I going to die? Was it that simple? Was it the end? I was restless for the whole day. Every night I would go to sleep thinking about it. But alas! I never had that dream in that entire month. First time I was restless due to dreamless sleep. Many questions danced in front of me. What was I going to do if any of it indeed was a glimpse from the future? Was I going mad? Did I need to consult a psychiatrist?

And again one night I had a dream. This time I saw the same arrow which came straight at me. I tried to duck in horror but my reflexes were too slow. The arrow went inside my neck just below my ear. I strong itchy sensation came followed with immense pain. As I tried to turn I lost my balance. I started to fall. I waved my hands in air imitating the birds but I was perhaps a bit too heavy for my hands to be able to make me fly. I looked down to see hard land coming closer by second and thankfully I woke up! I remained in the same position in bed for another 5 minutes. It was like every bit of energy was sucked up by this dream.

Many months passed. I never had that dream. Over the time I lost interest. It was like one of those times when you think about leaving the seat if a hero of a movie is about to get killed. I still think about it sometimes. But now I don’t ever feel like having any more of these dreams. I feel I am better of not knowing things. Many of the life‘s lessons come in way you hardly expect! Just like from this one now I know that “Knowledge is not always a privilege!”

©Devendra Oak.