Saturday, May 06, 2006

Neo Vedanta

Hindu religion has been evolving even before the Aryans brought Rig Veda to India.

I believe that India had a form of Shaivism existing prior to the invasion of the Aryans. Images of Shiva and Nandi have been excavated from the Mohenjodaro and Harappa, which was a pre-Aryan civilization. Also Rig Veda criticizes the Dravidian people for worshiping Phalus, which is an obvious reference to Shiva Linga. Also Rig Veda refers to Krishna as their enemy awaiting them across Yamuna with a 10,000 strong army. Also the Hindu mythology, including Ramayana is full of conflict between Devas and Daysus. The conflicts were resolved mostly by violent means and finally the caste system evolved as a solutions for peaceful co-existence.

Thus from multitude of gods and deities; emerged the Tri-Deva or the Hindu Triumvirate of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva, the destroyer (or the change agent).

The Triumvirate was then evolved to Shiva Shakti duality. In scientific terms Shiva is a metaphor of mass and Shakti, the metaphor of energy. The mass and energy interaction results in the creation (big bang), continuation (current expansion) and destruction(Black hole) of the Universe. This duality gave way to singularity, thereby emerged Vedanta which is a Monist religion. It allows for questioning the existence of God, stopping just short of admitting to atheism. One of its conclusions are : इश्वर असिद्धेय

iśvara asidheya, that is, the existence of God is unprovable.

Here it is worthy of mention, the famous sutra : अहं ब्रह्म अस्मि (Aham Brahma Asmi) or I am Brahman. This is not an egoistic statement but has a deeper meaning. It states that that, since Atamn = Brahman , it is the reflection of Brahman, that is our mind (or atman), creates this illusionary image of this world as it appears to us. Thus when we say that Bhraman created this world we mean that our mind is the creator of this illusionary world.

Our mind is Atman. Atman is an instance (or reflection) of Brahman. As we meditate on Brahman. The subject (Atman) and the object of meditation (Brahman) becomes one. The distinction between the object and subject melts away. This results in shunyata or nothingness.

This nothingness is everything.

There are two types of Maya (or illusion). Persistent Maya and impersistent Maya. Dream is an example of impersistent Maya whereas World is a persistent Maya, that is, it exists yet is unreal or an illusion.

In scientific terms, we perceive a crystal as an solid object yet at atomic dimensions it is mostly empty space. Thus our mind creates an illusion best suited for our survival in this illusionary yet persistent world.

Hinduism has a wide philosophical base and allows for questioning the basics, thus it allows for both theist and atheist practices and philosophies to peacefully co-exist and exchange ideas.

Scott Adams God's Debris is a good example of how Vedanta has influenced post modern western philosophic thought.

The concept of God is like the Horizon, it moves farther away as we advance in our knowledge. We have moved from natural phenomenons as acts of Gods in Rig Veda to concluding that the existence of God is unprovable to finally questioning the need for God in Neo Vedanta.

(c) Ashish Banerjee, www.Ashish.Banerjee.name,2006