DUALISM NON-DUALISM

 

If one sees the sky of Philosophy one comes across a galaxy of philosophers who have examined different aspects of human existence and propounded theories governing that. These philosophers have been categorized in different ideological segments on the basis of their broad analysis and conclusions arrived at about the principles underlying the nature and our relationship with it. Some are called rationalists, some idealists, some existentialists, some empiricists and some materialists and so on. While the philosophers in the west have been influenced by the Greek philosophers like Aristotle, Plato and Socrates as also the Christian theology by and large, the East isrich in its own stockpile of ideologies. The philosophers of China and Japan have propounded their theories, known as Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto etc. Islam is guided by the Koran, Hadith and the Life of the Prophet. We in India have had six prominent schools of philosophy besides many other sub divisions. In this entire fund of knowledge two terminologies that we come across very frequently are ‘Dvaita’ or dualism and ‘Advaita’ or non-dualism also called monism. But the concept of these two technical terms in the West is different from what we in India understand and the way we interpret these. In the west the view is that reality is made up of two fundamental and fundamentally different elements. They advance the view that material substance and the mind’s activity bear upon each other but are distinctly separate. This is dualism propounded by the philosophers there. On the other hand those who believe in monism say that reality is a unified whole and that all existing things follow from or can be described by a single concept or system. In respect of human beings and the relationship between body and mind, this school believes that both would be seen as like entities formed from the same substance. We in India interpret these terms differently. The belief that the Supreme soul (God) and the individual soul (beings) are one and the same is called non-du alism. The belief that the two are separate and not one is known as dualism. It may be stated here that the concept of mind in the West also is very different from that of Indian thought. We believe in three distinct aspects of a human being, the intellect, the centre of discernment and discrimination, the heart, the seat of feeling and compassion and the mind, the store house of thoughts and views. In the West the functions of mind are thought to be more or less that of the intellect only or at least they overlap each other. Even so there have been philosophers in the West as well whose pronouncements are bordering on Indian non-dualism. A very glaring example is that of the 5th century Christian Monk, Dionysius the Areopagito who has recorded as follows: ‘Then beyond all distinctions between the knower and the known, the aspirant becomes merged in the nameless, formless Reality, wholly absorbed in That which is beyond all things and is nothing else….. Having stilled his mind and intellect, he is united by his highest faculty with that which is beyond all knowing.’ Even the German thinker Eckharts has said, ‘Man’s goal is Unio mystica, meaning the union of God and man.’ This again is the non-dualism as envisaged by Indian thinkers. At the face of it the two terminologies, dualism and non-dualism appear to be opposed to each other, in fact almost contradictory in purport. In reality it is not so. I would like to explain why I believe that there is no contradiction in these two views. It is a matter of common knowledge that no two human beings are the same in the matter of their perception, acumen or understanding. In fact no two beings of the same species are the same. The humans differ in all the segments of body, head, heart and mind. It is natural, therefore for them to differ in actions, perceptions, feelings and thought. That is why some perceive the reality in duality and some in singularity. Similarly it is also a well known fact that every human being evolves over the years and thus has different levels of actions, perceptions, feelings and thought at different stages of his evolution. It is natural for him to perceivethe reality as a duality in earlier and lower stages of his evolution and as non-dualistic at the advanced levels. In Kashmir Shaiva philosophy it has been explained that the dualism persists even at the penultimate stage of spiritual achievement; where the seeker realizes that he and the Supreme Reality that he was seeking are one and the same because here the seeker and the sought-after appear separately as distinct from each other. It is only when the two get merged that the non-dualism dawns. The seeker starts from various positions of seeking, yearns for Him, beseeches, prays, then goes near and close to Him and ultimately dissolves and becomes one with Him. So in my opinion, the two situations of duality and non-duality are perceptions of seekers of varying levels of consciousness and perceptions of the same seeker at different levels of his awareness. There have been attempts by the philosophers in the West to try to understand the nuances of Indian philosophy but whether they too interpreted dualism and non-dualism in the Indian way is rather doubtful. It was Arthur Schopenhauer who brought the philosophical ideas contained in the Vedas and Upanishads into western culture for the first time. Even Carl Gustav Jung made an attempt to synthesize Freudian psychology with mysticism and to bring Eastern philosophical principles into arena of modern Western thought. But the Western philosophers by and large were entangled in a cobweb that Friedrich Hegel had described as a chain of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The non-dualism has been so convincing that many thinkers, writers, poets of different schools have knowingly or unknowingly accepted this and explained it in their writings. In Kashmir a galaxy of Muslim Rishis (also known as Sufis) from Shams Faqir to Ahad Zargar were influenced by this philosophy and they have explained and brought it out in their verses. How beautifully it has been said, ‘Ognuysapantodognyartravopananish pan parzanavo lo – Believe in non-dualism, shun duality and perceive the Supreme self in yourself’. Kabir, the mystic poet of Hindi has explained it thus: ‘Jab main tha tab vohnahin, ab vohhai main naahin. Prem galiatisankari, yaamein do nasamahin – When I was there He was not, now He is and I am gone. The lane of love is so narrow that two of us cannot be accommodated in it together.’ Even the well-known Urdu poet Iqbal has expressed the same idea in these lines: ‘Tu haimahitebekaraan main hunzarasiaabju, yaamujhehamkinarkar, yaamujhebekinaarkar – You are an ocean and I am a small stream. Either merge me with yourself or remove my barrier banks to make melimitless.’ Ghalib too has said the same thing slightly differently: ‘Na thakuchh to khudatha, kuchhnahota to khudahota, duboyamujhko hone ne, na main hota to kyahota - When nothing was there, God was. Had nothing been there, God would have been. The arrogance of my existence has gone against me. I would lose nothing if that arrogance of my existence had not been there’. Those who have propounded non-dualism have explained the relationship between the Supreme Soul and the individual soul variously as an ocean and a wave, a figure and its reflection, a flame and the fire, and so on.In fact the Supremecan be perceived in three different forms. His immanence in the entire creation is one form. He pervades everything as has been stated in the Upanishad thus: ‘Ishavasyamidamsarvam, yatbhutamyacchabhavyam – He verily pervades everything that there was as also that there will be’. Even so He remains in a transcendental position above the entire creation of His own, which is His second form. The Purusha sukhta states thus, ‘Atitishthatdashaangulam – He remains ten measures above all this cosmos’. The third and most subtle form is His absolute form, which is the soul of the entire universe. This form has the inseparable energy called variously Shakti or Prakritithat sustains the creation. It is inseparable like a word and its meaning as Kalidas puts it, ‘Vakh-arthauivasamprikhtau’. The Bhagavad Gita says about it thus: ‘Jeeva bhutaammahabaho yaya-idamdharyatejagat – by which this universe is upheld’. That being so, two positions follow. Firstly we see Him either formless and attribute-less, Niraakara, Nirguna or with form and attributes, Saakara,Saguna.Secondly we either perceivedualism, Dvaita or non-dualism, Advaita. That is why my view is that there is no contradiction or conflict and the truth is clear once we attain the proper level in our spiritual pursuit

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Courtesy: T.N.DHAR  KUNDAN   and  Spade A Spade,2025