Duality verses reality

The most important philosophical dimension of the concept ‘maya’ is that he who is placed between dualities cannot be able to know reality. For ex. One who is trapped in between reason and passion cannot enjoy happiness. This factor has been admitted by philosophers of the Greek tradition as well as the oriental heritage. Plato specifically said that happiness can be attained only by one who is completely controlled by reason and he must be free from even the shadows of passion. Again, when Bertrand Russell defined ideal life as one that is being guided by knowledge and ruled by love, he also endorses the view that happiness can be attained by someone who is able to get over the riddles of binaries. The problems of binaries have been really created by maya, because maya has got a dual functioning of ‘concealing the real’ and ‘projecting the unreal’. Market economy, on the contrary says that man is a creature of contradictions in the market and it propagates that man is able to attain happiness when he makes an adjustment with profit and loss. The market mechanism specifically admits that a man is simultaneously a profit seeking and loss enduring being, because the market gives everyone the opportunity to bargain for one’s profit. That is, a person who gets more profit curtails the profit of the other which may amount to loss. Since one and the same person has to play the dual role of the buyer and the seller, he has to bear with profit and loss. A man who constantly bears with profit and loss will never be able to enjoy happiness permanently. Here, he acts as a pendulum swinging in between pleasure and pain. Again, since market never keeps stability, it always throws man into a state of uncertainty, which creates anxiety and its’ consequences. Therefore, the market mechanism can be attributed to be creating problems of anxiety at individual and societal levels. An important problem to be solved in all life saving mechanisms created by humans at various levels is to find a solution to the anxieties created by the market economy. Anxiety, when it crosses the normal limit, turns to neurosis and neurotics take refuge in black magic and illogical faith mechanisms. The present day religious practice of devotion is a brilliant example for the materialistic interpretation of God. The contemporary popular devotee firmly believes that God is a person or a force to provide everything to achieve the unlimited human wants. Prayers have become exercises to present inventories to the Almighty and get it realised at the earliest. Interestingly, God is not expected to spend more time in this process. Here, God is considered a participant in the human activity of accumulating more and more of worldly pleasures at a minimum effort. More profit at minimum rate is an attractive slogan of the present day market mechanism and the same has been accepted as a way to God by the present day religions.