Systems of thought

These three systems of thought (dvaita, advaita and visishtadvaita- ref. previous article) have relevance at every point of time. It is not possible to get a society of human beings that entirely believes in only one of these categories. The society in general, as part of the natural order, believes in all these three categories at every point of time. But at certain points of time, one of these categories may get an upper hand over the other. At our times, the ‘dvaita’ category gets mastery over the other. That is why we believe that there is nothing in common between ‘I’ and ‘you’. Hence, ‘I’ easily conceives and believes that ‘I’ can purchase anything that of ‘you’ at a convenient price fixed either unilaterally or mutually. Such a system at present is technically known as ‘market economy’. The system that was prevalent over some part of Asia and Europe before the coming of Jesus the Christ was similar to the present one. That may be the reason why Cain could not understand his brother Abel (Old Testament). When Cain was trialed, he declared that he could not know Abel (because there was nothing common in between them). This form of estranged and alienated brotherhood was challenged by Jesus when He declared that there is heaven in ‘I’ and ‘you’. The moment one believes that there is heaven in ‘you’ and ‘I’, one cannot purchase the other because every form of purchase is self-purchase. Such a person cannot treat oneself as a market, to be either sold or purchased. In this sense, the propagation of the market economy is nothing but the negation of Christ experience. The present day market economy, according to the views of an advaidan (the one who is for ‘advaita), is nothing but the manifestation of ‘dvaita’ system in one of its’ forms. Therefore, the system of advaita has to expose the logical contradictions of the market economy, which basically believes that the world is fully a commodity either to be sold or purchased. The dvaidan (the one who is for ‘dvaita) on the contrarory believes that the world is only the manifestation of oneself in many forms. Hence we have to deal with the well known philosophical problem of one and many from a very different angle. One and many and their relationship have been a major problem throughout the development of various systems of thought in the East and the West. Of course, the solutions given by the exponents of various systems of thought are different. But everyone accepted a view that the problem of one and many cannot be ignored as a trivial issue in human life. The systems of thought and practice that believe in equality have to accept that in one sense or the other there is something common in between one and many. The moment one accepts there is something in common between ‘you’ and ‘I’, then ‘I’ has to stop conflicting with ‘you’. Naturally, conflicts, crisis and resulting destruction are to be replaced by concerns, co-operation and co-existence. Nobody (including individuals, society, institutions and systems) can lead a normal life in a world that leads to destruction. That is why it has been explained clearly that a house divided is naturally entering its’ final days. The present day market economy which believes in competition, conflict, crisis and final outcome cannot take the world into confidence to lead to victory. Victory in its’ real sense is a state of experience that provides space for one and many in the sense that the mighty and the meek co-exist. In this sense, whenever and wherever one speaks of consensus, co-operation, co-existence and peace the philosophy of non-duality (advaita) is exposed in a pluralistic language form. Then the question arises is what are the modus operandi of maintaining co-existence and peace. This has been a matter of discussion in the advaita philosophy. As practical steps, advaita believes that every person, society and institution has to practise certain constants (vrita – nearest meaning is vows). They are ahimsa, satya, astheya, aparigraha and brahmacharya. I have already explained all these vows except brahmacharya in the early chapters of this series. The essence of the practise of these vows is nothing but the practise of the philosophy of the minimum. As it has already been seen, there can be the philosophy of the minimum and the philosophy of the maximum. Advaita system believes in the philosophy of the minimum to be fixed by the person concerned.