I Am the Fray

If you consider yourself a non-dualist, be sure your advaita is not an excuse to exempt yourself from the political responsibilities of citizenship, the tussle of economics, and the market place of daily work.

For all our talk of non-dualism, we must still distinguish between Self and Not-Self, the field of rest and the field of action, silence and its play. This is the ancient distinction between Purusha and Prakriti, the uncreated Being and created Nature, a distinction made by even the most radical advaitins. That Purusha and Prakriti are identical in essence does not contradict the fact that their qualities are completely different, as the quality of a mirage differs from the quality of the clear desert air.

The manifest world is a shimmering mirage in the Self, who is the still empty space where the mirage vibrates. Even though the mirage consists of nothing but the empty space containing it, the mirage is active while the space is still. As long as we are embodied creatures, we are both mirage and emptiness. We have responsibilities in the realm of appearance as in the realm of stillness.

"Even I am constantly engaged in work," Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita 3:22. Our mind and body are part of nature, but our Self is not. Our Self is uncreated and eternal, but our mind and body are created entities, subject to karmic law in time. While the Self dwells in choiceless awareness, silently witnessing the play of nature, the mind must choose and the body must act.

Even the most enlightened non-dualist chooses turkey or tofu, the Men's Room or the Lady's Room. The saint whose awareness ever rests in absolute stillness must breathe, eat, and work for food.

I am not only the witness of the world: I am the world. I am not above the fray: I am the fray.