Advaita?

We Western intellectuals who have studied a little Indian philosophy often try to attain Advaita, 'non-duality,' by superimposing a concept of 'oneness' over our subject-object experience of the world. But this only makes the mind dull, tentative, and artificial.

Advaita is not attained by thinking about it, but by allowing our awareness to tap its source in pure consciousness, the field of Sat-Chit-Ananda, which is the substratum of both subject and object.

Then there is a spontaneous up-welling of Grace in the Self-luminosity of a thankful heart, stimulating the effusion of soma-nectar in every nerve cell, divine light in every photon of our flesh.

Love innocently leads to surrender, and surrender is true Advaita - the culmination of Bhakti, not the rejection of Bhakti.

'Non-duality' never negates relationship, but fulfills relationship. When honey overflows the comb, the comb is not obliterated. Every cell gushes its golden essence, and the bee’s work is done.



Illustration to the Rubaiyat by René Bull, 1913