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Krishna

THE MAN AND HIS PHILOSOPHY

Chapter 14: Action, Inaction and Non Action, Question 3

 

 

Energy Enhancement           Enlightened Texts            Krishna            Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

 

 

Question 3

QUESTIONER. IT IS SAID THAT SHANKARA'S MAYIC WORLD, ILLUSORY WORLD, REALLY MEANS A CHANGING WORLD, NOT A FALSE ONE. WHAT DO YOU SAY?

You can put any meaning you like, but for Shankara, it is its very changeability, its ever-changing character that makes the world unreal. That which is changing, which is not everlasting, he says is false. That which was one thing yesterday, is another thing today and will turn into something else tomorrow, is false. Change is at the root of Shankara's definition of maya, of illusion. He says reality is that which is immutable and eternal. What is unchanging and unchangeable is truth, what is everlasting is truth.

Eternity is Shankara's word for the truth, and changeability is his word for the world. That which does not remain the same even for a moment is false. If a thing was one thing a moment ago, turns into another thing this moment, and is going to be some thing else the next moment, it means that it was not that which it was, it is not that which it is, and it will not be that which it will be. That which is not is false. And truth is that which ever was, is and will remain the same. In Shankara's definition, change is synonymous with untruth and the unchanging is synonymous with truth.

But in my vision, as also in the vision of Krishna, change is as much true as the unchanging. For Krishna, both the changing and the unchanging worlds are real. The reason is that the unchanging cannot be without the changing world. The wheel of change revokes on an axle that is itself still and unmoving. The changing wheel and the unchanging axle are interdependent, one cannot be without the other. The moving and the unmoving are like two wheels of the same chariot. Krishna absorbs all contradictions in himself; he rejects none -- neither the moving nor the unmoving. For him motion and rest are inextricably linked; you reject one and the other is rejected at the same time. If we understand Krishna rightly, then we have to accept that for the truth to untruth it essential and inescapable. Truth and untruth are as inescapably interconnected as light and darkness, life and death, health and sickness. The opposites are not really opposites, they are compementaries. They are two sides of the same thing But our difficulty is we take them not only to be opposites, but enemies to each other.

People often ask me about the source of untruth, but they never ask about the source of truth. If truth comes from nowhere, why cannot untruth come from the same source? Those who debate over the ultimate knowledge always ask, "Who is the author of falsehood?" But they never raise the question "Who is the mother of truth?" And if truth can happen without a mother, why should untruth have any difficulty? In fact, in this regard, untruth is in a better position than truth, because untruth means that which is not. It does not need any source, any gangotri.

No, it is wrong to ask about the source of truth and untruth; they exist simultaneously, together. The question of their source does not arise. The day you were born your death too was born. Death is not going to come to you in some future, it always walks in step with you. Death is another side of birth, but it may take you about seventy years to see this other side. It is your incapacity that doesn't allow you to see the two simultaneously. But they are there together. Similarly truth and untruth are together. It is wrong to speak in terms of their coming and going; they are. Truth is, untruth is. Existence is, and non-existence is.

Shankara emphasizes one side of the coin, and for this reason we have to look into the other side too. Then only the coin is complete.

Shankara says that which is observed is maya, false. Buddha says just the opposite, and Buddha's philosophy finds its culmination in Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna says that the one who observes is false, the observer is false. If the world is false in the eyes of Shankara, the soul is false in the eyes of Nagarjuna. This giant among the Buddhist thinkers says that between the observer and the observed the former is much more basic, and this basic element itself is false. All that is false flows from this basic falsehood.

When I close my eyes, the world becomes invisible, but then I begin to dream with eyes closed. I am the basic lie; even when the world is absent 1 can create another world by dreaming. The most amusing thing is I can create dreams within dreams. Sometimes you too might have dreamed that you are dreaming. It is really a miracle that one dreams that he is dreaming. Like the magician's boxes within boxes you have dreams within dreams. You can dream that you are watching a movie about your own life and you go into sleep and start dreaming. There is no difficulty about creating such a dream. Therefore Nagarjuna says it is no use trying to prove the world to be false; the false is really within you; you are false. Nagarjuna asserts that the self is false.

In fact, the true and the false go hand in hand. If someone asserts that only truth is, then he will have to assign a place to untruth and say, "It is here." In the same way one who asserts that only the untruth is, has to say where truth is. Krishna is not that assertive, he hesitates. And Krishna's hesitation is deep. People who don't hesitate are often superficial, shallow. Hesitation arises from the depths of one's being; hesitation is very significant. You are fortunate if you are gifted with a grain of hesitancy. Your hesitation will show that you have begun looking at life in its totality. Then you will not say that this is true and that is false. Then you will not say that only the truth is, or only the untruth is. Then you will know the true and the false are two aspects of the same thing, two notes of the same song. Then you will know existence and non-existence are two differ

ent notes of the same flute. We can well imagine the problem of a person who sees life in its totality, because his statements are bound to be hesitant and hazy, paradoxical and confusing.

It is for this reason that Krishna's statements confuse you. It shows Krishna's perception is most profound.

 

Next: Chapter 14: Action, Inaction and Non-Action, Question 4

 

Energy Enhancement           Enlightened Texts            Krishna            Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

 

 

Chapter 14

 

 

 

 
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