Category: Advaitic Inquiry

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Advaitic Inquiry

The Scallop and the Shore – Advaita’s Wisdom in Annie Dillard’s Waking-Dream

There is a paragraph in Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek about the ordinary act of waking — a final wave heaving you onto the sand, a scallop’s shell you dreamed against, a forest you get lost in until you remember nothing of the sea. It reads, at first, like fine nature writing. Read again, and something else appears: the exact architecture of a doctrine composed on the other side of the world some two and a half thousand years ago — the Advaitic teaching of the three states of consciousness, waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep, and the silent witness said to remain unmoved through all three. Neither Dillard nor Vedānta was borrowing from the other. This essay sits inside that coincidence rather than explaining it away — tracing, phrase by phrase, how a devout Christian writer’s private phenomenology of a single morning ends up mapping, with almost unsettling precision, onto a metaphysics she likely never read. It is an essay about what waking actually feels like, about how much a sentence can hold without announcing it, and about the strange places where two very different accounts of the self, looking closely enough, arrive at the same threshold.

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Advaitic Inquiry

Please Join Me on Substack

Dear Friend, Thank you for being part of the NEEV community. Whether you subscribed recently or have been reading my work for years, I deeply appreciate your companionship on this journey of self-inquiry. Over the past few months, my writing has taken on a richer and more varied rhythm. While the heart of my work […]

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Advaitic Inquiry Comparative Advaita

An Advaitin’s Response to Robert Saltzman

This essay begins with a provocative challenge. A respected critic of contemporary nonduality, Robert Saltzman, accuses Advaita of smuggling metaphysical certainty into what should remain an honest acknowledgment of mystery. He charges nonduality with anthropocentrism, tautology, spiritual elitism, and the construction of self-sealing belief systems. At first glance, the critique appears devastating. Yet as the essay unfolds, a deeper story emerges. Drawing on Śaṅkara, Gauḍapāda, Buddhist philosophy, phenomenology, and epistemology, it reveals that Saltzman’s objections often target popular caricatures rather than classical Advaita itself. The article carefully separates the genuine pathologies of modern spiritual culture from the philosophical foundations of nonduality, showing where Saltzman is right, where he misunderstands, and where his own position rests on unexamined assumptions. Ultimately, it becomes an exploration of one of humanity’s oldest questions: not merely what reality is, but what makes any knowing of reality possible in the first place.

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Advaitic Inquiry Comparative Advaita

Do Advaita and Buddhism Point to the Same Truth?

This blog explores whether Advaita Vedānta and Buddhism ultimately point to the same truth. Through a thoughtful dialogue, it traces the meeting ground between Nāgārjuna’s emptiness (śūnyatā) and Gaudapāda’s non-origination (ajāti). Both dissolve all dualities—self and other, subject and object—revealing an unborn reality beyond thought. Yet a tension remains: Buddhism denies any enduring consciousness, while Advaita proclaims consciousness alone as the timeless reality.

As the conversation deepens, these apparent opposites begin to merge. When both experiencer and experienced vanish, is “emptiness” truly different from “consciousness”? The article suggests that Gaudapāda, writing before sectarian walls were built, may have seen the essential convergence between these paths.

Ultimately, this piece—arising from a dialogue with Claude AI—reflects the timeless exchange between Buddhist and Advaitin inquiry, showing how both, when followed to their limit, dissolve into the same wordless recognition of non-dual truth beyond affirmation or negation.

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Advaitic Inquiry

The Wild and the Wise: Finding a Path for Our Anxious World

Despite inhabiting the most technologically advanced age in human history, we are more restless, lonely, and anxious than ever before.

This article traces the deep resonance between the hunter-gatherer’s way of living lightly upon the earth and the Upanishadic seer’s awakening to the boundless Self. Early humans moved with reverence through forests, rivers, and skies, while the Vedic sages themselves withdrew into the forests to seek the eternal truth beyond birth and death. But with the rise of industrial civilization, humanity drifted from both — trading simplicity for consumption, and inner freedom for restless striving.

The way forward is to weave these two great streams together: the outer simplicity of the forager and the inner realization of the sage. In their fusion lies a path toward wholeness, sustainability, and true freedom.

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History of Advaita

The Value of Shankara in the Tradition of Advaita – As a Philosopher or Commentator?

The tradition of Advaita Vedanta as a means of liberation is synonymous with the name of Shankara, not because, as many people erroneously believe, he was it’s founder, instead, Shankara’s fame and his legendary status in the annals of Advaita Vedanta are for reasons more complex, which I shall be exploring in this article. I am going to examine whether the main contribution of Shankara was really as an original philosopher who propounded new ideas, or, was his essential contribution more as an Upanishadic theologian, scholar, commentator and interpreter? I shall also examine other historical factors that led to the legendary status reserved for Shankara today, which may not have all to do with his scholarly skills.

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Advaitic Inquiry

Samsara is Nirvana – The Perfection of the Imperfection

Social media feeds feel like storm warnings—flashing red, relentless. In every scroll, 2025 is cast as a cursed year. It’s easy to feel buried under the nonstop flood of headlines and social media updates. The news can stir up strong emotions—worry, anger, frustration, dread—and it’s easy to get caught in thoughts about how wrong things are or how they should be different. The world can seem more terrifying than ever. However, the view of the world is different for those who have non-dual vision.

Using very simple analysis, in this article, I want to explore this paradoxical clarity of enlightenment—a state of mind that perceives perfection and wholeness even in the apparent imperfection and chaos of the world with the hope that such an exploration can inspire people to seek the same vision and ultimately free themselves from suffering.

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History of Advaita

The Upanishads and the Axial Age: Rigvedic People – Invaders, Immigrants or Indigenous? – Part 3

For generations, ancient India’s narrative was dominated by the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), later refined as Aryan Migration Theory (AMT). These 19th-century theories depicted external “Aryans” arriving around 1500 BCE, bringing Vedic traditions and Sanskrit, supposedly subjugating the indigenous Harappans. This framework, the article argues, became a potent political tool, fostering a divisive “Aryan-Dravidian” split and undermining Indian heritage.

However, the Out of India Theory (OIT) offers a compelling counter-narrative: the Indo-Aryan people and their Vedic culture originated within India, with the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) being the Vedic Civilization. OIT proponents cite the absence of invasion evidence at Harappan sites, highlighting profound cultural continuity. New archaeological and genetic findings increasingly support indigenous origins, even suggesting westward migrations from India.

This isn’t just an academic debate; it’s a vital quest to “reclaim India’s national identity.” By challenging ingrained historical distortions, OIT aims to re-establish India’s place as a “Cradle of Civilization,” predating Mesopotamia and Egypt, affirming a deep, unbroken cultural lineage.

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Advaitic Inquiry

What Does It Mean To Be Enlightened?

This post is a response to a question from a friend who’s seriously exploring what enlightenment actually is. It’s a good question — and a rare one — because most people, like I did for fifteen years, chase enlightenment as if it’s some mystical high, a state of bliss, or a mind-blowing shift in consciousness.

But here, I’m cutting through all that.

No poetry. No metaphors. No smoke and mirrors.

I’m answering the question head-on — in plain, precise language that doesn’t flinch and doesn’t hide behind spiritual jargon. And what I offer here stands up to every form of rational scrutiny.

If you’re looking for clarity, not fantasy, this is for you.

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History of Advaita

The Upanishads and the Axial Age: Religion in Pre-Historic India – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I traced the quiet birth of the Upanishadic vision against the backdrop of one of humanity’s great turning points—the Axial Age. In Part 2, the focus turns to the Indian subcontinent itself—not yet Vedic, but already in motion. I will trace the social, political, and religious changes unfolding in pre-historic and proto-historic India, which together form the cultural soil from which later Vedic and eventually Upanishadic thought would emerge. I also show that evidence increasingly points to a profound continuity between the Harappan (Indus-Sarasvati) civilisation and later Indian culture, suggesting the Harappans themselves may have been the authors of the Rigvedic tradition that gave rise to the Upanishads.

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History of Advaita

The Upanishads and the Axial Age: From Sacred Fire to Inner Light – Part 1

In an age when old rituals faltered under the weight of expanding empires, urban complexity, and moral uncertainty, a quiet revolution unfolded in the forests of ancient India. The Upanishads, composed between 800 and 200 BCE, did not merely extend the Vedic tradition—they dismantled its core assumptions. Sacrifice gave way to self-inquiry. The gods of the altar were replaced by the questioner within.

This shift wasn’t isolated. Across Eurasia, from Greece to China, prophets and philosophers began asking not what to worship, but how to live. The German philosopher Karl Jaspers called it the Axial Age—a spiritual pivot in world history. The Upanishads are India’s profound answer to that moment. Where others turned outward to law, ethics, or reason, India turned inward—seeking the divine not in temples or sacrifices, but in consciousness itself.

This article argues that the Upanishads are more than scripture; they are a civilizational rebirth. In Part 1, we map the Axial Age across cultures. In Part 2, we enter the Indian mind, where the fire of ritual became the light of introspection—and where the self (Ātman) was revealed to be not separate from, but identical with, ultimate reality (Brahman).

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Advaitic Inquiry

The Upanishads: The Oldest Voice of Nondual Philosophy – Compared to Other Nondual Traditions

Before Plato, before Laozi, before the Buddha, there were the Upanishads. In forest clearings across ancient India, long before the rise of formal philosophy or organised religion, sages sat in silence and asked the only question that ever really mattered: What am I? From that silence emerged a thunderbolt of insight—that the self and the cosmos are not two. The oldest surviving texts to declare this are not speculative essays or scriptures of belief. They are the Upanishads: bold, spare, poetic, and uncompromising in their message. Ātman is Brahman. The soul is the world. The knower is the known. And this insight, written more than two thousand years ago, remains the earliest—and perhaps the purest—expression of nonduality ever recorded.

This article sets out to show that the Upanishads are not just ancient—they are the clearest, most uncompromising voice of nonduality in human thought. By placing them in conversation with the many traditions that followed, we begin to see their singular force. In the light of comparison, their purity sharpens, like a mountain revealed when the mist lifts.

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Advaitic Inquiry education Sustainability

When the Forest Reclaims the Classroom: Unlearning the Curriculum of Collapse

The world is spiraling toward ecological collapse, social disintegration, and spiritual desolation — the so-called polycrisis. Across history, many thinkers — both Western and Eastern — have raised profound critiques of the way education alienates human beings from their true nature. In this article, we turn our attention to some of the towering voices from the Western tradition — who, across centuries, recognized the silent war being waged against the human spirit in the name of “learning.” Each, in their own way, offered not only a withering critique of the factory-school model but also a luminous vision for what education could be: an act of liberation, a return to life. We must deschool the world, reclaim the Earth, and awaken the children — before there is no world left for them to inherit.

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Advaitic Inquiry

When The Elephant Vanishes: Seeing Through Maya

In the timeless tradition of Advaita Vedanta, the pursuit of truth begins with a radical inquiry: Is what I perceive truly what is? This blog, based on an insightful article by Vivek, a member of the NEEV Community for Self-Inquiry and Sustainability, explores this very question through a powerful allegory—the story of a wooden elephant mistaken for the real.

At the heart of this reflection lies the fundamental Advaitic principle of adhyāsa, or superimposition. The root problem of human suffering is the superimposition (adhyāsa) of the non-Self (body, mind, world) upon the Self (pure consciousness), and vice versa. Just as one mistakes a rope for a snake or a wooden elephant for a real one, so too does the ignorant mind mistake the transient world/non-Self for ultimate reality/Self.

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Advaitic Inquiry

The War on Joy: How Society Conditions You to Stay Unhappy & How To Break Free

In every civilization, power structures have evolved to control the masses. While in the past, these structures relied on brute force—kings, empires, and oppressive regimes—today’s world operates on far subtler mechanisms. The modern system does not use whips or shackles; instead, it binds the human mind through psychological chains, ensuring that people remain trapped in dissatisfaction, fear, and endless pursuit of external validation. By challenging the foundations of the modern system and offering an alternative rooted in self-inquiry, member of NEEV Community for Self Inquiry and Sustainability, Vivek provides more than just a critique—he offers a path to liberation. This article is not merely an analysis; it is a call to reclaim our joy, our freedom, and our very being.