Tag: god

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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 Inquiries Witness Stage

Understanding “Consciousness is Everything”: Journal of a 15 yr Old – Part2/2: The World Was Never Created (Ajativada)

In Part I of this article series I discussed the journal of a young, 15 yr old student who studies in my Advaita Study Group. In his journal, he describes how he has conceptually understood that Consciousness is the Ultimate Reality and how all the phenomena we see in the world is just a projection of Consciousness which does not actually affect Consciousness. Further, in his journal he has also described, even though he is Consciousness, it is actually the Lord who is willing the actions of all Jivas and creatures of the world. The Lord is a sort of supercomputer, while the individual minds/Jivas are just receptors of the thoughts and actions willed by the Lord. In Part 1 I gave the whole of my attention to show how his journal had flashes of genius in it, uncannily describing the journey of a seeker in Advaita towards Self Realization as described by the four Mahavakyas. In this article, I would like to delve into the highest peak of Advaita: Ajativada. This is the doctrine propounded by Gaudapada in Mandukya Karika. It reveals something absolutely unbelievable: in the Absolute sense, the world, including oneself is devoid of changes or mutations like birth, growth, death etc. as also it is devoid of all duality. All this is verily Consciousness/Awareness alone. CREATION NEVER HAPPENED. Consciousness never gave birth to any world of Jiva(individuals)-Jagat(world of objects)-Isvara(creator). They are all nothing but imaginations of a mind operating in Maya/illusion. I show how even this was anticipated by my student in his journal.

Categories
Advaitic Inquiries Pre-Witness Stage Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

Watching Suffering: Journals of Two Young Girls

Suffering is a fact that is common to all human life. Nonetheless, we are never educated by schools, parents and society to understand and explore the possibility of ending suffering. On the contrary, they teach us to somehow escape suffering. In this article, through the journals of two young female students of NEEV Psycho-Philosophy Inquiry group, the various ways in which people escape or find solutions to suffering are discussed. Finally, it is shown how any movement away from suffering, even in the form of different solutions offered by dualist spiritual paths really do not address the cause of suffering at its root. I show how Krishnamurti’s approach of watching suffering and only non-dual approaches like Advaita solve the problem of suffering comprehensively. As the Katha Upanishad says, “He, who sees any difference here, goes from death to death.”