Tag: spirituality

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Advaitic Inquiries 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 Inquiries

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 Inquiries

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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Advaitic Inquiries

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 Inquiries

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 Inquiries

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 Inquiries

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.

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Advaitic Inquiries

IPL Cricket Through the Lens of Advaita: A Modern Perspective

Advaita Vedanta has often been perceived as a philosophy of renunciation—a worldview that urges seekers to retreat from the world to realize the ultimate truth. Yet, when we look at the teachings we see that profound truths were rarely delivered in isolation from life. Instead, they were woven into myths, stories, and dialogues that unfolded in the heart of society.

This same tradition of embedding philosophical wisdom within the pulse of everyday life continues today. One of the members of the NEEV Community for Self-Inquiry & Sustainability, Vivek, has brought this ancient wisdom into a contemporary context by exploring Advaita through the lens of the Indian Premier League (IPL)

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Advaitic Inquiries Pre-Witness Stage

Advaita, Capitalism And The Red Pill Of Truth

In this post I talk about why the understanding of Capitalism and uprooting it from one’s life psychologically and physically is essential for the study of Advaita and attaining it’s goal of liberation, especially for householder Advaitins.

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Advaitic Inquiries Pre-Witness Stage Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

Advaita & Paradox of Practice vs No Practice: A Dialogue

A modern seeker of truth is faced with a plethora of paths and schools in this digital age. While this is a boon, it also presents a challenge for the seeker to decide which path to take, because more often than not, paths conflict and critique each other. In this dialogue, a seeker raises some of these dilemmas. One dilemma he raises is that of the issue of practice vs no-practice. Many new age teachers, like Neo-Advaitins scorn effort, path and methods of traditional paths as useless baggage. In this article I show how this can be very self-defeating and disorienting for the vast majority of seekers who need a structure, path and practices for preparing the mind. I show how Advaita Vedanta teachings have a sophisticated methodology to lead a seeker through alternate superimposition and cancellation of concepts, and from practice to the final state of no-practice. One can enter the spiritual path at any point on the scale of practice to no-practice. I show how my teachings start just a shade beneath the point of no-practice but I do not totally discount practices.

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Advaitic Inquiries Pre-Witness Stage

You (Self) Are Not (Your) Thoughts: A Dialogue

That we all suffer conflicts of various kinds in our life is an undeniable fact. Self Inquiry is about unearthing and ending the root of all conflicts. In this dialogue with a seeker, I examine the conflict of the division between the thinker and thought. What sustains this division is the process of psychological becoming. One of the processes of psychological becoming is seeking to be virtuous. In this article, I differentiate between dharma/virtue as a process of psychological becoming and adhyatma/the spiritual science of eternal being, to help the seeker appreciate the difference, and overcome the conflict caused by this form of becoming. Finally, I introduce the various stages of self-inquiry, by which I help a seeker completely transcend the duality between the thinker and thought, as a means to ending of all conflict.

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Advaitic Inquiries Witness Stage

Prarabdha Karma After Self Realization: It’s Experience of Suffering and Pleasure: Part3/3

With this article, I finish the three-part series on Prarabdha Karma. In this final article which has extensive quotes from the text Panchadasi, a reader gets the most exhaustive treatment of this subject found anywhere in Advaita literature, corroborated by my own experience. The purpose of these articles was to draw out the complexity of experience and actions of a Jnani/Jivanmukta, evident only to him/her rather than to an outsider, who sees nothing saintly or special in a Jnani, when contrasted to full-blown Jnanis who have got freed from Prarabdha Karma like in Ajativada. Such Jivanmuktas whom I talked about in part 2, has ended with Prarabdha Karma while others have not. The keynote for a Jivanmukta undergoing Prarabdha Karma, however, is that the world of phenomena is mithya or only apparently real, therefore he does not evince any serious commitments to this world of mithya even if he appears to. His attitude is therefore of ‘high indifference’. Though the Jivanmukta may seem to undergo suffering and do acts which can be labelled under the categories of virtue and vice, a Jivanmukta knows himself to be Self/Awareness which is not a thinker/doer/experiencer. For a Jivanmukta, his BMI (Body/Mind/Intellect) appears as an object to Awareness/Self, so even though his/her BMI is affected by Prarabdha, the Jivanmukta as Self remains unaffected. I wanted to explore the enigmatic inner world of the Jivanmukta; his/her experiential dimension that escapes onlookers: a person who is in the world yet not of it.