Thus Spake the Divine - Dvaitam ÷ Boutham = Advaitam

Thus Spake the Divine

Dvaitam ÷ Boutham = Advaitam

In this chapter, Sri Maha Periyava brings the mathematical perspective to explain the doctrine of Advaita.

As per a mantra in the Upanishad “Brahmam is everything (pooranam); Brahmam is absolute. Cosmos is also everything; Cosmos that is everything, emerges from the Brahmam, which is also everything; Even if the Cosmos is removed from the Brahmam, Brahmam still remains as everything.”

Pooranam means Whole, Complete, Everything. The question here arises:

How can two substances be “Everything”? When ‘Everything’ is removed from ‘Everything’, how can what remains also continue to be “Everything?”

What is the true meaning of this mantra? The Cosmos is not a substance, which has separated itself and emerged out from the Brahmam as another substance. The Brahmam itself appears as the Cosmos. Brahmam has not created the Cosmos with different kinds of substances. Brahmam itself has also not transformed as the Cosmos. Brahmam just appears as the Cosmos. That’s all!

Looking at a garland in the dark, we assume it to be a snake. Now, to our eyes, the garland appears as the snake. The garland has not transformed into the snake, nor did the garland create the snake. When assuming the garland as a snake, it appeared completely (Pooranam) as a snake. When it is seen as a garland, the image is completely in the form of garland. Just like the snake in its complete form emanated from the garland, which is complete, similarly, from the absolute Brahmam, the absolute Cosmos surges. It means that at one stage, the garland is absolute and in another stage, the snake is absolute. So, there are no two absolute substances. The same “absolute substance” appears as absolute in two different forms. When there was delusion that garland appeared as snake, did the weight of the garland increase? No. When the image of the snake faded and the clarity emerged that it was the garland, did the weight of the garland decrease? Even that is not so. Similarly, when Cosmos is added or removed from the Brahmam, only Brahmam continues to remain absolute. This is what is elucidated in the Upanishad that even after deletion of the absolute from the absolute, still the remainder remains absolute!

Why did the garland appear as snake? Because of the darkness around, it appeared so. Similarly, only in the darkness of Maya, the Brahmam appears as the universe. The meaning of Maya is “that which is non-existent”. The non-existent Maya divulges the only existing substance of Brahmam as Cosmos in different dimensions. You may ask how a substance, which does not exist, can do this. Let me answer you from the mathematical perspective. We have seen the mathematical concepts of addition and deletion in the above example. We saw the peculiarity that with addition, it will not increase and with deletion, still it remains complete. Now, let me give you the multiplication and division perspective.

We divide one number with another number. As the dividing number becomes smaller and smaller, the remainder grows bigger and bigger. If we divide 16 by 16, the remainder is 1; if we divide it by 8, the remainder is 2; if divided by 4, the remainder is 4 and if divided by 1, the remainder is 16. If the dividing number becomes very less, say zero, then the remainder becomes quite huge and infinity. If you divide any number with zero, the resultant remainder is infinity.

1/0 = infinity. 2/0 = infinity. 3/0 = infinity; even if we divide a crore with zero, the same infinity is the remainder.

The rule of mathematics is that when we multiply the dividing number with the remainder, we should get the divisible number. i.e. 16 ÷ 2 = 8. 8 x 2 = 16. Hence, as per this rule,

Infinity x 0 = 1

Infinity x 0 = 2

Infinity x 0 = 3

Thus, it runs unending. One infinity multiplies itself with zero as one, two, three, crores, ten crores endlessly.

This one infinity is the Brahmam. The substance that is non- existent, which is the Maya, is the zero. The one, which does not exist, can only be zero, right? Just like the infinity number multiplies itself with the zero and emerges as quite a lot, Brahmam manifests itself as the Cosmos engrossed with the unending substances under the influence of Maya. Any number can be attributed to the Cosmos, which is being divided. Whatever number is given, since the divisible number is zero, which is the Maya, it does not change. The infinite Brahmam stands as the remainder. Since the Cosmos, which is endless, has the privilege of being attributed with any number, Cosmos also becomes infinity.

How many different types are there in the creation? How is it that our minds are also oscillating in different directions? There is no end at all for these things. It is only infinity. As in the Upanishad mantra, when it says that Brahmam is absolute, we can infer that Brahmam is the “Constant Infinity” and, when it says that Cosmos is absolute, we can infer that Cosmos is the “constantly changing infinity”.

There cannot exist one absolute substance that keeps on continuously undergoing transformation. Even though we give the value of one, two, three, crore or ten crores, in reality, it is the one that does not exist, is zero. Here, we should take the mathematical rule of multiplication, which states that whichever number is multiplied by zero, the resultant number is only zero. Even though we might say that Infinity (Brahmam) x Maya (0) = 1, 2, 3 etc., for the sake of courtesy, in reality, if the infinity is multiplied by Maya, we may arrive at the fact that the resultant Cosmos is absorbed by only the zero form Maya.

Advaita says that the Brahmam, which is infinity, is the only absolute substance; Dvaita says that the Cosmos, which also appears as infinity, is also absolute. Boutham, without having any distinction between Brahmam and Cosmos, says everything is Maya, everything is zero. From this we can deduce that, Brahmam is absolute as per Advaita; Boutham stops with the point that everything is Maya; Dvaita says Cosmos is also absolute.

If we use the above equation i.e. Brahmam x Maya = Cosmos, we might finally say as follows:

Advaita x Boutham = Dvaita

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.

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