Duality – it always made me uneasy. How can two contradictory things be implied by two equally true sounding statements? In the Symbolic Logic class, while proving arguments through formal proofs of validity, my teacher had remarked on a question whose result had ended in a contradiction. “you see, it is dangerous to start with a false premise, it may end up in a false conclusion”. The premise with which our proof had started was a false one, and there behold! The conclusion that was implied by the proof of validity was an equally ridiculous one. In this universe, I am taught, there are always two kinds of statements – ones that are true, others that are false, and there are only two types of arguments – ones that are valid, others that are invalid.
So once in a while, I bump into questions which are of the so called ‘grey’ shade and fail to satisfy my puny mind which is overwhelmed by the logic it is being fed with. And yes, I’m glad I have the liberty to question them. My parents have always encouraged me to question and explore anything and everything, even the most sacred and hallowed beliefs. The answers are not always easy to find, but yeah, they come to you, after some time, strike you like a flash of lightning – or just pop up as a strange correlation in your head when you see a similar thing happening but in a different context. Its like you see a microcosm of the answer you were desperately seeking for in a random comment made by someone, in a gesture that is passed around, in a new concept you just learnt in the classroom.
...And then the duality merges into one, just one – a pure answer with no adulteration. So, one of the dualities I came across was this. The scriptures say that everything is part of a divine design and that every single thing that traspires in our lives is planned. But here in a full page advertisement in the newspaper, stands a youth icon with a tagline ‘because destiny lies in your hands’. So who is doing all that is happening? Me or the supreme Power.
I hunted for the answer and got a lot of puzzling replies from diverse sets of people, all of which would seem to me a circling argument, their premise would somehow grope in the dark and come back to the premise itself. And I would be left unsatiated. And then, as it is always under His Plan, some agent is always created and the answer is delivered to you. So when I put forth my question to Uncle Jaswant Singh Neki , he looked at me, nodded in perfect assurance that the statement about destiny lying in ‘our hands’ was correct.
Baffled I asked him so is the former false?
He gazed down at my hands, and then politely asked with the innocence of a child, ‘but then, who gave you these hands?’ That was it.
The two statements merged into one, the contradiction departed and truth remained to create a beautiful implication that made me feel bliss.
I realised, that is what happens when two become one and the one stays with you forever, like an eternal truth. It seems to me that all science and social science in this world are striving for is the same optimizing function – resolving the dualities. My discipline that is economics, especially the IED classes are full of contrasts – the contrast between privileged children and underprivileged children, between developed societies and developing, between north delhi and south delhi, between kerala and bihar. All policies made by policy makers seek to resolve the duality that so intricately exists in our lives or in some cases the multiplicity of inequalities which in Mr Ayde’s words has ‘an octopus like grip’ in our society.
The other day, listening to kirtan in Bangla Sahib, I learnt a crucial lesson. Indeed, I understood the meaning of guess what, “One”! Yes, finally it made sense. I had not been parroting ‘Ek Oankar’ for long without a reason – it had a meaning, a beautiful meaning.
Ghat ghat eko vartda (Only the ‘One’ resides in all the places)
The way the Ragi Singh had stressed on the ‘eko’ in that line, I was moved. I got a lump in my throat and realized how ubiquitous is the concept of One in this world as echoed through Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The Guru starts with ‘ik oankar’ – the fundamental reality of the universe.
Its like the Economic theories I study – every model starts with a basic assumption about the state of the world, following which equations and assertions are made and postulated. In the Guru’s model of Truth that he starts to explain, he starts not with the assumption but the fundamental fact or foundation on which everything else rests.
One. Just One. There is one God. That’s it.
There, it resolves all inter-faith human-made divides about who are we ultimately worshipping. It is One. The same power who created all of us, the one who is making my fingers dance on the keyboard and write this – the One who is conducted this world drama. So the Guru starts with One, and then chooses to explain the various facets of the cosmos. He then makes logical arguments with astounding rationality that I’ve not known elsewhere and puts his conclusions forward.
‘What difference will it make, if you sacrifice a live animal or a human before a non-living God?’
‘Will a piece of thread be able to save me after I die, when it gets cremated with my body?’
‘Why are you prejudiced against women, for women give birth to King of Kings?’ Transivity would imply that if you respect a man, a king, and he respects his mother, then you should also respect his mother, who is none but a woman. So, why the gender bias, he questioned.
So how do you explain the duality and multiplicity that exists when people talk about Ram, Rahim, Allah – well, the Guru says, it does not change the reality. Ram, Rahim and Allah are just other names for the same Almighty, just like dad, papa, pitaji, père are different ways of addressing one’s father. It does not imply multiple fathers but just different names called out of love for one’s own dad! Isn’t it?
There are dualities after dualities, contrasts after contrasts and ultimately they converge to One goal, just one, that’s what I’ve learnt. The ‘about me’ column on my facebook profile reads… ‘yet to discover myself’. For I feel life is a discovery, of continuous discoveries, of a slew of Nobel prizes for new inventions and discoveries and surely I have not fully discovered myself yet.
Day after day, some of the tangled mess and puzzles unfold and leave me all amazed and ecstatic. So what is the objective function of life? The purpose of life is a life of purpose, I know. But what purpose, then? The lesson I have learnt this day is that our common goal in this cosmos is nothing but to find the ‘One’, become ‘One’ with him and see the ‘One’ in all.
So once in a while, I bump into questions which are of the so called ‘grey’ shade and fail to satisfy my puny mind which is overwhelmed by the logic it is being fed with. And yes, I’m glad I have the liberty to question them. My parents have always encouraged me to question and explore anything and everything, even the most sacred and hallowed beliefs. The answers are not always easy to find, but yeah, they come to you, after some time, strike you like a flash of lightning – or just pop up as a strange correlation in your head when you see a similar thing happening but in a different context. Its like you see a microcosm of the answer you were desperately seeking for in a random comment made by someone, in a gesture that is passed around, in a new concept you just learnt in the classroom.
...And then the duality merges into one, just one – a pure answer with no adulteration. So, one of the dualities I came across was this. The scriptures say that everything is part of a divine design and that every single thing that traspires in our lives is planned. But here in a full page advertisement in the newspaper, stands a youth icon with a tagline ‘because destiny lies in your hands’. So who is doing all that is happening? Me or the supreme Power.
I hunted for the answer and got a lot of puzzling replies from diverse sets of people, all of which would seem to me a circling argument, their premise would somehow grope in the dark and come back to the premise itself. And I would be left unsatiated. And then, as it is always under His Plan, some agent is always created and the answer is delivered to you. So when I put forth my question to Uncle Jaswant Singh Neki , he looked at me, nodded in perfect assurance that the statement about destiny lying in ‘our hands’ was correct.
Baffled I asked him so is the former false?
He gazed down at my hands, and then politely asked with the innocence of a child, ‘but then, who gave you these hands?’ That was it.
The two statements merged into one, the contradiction departed and truth remained to create a beautiful implication that made me feel bliss.
I realised, that is what happens when two become one and the one stays with you forever, like an eternal truth. It seems to me that all science and social science in this world are striving for is the same optimizing function – resolving the dualities. My discipline that is economics, especially the IED classes are full of contrasts – the contrast between privileged children and underprivileged children, between developed societies and developing, between north delhi and south delhi, between kerala and bihar. All policies made by policy makers seek to resolve the duality that so intricately exists in our lives or in some cases the multiplicity of inequalities which in Mr Ayde’s words has ‘an octopus like grip’ in our society.
The other day, listening to kirtan in Bangla Sahib, I learnt a crucial lesson. Indeed, I understood the meaning of guess what, “One”! Yes, finally it made sense. I had not been parroting ‘Ek Oankar’ for long without a reason – it had a meaning, a beautiful meaning.
Ghat ghat eko vartda (Only the ‘One’ resides in all the places)
The way the Ragi Singh had stressed on the ‘eko’ in that line, I was moved. I got a lump in my throat and realized how ubiquitous is the concept of One in this world as echoed through Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The Guru starts with ‘ik oankar’ – the fundamental reality of the universe.
Its like the Economic theories I study – every model starts with a basic assumption about the state of the world, following which equations and assertions are made and postulated. In the Guru’s model of Truth that he starts to explain, he starts not with the assumption but the fundamental fact or foundation on which everything else rests.
One. Just One. There is one God. That’s it.
There, it resolves all inter-faith human-made divides about who are we ultimately worshipping. It is One. The same power who created all of us, the one who is making my fingers dance on the keyboard and write this – the One who is conducted this world drama. So the Guru starts with One, and then chooses to explain the various facets of the cosmos. He then makes logical arguments with astounding rationality that I’ve not known elsewhere and puts his conclusions forward.
‘What difference will it make, if you sacrifice a live animal or a human before a non-living God?’
‘Will a piece of thread be able to save me after I die, when it gets cremated with my body?’
‘Why are you prejudiced against women, for women give birth to King of Kings?’ Transivity would imply that if you respect a man, a king, and he respects his mother, then you should also respect his mother, who is none but a woman. So, why the gender bias, he questioned.
So how do you explain the duality and multiplicity that exists when people talk about Ram, Rahim, Allah – well, the Guru says, it does not change the reality. Ram, Rahim and Allah are just other names for the same Almighty, just like dad, papa, pitaji, père are different ways of addressing one’s father. It does not imply multiple fathers but just different names called out of love for one’s own dad! Isn’t it?
There are dualities after dualities, contrasts after contrasts and ultimately they converge to One goal, just one, that’s what I’ve learnt. The ‘about me’ column on my facebook profile reads… ‘yet to discover myself’. For I feel life is a discovery, of continuous discoveries, of a slew of Nobel prizes for new inventions and discoveries and surely I have not fully discovered myself yet.
Day after day, some of the tangled mess and puzzles unfold and leave me all amazed and ecstatic. So what is the objective function of life? The purpose of life is a life of purpose, I know. But what purpose, then? The lesson I have learnt this day is that our common goal in this cosmos is nothing but to find the ‘One’, become ‘One’ with him and see the ‘One’ in all.
