The Pilgrimage

We have seen how the advent of relativity theory and quantum mechanics has changed the course of the stream of modern science, bringing it nearly parallel to the stream of Advaita Vedanta, which has come down from much earlier times. The confluence of these two streams has been made possible primarily by the suggestion, implied by both relativity theory and quantum mechanics, that there must be an apparitional causation underlying the transformational causations of our physics. Through the influence of relativity theory, the quest of our physics for the real in the external world has taken a new turn. It is not that the external world has been found to be unreal, but only that the real was not found to be external. The pre-relativity notion that there is a real separation between the perceiver and the perceived was misleading. The contrary notion, that the real is one and that the motions in what we see as the external world arise real, is the central notion of Advaita. It is to this notion that modern physics, by implication, points. As was mentioned earlier, it is not that all physicists have accepted this suggestion, but we are here tracing the growth and development of concepts rather than their acceptance. What remained unclear at the edge of the map of Advaita was how the nature of Brahman, seen through Maya as Asti-Bhati-Priya, must show up in our physics. And what remained unclear at the edge of the map of our physics was why matter should appear as discrete electrical particles showing gravity and inertia. The unclear parts of these two maps were simply the region where the two maps join to make a single, more extensive map. The how of Advaita is in our physics and the why of physics is in Advaita. What was missing at the end of the last century was the knowledge of where the maps should be joined. Swami Vivekananda seems to have sensed where the maps should join. But his difficulty was that that section of the map had not yet been filled in by the physicists. Einstein was still a boy and Heisenberg was not yet born. A map, like a system of physics or philosophy, may be considered true if, and only if, it corresponds to fact. The physics of the last century did not correspond to fact. It did not correspond to the measurements of our physics nor to the experiences of the men and women of renunciation. What we needed was a map which would supply a philosophical backdrop against which we could better interpret not only the experiences of the men and women of renunciation, the Sadhakas, the saints, if you like, but against which also we could better interpret and understand our physics. That map we now have. But what is the use of such an extended map? Who needs it? Maps are needed primarily by travelers, in this case by pilgrims, and the pilgrimage, for the charting of which this map is now needed, began long ago, not a few hundred or a few thousand years ago, but hundreds of millions of years ago in the genetic turmoil in which our brain was forged. Our ability to see unity behind diversity was built in there, through almost endless sorrows, around two bubbles in our brain. For several hundred million years that pilgrimage has been made without a map, and that great genetic journey has yet to run. Whether this "immense journey," as Loren Eiseley calls it, will continue with or without a map remains for living beings far in the future to see. But thus far it has been more or less aimless. It is possible that the goal may never be reached by the genetic trek of our descendants through the tangled jungles of biological necessity. It is only through a thousand strokes of good fortune, woven into the fabric of our misfortunes, that we have arrived at a point from which we can see the journey's end. And it lies, not ahead through the blind jungles of action in pursuit of genetic necessities, but off in a new and different direction through the open spaces of individual discrimination and renunciation. Through a smattering of good fortune mixed into the misfortunes of our long genetic trek, we have now arrived at a point from which each pilgrim can strike out on his own toward the goal. It is for that pilgrimage that our map is needed. The individual's pilgrimage from our present position in the blind genetic trek to the goal is still long but no longer uncharted. It is still a frontier country crossed originally by a few bold explorers and crossed more frequently, in later times, with the help of competent guides. But now the country is charted so that pilgrims in enormous numbers may cross with the help of an accurate map. The journey from here, though made by many, must still be made alone, leaning on no one. It is a journey for the strong, the heroic. Firm in our knowledge of the path, leaving all genetic actions behind, we forge ahead by discrimination. Retracing every yearning to the source from which it came, and leaving the dead to bury their dead, we go. Eventually it may be possible to improve the native genetic programming of the species but, for now, our hope lies here. We have the accumulated knowledge. What would happen if the young were trained in the knowledge of the map, unencumbered by the mass of genetic superstition which has come down to us from ancient times? Swami Vivekananda wanted the experiment tried. He wanted to see a group of children raised in the knowledge of Advaita. Let them know the truth alone, free from all genetic hocus-pocus, free from the notion that the universe runs on the whims of a personality, however sublime. Historically, religion, even Vedanta, has been mixed up with the fatherhood of God, or the motherhood, or the kingship. They are much alike. Swamiji wanted it taught without that. He felt that the religions of a people reflected their social structure and that the religions of India had been vitiated by his majesty the king or her majesty the queen. He felt that democracy was the more suitable soil for the growth of Advaita. He said that in a democracy the king has entered into everyone. Democracy has come now, first in America, then in France and now in India. Now is the time for Advaita, for the worship of "the other God, man." Swamiji said that if Vedanta, the conscious knowledge that all is one spirit, spreads, the whole of humanity will become spiritual.