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<p class="paracenter">II
</p>
<p class="paracenter"></p>
<p class="paracenter"><b>BEYOND VEDANTA </b>
</p>
<p class="paracenter"></p>
<p class="para"> The first step in the spiritual 
life is the Vedantic experience that the world is an illusion, an absolute 
illusion. Rather it is the Buddhist experience of <i>nihil, </i>
nothingness, extinc­tion that is the first step, the very basic realisation of 
all spiritual life. It is not the summit—the  <i>
nec plus 
ultra,  </i>beyond which there is nothing—but it is the very foundation, 
the absolute minimum of spirituality—<i>sine qua non, 
 </i>
without which it is not. The one experience with which you start your spiritual 
journey is the total negation of whatever exists, reducing existence to zero: 
world-existence being equated with Ignorance. Life is a false­hood, one has to 
reject it outright. The next step in Vedanta would be, when you have eliminated 
everything, reduced all to zero, to contemplate, to find what remains, the 
irreducible reality—the unity, the One, Sat, Brahman.</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> First, then, the total &quot;and 
absolute dissolution of this creation of ignorance, the Creation which is 
ignorance, and attaining a status of nothingness, absolute annihilation, then in 
that blank void emerges the Residue, the One True Reality—a silent, infinite 
eternal immobility, a pure Existence. In the beginning the Non-Existence (Asat), 
then there arises the Pure Existence (Sat). That pure Existence is gradually 
found to possess or be Delight also. As Being is not the being in creation even 
so the Consciousness</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-8</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">is not the normal or mental consciousness, and Delight too is 
not the joy of life; they are all of quite another quality and category.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> In other words Purusha is given 
the exclusive reality, while Prakriti is negated, being identified with 
unconsciousness and ignorance, is relegated to a status of relative reality. 
Prakriti is considered as <i>m</i>&#257;<i>y</i>&#257;<i>, </i>
the illusory con-sciousness, the ignorance. Purusha is the Brahman, the 
Conscious Being, the One Absolute Pure Reality.</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> The Tantra comes next in the 
scale. Tantra does not consider Prakriti as absolutely separate from Purusha and 
opposite in character. Prakriti is not unconsciousness (Achit); it is instinct 
with consciousness. Indeed Prakriti as conceived by Sankhya or Mayavada is only 
a lower formulation, an inferior aspect of the higher Prakriti which is one with 
the higher Purusha, Purushottama. Tantra worships the higher Prakriti as 
Parashakti, the Divine Mother, who holds in herself the supreme Purusha. The 
world is created and exists not by the power of Maya but by the formative power 
of the Mother, which was the original meaning of the word 'maya', the Divine 
Maya. The Divine Mother creates the world and maintains the world in the Delight 
of her Conscious Existence. She is the Supreme Consciousness (Chinmayee), she is 
the Power of Delight (Hladini Shakti).
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> The Whole bifurcation between 
Tantra and Vedanta hinges upon one point. The Vedanta overlooked one term of the 
Truth and missed thereby a whole world of experience and reality. The central 
term of Vedanta is taken
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-9</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">as Consciousness, Consciousness pure and simple. It omitted the 
fact that Consciousness is also Energy. That Chit is Tapas is the central 
principle in Tantra. The exclusive stress on Chit, Pure Consciousness, led to 
the realisation of the Pure Purusha as mere Witness, Observer, a passive 
consciousness. Subsequently it was also added that the Purusha is not merely a 
Witness, <i>(s</i>&#257;<i>k</i>&#7779;&#299;<i>), </i>
but the Upholder  <i>
(bhart</i>&#257;<i>), 
 </i>even Enjoyer  <i>
(bhokt</i>&#257;<i>) 
 </i>of the world and creation; finally it was added also 
that the Purusha may  <i>
be 
 </i>a creator also  <i>
(kart</i>&#257;<i>), 
 </i>but all this is somewhat outside the pale of orthodox 
Vedanta, Mayavada. Tantra equated Consciousness with Energy; for it Conscious 
Energy or Consciousness-Energy is the indivisible Mother-Reality.</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> The Vedanta ends in Ananda, it is 
a static unitary Ananda. The Tantra posits a dynamic Ananda, a <i>dual </i>
Ananda between Ishwara and Ishwari, Shiva and Shakti. The Vaishnava takes a 
further step and transmutes Ananda into Love, a terrestrial humanised love.</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> An earlier form of this humanised 
love was given in Buddha's Compassion. The transcendent Delight (Ananda) was 
made terrestrial and human in Buddha. But Buddha's compassion was a universal 
feeling and had no personal frame as it were. Vaishnavism gave it a personal 
frame and a human form. Radha and Krishna are not figures of an allegory but 
concrete realities. Vrindavan is not merely the land of heart's desire, a garden 
of paradise but real habitation in a real and concrete consciousness and life. 
The human frame assumed by Radha and Krishna is not merely an assumption, an 
illusion but an etersal</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-10</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">reality in an eternal domain. The gradation of the spiritual 
domains is thus sometimes given as (I) Brahma-loka of the Vedantin, (2) 
Shivaloka of the Tantrik and finally (3) Goloka of the Vaishnava.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> The relation between the Supreme 
(over and above the creation) and the individual in the creation representing 
the creation is sometimes described in human terms to give it a concrete and 
graphic form. This relationship characteristically indicates the fundamental 
nature of the Reality it deals with. Thus in the Vedantic tradition the Supreme 
is worshipped as the Father <i>(pit</i>&#257;<i> no asi). </i>
It is also a relation of Master and disciple, the leader and the led. It brings 
out into prominence the Purusha aspect of the Reality. In the Tantra the 
relation is as between Mother and child. The supreme Reality is the Divine 
Mother holding the universe in her arms. The individual worships and adores the 
Supreme Prakriti as a human child does. The Vaishnava makes the relation as 
between the lover and the beloved, and the love depicted is in­tensely vital and 
even physical, as intense and poignant as the ordinary ignorant human passion. 
It is to show that the Love Divine can beat the human love on its own ground, 
that  is to  
say,  
it  
can be 
or  
it is as passionately sweet and as intensely intimate as any human 
love. It is why Bhakta Prahlad said  
to  
his beloved 
Vishnu &quot;O Lord,  
What 
 ordinary men feel and enjoy  
in  
and through their physical senses, may I have the same enjoyment 
in  
and through Thee.&quot;</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> Still the Vaishnava love in its 
concrete reality is a manifestation
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-11</p>
<hr>
<p class="para">in a subtle world, the world of an inner physical consciousness.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para"> Therefore one more step has to be 
taken when the Divine Love will incarnate in its integral and absolute reality 
upon this physical earth in a concretely material frame.
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-12</p>
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