The Waves in the Total Mind (MTS-5: Towards a Mathematical Theory of Spirituality Based on Advaita)

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Ref: (Pages 7-10)

http://sunyaprajna.com/Advaita/Advaita_Math.pdf

 

 

Fig 1 (in page 4) portrays the world as moving inexorably from one state to

another, sweeping away all things and beings in its current of unstoppable time.

This model is true, but luckily not the whole truth. It adequately represents

the purely materialistic view of the scientist, but is incomplete from a

spiritual stand point. Incomplete because it ignores the repeated assurance

given to jeevas in scriptures that there is a way to cross this current of

constant birth and death, called samsar.

 

The O-E-T of Fig 1 is the realm of the “seen” or experienced. A basic tenet of

Advaita is that there can be no seen without a seer and that the seer and seen

together define the experience of seeing. What is missing in Fig 1 is this seer

and seeing aspects of reality. To rectify this shortcoming, Fig 3 (in page 8)

expands the one dimensional geometry of Fig 1 into a two-dimensional one,

incorporating the “Experiencer” as an axis vertical to the Experienced O-E-T in

the horizontal axis.

 

The quadrant enclosed by the two axes called Experienced and Experiencer defines

the space of Experiences, which includes, as we will see, all actual and

potential experiences. In this expanded geometry of Fig 3, the cause-effect

chain of Fig 1 is replaced by cause-effect waves spreading through this space,

the distance between successive waves being one cosmic unit of time as before.

Each wave is the effect of its preceding causal wave.

 

What are these waves and what is the space they travel in? Advaita often refers

to creation as “Waves in the Total Mind”. Fig 3 gives a literal shape to this

allegory. In our model, the waves have a two-fold significance. Firstly, they

mark the cosmic time. The origin A where the two axes intersect is the beginning

of creation; i.e time=0; the first wave DH is the first time line (also called

first “now-line”) when one cosmic unit of time has elapsed; the wave EF is the

second time line at time=2 etc.

 

The wave representation also captures nicely the uncertainty in cause-effect

transitions. Thus, the wave DH, which is the uncertain effect of original cause

A at t=0, represents all possible states the world can be at time=1. Since there

is a probability associated with each possible state, it is appropriate to call

the waves as “probability waves”. Indeed what we are showing in Fig 3 is what a

quantum physicist might call as the probability wave of the total cosmos from

the beginning of creation. The waves collectively portray all possible ways the

universe can evolve over time under Prakriti’s laws and hence contain all actual

and potential experiences the jeevas can have in this universe. Therefore we

are justified in referring to this space as the “field of all potential

experiences”. The actual experiences jeevas do encounter are represented by the

horizontal line O-E-T which is now just a small part of the total possibilities.

 

What is the space in which the probability waves exist? In answer, let us ask:

where do possibilities and probabilities exist? Possibilities eimagined by a

jeeva, as we know from our individual experience, exist in the jeeva’s mind.

Similarly, the possibilities for the total cosmos exist in the Total Mind. Total

Mind is often taken to be the Hiranyagarbha aspect of Totality. Fig 3 shows the

material space of O-E-T as contained in this larger space of Total Mind. Sri

Ramana used to say that the mana-akaasa contains the bhuta akaasa, whereas both

are contained in the supreme akaasa of Pure Consciousness. The measure of

distance in this Total Mind, as shown in Fig 3, is cosmic time.

 

Vasanas are not explicitly represented in Fig 3, nevertheless they are the

driving force launching the cause-effect waves in the Total Mind. The Advaitic

analogy of a steady breeze (vasanas) spreading waves (time and possible states

of the cosmos over time) over an otherwise calm lake (Total Mind) is perfectly

captured in Fig 3. Since Vasanas are thus also part of the model, we must

understand that the Ishwara aspect is also included in Fig 3. In other words,

Fig 3 includes all three aspects (Virat, Hiranyagarbha and Ishwara) of Totality

within one qudarant. We do not show That which is beyond these three, but may

view That as the other three quadrants necessarily left blank in Fig 3. This is

in accordance with the concept (“tripaadasya amrtam divi”) found in Purusha

Sooktham.

 

But how does Fig 3 help us understand the means of liberation for a jeeva from

O-E-T? This we will discuss in the next posting where we introduce the parameter

representing spiritual detachment of jeevas.

 

Hari Om!

 

- Raju Chidambaram