The Spiritual Evolution of Jeevas (MTS-12: Towards A Mathematical Theory of Spirituality Based on Advaita)

[Guest guest]

Ref Pages 24-29 of http://sunyaprajna.com/Advaita/Advaita_Math.pdf

 

Jeevas evolve constantly barring only periods, such as deep sleep, when they

have no interaction with the O-E-T. Every transaction with the O-E-T entails a

change of some magnitude in the jeeva, either adding to, or detracting from, its

spiritual detachment depending on the manner in which the transaction is

conducted. This evolution continues, with its ups and downs, until the jeeva

attains perfection in some particular life time.

 

The spiritual detachment, theta, of a jeeva therefore varies with time. There

can be even short term variations over hours and days or long term variations

over years as well as over lifetimes. When the polar coordinate pair (t,theta)

is plotted for such a jeeva what we get is a curve reflecting the ups and down

in its spiritual progress. We may call this graph of (t,theta) as the spiritual

progress chart of the jeeva. We can also define a function theta(t) which gives

the spiritual detachment as a function of t, with theta being always in the

range (0, pi/2).

 

Fig 9 on page 25 illustrates the above idea with the progress chart of a jeeva

J3 from the beginning of time until the jeeva’s realization after several

lifetimes. During the period A to E, theta is nearly 0 indicating that this is

a jeeva very much bound to O-E-T in its early lives. In the period E to C,

possibly representing several life times, the jeeva begins to develop

spiritually. From C to B, the jeeva’s spiritual development increases

dramatically, such as is the case when, under the guidance of a Guru, it enters

serious saadhanaas. At point B, theta=pi/2 indicating the attainment of

Realization. The jeeva’s journey has ended at this point, though it may

continue its bodily existence as a jeevan muktha to complete that lifetime.

 

In an earlier posting in response to a question from Prof VK ji, we have seen

how the mathematics for this general case can be presented using complex

variables. We will not go over that again now, but will make the following

observations to clarify the spiritual significance of the various mathematical

expressions and also to distinguish the general case from the special case of

uniform detachment that we dealt with before.

 

1) In the general case, there are two distinct representations: one is the

progress chart such as in Fig 9, showing the values of theta over time in polar

coordinates. Here the two axes simply represent the two end point values for

theta, namely zero and pi/2. Progression of (cosmic) time is represented by the

circular waves. The jeeva’s experienced time cannot be read off the horizontal

axis in the general case.

 

2) Fig 10, page 27, shows a different representation of the jeeva’s evolution.

This graph, in cartesian coordinates, gives the jeeva’s “path” with tau(t) and

G(t) defined in page 26, as the horizontal and vertical axes respectively.

 

3) The coordinate pair (tau(t), G(t)) is a summary of the jeeva’s spiritual

history from the beginning of time to the present time, t. Tau(t), the

experienced time, shows how well the jeeva has performed spiritually so far- the

more evolved a jeeva, the lower the experienced time. G(t), on the other hand,

is best interpreted as the “accumulated merit” of the jeeva due to all the good

karmas in its many lives. Hence it as an indicator of how well the jeeva is

expected to perform in the future. We may compare this pair of statistics to

the way a tennis professional’s history can be quantified. We may indicate how

many tournaments the pro has won so far in his career and separately also show

how he is presently “ranked”. The former is a measure of past performance while

the latter indicates how well he is expected to do in the coming tournament.

 

4) Jeevas with uniform, non-varying, spiritual detachment is not realistic,

especially over long periods of time, but was included in the discussion as a

special case to reveal some basic relationships. For this special case, the

“progress chart” of Fig 9 and the “spiritual path” of Fig 10 are identical and

it was possible to show both on the same axes system.

 

How does a jeeva progress spiritually? This of course is a core question and

one which is not addressed by the model at this time. The different yogas and

saadhanaas an aspirant should undertake in order to make spiritual progress are

exhaustively dealt with in our scriptures. The model only attempts to capture

the effect of a jeeva’s spiritual detachment profile on its worldly experience;

it does not incorporate the forces that affect the spiritual progress over time.

 

In the next, and last, posting of this series, I will conclude with some

observations on the model, its utility, and possible ways for its further

development.

 

 

Hari Om!

 

- Raju Chidambaram