Duality and Reality

Duality is a concept widely accepted in almost all religions of the world. Good and bad, dark and light, wisdom and ignorance, man and woman are some of the dualities we witness in our everyday life. The biggest ‘duality’ that still puzzles humanity is ‘mind and matter’. What is the relationship between mind and matter? In a scientific sense one is able to understand matter with mind in a macroscopic world. But that is not necessarily true with microscopic matters or in a quantum state because they are not visible to human eyes; neither have we had instruments to locate them and measure them. For example, sub atomic particles, which we can hypothesize with imaginary concepts and mathematical equations but they are not verifiable with scientific means. They are hypothesis. But science insists on ‘proof’ which can be repeated over and over by demonstrations. Even if we can understand matter, we don’t know the relationship between mind and matter. When people say ‘beauty lays in beholder’s eyes’, I wonder the real meaning of this sentence. Beauty is a concept. Unless we define the word ‘beauty’ precisely the above sentence has no meaning. We cannot define ‘beauty’ with another synonym. Therefore words describe ‘abstract concepts’ and one cannot grasp a concept with words.Eventhough we all agree what ‘beauty’ is, there is no proof that our agreements are one and the same. Language is the basis of our civilization and survival. Language is nothing but bunch of words that describe various things. We all understand things by exchange of words. Yet, they are only descriptions of abstract things. Abstract things are intangible. We cannot touch, smell or feel. ‘You can draw a small circle on a paper and write at the bottom ‘pumpkin’. Can we make a soup out that ‘pumpkin ?’. This drawing may indicate the concept of a ‘pumpkin’ but they are not ‘real pumpkins’ with which we can make a soup. Abstract concepts do not represent ‘Reality’. I will go one step further and say even the so called reality ‘pumpkin’ is no longer a pumpkin once it becomes a ‘soup’. Everything is changing constantly. Today it is pumpkin’; yesterday it was a ‘pumpkin seed’ and tomorrow it will be a ‘pumpkin soup’. Matter is constantly changing and so our minds. When we accept changes in our everyday life as a ‘process of Nature ’ there is no anxiety. No more quest. Baghwat Gita eloquently explains: “What have you lost that you grieve, what did you bring along that you lost? What did you produce or create that has been destroyed? You never brought anything along. Whatever you gained, you gained it from here. Whatever you lost, you lost it here. You came empty handed, and you will leave empty handed. What is yours today, belonged to someone else before, and will belong to someone else tomorrow, and to another person at some other time. What you take as yours, the material things, relations etc. and feel so contended, those very things and the feeling of contention resulting from such thoughts, are the real cause of your suffering”. You create a bondage with material things and relationships which do not represent the ‘Reality’ and they are mere concepts and illusions , called ‘Maya’.Once you get over that ‘Maya’, then , there is a freedom or liberation from that bondage.