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In fact, I found particularly interesting that deriving from this line of thought Acharya Mahaprajna describes how we have developed the concept of uselessness. And thereby, why we face an environmental crisis today. Without recognizing the fundamental need and truth of diversified existence, we start labeling some beings as useless or useful. That which does not serve our immediate material purpose, we label as useless and work to remove. We decide it is useless because we look at it from the single perspective of being of direct use to us. We ignore the need for diversity and role of the said object in the larger schema. But just as the innumerable connections in an electronic circuit, every animate being has a role. Our purpose should not be to be the only living beings on earth for that will not work, but recognizing the diversity, to be able to find a natural equation for co-existence and this will come naturally only when we are not quick to judge a being as useless.
Most Indian schools of thought accept that opposites are merely different aspects of the same phenomenon. When the Upanishad says,
It moves, it moves not,
It is far, and it is near,
It is within all this
And it is outside of all this
That too is talking of reconciling opposites. When Buddhists say At dusk the cock announces dawn;
At midnight, the bright sun.
There too the reference is to a vivid conceptualization of unity in opposites. This haiku fascinates me. The phrase, "At dusk," specifies the time. The crowing of the cock indicates morning. That means it is both dusk and dawn. The next sentence implies it is both dark and light. Looking at it another way, even though it was dusk, it was not since the cock was crowing. Even though it was midnight, it was not, the sun was shining. It was dawn and dusk and neither dawn nor dusk. But what was it if it was neither dawn nor dusk? Neither light nor night?
An endearing concept emerges with the co-existence of yet another pair of opposites. This much as related above is what can be expressed in language. What has not been described is that which actually defies expression: avaktavya or the inexpressible.
This poetic concept excited me. It is like catching a wisp or holding a moonbeam in your hand. It was one moment of exhilaration that research lands on your lap, almost without warning. I was ably supported with a paragraph from Heisenberg who writes:
तुलसी प्रज्ञा जुलाई - दिसम्बर, 2001
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