World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 280

identification will be humble in his life, responsible in his conduct, and detached and self-controlled in his attitude and outlook.
Swami Atmasthananda draws a message for the people of today's world from the Advaita philosophy thus:
Today we are living in a shrinking world and what happens in one corner of the globe affects people thousand miles away. At the social, political and economic levels we have to appreciate the other man's point of view and realize the oneness of existence. For this, the recognition of the inner spirit of man, which binds all humanity by a single bond, is an inevitable necessity.
There are business gurus who claim to draw conclusions conducive to business from the Advaitic point of view. They think that, stress management, anger management and overall personality management can be done efficiently well by the concepts and principles provided by Advaita Vedanta. They have coined new expressions like 'Spiritual empiricism' and 'Vedantic Spirinomy' (that is, economy vedantically spiritualised!) for this emerging state of affairs. They think that 'Spirinomics' built on ideas of Vedantic spiritualism stands a better chance of providing balanced fulfillment whereas Hedonism (neo-classical economics of the Capitalists) transforms the individual into a consumerist automaton out of rapacious greed, and 'Communomics' (economics of the Communists) rides roughshod over the individual self in the name of the party.
Which message concerning life and world is evidenced by the doctrine of Advaita? I would like to reserve my response on this. Let us now look at some of the modern attempts to link the findings of Advaita Vedanta with those of modern science and to draw matters of fact conclusions therefrom. But we must not forget what Samkara says about the necessity of the whole exercise of the philosophy of Advaita, that is, atyantika duhka nivrtti (total elimination of suffering) and akhanda sukha prapti (begetting total bliss).
There are attempts of some modern thinkers to bring in the findings of particle physics to justify the identity of Atman and Brahman. According to them, all the things and beings of the world including the psychophysical organism are manifestations of energy. What is known as matter of diverse names and forms are merely packets of energy and energy, in its turn, is but a conscious principle. The whole world evolves out of it and devolves into it. But it needs to be appreciated that philosophical perspectives are not hypotheses or theories about the world requiring support from facts. They are independent of whatever there is or whatever happens in the world.
Swami Vivekananda once remarked that Science is nothing but the finding of unity and that as soon as Science would reach perfect. unity, it would stop from further progress because it would reach the goal. He con
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