Monday, June 07, 2004

Zen Advaita

Listening to a song in "Yuva" with a rap/hiphop tune called "Fanaa"..some of the lyrics go like (quoting the tam version)
"Lokam Dvaitam..Kaadal Advaitam..Sarvam Soonyam."..substitute "Kaanksha" for "Kadal" for the gult version.Reminded me of Gaudapada (earliest advocate of Advaita) thats come into prominence by championing of Sankara in 12th century AD.Literally means "No Twain".Ironic part was that Sankara is given credit for driving out Buddhism from India.

Now the sanskrit word for meditation is called "Dhyan" which became "Chan" for the Chinese finally ending up as "Zen" for the Japanese who further split into Soto and other schools.To sum up Zen here is a small bit :

A Hindu story tells of a fish who asked of another fish: "I have always heard about the sea, but what is it? Where is it?" The other fish replied: "You live, move and have your being in the sea. The sea is within you and without you, and you are made of sea, and you will end in sea. The sea surrounds you as your own being." The only true answer is the one that you find for youself.

I have never been able to explain the question repeatedly raised by the tortoise in Godel Escher Bach which is " Why did Buddhism leave India?".In fact the religion with the largest number of followers at the turn of the first millenium was buddhism.

I think I better shut my trap and enjoy the rest of the songs in Yuva.Kudos to AR Rehman.

No comments: