Earlier today as a part of a lecture I was listening to on Advaita Vedanta I heard of Carlo Rovelli’s Helgoland and Nagarjuna’s Middle Way. While looking into this I went into a rabbit hole researching on various physicists ranging from Schrödinger to Schopenhauer and Heisenberg to Niels Bohr and their fascination with the Upanishads, Vedas and other Eastern spiritual texts
Arthur Schopenhauer, an ardent student of the Upanishads had declared, “In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life. It will be the solace of my death." Schrödinger wrote spectacular essays to summarize his philosophical views on the nature of the world.
Heisenberg stated, “Quantum theory will not look ridiculous to people who have read Vedanta.” And Niels Bohr has been quoted as saying - I go into the Upanishads to ask questions.
The Upanishads describe the relationship between the Brahman (pure consciousness) and the Atman (conditioned consciousness). Brahman is the universal self or the ultimate singular reality. The Atman is the individual’s inner self, the soul. A central tenet of the Upanishads is Tat Tvam Asi, which means the Brahman and the Atman are identical. There is only one universal consciousness, and we are all one with it.
My own journey with the Upanishads started when I came across a translation of the Gita, by A Parthasarthy at a friend's bedside in Jan 2019. The 700 verse dialogue between Krishna and Arjun which was supposedly written 5000 years ago was extremely relatable to me, more so because by then I’d had hundreds of one on ones with extremely capable individuals who kept burning out and falling out of the game at work largely because of dysregulated emotions and sunk cost fallacies.
I have spent the last 8 years (2016 onwards) reading about leverage points and systems thinking and the last 5 immersed in the Gita and the Vedanta. I haven’t learnt Sanskrit and also do not think it’s required. The figure is not the moon. What the Gita and the Upanishads and the Vedanta, as well as Systems Thinking are all alluding to as per my current understanding are all one and the same.
The world is not as it seems, it is as we are. The system is not out there and broken. It's in here - we are the system. There is no system outside us.
Heisenberg, the German physicist and Nobel Laureate who was one the founders of quantum mechanics, once said - “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our methods of questioning.”
One of my goals for 2024 is to compile and articulate some of the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads in a manner that is both relatable and easy to consume and apply for people across the world so they may have the tools they need - to live, learn and act in alignment with themselves as well as the world around them
I started re-reading translations of and listening to lectures for the Gita and some of the Upanishads (and related scriptures) with a structured commitment of 4-5 hours everyday, as a part of the 75 hard challenge starting 1st Jan, 2024.
I start most of my days by opening a random page from the Gita and listen to lectures in the first half. I then spend most part of my afternoons reflecting upon these and my evenings in deep contemplation of what these lessons mean and how they relate to my own embodied experiences and those that I witness as an observer
as I walk along the trails of Patapsco Valley in Maryland.
My days are in a sense spent in 3 phases:
[Mornings] Sravana: Knowledge and Comprehension
Sravana Involves reading or listening to the teachings of the Vedanta, particularly the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and other scriptures
The aim is to gain a theoretical understanding of the frameworks as laid out in the scriptures
The objective here is to get multiple perspectives to understand the interconnectedness of all things and indivisibility of consciousness as all pervading
[Afternoons] Manana: Application and Analysis
Manana involves deeply thinking about, pondering over, and intellectually assimilating the teachings read/heard during Sravana
This is a more personal and introspective phase. It often involves applying these perspectives to real life scenarios and analysing them
The goal is to achieve a firm conviction in the teachings of Vedanta. It helps in resolving doubts and establishing universal truths beyond ambiguity
[Evenings] Nididhyasana: Synthesis and Evaluation
Nididhyasana is deep contemplation on the concepts internalised in the previous steps
This goes beyond intellectual understanding or theoretical knowledge. This is when I take stock of the whole day, week, month everything and every thought that preceded the moment and realise the delta between knowing something and doing it.
The ultimate aim here is to transcend intellectual comprehension and achieve a direct experiential realisation of the Self as non-different from pure consciousness. It's about realising the truth of the teachings at a level that goes beyond mere intellectual comprehension.
In simpler terms this is a framework that allows me to or should facilitate us to live in a state of neutral present awareness.