THE REAL
The "real" is the "truth." The "truth" is the "real." Man since time immemorial has been in search of discovering, finding, understanding, and identifying the real and the truth. In our sense perception-based observations, the real exists independently. The real and the truth are inextricably linked. The "truth" comes from the "real," and the "real" from the "truth." Our sensory perception determines the relationship between truth and reality. The sensory perception over a period of time turned out to be a belief pattern. The same belief pattern, when widely "held" and "accepted" by a significant section of the population, is accepted as the "truth."
1. Outline
It needs to be ascertained what the fundamental dimension of truth and reality is. That involves rational, abstract, and methodical consideration of reality as a whole or as the dimensions of human existence and experience.
The real in phenomenology, construed by the mind through sense experience and limited to that only, might not always hold true. Because human experience is receptive only and not sensible by itself, On the other hand, a noumenon, or thing-in-itself, exists independently of our sense experiences and cannot be proved nor disproved but nonetheless constitutes reality. In spite of advancements in science and technology, we are yet to identify the hidden meaning, undercurrents, laws, and facts behind the natural cycle, flows, events, and all others that we have perceived or are trying to perceive through our minimal capability based on our limited sense perceptions.
There is something called invisibility behind the visible manifestation, or invisibility behind the invisible manifestation. There is something called "natural intuition," "innate tendency," "instinct," or "prescience" in some human beings. How can those works be explained? Why do some human beings develop those qualities? Why not others? Animal behaviour and natural events such as an earthquake or tsunami are two examples. What is the connection or explanation? What is the reality, and what is its nature?
The object of physics is to know the nature of reality in the physical realm. All scientific explorations aim at discovering certain secrets behind the forces and phenomena of Nature and understanding the laws underlying them. Similarly, Advaita (oneness) philosophy explores both realities, mundane and transcendental, but all the established Indian philosophical systems, such as Advaita Vedānta (scriptures), Vishistadvaita, Sāmkhya, Nyaya, and Vaisesikas, impart explanations on these two realities with their own methods of logic to justify them.
2. Paradigm
The evolving cognition pattern or framework is a paradigm that contains a world view, concept, practices, belief pattern, assumptions, way of life, and way of thinking of a significant section of the community or society in a particular context of time, space, and situation. What we call "real" or "truth" is what unfolds from that paradigm. When there is a shift, drift, or change in the paradigm, the corresponding associated framework of the world view, concepts, assumptions, or practises get into the motion of the change, shift, or drift.
2.1. Flat to Sphere
The view that the world was flat like a disc was held by several pre-Socratic philosophers like Thales (c. 550 BC), Leucippus (c. 440 BC), and Democritus, along with ancient Egyptians and Mesopatanian. With the passage of time, that world view gave way to the idea that the world is a sphere in the writings of post-Socratic philosophers, particularly Aristotle, but with the assumption that the earth is the centre of the universe, based on a geocentric paradigm that held sway until the early modern period.
2.2. Geocentric to Heliocentric
The geocentric theory considers Earth as the centre of the universe, and all other planetary and extra-planetary objects revolve around it. It remained stable until the late 16th century, when the heliocentric model of Copernicus (1473-1543), Galileo (1564-1642), and Kepler (1571-1630) began to change and disrupt it. It claimed that the sun was the centre of the universe and that all planetary and extra-planetary objects revolved around it, which gradually gave way to everything being in a state of flux. Change in the paradigm is not smooth; rather, at every stage, it meets with considerable resistance from the earlier world view.
2.3. Big Bang
Presently, the consensus among scientists, astronomers, and cosmologists is that the universe as we know it was created in a massive explosion, the "Big Bang," which not only created the majority of matter but also the physical laws that govern our ever-expanding cosmos. The Big Bang hypothesis states that all of the current and past matter in the universe came into existence at the same time, roughly 15 billion years ago. At this time, all matter was compacted into a very small ball with infinite density, intense heat, and a dense sea of matter and energy, called a singularity. Suddenly, the singularity began expanding, and the universe as we know it began.
As the cosmos expanded and cooled, it spawned galaxies, stars, planets, and life. This knowledge comes from decades of innovative experiments and theories. Modern telescopes on the ground and in space detect the light from galaxies billions of light-years away, showing us what the universe looked like when it was young. Particle accelerators probe the basic physics of the high-energy environment of the early universe. Satellites detect the cosmic background radiation left over from the early stages of expansion, providing an image of the universe on the largest scales we can observe.
2.4. Change is Dialectic?
Change is a dynamic interplay between unified opposites. Dialectics are always relational in nature.We say "man" in the context of "woman," "day" in the context of "night," and "summer" in the context of "winter."Union and separation, individual and communal, stability and instability, and so on are all terms used interchangeably.The dialectic of stability versus change refers to a family of contradictions that revolve around the unified opposition of predictability, certainty, routine, and stability on the one hand, and unpredictability, uncertainty, spontaneity, and change on the other. Relationships require both stability and change to establish and sustain their well-being.
3. Remarks
The absolute truth and the absolute reality are Brahmān, the Cosmic Self. Truth and reality, which are intertwined, are not easy to understand, comprehend, or internalise unless there is a rigorous effort towards the unification of body, mind, and soul.
tapasvibhyo ’dhiko yogi
jnanibhyo ’pi mato ’dhikah
karmibhyash chadhiko yogi
tasmad yogi bhavarjuna
With our five sense organs and perceptions, it is difficult to visualise the ultimate reality or truth.
na tu māṁ śhakyase draṣhṭum
anenaiva sva-chakṣhuṣhā
divyaṁ dadāmi te chakṣhuḥ paśhya me yogam aiśhwaram
With his divine eyes Arjuna could describe the Lord as:
tvam adi-devah purushah
puranas
tvam asya vishvasya param nidhanam
vettasi vedyam cha param cha dhama
tvaya tatam vishvam ananta-rupa
Arjuna addresses Sri Krishna as the original Divine Person, the cause of all causes. Every object and every personality has a cause, or a source, from which it came into being. Even Sri Vishnu has a cause. Although he is also a form of God, he is an expansion of Sri Krishna. However, Sri Krishna is not the expansion of any personality. He is the causeless first cause of everything that exists. Hence, Brahma prays to him:
īśhwaraḥ paramaḥ kṛiṣhaṇaḥ sachchidānanda vigrahaḥ
anādirādi govindaḥ sarva kāraṇa kāraṇam (Brahma Samhitā 5.1)[v12]
“Sri Krishna is the original form of the Supreme Lord. His personality is full of knowledge and Bliss. He is the origin of all, but he is without origin. He is the cause of all causes.”
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states that consciousness is the ultimate reality. It is cosmic consciousness which, according to Vedanta is the basis of cosmic energy. Where does motion or mass or energy come from? It is nothing but very subtle energy in the form of spirit, the will of Brahmān mixing with consciousness that is the spiritual spark, which by way of physical analogy might be thought of as spiritual particles one could label “Spiricon” (Sarker, “Higgs boson Entanglement”).
According to Advaita Vedanta, these different categories of consciousness are classified as absolute consciousness (brahma-caitanya), cosmic consciousness (īśvara-caitanya), individual consciousness (jīva-caitanya), and indwelling consciousness (sāksi-caitanya) (Brahmaprana, “Consciousness in Advaita Vedanta”).
There is one called "absolute truth" or "absolute reality" that is eternal. And another is called relative truth or relative reality in relation to something else in a certain context. Once the context is gone, the truth and reality vanish into oblivion or lapse.
-Asutosh Satpathy
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