143 Management Lessons from Advaita Bhavesh A Kinkhabwala Introduction Acharya Shankara is a thorough, outright one. he word ‘Advaita’ is very beautiful. It As indicated by him, whatever is, is Brahman. Tliterally means ‘non-dual’. Dvaita means Brahman itself is totally homogeneous. All dis- ‘dual’ and the prefix ‘a’ negates the exist- tinctions and plurality are deceptive.3 ence of duality so, there is no ‘two’ but, ‘one’. It Dualism, Dvaita; qualified monism, Vish- could be simpler, if we said ‘one’, but then, the ishtadvaita; and Monism, Advaita; are the three next question would be, is there ‘two’; so by say- different fundamental schools of metaphysical ing non-dual, it conveys the clear and firm mes- ideas. They are altogether different stages to the sage of being just one, that is non-dual. final stage of the ultimate Truth, namely,para- Acharya Shankara’s ‘philosophical stand- brahma. They are the steps on the stepping stool point can be tried to be summed up in a sin- of yoga. They are not in any manner conflicting gle word “Advaita”—NonDuality. The objective but, in actuality, they are complementary to one of Advaita is to is to make an individual under- another. These stages are amicably orchestrated in stand his or her fundamental (profound) char- an evaluated arrangement of spiritual experiences. acter with the preeminent realty [sic] “Nirakar Dualism, qualified monism, pure monism—all Brahm” and reality that there is no “two” yet one these come full circle inevitably in the Advaita and only. Advaita shows us to see the substance Vedantic acknowledgement of the Absolute or of oneself in each one and that nobody is sep- the supra-normal trigunatita ananta Brahman. arate from the Supreme Power The god.’1 Individuals have various personalities and What essentialness does it have for the regular various limits. Thus, various schools of theory daily life of an ordinary person? Advaita in- are additionally fundamental. The most elevated structs us to see the essence of oneself in each step is Advaita theory. A dualist or qualified one and that nobody is independent from the su- monist in the long run turns into a kevala-ad- preme power or authority, God, Nature, the Di- vaitin. A Dvaitin needs to serve the Lord as a vine power. The teachings and lessons of Acharya worker. The Dvaitin wishes to attend and serve Shankara can be summed up in a refrain: ‘Brahma the Lord. A Visishtadvaitin needs to end up like satyam jagan mithya jivo brahmaiva na aparah; Lord Narayana and appreciate the heavenly. One Brahman, the Absolute, is alone real; this world doesn’t wish to combine oneself or become in- is unreal; and the jiva or the individual soul is distinguishable with the Lord. One wishes to non-different from Brahman.’2 This is the core stay as a flash. A jnani blends oneself in Brah- of his way of thinking. The Advaita educated by man. One wishes to end up indistinguishable with Brahman. Bhavesh A Kinkhabwala is a company secretary The primary orderly proponent of the Advaita from Ahmedabad. was Acharya Gaudapada, who is the grand guru PB January 2020 133 144 Prabuddha Bharata of Acharya Shankara. Acharya Govindapada was Just as a swan lives in water, yet its quills are the disciple of Acharya Gaudapada. He was the never grimy by water, likewise an Advaitin lives guru of Acharya Shankara. Acharya Gaudapada on the planet, however, she or he is free from has given the focal teaching of Advaita Vedanta the influence of illusion. Advaita Vedanta is in in his Mandukya Karika. Be that as it may, it the meantime, a school of reasoning, a religion, was Acharya Shankara who delivered the final a religious philosophy, and a tenet of moksha. delightful form or version of Advaita theory and Its essential reason is all that eventually exists is gave a rightness and completing tone to it. Cau- the absolute Reality, nirguna Brahman, without tiously studying Acharya Shankara’s commen- characteristics. taries on the important Upanishads, the Brahma The phenomenal world has experiential le- Sutra, and the Bhagavadgita, one will obviously gitimacy. Be that as it may, it has no supreme comprehend his Advaita reasoning.4 reality. It is at last maya, an enchanted show, and Maybe the most significant school of Indian mithya, false, neither genuine nor stunning. All spiritual way of thinking, Advaita is viewed as that exists is only Brahman. One’s individual self the most powerful and most overwhelming sub- is at last, the same as Brahman, consequently school of Vedanta, one of the six standard schools the significance given to the Upanishadic state- of Hindu way of thinking. Advaita Vedanta says ments like ‘I am Brahman’7 and ‘You are that’.8 that the one constant Reality, Brahman, alone It is just a kind of powerful numbness, avidya, exists and that changing elements don’t have ab- that keeps us from understanding our actual na- solute presence, much as the sea’s waves have no ture as one with the Absolute, in certainty, the separate presence in division from the sea. The Absolute itself. waves ascend inside the sea and there would be Once avidya is evacuated, there emerges the no waves without the sea. In a similar way, the experience of the Atman’s identity with Brah- transient world ascents inside the Reality and man. One moves towards becoming jivan- owes its reality to the ultimate Reality.5 mukta, freed while in the body, and after death The world has no autonomous presence from achieves moksha, identity with the Absolute. Reality and that is the reason why it is said to be Advaita metaphysics coordinates the later Man- an illusion. What is changing must be depend- dukya Upanishad, Sankhya, and various thoughts ent on something else and thereby unreal. This around that time. The Advaita thought of edifi- wonderful universe of names and structures is cation or freedom depends on an extremely sig- consistently evolving. Names and structures are nificant knowledge. Not ‘merging with God’, as liable to rot and demise. Subsequently, they are is normally misconstrued, yet realising the Ab- incredible or ephemeral. What is consistent or solute. By realising the Absolute one rises above changeless should dependably be the Real. The the cosmic order; one is never again a limited Atman or the Eternal, all-pervading Self, ever being, rather, one rises to the level of the absolute exists. It permeates all items like ether. Regard- Reality, Atman-Brahman identity. The limits of less of whether the pot is broken, the ether that oneself vanish and one emerges into the infinite.9 is inside and outside it can’t be decimated.6 Essentially, if the bodies and all other things Management Lessons die, the eternal Self that swarms them can’t be A management expert says: ‘The central chal- crushed; it is the living Truth and just Reality. lenge in all management is realizing the nature 134 PB January 2020 Management Lessons from Advaita 145 of oneself. The advancement of humankind is item; Brahman isn’t another. It is all-full, un- best served when a human being connects with bounded, constant, self-existent, self-amuse, his or her own divinity. This is in sharp con- self-learning and self-joy. It is svarupa, nature; trast to the Western view where helping others nirakara, formless. It is the pith of the knower. is viewed as the penultimate purpose of human It is the seer, drashta; transcendent, turiya; and existence. In Indian spirituality, the world is best silent witness, sakshi. served when self-understanding precedes help- Maya is the complex illusory power of Brah- ing others. The world is changed for the better man, which makes Brahman to be viewed as the when we change ourselves. The key to a better material universe of independent structures: nir- world is self-realisation.10 guna Brahman seems to be saguna Brahman. As Acharya Shankara has clarified,nirguna Dimensions of Advaita Vedanta Brahman is generic. It turns into an individual Acharya Shankara says that whatever exists is God, saguna Brahman, just through its relation- Brahman, only pure consciousness. All differ- ship with maya. ence and plurality are illusory, just as you see Saguna Brahman and nirguna Brahman are plurality in the ocean, in the waves, but the waves not two unique Brahmans. Nirguna Brahman are water and the ocean is water. The pot is not isn’t the differentiation or inverse of saguna the clay. If the pot is the clay, when the pot disap- Brahman, and neither the other way around; if at pears the clay must also disappear, but it doesn’t. all They were, it would be totally opposing to the This is very important to understand. Essence Advaita Vedanta. The equivalent nirguna Brah- can exist without the form, but form cannot exist man shows up as saguna Brahman for the devout without the essence. When we say ‘neti, neti’, it love of enthusiasts. It is a similar Truth from two does not mean that this form is Brahman. The unique perspectives. Nirguna Brahman is the form is never Brahman, but it never exists apart higher Brahman, the Brahman from the supra- from Brahman. normal perspective, paramarthika; saguna Brah- As indicated by Acharya Shankara, Brah- man is the alleged lower Brahman, the Brahman man, the supreme cosmic Spirit, is separated from the relative perspective, vyavaharika. from everyone and is the ultimate truth. Other Maya has two primary functions—one is to than Brahman, everything else, including the ‘conceal’ the Brahman from common human universe, material articles, and people, is unreal.