Dualism

Dualism was proposed by philosophers and spiritual masters. Plato talked about Ideal world vs. real world, Sri Ramajunar advocated Paramathma vs. Jeevathma. Similarly other masters have highlighted the illusion of dualism and proposed that the reality is one. And Einstein himself tried to prove that matter and energy are one and same, it means that he was giving scientific justification to the fact that the reality is one.

But poor mortals like me experience the reality only in dualism. Jeromy Benthem said that pain and pleasure are our sovereign masters, when I look into my life and life style it seems very obvious. I like some and dislike some other; I enjoy certain things and get depressed with the presence of some other things.

May be in the realm of quantum physics and in an enlightened state of mind everything one and all other realities are manifestations of one and same energy. Aham Brmasmi is an interesting notion in the line of the same thought. It does give a heady feeling when I declare that I am God.

I see the world in polarity and experience it in polarity. Of course after two becks of alcohol reality becomes one and I do experience the reality as one; everyone either becomes angel or devils’ incarnation, it purely depends on the brand. Otherwise, I believe that reality is encountered in polarities.

Clinging to one extreme will make life miserable and pathological. As Robert Frost puts it poetically, "The secret sits in the middle and knows, while others dance round in circles and suppose". Yet constantly occupying the middle ground is not easy, Buddha’s teaching of middle path is great, but walking on the tight rope is not an easy act.

But my version of dualism is bit complicated, for me polarities exist, and we constantly move from one to the other, not because we like moving up and down, but because there is no choice. If we choose one pole, it gives solace for some time then it itself throws us to the other pole. For example if teaching is a pleasure then correcting papers becomes a pain.

The other popular polarities are given below; if you master the art of balancing then you can sit in the middle, till then let’s swing from one to the other. Getting stuck in extreme is a dangerous business.

MASCULINE	FEMININE
Shiva/Cosmic Father	Shakti/Cosmic Mother
Lingam/External Genitals	Yoni/Internal Genitals
Projecting	Receptive
Cosmic Consciousness	Cosmic Energy
Universal Soul	Individual Soul
Spirit	Nature
Positive	Negative
Active	Passive
Solar/ Warming	Lunar/Cooling
Right Nostril/Pingala	Left Nostril/Ida
Left Brain Hemisphere	Right Brain Hemisphere
Sympathetic Nervous System	Parasympathetic NS
Electrical	Magnetic
Acidic	Alkaline
Discharges Energy	Retains Energy
Prefers Raw Sex	Prefers cuddly sensuality
Rational/Logical	Intuitive/Emotional
Liner/Detailed	Holistic/Diffuse
Abstract/Lost in thought	Practical/Down to Earth
Needs Adventure	Geared for Survival
Gives love to get sex	Gives sex to get love
Objectifies partner	Personalizes Partner