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Dear friends,
Here follows the
second part and the most crucial part. The questions about the simultaneuos
presence of both Good and Evil is analysed very exhaustively here and the
lines of argument are indeed profound. Read many times and think deeply
in order to understand the srguments. It is worth the time spent on it.
COMMENTARY:
Part 1: Absolute hetereology and consequent Nihilism
1. The metaphysical questions
Arunandi raises are profound and touch upon the great controversy
that has divided the Indian
philosophers for more than two millenniums and which arose
a the
central question underlying
the burst of Bakti movement in the Tamil country from the 5th cent.
onwards and in the course of
which the essentially nihilistic Buddhism, Jainism and Vedanta were
overcome. As already outlined
by Meykandar, Existence is Being-in-the-World that holds the
possibility of Being-One-With-the-World
(BWW) i.e. atheistic and Being-One-With-BEING
(BWB) i.e. theistic. It is also
asserted that there is a GROWTH that the anmas undergo and that
this growth is obtained by a
process in which the Phenomenological Being of the anmas is
BACKGROUNDED and overcome and
simultaneously the presence of BEING foregrounded
and firmly installed i.e. a
transformation from a state of {P-Being~(BEING)} into
{BEING~(P-Being)}. Now if the
former is the state of Being that obtains for all psychic entities
that they have to overcome,
a state of finitude and IGNORANCE, then it becomes immensely
puzzling for the penetrating
intellect of Arunandi, an adroit scholar of vast scholarship
and who
entered into a vehement controversy
with young Meykandar himself. If {P-Being~(BEING)}
means the state of finitude,
of IGNORANCE because of the presence of MALAM, a
metaphysical DARKNESS, Arunandi
is puzzled over the co-presence of both BEING and
MALAM in the anmas. For MALAM,
as the ANTIBEING, that which breeds DARKNESS, is
opposed to BEING that which
is pure RADIANCE. How can the two, as such, be simultaneously
present in one and the same
entity? How can, to speak metaphorically here, LIGHT and
DARKNESS be simultaneously present
in the anmas ?
And it is here that Arunandi and Jung are similar for both are concerned with the basic tendencies for good and evil already in man. But Jung concludes that " we don't need to inquire into the origin of Satan. We have plenty of evidence in the Old Testamant that Yahweh is moral and immoral at the same time, the Rabbinic theology is fully aware of this fact" While Meykandar proposes the preasence of Maalam, a metaphysical reality just as true as BEING and the psychic entities, Jung does not and confuses the DESTRUCTIUVE and wrathful presentations of BEING as immoral. The Hindu gods and godesses of Destruction like Rudra , KaalLi etc will be , according to Jung , immoral because dark and destructive. However Meykandar sees differently and Arunandi brings out in a masterly fashion the hidden meanings.
2. Now attention shifts
to the pedagogical processes that are brought in to explain the
supplanting of the P-Being of
the psychic entities and implanting the presence BEING itself in its
place.
The notion of instruction
implies face to face interaction in which the two, the GURU and sysya
meet each other in a confrontational
stance for otherwise instruction as such will not take place.
But this implies BEING
standing totally Other (‹Ì'Ó?î …«Ñ´³Å,
Oraalinai uNarththum) and
hence not-one-with, and hence
ineffectual for preventing the emergence of the false and illusory.
Furthermore instructing requires
standing apart and above and hence such instructional processes
can never bring about the ONENESS
where there is a fusion of identity. The ONENESS is
neither the DIFFERENCE nor the
SAME that are related to each other but rather a fusion where
the understanding ceases to
be different. In other words pedagogic processes alone will
not bring
about a state of being of the
sort {BEING~(P-Being)} as it implies that BEING remains totally
Other and Above and hence beyond
the self-possession of the anmas.
The overcoming of the tendencies for evil in man cannot be accomplished if the existential processes are viewed pedagogically, process in which thwe presence of Maalam is overcome through archetypal interferences.
3. Now if the presence
of BEING as totally Other is denied and stated that BEING stands
one-with as the anma itself
(??×þÆ °'þîÆ'Ë, C.B Sut.2,avaiyE
thAnEyAi) another dilemma
emerges. The presence of finitude
and along with it the DARKNESS of Ignorance is an empirical
truth. But then it becomes a
puzzle to note that this is so DESPITE THE ONENESS of BEING.
And therefore such descriptions
as the Absolutely Pure, the Radiant and so forth become
incomprehensible. How is human
understanding finite and
full of ignorance despite the
fact that BEING, the supremely radiant and pure is there within the
understanding as a NON-ABSENTING
PRESENCE? In other words, how can man is evil while BEING is always
present?
4. If the pedagogical are
related to historical and cosmological, i.e. something that happens
in the
historical involvement of the
psychic entities, the problem is not over. For BEING is always
trans-historical, uninvolved
in the enormous manipulations of the elements of Earth, Water, Fire,
Space and Wind and in the existential
struggles of the anmas. As the Totally Other, Being
remains forever the Absolutely
Beyond for the anmas.
5. These dilemmas lead
to an impasse and as a result of which a kind of nihilism emerges. The
pedagogical understood as instructional
makes the BEING totally Other hierarchically Above and
Totally Beyond and this
will make the neutralization of DIFFERENCE impossible and the
attainment PARAMUKTI totally
beyond the reach of the anmas. And in order to overcome this
nihilism, attention now shifts
to a reconsideration of the meaning of the pedagogical itself and
in
connection with which Arunandi
introduces two technical terms related each other, viz.
pakkuvam and paruvam. While
'pakkuvam' means a special stage of readiness that have signs of
its own (kuRi), 'paruvam' like
the seasons of the year, are natural processes of change and decay.
The pedagogical involves not
instructions per se but rather disclosures or revelations of
a kind.
The special individuals who
are 'ripe' enough for such disclosures are singled out, and BEING
discloses truths only
to such individuals. The pedagogical as such do not exist but only special
revelations, the messianic disclosures.
While this has the merit of avoiding the total aloofness of
BEING, but creates
problems of its own. For when someone is not "ready" in this sense, even
disclosed, the "messages will
be simply BEYOND the comprehension of the individuals. Also
requiring as a precondition
such a special status of being ripe and ready, makes the presence
of
BEING itself irrelevant and
useless. And if such profound and, we may add here, metaphysical
disclosures are said to be dispensed
only when somehow there is a state of readiness, then
becoming ready in this
way, is made totally beyond the historical processes of growth and decay,
conflict and resolution. The
state of being 'ready' becomes mystical and magical, something
beyond the natural. And this
means there will be no one resembling BEING, reflecting BEING in
this world. In other words the
possibility of someone becoming a civanjaani, one who radiates the
presence of BEING in his personality,
is denied here. If disclosures are simply selective violations
and interference, a bursting
forth into the understanding of some selected individuals, the gradual
unfolding of the presence of
BEING in the
understanding of every creature
is denied. And this makes BEING the Totally Incomparable
(Š¿º'Ñ ƒÓ,
oppaar ili) the forever Beyond and hence not available for the molding
of self in the
image of BEING. The phenomenal
presence of BEING is made impossible except as Violence.
6. Now begins another line
of inquiry in the face of this impasse. The pedagogical is now
interpreted in terms of 'paruvam
nikazththal' i.e. bring about maturation through a sequence of
stages in a progressive manner.
There are the maturational processes in which the anmas begin to
radiate more and more of the
presence of BEING so that there are different 'paruvams' of
developmental stages, like in
the biological.
Now if BEING by his presence
brings about such developmental changes, then the question
arises as to what exactly undergoes
these changes. For there are problems here in view the
possibility of different candidates.
Meykandar has already established the Fundamental
Ontology, in which over and
above BEING, there are innumerable psychic entities and the
atomizing ANavam as metaphysical
realities and that along with Anavam, there are also Karma
and MaayEyam as deep constraints
that make the phenomenal presence of the anmas finite and
hence given over to thetic understanding
(cudduNarvu), understanding always with referentiality.
If BEING effects at all the
evolutionary and developmental changes, it has to be by 'working' on
the Anavam, Kanmam, or Mayeeyam
or the aNu, the finite self. Now the mummalam, the
aNavam etc, are insentient -cadam-
and hence while they can undergo transformations of various
sorts, they cannot be characterised
as either developmental or evolutionary. The latter notions
imply not simply a change in
state but also a movement towards something Yonder, and which is
approximated gradually. The
maayeeyam- the primordial ENERGY- suffers only
transformations or modifications
but does not evolve. In such transformations, there is no progress
or regress; evolution or devolution;
development or degeneration. The Karma - the
action-schemata -
being configurations of mantra-complexes, pass from one sort of formation
into another and into which
again we cannot read developmental progress. The aNavam stands
there as insentient unleashing
forces of destruction and death and simultaneously constraining the
understanding so that it remains
finite. It disperses itself into countless number of forms
depending upon the
context. So in the processes of these insentient but metaphysically
real
substances, there is NOTHING
on the basis of which we can single out ONE as the more
developed than another i.e.
there is no way in which we can note a hierarchical relationship
of
subordination and superordination.
Now the aNu is the finite
self and since it is sentient, it would appear that the notion of
development and so forth can
be made sense here. There are two distinct possibilities. One is
the
biological processes of growth
and decay in which there are the aging processes. But in
conjunction with the question
of the meaning of pedagogy, the biological changes such as these
are irrelevant. An old man can
be philosophically naive while a young man may not be so. More
importantly, the anma in relation
to its M-Being is absolutely transcendental, BEYOND the
unceasing historical-flux of
the phenomenal world and hence suffers no changes at all- it has
no
states of Being such as
young and old, and hence neither mature nor immature.
This bring us to the final
and the most likely candidate: the understanding itself and the
hermeneutical meaning of the
pedagogical. The phrase 'uNarvezu niikkam' indicates that the
pedagogical removes something
from the understanding itself and because of which results
developmental changes. The
understanding is 'purified' and because of it, it is better, more
developed and so forth. But
the sharp intellect of Arunandi notes a problem here too. If BEING
absolves all the prejudices
finitising the understanding so that it is absolutely PURE without any
obscurants that would distort
and thwart the perceptions, then it makes the understanding of
BEING as iNaiyili, an absolutely
indivisible UNITARY WHOLE, problematic. BEING involved
in the removable of the obscurants
of human understanding that configure the understanding itself
as finite, impure, unsaturated,
imperfect, incomplete etc cannot be ONE, for it requires splitting
into a variety of guises each
suitable to a specific task of purification. Is BEING absolutely
UNITARY or not? is the question
that perplexes Arunandi now.
7. Now can BEING instruct
itself as a way of REALIZING ITSELF and because of which
emerges the pedagogical in the
world? is the question that remains to be taken up, having
eliminated all other possible
candidates. But the question: nI ninmalan, paruvam nikazththiyathu
yArkkO? itself contains the
answer : that which is already absolutely Pure , free of the defiling
MALAM, the obscurants, has no
necessity to instruct Itself , no matter how; it has to be for
something else while simultaneously
itself not learning anything at all.
8. Now emerges another possibility
that is not only nihilistic but possibly Atheistic. For the
presence of the instructional
is not denied but only the invocation of the involvement of BEING
itself in it and hence
the irrelevancy of BEING for the pedagogical. For it is considered now
that
understanding can move from
itself to itself and in that the obscurants removed. This can be either
by the efforts the self itself
in its Being-in-the World or the self- removal of the obscurants
on
their own accord. The understanding
can be taken to be PROJECTIVE, projecting unto itself from
within itself states
of Being as its own innermost possibilities and move by itself to
BE what it
projects for itself. If
this is the case and the pedagogical is essentially this, then BEING as
such
becomes irrelevant, the analysis
of Being of the self itself being sufficient.