Sri Ram an A

TOWARDS A MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF SPIRITUALITY BASED ON ADVAITA (Part III)

:

ON SRI RAMANA’S PRINCIPLE OF PERSONAL WILL

-

Raju Chidambaram, Ph.D

SUMMARY

Bhagawan Sri Ramana often taught his devotees that everything in the world happens atthe Will of Ishwara only and not at the will of the individual jeeva. But there is onenotable exception, Bhagawan used to observe: It is up to each jeeva to decide whether toidentify with the world (i.e. Non-Self) or with the Self. The present paper -the third in aseries- examines this principle in the context of the mathematical framework presented inthe earlier papers at previous WAVES conferences by this author.

INTRODUCTION

Parts I and II of this series proposed a mathematical model of spiritual detachment basedessentially on the teachings of Vedanta ( Ref 1). That model posited that all changes inthe world are the result of the interplay of Prakriti’s Wish (expressed as probabilisticlaws) and Ishwara’s Will. The spiritual evolution of a jeeva is captured in the modelusing a function

θ

(t), representing the jeeva’s degree of spiritual detachment at time t,varying in the range (0,

π

/2 radians). At the lowest level of detachment

θ

(t)= 0 andindicates that the jeeva is fully identified with the world or Non-Self. At the other end of the range,

θ

(t)=

π

/2 signifies that the jeeva is completely detached from the world andfully absorbed in the Self. The spiritual progress of a jeeva over its many life times can beshown by plotting (t,

θ

(t)) in polar coordinates (Fig 1).As a jeeva becomes increasingly detached from the world through

sadhanas

, it suffersless and less from worldly concerns and at the same time gains more and more in purity

θ

t

A B

E X P E R I E N C E R / A W A R E N E S S

E

Fig 1: Spiritual Progress as (t,

θ

(t))

C

☼

Point where J3’s progress curve meets the vertical axis AB.J3 attains Perfection here.

J2

D (

t,

θ

(t))

t

EXPERIENCED O-E-T

of mind as its selfish desires are replaced by universal love. These twin effects of spiritual detachment on a jeeva’s life are described in the mathematical model by thecomplex function

ζ

(t)

ζ

(t) =

∫

e

i

θ

(t)

dtAs elaborated in Ref (1), the real part of

ζ

(t), represented by

τ

(t), is a measure of the jeeva’s “suffering” cumulated over the period 0 to t, while the imaginary part, G(t) isinterpreted as the jeeva’s accumulated merit over the same period. That is,

ζ

(t) =

τ

(t) + i.G(t) =

∫

e

i

θ

(t)

dt…… Eq. (1)A graph of G(t) plotted against

τ

(t) provides an overall view of the spiritual life or “path”of the jeeva (Fig 2). It was further explained using the model that a jeeva attainsRealization when its detachment

θ

(t) reaches the maximum possible value of

π

/2 radians.The model viewed the material and spiritual domains somewhat differently. Changes inthe material domain were incorporated using a probabilistic approach based on thePrakriti- Ishwara partnership mentioned earlier, whereas the spiritual evolution of the jeeva was modeled without any explicit probabilistic elements. However Sri Ramana’steaching gives a large role to personal free will in a jeeva’s spiritual unfoldment. It wastherefore conjectured that both material and spiritual domains could be, and should be,put on same conceptual footing. Presence of freewill introduces uncertainty anduncertainty implies probabilities.

THE PROBABILISTIC APPROACH

The possibility of solving Eq. (1) in some probabilistic sense is suggested by SriRamana’s assertion that the only decision left to the free-will of a jeeva is to “eitheridentify with the world (i.e. Non-Self) or with the Self” (Ref 2). All other decisions, byvirtue of which the world changes from moment to moment, are made as per the Will of

AB

G ( t ) = A c c u m u l a t e d M e r i t

τ

(t) EXPERIENCED TIME; O-E-T

E

Fig 2: Path of Jeeva “J” as(

τ

(t), G(t))

JC

☼

Point where tangent to J2’s path becomes vertical. J2 attains Perfection here.J2 endures no more changes

.

Ishwara, says the sage. The general implication of Sri Ramana’s profound insight is that

a jeeva has no control over the external material domain of which Ishwara is the solesupreme ruler, but has control over its own spiritual destiny.

To see how Sri Ramana’s Principle may be incorporated into Eq. (1), consider thecomplex variable z’(t) defined byz’(t) = {1-

γ

(t)}/cos

θ

(t) + i.

γ

(t)/sin

θ

(t) Eq. (2)where

γ

(t) is a random variable which takes the values 1 or 0 with probability sin

2

θ

(t) andcos

2

θ

(t) respectively; 1 if the jeeva identifies itself with the Self and 0 if it is attached toNon-Self. z’(t) is a random function of t.With this definition we see that the expected value of z’(t), denoted by E{z’(t)}, is cos

θ

(t) + i.sin

θ

(t) or e

i

θ

(t)

. HenceE{z(t)} =E{

∫

z’(t) dt }=

∫

E(z’(t)) dt =

∫

e

i

θ

(t)

dt…. Eq (3)Comparing Eq.(3) with Eq.(1), the expected path of z(t) in the probabilistic case and

ζ

(t)in the deterministic case are seen to be the same.

Therefore we conclude that

ζ

(t) can beviewed as the expected path of a jeeva which, at time t, identifies itself with Non-Self and Self with probabilities cos

2

θ

(t) and sin

2

θ

(t) respectively

.

At any point in time, the gradient with respect to time of the path

ζ

(t) (or expected path inthe probabilistic case) is cos

θ

(t) + i. sin

θ

(t). Of this complex number, the real partcos

θ

(t) is the time derivative of

τ

(t) and the imaginary part sin

θ

(t) is the time derivative of G(t). A plot of G(t) against

τ

(t) is what we call as the “jeeva’s path”. The tangent of thispath at any point is the derivative of G with respect to

τ

and is equal to G’(t)/

τ

’(t) =sin

θ

(t)/cos

θ

(t) or tan

θ

(t). This simply confirms the sense in which we have been using thefunction

θ

(t) in the deterministic case, namely, as giving the “direction of the path” attime t. Figure 3 below can be used to visualize geometrically the two cases.

G ( t

) =

A c c u m u l a t e d M e r i t

τ

(t)= Experienced TimeP

(G(t),

τ

(t))Tangent at P to the PathPath (G(t),

τ

(t))

QOST

Two possibledirections in prob. case