Tag: Oneness

Spinoza and Shankara: When God Became the Universe and the Self Became God


What if the philosopher Spinoza and the sage Shankara had met?
Both, separated by continents and centuries, spoke of one ultimate Reality—an infinite, self-existent essence that manifests as all things. Spinoza called it God or Nature; Shankara called it Brahman. One reasoned his way to unity, the other realized it through inner awakening. In both visions, the world is not separate from the Divine—it is the Divine, appearing in countless forms. To see this is to be free, to live it is to be blissful. The rest—names, forms, selves—are but waves on the same ocean.

Dharma


“All Dharma is mere imagination because where there is only the One, where can there be any scope for Dharma. Make the slightest difference between yourself and God, then the head of Dharma rears up.”

This is not a rejection of Dharma, but a reminder of its contingency. Dharma operates within duality: seeker and sought, self and God. For the aspirant, Dharma purifies; for the realized, Dharma dissolves. Aphorisms are easy to misread—yet they point to the timeless truth of Advaita: where nonduality shines, categories collapse, leaving only the One without a second.