"Radvaita!"

Radvaita is "Radical Advaita"

I am coining a new word, "Radvaita," for "Radical-Advaita," and that is what I am calling these oh-so-far-gone "Neo-Advaitists" who proliferate the Western Non-Dual community! Radvaita goes beyond Neo-Advaita, as it goes to the extreme that anything you may know, think or believe can never be true. That goes for belief in scriptures, traditional gurus, lineages of sages, study or sadhana of any kind, belief in the laws that govern the dualistic world (ie Karma), etc. What is left is a maverick attitude that "nothing matters," and that, "all rules, techniques, laws, paths and revelations are false," and what is real is only your moment to moment consciousness of the world around you, regardless of how limited and full of judgement and ego that awareness might be! 


 Radvaita excuses all behaviors! Right conduct, they will tell you, "is oppression," because the truth is that it doesn't matter what you do because all  life is an illusion anyway! Radvaitists claim that there is "nobody home," but they display more ego than any other spiritual group I have encountered! They, after all,  are the "enlightened ones," having reached this revelation on a face book page under the tutelage of some twenty-something kid who claims enlightenment, but revels egotistically in his newly acquired role as "a teacher of the Highest Reality!" Radvaita indeed!

Only the Radvaitist has the Real Truth!

These same Radvaitists believe that the ultimate state of being is "nothingness." The highest liberation, in their way of thinking, is to become nothing at all! Last I looked, that qualifies as pure nihilism! You see, it turns out that  many of these Radvaitists, before finding their Radvaitic path, were non-believers in anything spiritual, people with no faith, and hardcore nihilists! But with Radvaita they seem to have found a "spiritual" path that is not  spiritual (!), but is "beyond spirituality!"  They maintain that, "spirituality with all its trappings is a snare," and, no one in their right mind wants to be like these "seekers" who "spend all their lives doing difficult if not impossible spiritual practices, all the while missing the Radvaita reality of nothingness that we have achieved by doing... nothing!"

Early on, the Radvaitists come to, or are led to the conclusion that there is no "self," no person wth a name and a form, no "doer."  They call this revelation. "enlightenment," yet Advaita Vedanta (traditional Indian Non-Dualism) tells us that this discovery is but a first baby step!  They negate all that comes after that step, all the various experiences of consciousness, the samadhis, the satoris, the illuminations, and in doing so, the classic sense of enlightenment as laid out by a ten thousand year-plus lineage of enlightened beings. Pretty bold for such a newcomer to the consciousness game!  At the same time those who eschew the scriptures have usually never read one.  Those who don't see a need for a teacher have never sat with a true teacher of consciousness, and those who see every spiritual exercise as an exercise in futility, have never done one!  But, even without this experience, the Radvaitists claim the highest knowledge and realization is theirs, and theirs alone!.

A Radvaitist who habituates some of the face book non-duality pages that I read once posted, "Don't get stuck in the Bliss!...Go beyond!" To which I answered, "I would be perfectly happy to be stuck in the Bliss of God. I would even devote a lifetime or two to it! I will worry about getting stuck in that bliss if it happens, and then, only if I see a down side to it!" Its as if these Radvaitists, before they have even realized who and what they are, are concerned only with the highest possible liberation and "beyond,"so they try to achieve that alone!  Its like saying that you want to go into politics but rather than starting with some local town office you announce that you will only accept the office of President of the USA, and nothing less!

Imagine being invited someplace but being given no directions to get there, no roads to take, no shortcuts, nothing.  How would you find such a place?  The Radvaitist says, "Give up the search," so you even stop looking for it.  What are the chances of finding that destination?  Nil!  But the Radvaitist believes that if you give up the search, if you let go of all the clues, all the paths, all the experiences of others, all the work required, you will magically have the revelation and arrive at Self Realization! Wow!  Now that's quite a deal!  But wait.  Are you sure that whomever made that offer was referring to those at the very beginning of the search?  It makes logical sense that when you are  drawing close to the Truth of all Existence, one must let go of all.  But to do so at the starting gate is like turning off your engine when the light goes green (as in "go!") at a drag race strip!  These Radvaitists have nothing to fund their trip to the revelation they seek!  Garbage in Garbage out applies to  spirituality!  If you put in no effort you get no result!  So with no results to speak of,  the Radvaitist is content with his "no-self" realization, and, still deeply immeshed in their ego-mind-body complex, parades themselves as if they are enlightened.  And "everything you know is wrong!"

The Ancient pre-Vedic Rishis...

When the ancient Rishis (sages of pre-Vedic India) were asked to describe their experience of enlightenment to the people, they used the words, "Sat Chit Annanda," or, "all Truth, all Knowledge, and all Bliss (love)." They said that this description is the closest to that state as any language could relate. The Radvaitists maintain that Sat Chit Annanda can not be the nature of enlightenment, because the so-called "enlightened state" is just nothingness.  Again we come back to that often quoted but always wrong definition of, "the Void," or the Buddhist, "Shunyata," taking it to mean "void of everything or anything." This is not what Shunyata implies! It implies an emptiness of that which is not self existent. That would include inanimate objects, name and form, emotions, thoughts, ideas, concepts, etc. But Love IS God. Bliss is God. Truth is God, and the very seeds of knowledge is God!  The Void is full of these self existent qualities. But shhh...don't tell, the Radvaitists. (They won't believe you anyway!)

When you lose your ego you do not become nothing or nothingness! The ego is a *limitation* of consciousness, that which you believe to be "you" is but a MERE droplet in the eternal ocean of Being. The ego keeps you from the whole, from the fullness, limiting you to a body, a mind, a personality, with a history. Lose the ego and you become EVERYTHING! You finally reach that effulgent FULLNESS of Being that is existence itself, that is God!

• The Radvaitists seem to be allowing ego (in the sense of an individualized separateness of being) to hold sway over their behavior, believing that setting the ego free from all limits of behavior is "liberation" of some sort. But, that is not the case at all! That is pure ego manifestation where the individual supersedes the whole! The Radvaitists speak using foul language and sexual innuendo just to show off to others their supposed "freedom," demonstrating how they are not ruled by anyone or anything (especially what others may  believe). But this is all obviously done from a strong ego consciousness because the result of this behavior is separation from others humans, usually placing them above all beings (including the saints gurus, sages and wisdom keepers) in some kind of revelatory wisdom that they possess that is missing from all except those of identical like mind. This "freedom" is paraded about, always becoming more and more outrageous, permissive and suggestive. demonstrating a deep involvement with and attachment to the world and the sense pleasures contained therein, and a dependancy on the ego-self, with no real experience or understanding of the Unitive Consciousness.

  
  
•  Those who follow the Radvaita path tend revel in this behavior, as is evident on face book pages and in other discussion groups, applauding the harshness and the obscenity used in tearing down those who see spirituality in a different, more mature light. That Radvaitists see people like this as being the future Krishnamuthis, only speaks to the insidious nature of this aberration of spirituality and how far it has spread in the West. I see this all as tragic and serious and not leading to a growth in consciousness at all, but instead to a new foundation for egoistic "I, me, mine" (to quote John Lennon) behaviors. If anything can be called "antiChristic" it would be this phenomena, as evil is the individual over the whole where spirituality is about the whole, leaving the individual consciousness behind and creating an ever widening expansion of LOVE!