Shunyata
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A backgrounder
Somnath Sarkar, Dec 7, 2022: The Times of India
Centuries ago, Aryabhata propounded the concept of shunya, zero, the base of the present numerical system. With time, shunya became a stepping stone to vastly simplified computations, paving the way for development of algebra, algorithms and calculus, three pillars of modern mathematics, while eventually laying the foundation for computers. The value of shunya, as a derivative of shunyata, nothingness, was acknowledged by Europeans nearly 1,000 years after its emergence in India.
Significantly, esoteric wisdom in ancient India placed shunyata on a unique pedestal with deep spiritual resonance in Hinduism, Jainism and as a central concept of Buddhism. While Buddhism regards it as nothingness or void that constitutes ultimate reality, some Shaiva texts perceive absolute void as Bhairav, who is beyondthe senses and the mind. In contrast, different strains of Vaishnavism like Mahima Dharma regard shunya as closer to the Hindu concept of metaphysical Brahmn. Likewise, in Vaishnavism of Orissa, the idea of shunya brahmn finds expression in the poetry of the Orissan Panchasakhas, Five Friends, such as the 16th-century compositions of Acyutananda. Incidentally, Acyutananda’s Shunya Samhita glorifies the shunya brahmn as ‘invisible, having no shape and colour’. An individual needs to cull out ‘me-time’ for meditative introspection to retreat to the ‘void’ of shunyata particularly in this age when burnout, stress and depression loom large on the mental horizon and are antithetical to wellbeing. The retreat represents a journey into nothingness, with the inner eye open. It signifies a transition into the shaswat,eternal, packed in a moment surcharged with infinite potential energy waiting to be harnessed from a soundless void of darkness and stillness. In effect, this implies advancing from a temporal and unreal world where one, in a manner of speaking, gets nothing from everything to a void from where one gets everything from nothing. In the shunyata moment, characterised by total absence of the unreal, the mind becomes a receptacle of truth and beauty, a Sat-chit-ananda moment filled with bliss, silence and nothingness of non-material infinity. This moment lends an opportunity to savour all that is priceless, odourless, colourless and soundless, as a total package of beauty and bliss where maya has no access. When we consciously experience shunyata, we are cleansed of negative emotions and irrational fears, including that of death, and develop asense of healthy positivity.
In a metaphysical sense, all numbers above zero have a material connotation, thereby falling within the purview of maya. Wealth and age symbolise unreal numbers breeding fear and insecurities antithetical to the power and bliss of non-material shunya. Yet, paradoxically speaking, value is attached to a numbered existence in a planet that is a speck of stardust, in a universe where humanity represents dots clustered together to harvest the fruits of karma.
Significantly, power and wealth spawn greed, arrogance, insecurity and jealousy that vitiate human happiness and inhibit Self-realisation and spiritual growth.
In this context, dipping into shunyata from time to time is akin to visiting a gym, to revitalise one’s perception of reality and toning the mind, cleansing it of toxicity arising from obsession with the temporal and unreal.
