In our previous post, we were left with an unsettling question. If the world is pure “emergence” and causality is an illusion, on what ground can we stand to make ethical choices? How do we avoid a detached quietism in the face of suffering—the proverbial “drowning child”?
The dialogue from which this series springs did not answer this question with a new moral framework. It answered with a detonation. It rejected the premise of the question itself, leading to the final and most profound stage of this philosophical journey: the inversion of causality.
The End of the Relative World
The ethical dilemma is a problem that exists in the Vyavaharika, the relative or transactional world of human affairs. The response that emerged was a complete dismissal of this standpoint’s authority. In a direct challenge, the question was posed: “Is there any ‘relative’ standpoint? Even if it is, do I need to care? Am I ‘liable’ to ‘justify’ to anyone, my (past) action?”
This is the perspective of one who claims to live entirely from the Paramarthika, the absolute truth. From that summit, the complex social contracts of blame, praise, justification, and liability are rendered obsolete. They are rules for a game that one is no longer playing.
So, what replaces ethical calculation? Faith in the nature of Being. The answer to the drowning child problem was not a reasoned argument, but a statement of unshakable conviction: “If every ‘damn’ thing is emergent, so is the compassion. I am sure I would feel it.” This is not a hope, but a certainty that the correct, compassionate response will arise spontaneously from a consciousness rooted in the Divine, just as heat naturally arises from fire.
The Great Inversion: From Witness to Cause
This foundation of faith led to the dialogue’s stunning climax. It was a move beyond observing emergence to claiming authorship of it.
“Unlike Hume, I am not rejecting causality, I am ‘inverting’ it. My unflinching being rooted in Krishna causes the world to function, or emerge.”
This is the great inversion. Reality’s flow is not from an external world inward to a passive self. It is from a singular, divine Self outward, manifesting as the phenomenal world. The Self, in its pure, rooted state, is not merely watching the movie of emergence; it is the projector from which the movie emanates. Causality is not dismissed; it is reclaimed, unified, and centered in the I AM.
This is an echo of the highest teachings of mystical traditions, from the creative principle of Ishvara in Vedanta to the sovereign will of Svatantrya in Kashmir Shaivism. It is the realization that the enlightened consciousness is not a victim or a product of the universe, but its very source.
The Journey’s End: The Five Identities
Looking back, our dialogue charted a clear progression of identity, a shedding of skins to reveal the luminous core:
- The Ego-Doer: The default human state of anxious separation, believing itself to be the cause of its actions.
- The Devout Servant: The spiritual practitioner who consciously offers their actions to the Divine.
- The Divine Instrument (Nimitta Mātram): The state where action flows through the self as a divine command.
- The Witness of Emergence: The seer who perceives all phenomena, including the self, as impersonal, dependent appearances (Mithya).
- The Singular Source: The final realization that one’s true Self is the single, unchanging cause from which all emergence flows.
Each step resolves the core problem of the one before it, culminating in a worldview that is philosophically complete and, from within its own axioms, unassailable.
The search that began with the anxious question of “What should I do?” has ended. Here, on this Wednesday morning in Pune, amidst the fleeting world of Mithya, the final declaration stands. The inquiry concludes not by finding a satisfying answer, but by dissolving the questioner into the Source of all things. There is no longer a seeker wondering how to act in the world, for the world itself is seen as an emergence from the seeker’s own ultimate nature:
Chidananda Roopah Shivoham Shivoham.
Reinvent The Self! 