This past month has been one of me dealing with physical separation from my daughter who is now a freshman in college far, far from home. This is the longest I have been away from her and I am dealing with the separation in the only way I know - turning inward with the help of books. And it so happens, some kind of alignment in the stars brought me into contact with the following books which on surface seem all disparate and disconnected but on contemplation all point to something at the core of human existence.
With the advent of Generative AI and LLM there seems to be a lot of discussion which falls into one of two camps - the destructive power of AI or how AI can change the world. In this context words like consciousness and sentience are thrown about and it has been hard to get a handle on these concepts. If the AI of the future gains consciousness and becomes sentient how would we co-exist in such a world?
In The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler a species of highly intelligent octopi have been discovered in an archipelago bought out by a single corporation, forcibly evacuating the previous residents and sealing off the space to “study” the species. An Android called Evrim and a biologist Ha Nguyen are the two inhabitants of the island along with the security officer Atlantsetseg. In essence this is a “first-contact” story except that the first-contact is not with an alien from outside our planet, but just another species with a mind capable of symbolic language, culture and communication. While there are a number of interesting concepts covered by the story (which totally deserves all the attention it is getting) I was especially drawn to the question about why “other minds” make us anxious - whether they are seen in androids or octopuses. Stepping away from sci-fi/ fantasy, first-contacts even among humans have not ended well for at least one of the groups and xenophobia has always been part of the human condition. Isolation and indifference are two factors that stood out as contributing to this mistrust of other beings and connection and empathy seem to be the solution. How do you begin to develop this connection to all beings?
The answer was provided by John Donne, the 16th century English poet/ preacher whose famous words I quote here
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
I read Katherine Rendell’s vivid biography of John Donne called Super-Infinite. It is a fantastic biography and she traces the rise, fall, and rise of Donne from his cavalier days as a young misogynistic poet who wrote about bodies, love, sex and lust to his transformation into a popular preacher whose sermons were so popular and sought after. The poet and the preacher seem like two completely different people but they were the one and the same and he brought his keen intellect and his meditative mind to his oversexed poetry and to his moving sermons.
As I read some of Donne’s writings, I could not help but think about some of the phrases in the Upanishads. I am reading the English translation by Patrick Olivelle and while I cannot claim enlightenment (very very far from it), I have been blown away by the concepts of self and consciousness seen in these texts that predate current developments in neuroscience by a few thousand years. The Upanishads ask us to turn inwards and analyze the nature of our own senses and minds. While the world around us as perceived by our senses change relentlessly there is an infinite, indivisible reality that pervades all. By tapping into this consciousness we are encouraged to meditate on the unity in diversity. I picked up the book unsure about what to expect and the first few pages of horse sacrifice kinda lost me, but I persevered and in that process discovered so many brilliant ideas like the 5 sheaths of knowledge (Taittriya), the states of the self and their relation to OM (Mandukya), the connection of the cosmic sphere to the bodily sphere or the macrocosm to the microcosm (Chandogya).
Ramachandra Guha’s biography of Gandhi is a great volume to read alongside the Upanishads. Every time I have doubts as to whether anyone can live like how the Upanishads recommend, I see something from Gandhi’s life that offers proof. I am not saying he was a saint and was infallible. If that was the case there is no point in learning from his life. He was human, made mistakes but was open about his mistakes, debated with those who held opposing views and was not afraid of changing his own assumptions. I am currently reading the sections on Gandhi’s battle against untouchability in the 1930s. There is no doubt that his views evolved over time and contact with Ambedkar accelerated his evolution. What amazes me is the flak that Gandhi got from all sides for forcing the issue of untouchability in the 1930s a decade before India obtained freedom and how he managed to retain his poise and his core values. The number of so-called “sanatanists” who protested at Gandhi’s meetings wearing black shirts and flags, and one time even trying to bomb his motorcade sounds eerily familiar to some of the militant Hinduism that is getting popular in India these days. When Gandhi’s son married Rajagopala Chari’s daughter he received hate mail from the so-called “Sanatanists” for promoting inter-caste marriage.
While I am writing this there is a raging debate in India about Sanatana Dharma and its relation to Hinduism. This was not something that was discussed at any meaningful depth at home while I was growing up. Most of us have very vague ideas about Dharma, whether it is Sanatana, Svadharma, or even Varnashtrama Dharma. The only thing that is eternal and unchanging in the Upanishads is the self - the atman which when it comes to realize Thou Art That - is the Brahman. If that is the only eternal and that is common to all beings and if the goal of every Hindu is to elevate themselves to this higher plane, I cannot but see caste violence, untouchability, sense of superiority as barriers to that evolution. And Gandhi’s way of purging these out of our individual lives is as important as Ambedkar’s way of making sure there is no room in the State for these practices.
A living religion also has to evolve with times and not constantly look back to the past. When the Roman Catholic Church talks about LGBTQ people as sinners, or stands against contraception or abortion rights they become an outdated institution in the face of the needs of modern human beings. The core message of Jesus was about love and that is somehow lost in all this muddle. Similarly if Hinduism is mainly defined by some rituals and practices left over from 3000 years ago that don’t make sense for the modern world then it starts becoming irrelevant to modern life. When I encountered the Upanishads for the first time I finally felt like there were treasures in there that spoke to me. Yes, there are some mentions of caste, horse sacrifice and rituals that don’t appeal to me as a modern being and mentions of sexual practices that are frankly scientifically wrong and offensive to women. The argument that Katherine Rundell makes for reading John Donne applies here. When I read Shakespeare’s Hamlet I am blown away by the playwright’s ability to go into the mind of a human being, while at the same time I am irritated by some of the digressions and how poorly Hamlet treats Ophelia. While I am not going to throw the baby with the bath water, the analogy holds good only if I can separate the baby from the bath water, and the bath water can be wiped away from the baby.
Hinduism has always accommodated a wide variety of views and practices, so I am annoyed when anyone tries to define what Hinduism is and is not for nearly a Billion people! I guess what I am saying is - let me be, let me make a choice as to what I want to adopt and follow as long as I don’t violate the rights of another being and respect the dignity of all beings. Gandhi felt that every religious person has to examine their own
religious beliefs and be critical of those, prune those that don't work anymore and not simply point fingers
at another's religion. I have come a long way from Octopuses to Upanisads. Ha Ngyuen, in The Mountain and the Sea defines consciousness as awareness which is not different from what the Upanisads show us. Awareness with empathy for other beings should be the basis of any belief system and that is the only kind of belief system that I can subscribe to.
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