A couple of readers asked me why I thought Tagore is more important than Gandhi in this planetary phase of the Indian experiment. I am still sorting out my intuitions on this one, but the one line answer: Planetary aesthetics is at least as important as planetary politics.
Conversations around space and time (देश काल) have been almost integral to spiritual schools in the east. The baseline definition of “reality” (सत्य) demands it’s not subjective to space and time. The approach towards existence of different worlds/universes (there is no doubt in any doctrines about their existence) is bifurcated where Vedanta school considers them part of Maya (illusion) with Aatman as the single existence versus other schools tend to consider them as part of reality. A fascinating story called “Datta Bhargav Samvad (conversations between Datta and Bhargava)” speaks about a King who travels with a Yogi into a parallel universe that the yogi has created within a small hillock. They are gone for a few hours but come back to see centuries have passed in the previous universe. The King is dumbfounded by the manipulation of space and time so has to confront the illusionary nature of either of the universes. AbhinavGupta, IMO one of the greatest thinkers ever existed, has touched on this as well and could be whole another thread.
Conversations around space and time (देश काल) have been almost integral to spiritual schools in the east. The baseline definition of “reality” (सत्य) demands it’s not subjective to space and time. The approach towards existence of different worlds/universes (there is no doubt in any doctrines about their existence) is bifurcated where Vedanta school considers them part of Maya (illusion) with Aatman as the single existence versus other schools tend to consider them as part of reality. A fascinating story called “Datta Bhargav Samvad (conversations between Datta and Bhargava)” speaks about a King who travels with a Yogi into a parallel universe that the yogi has created within a small hillock. They are gone for a few hours but come back to see centuries have passed in the previous universe. The King is dumbfounded by the manipulation of space and time so has to confront the illusionary nature of either of the universes. AbhinavGupta, IMO one of the greatest thinkers ever existed, has touched on this as well and could be whole another thread.