Symbiosis, paradoxes, and dialectics: A narrative of the non-dual path in the Vivekacudamani

Abstract

This paper investigates the interplay of language, concepts, and reason in treading the non-dual path of ?a?kara in the Vivekacudamani. This paper claims that in order to gain the non-dual insight, the language and concepts in the Vivekacudamani require to pass through three intermingling phases, namely, a symbiosis of language and concepts leading to understanding, a paradox of concepts and reality leading to sublation, and a dialectical reasoning on the opposing conceptual categories leading to a meta-language (beyond language, unspeakable) and meta-concept (beyond concept, inexpressible). The reality depicted through language and its nets is an obstruction of the reality per se, and therefore, in the text Vivekacudamani, language and concepts irreplaceably pass through the phases of symbiosis, paradoxes and dialectics and reveal the reality sans language genus of worldy enterprises. In this way, in the text Vivekacudamani, language kicks out itself from the general metaphysical structure to be a scaffolding of the reality per se.