THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS



The following was dictated by Nataraja Guru on 1st November 1972 at Trivandrum Medical College Hospital, and was sent to the editor for publication.
It was thus the last thing the Guru had to say, and could perhaps serve as a kind of epitaph.


On a certain full moon evening, the moon was rising on the eastern side of the horizon,
and on the western side the sun was setting.
The following, is an imaginary conversation intended to show that duality
and Unitive Understanding are not the same.

RISING MOON:
Hey, you there! What is the relation between you and me?

SETTING SUN:
Don't you agree that we are basically the same?

RISING MOON
Do you mean to say that I have no individuality ? 

SETTING SUN:
Your individuality, which, if it exists at all, does so only insofar as it tries to make
a distinction between you and me, has no basis in reality.
Truth is always one, and you cannot divide it into a half truth and a full truth.
It's either one or the other, and there's no alternating. There's no choice left.
If, truth is always one and the same, the light with which you shine is the light I have lent to you.     
You shine with the light you have borrowed from me...
Thus, we are two apparent versions of the same light.     
Let us both renounce whatever superiority we might claim for ourselves,
and we can come to a solution which is both just and favourable to both of us.         
Such a solution implies double gain, and a cancellation of counterparts by double negation.    
"Omnis determinatio negatio". We are both indeterminate factors.
Let us both agree about this, and the great solution is right here.     
It is the greatest contribution of Advaita Vedanta,
and an example of what I prefer to call Unitive Understanding.
That is all, AUM, Amen     
Peace, Peace, Peace.

RISING MOON:
AUM, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.