Assistant Prof. Asutosh Pradhan
IV. The Integral View
The postmodernist's excessive if not exclusive emphasis on difference, diversity, contingency and uncertainty is not born of an integral vision of reality. The diversities that we witness are only phenomenal in nature; they are all bound together by an underlying ontological unity. No interaction or relationship would be possible or conceivable among entities / events in the universe had they been absolutely different from one another. The search for a unifying principle by physics would have been the chase of a chimera, were there no one force encompassing all the four forces governing the micro as well as the macro cosmos.
The science of ecology shows how things are connected among themselves and influence one another. Quantum science shows how an electron located in one corner of the cosmos influences another billions of light years away instantaneously. As Bohm says, the explicit order of the universe hides an implicit order, which is a seamless plenum. Bell's inequality theorem (1960s) says that the degree of cooperation between separated systems cannot exceed a certain definite maximum. But the quantum theory predicts that this limit can be exceeded. Alain Aspect of Paris University provided an experimental proof of Bell's theorem in 1981. The implication of the theorem is that at a deep and fundamental level, the separate parts of the universe are connected in an intricate and immediate way. The universe is one system - a vast network of particles. The Advait Vedanta of India posited long ago one absolute reality, the Brahman, as the ground of all phenomena. All that exist is Brahman. The Upanishads speak of the absolute pervading everything, static and dynamic simultaneously and as an undivided whole. They proclaim that all that exists vibrates with life having emerged from the supreme life. Thus behind all this chaos and difference, there is a subcutaneous oneness that imparts meaning and purpose to the universe and human life. All human actions derive their meaning and significance from this cosmic unity. Man-made value projects can never acquire a cosmic status and satiate the existential inquisitiveness of man in regard to the worthwhileness of his actions centred around the self or society.
Without reference to the cosmic oneness, man can never achieve an integrated meaning of his life and actions, weave the different and diverse strands of his life project into one tapestry. Multiplicity and plurality are expression of the infinite to exist in infinite ways. Maniness, differences and diversities are to be welcomed, accepted and respected because they are the teleological manifestation of the One in its creative and evolutionary adventure. However, differences may become divisive, a source of perpetual strife, invidious distinction and discord if they are asserted as absolutes, without reference to the underpinning identity.
Similarly, the postmodernist emphatic denial of absolute truth and values is a false reading of reality. Without the presupposition of the absolute as the ground, relativity of things cannot be cognised. Even Einstein had to posit one cosmic absolute to articulate the relativity of space-time i.e. the velocity of light. It is, therefore, mischievous to overlook the bi-polar nature of the phenomenal world, the holistic paradigm and make life a one-way traffic, a one legged affair.