Quest for the absolute

One way of zeroing in on a solution is to rule out all impractical ones. When planning a hotel stay or making a purchase, we keep eliminating parameters that do not suit us so that the ultimate desired product easily emerges from the labyrinth of options.

In the spiritual context, there is Neti Neti; when translated from Sanskrit, it means not this, not that. Human life goes beyond eating and mating; it is intended for the realisation of the ultimate Reality described differently by varied schools of philosophy. According to the followers of the Advaita school of thought, the Self is the ultimate reality; it is God or the Supersoul.

Madhvacharya's Dvaita philosophy propagates that the soul, jiva, and Paramatma are different, and the soul is always subservient to the Supersoul, the primal creator of the universe. Neti Neti is mainly followed in Advaita Vedanta, wherein one by one, all that we see around us is negated as being materialistic. Carefully, one after the other, each thought is negated as not being the reality until gradually only the ultimate reality, the Absolute, remains, which cannot be described but is referred to as Tat Tvam Asi.


An individual should always be on a continual quest for the Absolute in whatever way she likes.