Thus contradiction contradicted confirms Sunyata, the Void, the zero which in turn, in its true nature (svabhava) is itself the ultimate reality—‘svabhava sunya is itself Nirvana,’ says Nagarjuna (first century AD), the single great Buddhist sage after the Buddha himself. If then, he argues, if voidness is all that there is, then everything is sameness. And again if everything is sameness, then ‘whether there are Buddhas or no Buddhas the nature of all things remains always sunya, the void . . . That is itself Nirvana.’ This is the ultimate knowledge, Prajna paramita. The ultimate knowledge indeed is all that there is. So, nothing is to be accepted, nothing is to be rejected. In which case the cycle of life, samsara, itself is Nirvana.

Do not think there is any distinction,

(says Saraha, the Buddhist poet)

Yet it possesses no single nature,

For I know it to be quite pure.

Do not sit at home, do not go to the forest,

But recognize the mind wheresoever you are.

When one abides in perfect enlightenment,

Where is samsara5 and where is Nirvana?

The fair tree of thought (which) knows no duality

The fair tree of the Void abounds with flowers.

But what about Compassion, then? Could one attain Nirvana and yet have no worry for the other. Saraha continues:

He who clings to the Void

And neglects compassion does not reach the highest stage.

But he who practises only compassion

Does not gain release from the tails of existence.

He however who is strong in practice of both

Remains neither in Samsara nor in Nirvana.

Thus one comes (confusedly) back to non-duality. The question to ask is: Could there be two active principles in one experience—that is, Being and Compassion. Wherever there are two, they must be perceived by a ‘singular’ viewer. This single perceiver is thus the principle that illumines and knows. It is then Being itself that sees and knows: The Upanishadic Self. The paradox of duality is solved by its own death. The horizontal makes way for the vertical. The vertical includes the horizontal. The horizontal is just the clockwise movement of the vertical. Causality, the child of duality, kills causality by its own absurdity. Logic comes to an end by its own suicide. For, if you lead logic by logic it reaches a dead end. Then bury it. Or better burn it. It was invented for utilitarian purposes: causality was created for man’s satisfaction of appetites. Further, causality dies with the death of time. And time has long been dead. So logic dies with causality.