Living According to the Rhythms of the Microscopic

Cellular Cycles Reflecting Spiritual Truths: A Vedanta Perspective

A Stentor coerelus is a ciliated microbe organism. Image by Wikipedia.

The neti neti, (“not this, not this” — in Sanskrit language), is a cornerstone of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Adi Shankara. The negation of every false conditioned identity leads to the realization of one’s true Self (Ātman) which is identical to the ultimate ground of the real (Brahman).

As Shankara states in the “Ātmaṣaṭkam”, when one transcends the body, the senses, the mind, the intellect and the ego, one arrives at the luminous core of pure consciousness which is the essence of all beings. This blissful, free and eternal awareness is the only true “non-dual reality” that emerges at the end of the neti neti process. Everything else was only fleeting and limiting.

Adi Shankara meditating in Varanasi, India. Image by Author.

Here is how Shankara himself exemplifies the neti neti process in his poem “Ātmaṣaṭkam”, finally arriving at the vision of the Self as pure bliss beyond any conditioned qualification:

“Neither am I the Mind nor Intelligence or Ego,
Neither am I the organs of Hearing (Ears), nor that of Tasting (Tongue), Smelling (Nose) or Seeing (Eyes),
Neither am I the Sky, nor the Earth, Neither the Fire nor the Air,
I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva, The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness.”

Microscopic Journey into the Essence of Life

Neti neti. Not this, not this. Neither shape, nor structure, nor peculiar individual characteristics. Everything is transcendable, everything sacrificable on the altar of re-generation. The intimate essence awaits beyond the threshold of dissolution when the last phenomenic residue is burned in the fire of rebirth.

Nature also knows this secret, as we can discover by observing the cyclic pulsation of microscopic life.

Let’s take Stentor as an example, a slender ciliate that moves thanks to its cilia. It swims tirelessly in search of nutritive particles, stretched out in the adventure of existence. Yet, at the time of reproduction, its slender body begins to fold in on itself. The cilia disappear and are reabsorbed into the cytoplasm. Stentor loses every distinctive physical attribute and contracts into a small harmless sphere. From this primal state of quiet, the daughter cells will then emerge.

This is Stentor coeruleus dividing. Cell division is an asexual reproduction by a separation of the cell into two new cells. Single-celled organisms can increase their number quickly with this when the conditions are favourable for them.

Or we can think of zygomycetes fungi, whose hyphae represent a living intertwining constantly seeking sustenance. Yet, when the time comes for the reproductive sexual dance, the fungal structures self-digest through digestive enzymes. Each morphological part is retracted and hidden, leaving behind only empty cell shells. And it is precisely within these relics of naked walls that the male and female nuclei finally meet, fusing in a fertile embrace that generates new zygospores.

Zygomycota sporangia. Image by Wikipedia.

In these vital cycles, there is a mysterious echo of the neti neti practised by truth seekers. Divesting oneself of everything, burning every phenomenic residue. Reducing oneself to the naked essence, to the pure undifferentiated core of the self. From this space of powerful stillness, the will-o’-the-wisps of form can then emerge.

I wonder if our ancestors, spying for the first time into the micro-world, grasped this secret connection. Perhaps they understood that Death is nothing more than a necessary passage to strip oneself of the inessential and return to the primordial womb of existence, where the joy of rebirth eternally awaits.

A Stentor coeruleus mouth. Image by Wikipedia.

Are we too, unknowingly, perhaps preparing for the great final Neti Neti? Will we have to shed every ephemeral mask to merge our consciousness once again with the luminous Ocean of All?

Let the tiny inhabitants of the cellular realms whisper ancient secrets to us. They know the silent language of fruitful dissolution. They have always danced the biochemical dance of death and resurrection, in the ever-fermenting micro-cosmos that awaits, beyond the threshold of being, our naked souls.

“Neither am I bound by Death and its Fear nor by the rules of Caste and its Distinctions,
Neither do I have Father and Mother, nor do I have Birth,
Neither do I have Relations nor Friends, neither Spiritual Teacher nor Disciple,
I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva, The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness.”

“Ātmaṣaṭkam”

Follow this link to read the whole short poem “Ātmaṣaṭkam”.

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