Nondual Panpsychism and Panentheism: Pratyabhijñā Śaivism, Rāmakṛṣṇa, and Vivekānanda

Abstract

Nondual Panpsychism, a revisionary metaphysics, is panpsychic in maintaining that everything is a cognitive system. It is nondualistic in claiming that reality is neither monist nor dualistic. This article articulates its panentheistic implications. Nondual Panpsychism explains the emergence of finite cognitive systems from the cosmic cognitive system. Rejecting Sri Rāmakṛṣṇa’s hard theological determinism, it affirms the theological libertarianism of Pratyabhijñā Śaivism and Swami Vivekānanda. Although māyā is crucial to Vivekānanda’s Panentheism, he cannot account for it. God’s essence is to manifest. As God’s manifestation, the cosmos is real. God transcends the cosmos by not being determined by it. God pervades the cosmos by creatively responding to it. God manifests as the despised and rejected. It explains why God does not laugh at some jokes.