Play, Theater, and Nondualism: A Philosophical Meditation

A philosophical meditation explores the concepts of play, theater, and nondualism, arguing that reality is fundamentally nondualistic and that play and theater reveal the Self through its apparent other, pluriform images. The essay extends this into social ethics, proposing that theatricality embodies ethical life and that nondualism is diametrically opposed to untouchability in theory and practice. It examines Theyyam, a celebratory divine dance form, showing how it subverts caste hierarchy and leads to an ethical imaginary.

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Abstract

The attempt here is to meditate philosophically on the nature, meaning, and significance of the conceptions of play, theater, and nondualism and to articulate further the metaphysical interweaving and symphony of these concepts with particular reference to the domain of social ethics. After a brief analysis of the philosophical notion of nondualism and its description of reality as fundamentally nondualistic, the essay dwells on the possibility of play and theater as the epiphany of the Self and its forms and contends that the pluriform images are the apparent other of the nondual self. Then, moving on to the domain of social ethics, the essay ventures to imagine theatricality as an incarnation of social ethics and attempts to show that nondualism and untouchability are diametrically opposed to each other in both theory and practice. Augmenting this discussion, the essay dwells upon Theyyam, the celebratory divine dance form, and indicates how it takes one to the ethical imaginary by radically subverting the socially exclusionary practice of caste hierarchy.