Contemplations on Ardra Nakshatra and the Cruelty Inherent to Existence
"Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?"
"I don't know, but I think so. They sometimes seem to be like the apples on our stubbard-tree. Most of them splendid and sound—a few blighted."
"Which do we live on—a splendid one or a blighted one?"
— Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Ardra Moon
Today, we’re going to contemplate Ardra, the nakshatra through which we may understand the exact nature and cause of universal suffering. This understanding of the universe forms the basis of my spiritual philosophy and why I am constantly screaming for our collective liberation.
When we think about what makes us suffer in life, we tend to point the finger at economic systems and societal flaws, describing them as the root causes of all suffering. Money, as we know, is said to be the “root of all evil.” But we must collectively understand that it goes much deeper than that.
All suffering comes from the foundational nature and structure of the universe. Its duality and therefore its inherent division are what causes us to continuously struggle with little to no returns for our efforts. To elucidate this, I came up with a way to easily visualize the concept through examining that which is the basis of life as we know it: DNA.
DNA is a molecule that not just humanity, but all life forms, strive to maintain the structural integrity of. To do this, life forms need energy. They need energy to carry out basic cellular functions, to protect themselves, and to reproduce—all of which serve to maintain the integrity and continuity of DNA. Energy is a resource that is finite, since all matter and energy in the universe is finite, as far as we know, and as far as what we have access to. Therefore, there is a finite amount of resources, which means that this process of structural maintenance cannot go on forever, because finite resources will run out.
On top of this, the universe is expanding and accelerating in its expansion. This causes an increase in entropy, where the universe becomes increasingly disorderly and it becomes increasingly impossible for things to maintain their structural integrity or “orderliness.” This universal phenomenon of destruction directly threatens the integrity of DNA. It thus becomes clear that life is fighting a fool’s battle against the very forces of the universe, with a finite amount of resources to maintain its own existence. It is a zero sum game.
This constant battle for resources is everywhere. This is what causes violence in all forms of life. It even causes violence (which I define as the destruction of structural integrity) to that which is not alive. And so, violence and oppression are not unique to human beings. In order for creatures to maintain their own structural integrity, they need to absorb resources, which necessarily entails the destruction of the structural integrity of other entities to gain the resources they either contain or possess.
This is why lions kill wildebeest, why cows kill grass, why humans kill non-humans and each other, why plants kill insects, why insects kill each other, and so on, and so on, and so on. Even when there is no direct killing involved, in the case of, for example, non-carnivorous plants, there is, in fact, a destruction of structural integrity. Plants photosynthesize by obtaining light from the Sun, which emits light due to a process in its core called nuclear fusion, where elements are fused together in a process that releases energy. This process is what essentially destroys the structural integrity of the Sun, which will eventually die. And so the destruction of the structural integrity of the Sun maintains the structural integrity of terrestrial plant life. And hell, even plants are incredibly violent to one another, and I know this thanks to this post I read the other day.
My point here, if I haven’t reiterated it enough, is that the process of maintaining one’s structural integrity necessarily entails the destruction of another’s, and this is precisely the violence that is inherent to the universe and that causes suffering for all. Therefore, the very nature of existence is suffering. The desire to exist in this universe is in itself the root of all evil, of all the violence that is enacted in the name of existing on one side of the [exists / does not exist] dichotomy.
In Ardra nakshatra, we are forced to confront this harsh reality head-on. Biblical scripture has referred to this universe as the Valley of Tears, reminiscent of Ardra’s teardrop symbol. This tikshna nakshatra shows exactly how the dualistic foundation of the universe is the cause of all violence. The very nature of conflict requires at least 2 entities, with one causing the destruction of the other or both causing the destruction of each other. An axe cannot cut itself. It must first be divided into axehead and axe handle, at which point the axehead can be used to cut i.e. destroy the handle. And so the very reason that violence, conflict, and suffering can occur is because of the very existence of division and duality. A schism, a rift, a crack, it may be called. Ardra with its core essence allows us to see this violent realm for what it is.
And more importantly, you may have heard it said that Ardra is the fall from the “Garden of Eden”, a supposedly paradisiacal place where everything is sunshine and rainbows in which Adam and Eve are living with all the little birdies and monkeys like it’s some kind of fucking Disney movie. Ardra is supposedly the “Fall” where we are thrust into a world of division and chaos. But it’s not. Now, I will state the most important teaching of Ardra, which is that:
We already exist in Hell.
Ardra is where our eyes are opened to the true horror of existence in this universe where everything is constantly eating each other in an incessant process of destruction and consumption. There are people being bombed, shot, and burned alive in Ukraine, Sudan, and Gaza right now. There is a wildebeest somewhere in Kenya being eaten alive by hyenas. There are thousands dying of terminal cancer. Some are dying of the Ebola virus. A lioness has just killed a wild dog cub. A pack of wild dogs is eating a pregnant impala alive, devouring her fawn too. A polar bear has just killed a seal and her pup. An orca has just eaten the liver of a great white shark and left the rest of the corpse to rot in bacteria that will feast on it. A neutron star is tearing a planet apart. A black hole is ripping a star apart. A baby crocodile has just killed a baby rabbit. There are people being tortured and murdered. There are non-human animals being tortured and murdered, by humans… Hell, even the fucking trees are killing each other. I could go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on.
And so in Ardra, there is no “Fall”. In Ardra, we simply realize that the “Garden of Eden” that we still exist and languish in has been the Hell we’ve been so scared of all along. Hell isn’t some distant subterranean place of fire and brimstone and suffering and torment.
