There are moments in life when two truths stand side by side, neither cancelling the other. The Sanskrit phrase Acintya Bheda – Abheda Tattva means “inconceivable oneness and difference.”
I have lived it in ways that go beyond the pages of philosophy. There was the friendship that thrived despite different faiths, where prayer could mean a temple for one and silence in a garden for the other. We never tried to merge into sameness; the differences gave the bond its depth.
I have worn saris at Diwali and jeans at Christmas, lighting lamps and singing carols without ever feeling I was betraying one for the other. Cultures did not collapse into a single label; they sat side by side like languages I could speak without translation.
Change, too, has held this duality. There are parts of me I have shed — the unkind voice in my head, the urge to always say yes – yet I carry forward their lessons like old letters folded in my pocket.
It turns out life doesn’t demand we choose between oneness and difference. Sometimes the richest connections, identities, and transformations happen because we allow both to exist without trying to make them identical.