When life is born on earth, something embodies it. In the beginning, it is the body. But Buddha said that the body embodies nothingness. Compared to the vastness of the universe that inhabits thousands of suns and stars, the earth is just a small dot. And the universe is expanding. From eternal emptiness creation began and when the mass expanded, emptiness filled the space. Space between atoms became infinite. To travel between point A and point B, time was needed. So space and time defined creation. This is one point where physics and religion agree, where the West meets the East. Hindus say there is a universe, there is God, in every atom. In fact, the Big Bang Theory was conceived as an antithesis of the expanding universe. If the universe was expanding, it must certainly have begun expanding from one point, and if we go back to that point of origin, we would know how the universe was created.
Compared to the immense vastness of the universe, the earth is a small speck and the size of man is insignificant. It is said that man is a very small part of a very big thing. Like we it is astonishing to imagine that the atom exists, something that cannot be seen, something that is too small to exist. But even scientists who could not see it with their naked eye discovered it to be there. We denied the existence of the atom until its power was unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1942. Most developments that man has made are owed to the discovery of atoms and nuclear science.
In the overall scheme of things in the universe, it is not surprising to learn that man is also known in terms of cause and effect. The moment man learns how small a part he is, compared to the vastness of thousands of suns, he snaps out of the stupor of his ego. The universe is right next to man’s body but his ego makes him blind to that fact.
When you were conceived in the womb, your size was not as big as it is today. Back then your size was just like an atom’s. All of you, which you today call ‘yourself’, was conceived in the form of an atom. You did not have a body, you did not have a head, eyes or a spine. You were atom-like. But you were. You were there as a being. You existed in the beingness of it. And your being was nothing short of what it is now. Even today you exist in your beingness. But you seem to have forgotten it. Therefore, Buddha says that the body embodies nothingness. Your body grows by the rules of the universe and dies. But nothingness goes on.
Like the universe is expanding, man is also expanding. Man is carrying the seed of his potential within. One seed carries within it the potential of being millions of seeds. When the wind blows, the trees spread many seeds all over, which the wind carries afar. Millions of seeds are born but only a few take root. Man also produces millions of seeds to produce a baby. So, the universe is not frugal. The nature of the universe is abundant. That is also your real nature. Nature has given everything in abundance – rivers, water, air, winds, forests, flora, fauna, food – all are provided free of bondage. It is man that is frugal. Man not only lives in bondage but wants to keep everything under his control. No animal will make another animal his slave. Only man does it. Man is also born as free as anyone on earth. But man has adopted an unnatural way of living which he calls civilization. But thousands years of civilizations all over earth did not make man civilized as yet. In fact, he has become far more uncivil than his hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Man has the power of imagination. It is a very potent tool. When you imagine something at the source of your being, it comes true. To know your source of being is to live life. Whatever the body does, either it could be lived or imagined. But that which is the source and the one living in the being and the one who is the creator of life are all one. Hindus therefore say that the creator does things himself, not man. Man thinks he does everything and forgets the creator. In the Gita, when Arjuna dithers to kill the Kauravas, considering them to be brothers, and offers to become an ascetic, Krishna tells him, “By not killing, you are becoming the doer, thinking that you will save them.” Krishna tells Arjuna, “You think that by you not killing them, they will not be killed. But you have to give up being the doer and let the Doer in you do it, because you are not Him, only He is the Doer.”
Imagination can stimulate you and your body as much as reality does. You can also perform in your imagination all that you wish to do in reality. Like with yoga, you can perform it through your imagination. In Tibet, in the cold winters, bhikkus imagine that the cold winds cannot affect them and they begin sweating. It is through their imagination that they meet their reality. But reality is not the same as imagination. It is something as vast as the universe.
Man stands in the middle of the universe. Imagination is just one direction. There are as many directions available to him as there exist in the universe. Man can take any of them and go on a journey. But in the end, he will find himself standing right in the middle of the universe. Understand it like this: man is like the atom that is expanding and the universe is created. Man stands right at the point of the Big Bang. The Big Bang is the source of mankind. Man is like the source that goes on creating around him in all directions. To come back to the source, man has to realize that there is nowhere to go. If you begin going in any direction, there is infinite space. But when you come back to the source, you suddenly realize that there is nowhere to go. In fact, all space and distance and time is within man. Man is not a small part of the universe. Man is the universe itself.
The author is a spiritual teacher and an advisor on policy, governance and leadership. He can be contacted at arunavlokitta@gmail.com.