LIFE AS A COSMIC AUDIENCE
Life consists of various degrees of object through which we see our world. It keeps on changing. World is movement (Sanskrit word for the world means the moving one)
Everything is transitory – ever changing, the source of everything rises from the change. The only constant thing that keeps chasing us is the change of life.
The world is still moving through all aspects it keeps changing; it keeps revealing us to something new which is eternal. For the world is war- the war of opposites. Good and bad, night and day, man and women are all, as it were at war with each other, in the sense the two things can never be at harmony- yet everything has to exit under the duality it is the part of universe. To revel oneself the one has to seek the perfection through time and one has to accept the change which keeps on moving towards an ever-receding infinity. If the world become still and remains changeless it would be prison house in a sense our individual self had lost their freedom of truth.
“Therefore form must always move and change, they must necessarily die to reveal the deathless”
THE RELATIONSHIP OF INDIVIDUAL TO THE UNIVERSE
For the reality of world belongs to the personality of man and not to reasoning. We see things in various adjustments of time and space, reflecting out our inner self. Creating our own world from the centre of our own self.
Our individual minds are sitting in centre, the universe is what we see, and we all see same but we all perceives different according to our own inner self. Our mind is string which catches the rhythmic vibrations of the unveiling from physical body through senses and creates its own image and response towards time. [1]
It is all about how we visualized the thoughts in our mind, which we get reflected from outer world. The relationship between thought and matter is very subtle. So universe is nothing as we imagine it, it’s just entire design of the mind and all the processes that we make in creating our world is just controlled by our thoughts.
“World and time is nothing- it is the same and yet not the same to all.”
Life is neither time nor world; it is a perspective (darsana)
The universe is called deers mirage. The myth is only the inversion of truth- thus the change is only a change of perspective. Life (individual one’s life) is only an act of seeing differently towards different object, a single can hold multiple meaning. [2]
This universe is but a mode of thinking. In reality it is nothing. The inherent nature of the existent (Self) and of the non-existent (universe) are never lost. Ashtavakra Gita [Chapter 18 – Verse 4]
Man is nothing but an entire universe in him. Universe created in his own consciousness He creates and recreates his own world. Man consciousness is reflection between the object and world.
I see, I hear, I smell, I touch, I taste, I think and these are functions of my senses plus the mind. There can exit no world for me if these senses don’t operate. It is through eyes that I see the stars that are an object within three dimension plus time. When you think that stars are still, that only proves that you are too far from them. Stars in one instance are unmoved in the plane of the distance and they are moving in the plane of near. So stars in their one relation to me are truly still and to other relation they are truly moving. So both are true, far and near are the two different sets of facts but both belonging to one truth which is their master. [1]
World is what we perceive it to be, mind is the instrument.
We imagine that our mind is mirror that it is reflecting what happening in the outside world, but contrary our mind itself is principle element of creation.
The world is what I perceive; it is being created for myself in time and space. So the world is what we perceive it to be. This world is not the same thing as we see it, it has different dimensions, different forms and different perspectives it according to how one perceives it. The world is nothing but your own magnified mind that is perceiving thing according to your own self.
“Whatever a man thinks in his mind he sees outside”
There exists no world, it’s mirage of our own self that exists. The world is projected by the individual mind that sees it. Our mind perceives outer object from senses and reflect to our inner self and again recreating that outer object according to our inner conviction and consciousness. We create our inner nature and outer surround through the consciousness of mind, the truth of nature depends on the harmony of universal laws.
“So in a sense we are creator to our own universe.”
Person mind moves in a time different form that of other person, his world is there in the centre of his world inside (created and surrounded by his own understanding) dwelled in his own personality and perspective.
Truth keeps on moving, and keeps shifting its shape and form. Nothing is absolute truth. It is just conjecture of different perspectives and personality. The world truth is relative and that ultimate truth transcends human understanding.
All of above are truth and reality of object the only difference lies in viewers perspective and his mind through what he reflects he imagine the reality, but it neither truth nor false it his own reflection of mind.
It depends on you how you see the world as whole through the window of your soul and it reflects back your world.
DARSHTA : VIEWING LIFE THROUGH THE INTERSECTION OF MIND AND UNIVERSE
“We are the observer of events that occurs and surrounds us; we humans are just viewers that witness the change.”
One may gather great wisdom by cultivating the consciousness that this world and everything is a dream. We are merely the viewer of this cosmic dream. Do not take the earth experience to seriously let them move on by just witnessing them. This is a show be the viewer of this show. The root cause of sorrow is in viewing the passing show with emotional involvement. Human life constitutes a drama; and the event of each day represents the drama. Play your role and inwardly witness each motion of this movie, which is called as life. [3]
“Everything here is nothing more than god’s motion picture. Don’t make fuss about anything. Play your part in life, but never forget that it is only a role. Just witness your act without getting involved in the events.” -Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
We homosapiens really are mere passengers. When it comes to Indic Framework we judge/view/perceive by the individual self rather than a set of people (Christianity). Every individual self can contribute to their own karma and move forward.
What Ashtavakra says is we are all Drashta (viewers) to our lives. We carry no burden of past, present or future. Contrary to the conventional Indic Framework (Important to note Ashtavakra is also part of Indic Fold).
We are viewers to our lives, it moves things occur many of major events in our life are uncontrollable so in a deep sense we are only viewer (Darshak) and the witness (Drashta) of our life and our life events.
All that exists is mere imagination. The Self is free and eternal, knowing thus, does the wise one act like a child? [Chapter 18 – Verse 7]
Let’s look at this at a micro level. An individual can make decisions on what happens to him (generalised), yes we can say hell lot of things. Just stay with me. No individual can decide where he/she is born. Who his parents are, how their outlook towards their life is, whom may his life belong too, which religion he is born. All they have is reaction to events and some binding decision (decision which we can say were solid in hindsight only). At the end we are powerless creatures. 90% of life is random and the events that occurs are not in our control. We are mostly creatures of our individualistic experiences. Yes, you have 50 names which did great thing irrespective of situtations et. al. May open your eyes towards the concept of tails and outliers [5].
We favor the visible, the embedded, the personal, the narrated, and the tangible; we scorn the abstract. -Professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb
What Ashtavakra thinks and proposes to Janak (his obedient student and great king), we are just Drashta mere viewers of our small little lives in a specific time frame experiencing world through mostly with our Chintan [4].
“The more deeply we perceive, the more striking becomes the evidence that a uniform plan links every form in manifold nature. Be the viewer of life, let nature unfold its plan. You have come to earth to entertain and to be entertained.” -Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
Reference:
[1] Tagore, R. (1917). Personality. Macmillan.
[2] Rao, R. (2020). The Meaning of India: Essays. Penguin Random House India Private Limited.
[3] Yogananda, P. (1982). Man’s eternal quest. Self-Realization Fellowship Publishers.
[4] Tiwari, A. (2024, July 22). Passengers – Achyut Tiwari medium. Medium. https://achyuttiwari.medium.com/passengers-aaef3ff487b7
[5] Taleb, N. N. (2016). Fooled by randomness: The hidden role of chance in life and in the markets. Editeurs divers USA.
