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THE THEORY OF RELATIVE EXISTENCE:
Humans take many of nature’s marvels for granted. We believe everything we see and hear only to realize later that nature has its own mysterious, deceptive ways. It is not an uncommon experience to wake up from a deep-sleep in a perplexed state, wondering who/where we are. Sleep and dreams are one of the greatest mysteries of nature, offering valuable clues into the enigma of creation. Isn’t it amazing that we are blissfully unaware of our surroundings and thus virtually cease to exist, during sleep?
Imagine being on an island all alone. Is it possible to sleep peacefully at night without doubting mother nature, to fool us when we wake up. Fears of not waking up, or waking up at a completely different place/surroundings would surely creep up in one’s mind. Indeed, ‘Hypnophobia’ is the ‘fear of sleeping ‘that some individuals have and is not unreasonable. It is the fear of loosing one’s identity. Sleep is akin to a near-death experience where the ‘I’ no longer exists.
Does the world really exist when we are asleep?........when the ‘I’ no longer perceives it. How can one prove or disprove this? We blindly believe that everything must be existent because of the CIRCUMSTANTIAL evidence (because the continuity of events maintains after one wakes up). However, there one cannot be certain of this fact. The existence of an object/person is only relative to our existence and we perceiving it/him. The ‘perceived’ cannot exist without the ‘perceiver’ and vice versa. A ‘subject’ cannot exist without the ‘Object’. Infinite noises surround us in our day-to-day life. Most noises sink into oblivion unless one is ‘listening’. One can never be sure about the existence of a particular noise unless he/she was listening to it, in spite of being in the vicinity all the while. Similarly, once the senses are shut (whilst asleep), everything around us disappears and virtually ceases to exist. Conversely, our existence is also relative to the objects surrounding us. Without the world around there would not be any-one/thing to recognize our presence.
This statement that- everything exists or does not exist depending on ones wish/will to perceive it, may sound egoistic and preposterous. It indirectly states that ‘we’ are the creators of the universe. However, this is not far from the truth.
‘‘I’ am the creator’
It is the ‘I’, which recognizes and acknowledges the world around. It is the ‘I’, which has emotions and thoughts. It is the ‘I’, that sleeps, dreams and wakes up. The ‘I’ we are talking about here is the ‘ego’. Without the ego, man does not exist. Ego makes man survive. It is this ego we strive to satiate, whatever we do. However, the ego (and hence man) is selfish and there are no two sides to it. We love someone because it makes us happy. Happy that someone is there to love us back. Happy that someone is there to praise or complement our deeds. A person who loves for the sake of someone else’s happiness, would be a rare find indeed. Therefore, even the supposed ‘true-love’ is selfish.
Why do we give money to a beggar? That is because his sorrow made US unhappy and giving him money in turn made US happy. Similarly, why does one cry on the demise of a dear one? It is not because we feel sorry that our loved one is not able to enjoy this life anymore. It is because previously he/she used to give US happiness by caring for US or buying US gifts. Outrageous as this may seem: - even a person crying, is doing that because it is making him/her happy! (Remember how relieved one feels after crying his/her heart out). Man does everything, only and only to satisfy his ego.
The Theory of ‘ONE’ Existence
Let us switch-off our senses for a moment. Stimuli of light, sound, touch, pressure etc, would no longer be perceivable. Everything around would fade away from existence. Even our own body would vanish, as the ’senses’ that perceive it no longer exist. Similarly even the thought process in our brain would cease, since thoughts are provoked by stimuli. What would remain then is the ‘I’ alone, suspended in an unending space!
Now, do we exist?
Where? (One cannot perceive even his/her own body).
How can such an existence where neither subject (the world) nor object (we) exist, be proved?
The hypothetical situation imagined here is not too far fetched. What we are imagining, is a person who is in-effect deaf, mute, blind etc, deprived of all his senses. Such a state of no-existence (of the self) can be equated to a state of all existence i.e. the soul, being no longer bound by the body, but by the infinite boundaries of the universe would exist everywhere!
‘If the ‘I’ alone remains after shutting down all the senses, it has to be the ‘truth’’, ‘It has to be the ‘one’’.
Is this what happens after death?
What is ‘I’?
Spiritualism always stated that the world is non-existent/ unreal. Having come this far, the statement is not difficult to comprehend.
By extrapolation of this statement, it would also mean that our physical body, which is a part of this ‘world’, is also non-existent. ‘What exists eternally is the soul, the real ‘I’. It alone remains perpetually even after the senses switch off. The body changes relative to the world around. But the soul is immortal, omnipresent.
Let us analyze this statement and see if it makes any sense. In colloquial terms, we use the word ‘I’ to describe an individual, ourselves. By that, we mean our body, emotions, intellect and the life-bearing soul beneath.
Absurd as this may sound- why do we believe that this body is ours? It is because our body obeys our commands only (not someone else’s), gives us stimuli from the outside world and follows us wherever we go. However, what about a person paralyzed in all four limbs and with no sensations. His body has none of the above attributes. Then, how can he say that it is HIS body. In fact the body outside is now rather like a chain binding him and dragging him down to one place. But, is HE really affected at all. No! He is just unable to perform certain functions other people do. If one gives him a mechanical limb, that perfectly simulates the human body, he is a normal person again. Thus this body is nothing but a gadget for the ‘I’ to play with and express itself. It is a trivial instrument only capable of perceiving limited sensations and obeying limited commands. Command it to fly - it will not!
Therefore, ‘I’ is not the body.
It is well known that emotions and thought processes can be severely blunted in diseases affecting the brain i.e. stoke etc. However, that does not mean that the person does not exist. We often comment in such circumstances, ‘he is a different man’. Is he really a different man inside? It is the same soul; the ‘I’ that was there all his life.
Therefore, neither emotions nor intellect can form part of the ‘I’.
It is a common experience to see a child genuinely injured while playing, stop crying when offered a chocolate (i.e. when distracted). We often wonder how that is possible in spite of the obvious injury. Here is a possible explanation. The child on sustaining injury is worried that something is/would happen to his body (i.e. he is identifying himself with his body) and starts crying in the first instance. Of course, pain does play a major part. However, as soon as he is distracted (by the chocolate), he sub-consciously blocks the pain impulse. This is similar to the noise analogy discussed earlier. Nevertheless, in-effect the child ignored his body and stopped identifying himself (his ‘I’) with the body; which is the reason he no longer felt the pain nor cried. As one grows older, we realize that small bruises are really harmless. We therefore, ignore such pain stimuli. Adults generally cry only in the face of life-threatening injuries.
However, it is only WISE MEN who realize that even larger blows to the physical body do not take away even an ounce of their life and are hence are unaffected by the sorrows of life.
If the body were real i.e. the real ‘I’, why would the pain disappear? The real ‘I’ (the soul) is unaffected by the doings to/of the body. There was once a great sage in ancient India called ‘Ramanamaharshi’, who underwent brain surgery without anesthesia. After all, once we know that the body is an instrument, it is not difficult to switch it on and off at whim.
This is what the saying- "Free yourself from the Bondage of this body", probably implies. One experiences pain or suffers only as long as one identifies himself with this body. Once one realizes that ‘he’ are not this body, nothing in this world is going to affect him. Not even death! Because the soul (‘I’) can never die. It is imperishable unlike the body. One should in fact be happy to die because it is just like wearing a new set of clothes. People feel so happy to wear a new dress, but to wear a new body...? It's just that no one realizes that dying is akin to a process of changing clothes.
‘’WHEN THE EXISTENCE OF ONE ENTITY IS BUT RELATIVE TO THE EXISTENCE OF THE OTHER THEY DONOT ACTUALLY EXIST!’’:-
The Theory of No-Existence
The statement ‘‘I’ alone exists’ is amusing. In the hypothetical circumstance discussed earlier where all the senses are switched off, the ‘I’ can only be described to ‘exist’. One cannot use any dimensions to describe this existence. However, ‘existence’ makes sense, only when contrasted to a ‘non-existent’ state. If something exists everywhere and every time, how can that be called ‘existence’. What does ‘life’ mean without ‘death’?
Therefore, the question begs- ‘‘does anything exist at all’’?
The truth in the above statements is better understood when one realizes how incomplete and deceitful our physical senses are and how contradictory are their interpretations of the world around.