If it’s true, and lets for a moment everyone together acknowledge that the whole of the universe, everything and anything composed within, is made of vibrations. To envisage that the whole universe is a musical sound, then one must first pass through the possibility that this ‘sound’ must have all started in nothing but absolute ‘silence.’
The next time you come across – “shut up and listen,” do take it literally.
Because, if we for a moment do accept that everything is made of sound vibrations, then the only way one can really see it (or hear it) would be in tranquility.
Did you know that the universe is actually, somewhat fashioned in synchronization of musical notations? Every star, planets, solar systems, galaxies, local groups, nebulas, and the whole cosmos; could it be a wild possibility that everything there is, is nothing but an explosion of some grand musical symphony? And we, as living beings, are nothing more or nothing less than little fragments of reverberation? But of course, this is just one of the many theories. Because in my recent ‘silence,’ I have contemplated-over-my-contemplations to envision some thoughts about the universe, which I am glad to share with the world today.
Engaged is our day-to-day schedule, living life like clock-workers, we almost ridicule the idea that one can also sit quietly, looking up into the starry skies of the night, and wonder what existence really is? Because we all worry that somewhere, a person who you know, who really has no clarity on his/her own life’s meaning, would think you are nuts for doing so.
.
No, this is not an editing mistake… It was a sincere intention of mine to leave a void above, as to represent a small, very small, miniature slice of the universe itself. But even in this miniature version of my own little slice of the universe, I dare you to search and find that one ‘pixel’, a dot that which I have placed in the middle. Compared to the vastness of the actual universe, even that tiny ‘one pixel’ on your computer screen would merely be one gigantic galaxy filled with billions of stars as big and bigger than our own Sun; surrounded by a countless number of planets, moons, asteroids, etc.
Now think where we stand, as human beings? We are so irrelevant, that we don’t even appear in that ‘one pixel,’ nor can we be shown on this computer screen you are gaping at. Not to mention our planet Earth, or even the Sun cannot appear within that pixel until we zoom in many times more.
Now that makes us feel puny and ‘nothing’ in this macro-universe, isn’t it? Just like an invisible bacteria stuck to your computer screen? That we are simply extraneous in this grand musical symphonic design is the feeling we feel, being played loud and persistently in a vast, edge-less, dark space. It reminds us of all those little memes we find and read on the internet; animated videos showing how minuscule the Earth is compared to other gigantic stars in the galaxy. But frankly, that knowledge is only half-spoken. Because while what it gives us is an excuse to be careless and irresponsible, thinking – “we are ‘nothing’ in the universe, so we will remain ignorant and stupid,” it also gives us a great sense of responsibility the moment we realize how ‘big’ we are when we see ourselves in the reverse direction; in the scale of the micro-universe.
It’s then we realize – In between ‘nothing’ and ‘everything,’ we are actually ‘something’ in the universe. We are actually the center-of-the-universe.
Now after all those words about ‘pixel’, there is another outlandish theory that begs to occupy my mind as to simply wonder the possibility of the whole universe being one giant projection of what we consider reality. Imagine everything there is; everything we see, hear and touch in the universe; even what we smell, taste and feel, being nothing but a projection display? Like a big, very big, movie projector or a plasma TV. I can also push my imagination auxiliary to contemplate if ‘Black Holes’ are nothing but super giant projectors? While we fear Black Holes for their habit of gobbling everything that nears it, including light, can in actuality be that they are only recycling and emitting the existence of everything in the universe? Like a huge multi-dimensional lens? It would give one a whole new perspective of these giant monsters lurking in the universe as not just a power of destruction, but also a necessary power of creation.
But if your mind can contemplate this wondrous thought, the next big thing you would reflect upon is –What would happen to the movie of ‘life’ when this projector, this big TV, is switched off?
We all have heard similar hypotheses about the ‘fish in the fishbowl’ theory. A theory that says that what the fish inside a transparent fishbowl sees is not at all in alignment with the worldly reality we perceive outside the fishbowl. In fact, the very actuality that the image the fish glimpse through the chunky glass is gauzy and misshaped badly, gives us another perception of our own reality as to how accurate our visual of the universe is? All that there is, everything we see, could it be a possibility that we too are actually staring through our own fishbowl, while we contemplate the wonders of the universe? And if we are, then what is the ‘real’ face of the universe? And also ‘who’ is there outside this fishbowl?
One of the most daunting and bamboozling questions about the universe any physicist in the world would ponder about is – What really is nothing?
The thing that everything is made of ‘matter’ leads us to the question as to ‘in respect to what’ is this matter doing what it is doing? In other words, what is space; this black substance we see between planets, stars, galaxies; this ‘nothing’ where all the ‘everything’ is happening? Some say we are not really conscious of this dark matter, which is so vast that it is everywhere, even in the very room you are currently sitting.
But what I think about this theory is quite fundamentally similar to what a fish or any living organism embedded in the deepest chasm of the darkest ocean in the world would think. I mean, will a tiny organism living kilometers below the ocean surface ever be conscious of the salt-water surrounding it? Will it ever wonder what this water is, ‘in respect to which’ the fishes swim and survive? And will this tiny organism ever understand the complex world above water; this famous world where humans live, with cities teeming with skyscrapers? And of course, the question of this tiny organism further ever understanding space and the universe is completely out of the question too.
It’s almost like a recurring loop of reality, where one day astronauts finally find a way to travel to the farthest corner of the universe, punch through a barrier, emerge out of this cosmic shell and suddenly realize that they now stand in the very seabed, where the tiny organism initially started.
Now, this is my personal favorite… Imagine ‘time’ is just an illusion; a constant and exceptionally created sequence of many numbers of ‘now’. It’s like holding and surfing through a bunch of Polaroids in your hands, where each Polaroid represents a ‘now’ reality. You keep viewing one ‘now’ after another, placing the ones you have already looked at aside, and still holding the bunch you are yet to see in your hands.
Imagine this process as an absolute infinite. Like no matter how many minutes, hours, months, years or even lives you spend viewing these ‘now’ Polaroids one after another, more and more keeps coming, while the ones already have seen are also stacking up.
Now, this is unerringly what time in the universe can actually look like. At any given time when you are looking at a particular ‘now’ Polaroid, which would certainly seem like it is the present; the ones already seen would seem like the past, and the ones yet to be seen as the future. But one must by now understand and also accept that while you can only look at one ‘now’ Polaroid at a time, the bunch in your hands and also the ones you have kept aside still exist too. As in to say that past, present and future is not something that happens at different times, but it simply exists mutually and collectively all the time. It’s just that we choose that ‘now’ moment as our reality. To make this theory more interesting, just imagine what would happen when one of your friends pick up that Polaroid bunch you have already surfed through, and he/she starts to view his/her own ‘now?’ That is when the crazy idea of time-travel kicks in.
This also suggests the multiplicity of options the universe hold in choosing any ‘now’ as the best ‘now’ at any given present moment. In simple words, imagine everyone, every living organism in this whole universe having a different ‘now’ realities, which they are capable of creating. Now, imagine every one of us actually creating this universe at each moment, but the universe being the final decider chooses the best ‘now’ and confer that as the reality. This is hard to visualize or even understand, but it’s like the universe being an evaluator, creating the universal-reality one ‘now’ at a time, by choosing the best ‘now’ that which any great mind can generate.
So the next time you feel like all your thoughts and wishes are coming true, there could be an open probability that the universe has just chosen ‘your’ now.
The next time you come across – “shut up and listen,” do take it literally.
Because, if we for a moment do accept that everything is made of sound vibrations, then the only way one can really see it (or hear it) would be in tranquility.
 |
| The vibrations we emit, receive and also pass through our bodies. |
Engaged is our day-to-day schedule, living life like clock-workers, we almost ridicule the idea that one can also sit quietly, looking up into the starry skies of the night, and wonder what existence really is? Because we all worry that somewhere, a person who you know, who really has no clarity on his/her own life’s meaning, would think you are nuts for doing so.
.
Theory number 1
Now think where we stand, as human beings? We are so irrelevant, that we don’t even appear in that ‘one pixel,’ nor can we be shown on this computer screen you are gaping at. Not to mention our planet Earth, or even the Sun cannot appear within that pixel until we zoom in many times more.
Now that makes us feel puny and ‘nothing’ in this macro-universe, isn’t it? Just like an invisible bacteria stuck to your computer screen? That we are simply extraneous in this grand musical symphonic design is the feeling we feel, being played loud and persistently in a vast, edge-less, dark space. It reminds us of all those little memes we find and read on the internet; animated videos showing how minuscule the Earth is compared to other gigantic stars in the galaxy. But frankly, that knowledge is only half-spoken. Because while what it gives us is an excuse to be careless and irresponsible, thinking – “we are ‘nothing’ in the universe, so we will remain ignorant and stupid,” it also gives us a great sense of responsibility the moment we realize how ‘big’ we are when we see ourselves in the reverse direction; in the scale of the micro-universe.
It’s then we realize – In between ‘nothing’ and ‘everything,’ we are actually ‘something’ in the universe. We are actually the center-of-the-universe.
*Click the link below to view an amazing presentation made by the H twins, Cary Huang and Michael Huang. Notice how the scroll bar to zoom in and out between the micro-universe and the macro-universe stands roughly at the 'center'; where we humans are.
Theory number 2
But if your mind can contemplate this wondrous thought, the next big thing you would reflect upon is –What would happen to the movie of ‘life’ when this projector, this big TV, is switched off?
Theory number 3
One of the most daunting and bamboozling questions about the universe any physicist in the world would ponder about is – What really is nothing?
The thing that everything is made of ‘matter’ leads us to the question as to ‘in respect to what’ is this matter doing what it is doing? In other words, what is space; this black substance we see between planets, stars, galaxies; this ‘nothing’ where all the ‘everything’ is happening? Some say we are not really conscious of this dark matter, which is so vast that it is everywhere, even in the very room you are currently sitting.
But what I think about this theory is quite fundamentally similar to what a fish or any living organism embedded in the deepest chasm of the darkest ocean in the world would think. I mean, will a tiny organism living kilometers below the ocean surface ever be conscious of the salt-water surrounding it? Will it ever wonder what this water is, ‘in respect to which’ the fishes swim and survive? And will this tiny organism ever understand the complex world above water; this famous world where humans live, with cities teeming with skyscrapers? And of course, the question of this tiny organism further ever understanding space and the universe is completely out of the question too.
 |
| A tiny fish-space I photographed, during my visit to an Underwater World. |
It’s almost like a recurring loop of reality, where one day astronauts finally find a way to travel to the farthest corner of the universe, punch through a barrier, emerge out of this cosmic shell and suddenly realize that they now stand in the very seabed, where the tiny organism initially started.
Theory number 4
Imagine this process as an absolute infinite. Like no matter how many minutes, hours, months, years or even lives you spend viewing these ‘now’ Polaroids one after another, more and more keeps coming, while the ones already have seen are also stacking up.
Now, this is unerringly what time in the universe can actually look like. At any given time when you are looking at a particular ‘now’ Polaroid, which would certainly seem like it is the present; the ones already seen would seem like the past, and the ones yet to be seen as the future. But one must by now understand and also accept that while you can only look at one ‘now’ Polaroid at a time, the bunch in your hands and also the ones you have kept aside still exist too. As in to say that past, present and future is not something that happens at different times, but it simply exists mutually and collectively all the time. It’s just that we choose that ‘now’ moment as our reality. To make this theory more interesting, just imagine what would happen when one of your friends pick up that Polaroid bunch you have already surfed through, and he/she starts to view his/her own ‘now?’ That is when the crazy idea of time-travel kicks in.
This also suggests the multiplicity of options the universe hold in choosing any ‘now’ as the best ‘now’ at any given present moment. In simple words, imagine everyone, every living organism in this whole universe having a different ‘now’ realities, which they are capable of creating. Now, imagine every one of us actually creating this universe at each moment, but the universe being the final decider chooses the best ‘now’ and confer that as the reality. This is hard to visualize or even understand, but it’s like the universe being an evaluator, creating the universal-reality one ‘now’ at a time, by choosing the best ‘now’ that which any great mind can generate.
So the next time you feel like all your thoughts and wishes are coming true, there could be an open probability that the universe has just chosen ‘your’ now.
Who you really are. - Alan Watts
Lastly, with all the ignorant tumult erupting everywhere about Intellectuals and their rights, I am obligated to add below a piece of writing, which I had written in the year 2014 for a booklet in affiliation with the IAF (International Authors Forum), which was later to be presented at the annual meeting of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), a wing of the United Nations, held in Geneva, Switzerland.
The following is my input –
Name – Girish Rathna
Work – Author of an internationally published book “2012 Is Light Years Away” in Houston, USA; also known as one of the young-Indian-writers to have established in the global market.
Country – India
Photograph –
Intellectual property in one line is defined as – Any creation of human intellect. Ideas, inventions, knowledge, research, innovation, creativity, art and other such product of human-mind are in par to any property, whether movable or immovable. And like the significance and the need to protect a property from theft and infringement, Intellectual Property too should be protected and promoted by ‘Intellectual Property Rights’ for the benefit and welfare of its authors.
As an author hailing form a diverse country such as India, where infringements are so common that books, DVDs and other copyright products, illegally published and sold are a common sight to me like anyone on the streets of India more than the elephants or the Bollywood posters.
With the effect of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, this act has been amended five to six times since, maintaining its standard as a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since 1995.
With libraries, archives and educational institutions already reaping great benefits in India from previous treaties, one must look deeply into the newly proposed treaty which could harm authors and publishers to a great degree. With most educational institutions and universities demanding huge ransom-fees and admission-bribes from students themselves, without following the guidelines, one must imagine how the new treaty could give an excuse to these institutions to further burden both the students as well as the authors.
The situation could get worse with illegal printing/distribution and also cross-border transfers claiming an obvious excuse. Also in the digital age, the internet could further be used as a formidable weapon to destroy the value of authors in India, or anywhere in the world for that matter.
This may further lead to unmotivated authors who would otherwise invest time, money and efforts in creating valuable Intellectual Property works, whether in literary, dramatic, musical, visual artistic or cinematograph films. This, in turn, would swear to reduce the overall Intellectual Property production, which to my best knowledge will do very little good to the education of India and the world.
- Girish Rathna
P.S. After intense research and slogging for almost 3 years, the manuscript for my next book is finally complete… With my hard work finally showing in the form of words, paragraphs, and pages, I now step into the next phase of ‘book publishing.’ Wish me good luck… :)
Also, wishing every one of my readers a happy, colorful and enlightening Diwali.
