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“…do not say that you are the doer of your thoughts, words, and actions. Realize that only the Supreme Self, by whom the whole universe is created, knows what is to be done, and what is not to be done.”
Jyaneshwar’s Gita, ch.12, 117/118
Having shown in the preceding chapter, that the universe is a deterministic and even “algorithmic” extension of the Big Bang, what can be said of the fundamental nature of the original state of the Big Bang and by extension, the universe as a single entity? On the surface, it seems depressing to think that we may all be simply the extension of some cold, inanimate, nuclear process that can be contained within the lines of a mathematical code. But is this the correct picture?
Earlier, we used logical extrapolation to determine the character of reality based on the instant of the Big Bang. Similarly, let us now take the reverse approach of interpolating from the present to ascertain the nature of the Beginning. It is logical to assume that the whole cannot be less than the sum of the parts. Therefore, to whatever extent, imagined or real, living organisms (at least mankind) of today possess a personality, an awareness, the ability to love, to feel, to express emotion, to think, to create, to dream, it follows that the original entity of which the Big Bang was an extension, possessed in one form or other, these same qualities. Furthermore, these qualities, and perhaps a multitude of others, were present in an abundance and intensity equal to the sum total of all such qualities which have existed since the beginning of time in each creature which has lived and which is yet to exist until the end of time. Far from an inanimate mechanical act of Nature, we can now model the Big Bang of creation as a kind of “super animate” energy or presence, containing the sum total of all time, matter, energy, space, love, and awareness. Cold indeed !
Whether we take this supreme cosmic “awareness” to be an element of physics, a mathematical curiosity, or God himself, is left to the discretion of the reader.
Now, having maneuvered through the exercise of compressing the sum total of space and matter from the present back to the beginning of creation, and having in the process uncovered the presence of a vital living force of awareness at the core of creation, we could , for the sake of convenience and perhaps, familiarity, give this super concentrated vital energy a name. Any name would do, whether it be, Brahma, Allah, “The Holy Spirit”, or any other which may hold some emotional or scientific significance for the reader.
We can also now go a step further and reverse the process once again to play the tape forward from the moment of creation and watch this singular force divide itself into time, space and matter. And then still again into the billions of galaxies, each with its billions of stellar systems, each of which contains a fragment of its original essence. That is to say, the original essence of matter, energy, time, and also, a still higher order of vitality, awareness, and “being” than that present in other entities which resulted down the chain of evolution of the cosmos (such as human beings). Therefore, again for the sake of convenience and perhaps familiarity, we could, if we wished, give each of these sub-entities, these quantum forces, these galaxies, and stellar systems which emerged from the source of the Big Bang, individual names also. They could be considered, each it their own way, sons and daughters of the original primal force. And as each of these forces, galaxies, multiple dimensions of space & time, stellar systems, collided, annihilated each other, mixed, joined with each other, merged into each other, collapsed, spawned new galaxies, stars, planets, moons, and other forms of energy, matter, and quantum forces, which eventually evolved into the lives and universes we see in the present. We could again also give names, for the sake of convenience and perhaps familiarity, to each of these, the aunts, nephews, grandsons, granddaughters, of the original force of creation. For each is at the least, no less animate, vital and aware, than our very selves and at best, billions of times greater in terms of its component of vitality and awareness, as we have demonstrated in this mental journey backward and forward through time and space between the present and the origin.
And so, perhaps , as has been told by ancient cultures the world over, the universe is in a sense, (or perhaps in reality), actually “alive” ; Mother Earth, the moon, the stars, the unseen dynamic forces which both caused, and which continue to shape the cosmos. And perhaps as such, we do owe a great deal of respect to these entities, as they may be both, our ultimate ancestors and our future guardians.
Furthermore, it is this timeless, dimensionless, primordial singularity which preceded the Big Bang which is by extension, the root of our awareness. This is our natural and “native” state of existence. This is our eternal, Greater Self within.