Transcendence Through Being

    SARVATRA BHAVANA GANDHAH

THE INDIAN METAPHYSICS divides Existence into two realms. One is "this" - that which can be pointed out; and another is "That" - that which is beyond this, which cannot be pointed out. The Sanskrit word for Truth is SATYA. This Sanskrit word is very meaningful and very beautiful. It is a combination of two words: sat and tat. Sat means "this" and tat means "That", satya means "this plus That is Truth". So first we should understand what "this" is & what "That" is.

That which can be perceived, that which can be understood, that which can be comprehended, that which can be pointed out, fingered out, that which can be shown, that which can be seen - all belong to "this". That which cannot be seen but yet is, that which cannot be comprehended but yet is, that which cannot be contemplated but yet is, belongs to "That". So "this" means the known and the knowable, and "That" means the unknown and the unknowable. The known plus the unknown is the Truth: this plus That is satya.

So this division is very meaningful, significant. Without giving it any name, we simply call it "this" and "That". Whatsoever science can know is this, and whatsoever science cannot know is That. Science is concerned with this, and religion is concerned with That. That's why between science and religion there is no meeting, and there cannot be really. That meeting is in a way impossible. This cannot become That. That means all which transcends - that which is always beyond. The very beyondness is That. So they cannot have a meeting, and yet they are not separate, yet there is no gap, there is no gulf. So how to understand it?

It is like this: darkness and light never meet, yet they are not separate. Where light ends, darkness begins. There is no gap - yet they never meet, yet they never overlap. They cannot. Where light ends, darkness begins. Where light is, darkness is not. Where darkness is, light is not. They never overlap, they never meet - and yet there is no gap, there is no distance. They never meet, yet they are very near. The boundary of one is the boundary of the other also. There is really no gap at all.

The same is the phenomenon with this and That - the world, this; and the Truth, That - they never meet, they never overlap, yet there is no gap. In a way they are always meeting somewhere, because where one ends the other begins - yet there is no overlapping. Light can grow more, then the darkness will go further away, Science can know more, but whatsoever it knows becomes this. The That goes further away; it can never touch it - yet is just on the boundary. It is there just by the comer where it ends. To call it "That" means it is far away - beyond, transcending.

The 'this' is very near; That is far away. The 'this' is known by our senses, intellect, mind. We already know it. Our knowledge, our mind, has a focus. The realm upon which this focus falls is 'this'; the beyond is That. The Indian yogis have not even called it God, because once you use such words - God, Soul, Nirvana, MOKSHA - it seems as if that unknown has become known to you. The word 'That' shows that the unknown is still unknown. You feel it, but yet you cannot express it. Somewhere it penetrates you, but still you cannot say, "It has become my knowledge, my experience."

Whenever someone says, "God has become my experience," it means that he has transcended God, because that which you know has become smaller than you. Your experience can never be greater than you. Your experience is in your hand. It is something you have; it is your possession. But God can never be possessed, Truth can never be possessed - it is never in your hand. It is not something which has become a memory, it is not something you are finished with, so it is not something you can define.

You can only define a thing when you have known it totally. Then you can define and believe it. Then you can say, "This is this." But God remains indefinable. The moment never comes when you can say, "I have known." God never becomes an experience in this sense. It is an explosion. but it is not an experience. It is a knowing, but it is never knowledge. Remember the difference. A knowing is a growing thing; it goes on growing. Knowledge is a dead stop. When you say, "I know," you have stopped. Now there will be no growth, now there will be no flow, now there will be no unknown dimensions, now you will not be a riverlike living experience.

Knowing means flowing - a riverlike existence. You know, but not as knowledge; not as something finished, complete, dead in your hand. You know as an opening - a constant opening to the greater, a constant opening to the sea, a constant opening to the transcending. Knowing is a constant opening, knowledge is a closing. So those who have felt that knowledge becomes dead have not called that experience "God". They have not given any name to it. Any name means knowledge. When you can give a name to a certain experience, it means you have known it totally, completely. Now you can encircle it. Now you can give it a word. A word means a limitation. So the Indian wisdom says: He is That. "That" is not a word - it is an indication.

Ludwig Wittgenstein has said somewhere that there are certain things which cannot be said but which can be shown. You cannot say, but you can show, you can indicate. This word "That" is an indication. It is just a finger pointing to the beyond. It is not a word; it gives no negation. It doesn't show that you have known - it shows that you have felt.

Knowledge has a limitation, but feeling is unlimited. And when we say "That", we say many things more. One: it is far away. "This" means near, here. We know it: it is in our capacity to know it. "That" means far away - very far away. In one sense, That is very far away; in another sense it is nearer than the near - but it depends from where you start. We are sitting here. The nearest point is just where you are sitting: anything compared to it is away from you. But you can go and travel the whole earth and can come back to your own point - then it will be the most distant point. So it depends.

I have heard:

Mulla Nasrudin was sitting just outside his village, and someone, a stranger, was asking the way to Mulla's village and how far it was. So Mulla said, "It depends."

The stranger couldn't understand. He said, "What do you mean 'it depends'?"

The Mulla said, "If you keep on going the way you are going, if you keep on following the direction you have taken, then my village is very far away. You will have to go around the whole earth, because you have-left the village just behind. But if you can turn back, if you are ready to have an about-turn, then the village is just the nearest thing."

So it depends on where we are - on the very point where we are, on the very point of consciousness where we are just now. If we can see that point and penetrate that point, then 'this' is very far away and That is the nearest thing. But if we cannot look at the center where we are and we follow the direction of the eyes and the senses, then 'this' is near and That is the most faraway thing. It depends. But in both the ways That transcends 'this'. If you go in, if you reach to the center of your being, then again you transcend the 'this' that surrounds you, and That is achieved. Or, if you go out, then you will have to go on a very long journey, an infinite journey, and you can touch That only when 'this' ends.

That's why science is a long journey, very long. Eddington, only in his last days, and Einstein also in his last days, could feel that they had come to a very mysterious glimpse of the Universe. Eddington is reported to have said, "When I started my probe into Existence, I thought this whole Existence to be a big mechanical thing - a big mechanical existence, a big machine. But the more I penetrated it, the less it looked like a machine. And now that I have gone deeper and further away from my starting point, I can say it looks more like a thought than like a machine - more like a thought."

This glimpse is through science: science is a probe into 'this'. When you go on probing, a moment comes when the 'this' is exhausted - but it is a very long journey. Only a mind like Eddington can have this glimpse. Ordinary scientists will never be able to come to this glimpse. Only a mind like Einstein can come to this - the ending of 'this' and the glimpse of That.

Einstein has said, "The Universe now is a mystery to me, not a mathematical problem." But this conclusion through mathematics is a very long journey - a very long journey! Through mathematical calculations he has come to a point where everything drops. Your mathematics becomes just absurd; your calculations are of no use. Your reason itself in this encounter just drops; you cannot think any more. Thinking becomes impossible because thought has a field. It can work only in a particular scheme, in a particular pattern.

For example, why could Einstein come to feel mystery through mathematics? Mathematics is a logical dimension. It works through a particular logical pattern. For example, in mathematics A is A and B is B, and A can never be B. Mmm? This is a logical pattern. If A can be B and B can be A, then it will be a poetry, not mathematics. Mathematics needs clear lines, divisions - no fluidity. If A can flow and become B, then mathematics is impossible. A must be A and must remain A; B must be B and must remain B. Only then can mathematics work. Divisions must be clear-cut. There should be no mixing and no confusion.

Einstein worked with mathematics, but beyond a certain point difficulties were felt. And for these fifty[+] years, physics has felt such deep difficulties as never before. For example, [more than] fifty years ago, matter was matter, A was A; energy was energy, B was B. But during these fifty[+] years, the more physics penetrated, the divisions began to be a confusing thing - and suddenly matter disappeared completely. It was found nowhere. Rather, on the contrary, it was found that this division between energy and matter was just false. Matter is energy. Then the whole mathematics, the whole logic which depended on the division, just dropped.

What to do with this non-mathematical penetration of Existence? Now matter is no more! And remember, when matter is no more, your definitions of energy cannot remain the same, because in the old days energy meant that which is not matter. Now matter is no more, so what is energy? You might have heard the definition: "Mind is not matter, matter is not mind". But now there is no matter, so what is the definition of mind?

When matter dropped, suddenly mind dropped also. There was only energy, manifestations of the same energy, with no division. And a fluidity entered into physics. Now A is not certainly A. The deeper you go into A, you find B there. The deeper you go into matter, There is energy. And many other things, many strange things, exploded.

We know that a particle is a particle and never a wave, that a wave is a wave and never a particle. But Einstein had to face a new, strange mystery. In the deeper realms of Existence, a particle can behave like a wave sometimes - very unpredictable - and a wave can behave like a particle. It may be difficult, so it is good to understand it through geometry.

We know that a point is never a line. How can a point be a line? A line needs many points in succession. A point can never be a line! A line means many points in succession, so a single point cannot behave like a line, and a line cannot behave like a point - but they do! They do - not in geometry because geometry is manmade, but in Existence they do. Sometimes a point behaves like a line and a line behaves like a point, so what to do? Then how to define what a point is and what a line is? Then definition becomes impossible, because a point can behave like a line. And when definition becomes impossible, the two things then are not two. Rather, Einstein says, "It is better to say 'X'. Don't say 'line', don't say 'point', because they are irrelevant and meaningless. Say X exists. X sometimes behaves likes a point and sometimes behaves like a line." This X is again That. X means now you are not using a word: X means That.

If you say "point", it means "this"; if you say "line", it means "this". If you say X, the unknown has penetrated. When you use X, you are saying it is a mystery not a mathematics. So if you go deep you will come to That, but this happens only with a rare mind like Einstein. Mmm? It is a very long journey. In millennia, one or two persons can come to That through 'this', because you are going around the earth to come to your own point.

Religion says that there is no journey. There is no journey - you can find it just here & now. You can be That without going anywhere. That is here. If you miss the inside center, then you are in the 'this'. If you can transcend 'this', then you will be again in That. So That is beyond 'this' - either in or out. The beyond means the That, and not using any particular name means it is a mystery.

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