Understanding Infinity [Part-2]

“I'm only a four-dimensional creature. Haven't got a clue how to visualize infinity. Even Einstein hadn't. I know because I asked him.”

--Patrick Moore.

The last post on infinity was about getting to know at least on the surface what infinity is and what it means to different people at different levels. This one discusses the grand vision of our very own Indian philosophers. The Sanskrit verse purnamadah..purnamidam tells us exactly this:

That is whole, this is whole

From the whole, the whole arises

When the whole is taken from the whole

The whole still will remain.

As stated in the last post, if one observes in-depth, the motion from point a to b [Zeno' s paradox] or the large sets of aleph numbers, the concept of infinity stands out as an incomprehensible entity which cannot be touched by the senses, visualized through the mind's eye or understood by the intellect. It can only be defined as: It is or it exists. This is what Vedanta has been trying to say. This as we know is referred as God by some, the primal force by some and infinity by the others. The vedantins however, argue that all this is the self alone and nothing else. They say that this which defies understanding can be understood. However, they also add that neither through intelligence nor senses can this be understood but by direct experience alone.

Let us try and define what direct experience means. It is that knowledge which comes from within i.e it is not conditioned. This knowledge is not got by reading books, nor by listening to others but is got only through by going through it. Perhaps the reader may be confused, but the English language has yet to come up with a word that encompasses in whole what direct experience means. The word which could be used is intuitive knowledge. Once a person undergoes this direct experience the knowledge which comes out of it becomes irrefutable. Try asking a mathematician about the beauty of numbers. Then tell him that it is nonsense and numbers are mere symbols with no quality about them. The poor mathematician is bewildered because he doesn't understand why others cannot see the beauty that he does. He will tell you that numbers give him infinite joy. Similarly, an artist will talk about his art, an architect about his building and so on...

Our philosophers say that this happiness, the ineffable joy has but one source: the infinite. They call it self and thus the term Aham brahmasmi. They say that the joy which one gets when one plunges into the source of things is just the surface of what really exists beyond. Taking the mathematician's joy which though is wonderful, but is sadly limited in time. Once the numbers are taken away, he goes through the same dull process of life we all do with all its ups and downs. But the concept of infinity goes beyond the constraints of time and space. Our sages say that once the source of all sources is realised, the microcosm and macrocosm appear as one. This is what we refer to as 'self-realisation' or nirvana.

Often people have asked why self realised men seem so blissful and in joy always. Because they in one sense experience a mathematician's joy, but this one being boundless, infinite. That is why they have answers to all questions. Once someone understands the source of all sources, nothing is new or old, all are but ripples in the realm of the infinite. So , infinity stands out there as a challenge to all mankind urging us to understand it, to feel it to become it. But how many will be successful in this endeavour is again a paradox in itself...

With infinite love,
Adios.