A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga: The Yoga of WisdomAtkinson, William Walker
Religion
A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga: The Yoga of Wisdom
Atkinson, William Walker
Yoga, Jñana
Size, of course, is but another form of speaking of Distance. And in
this connection let us not forget that just as one may think of Space
being infinite in the direction of largeness, so may we think of it as
being infinite in the sense of smallness. No matter how small may be an
object thought of, we are still able to think of it as being capable of
subdivision, and so on infinitely. There is no limit in this direction
either. As Jakob has said: "The conception of the infinitely minute is
as little capable of being grasped by us, as is that of the infinitely
great. Despite this, the admission of the reality of the infinitude,
both in the direction of greatness and of minuteness, is inevitable."
And, as Radenhausen has said: "The idea of Space is only an unavoidable
illusion of our Consciousness, or of our finite nature, and does not
exist outside of ourselves; the universe is infinitely small and
infinitely great."
The telescope has opened to us ideas of magnificent vastness and
greatness, and the perfected microscope has opened to us a world of
magnificent smallness and minuteness. The latter has shown us that a
drop of water is a world of minute living forms who live, eat, fight,
reproduce, and die. The mind is capable of imagining a universe
occupying no more space than one million-millionth of the tiniest speck
visible under the strongest microscope--and then imagining such a
universe containing millions of suns and worlds similar to our own, and
inhabited by living forms akin to ours--living, thinking men and women,
identical in every respect to ourselves. Indeed, as some philosophers
have said, if our Universe were suddenly reduced to such a size--the
relative proportions of everything being preserved, of course--then we
would not be conscious of any change, and life would go on the same,
and we would be of the same importance to ourselves and to the Absolute
as we are this moment. And the same would be true were the Universe
suddenly enlarged a million-million times. These changes would make no
difference in reality. Compared with each other, the tiniest speck and
the largest sun are practically the same size when viewed from the
Absolute.
We have dwelt upon these things so that you would be able to better
realize the relativity of Space and Time, and perceive that they are
merely symbols of Things used by the mind in dealing with finite
objects, and have no place in reality. When this is realized, then the
idea of Infinity in Time and Space is more readily grasped.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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