Individual:
One’s first reference to a “person” is oneself. That is where the world starts being real. An agnostic asks himself/herself, “Let me start from scratch. Do I exist? Wait a second, if I don’t, then how do I know that the world exists? Is there anything at all which is concrete, indestructible, unconditionally actual, real?” The answer is not known and life becomes compelled to pretend, a compromise, a flow of energy for an ephemeral set of targets wrapped up with repetitive set of emotional movements and a flying cloud of thoughts which becomes non-existent when analyzed with sharp reasoning. Therefore if one’s mind imposes rationality sincerely then, life as it is, becomes meaningless and therefore repulsive. But can someone really give up the hope for finding the answer which will make things meaningful? What is this hope? Who is hoping? Is that the “person”? Is that the “true person”?
Universal:
Physicists have concluded that to get the accurate measurements at the cosmic level, space and time cannot be separated from each other. So they came up with a single entity called space-time. As far as our ordinary perceptions go, this space-time coordinate, time dilation, length contraction etc. seem counter-intuitive. Einstein says that it is due to our erroneous perceptions which can be corrected by relativistic calculation. This erroneous perception lies in the fact that one thinks of oneself as stationary (still) without really perceiving the cosmic or global station outside of oneself, relative to which none of us is stationary. Our objective mind may somewhat digest this relativistic calculation, however is left with a feeling of abstruseness because it is like a backward calculation, not directly experienceable. Obviously Einstein’s mind is not an ordinary mind and could see this gap and could see a universal equation that can correct it, though later was discovered to have gaps still uncorrected. As a logical consequence we wonder if that global station is experienceable from within, of which Einstein was probably seeing flashes (though not fully seen or understood, hence the remaining errors) that we call cosmic intuition, a thought of the cosmic mind. But does this flash satisfy his quest for reality: as he says, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one”? Most interesting of all is that we all experience the universe (in a sort of obscure way) as “one body” which has things in it, connected to each other. From dynamic point of view this “one body” seems to be a stage and an act of a drama with two players, “real” and “unreal” and someone (the author?) is waiting to see who wins, “reality” or “unreality”. Is this the “true universal person” whose measuring stick is marked by space-time?
Here are some extracts from The Life Divine written by Sri Aurobindo which is interesting to read in this context.
“Time and Space, according to the metaphysician, have only a conceptual and not a real existence; but since all things and not these only are forms assumed by Conscious-Being in its own consciousness, the distinction is of no great importance. Time and Space are that one Conscious-Being viewing itself in extension, subjectively as Time, objectively as Space…”
“…In actual fact Mind measures Time by event and Space by Matter; but it is possible in pure mentality to disregard the movement of event and the disposition of substance and realise the pure movement of Conscious-Force which constitutes Space and Time; these two are then merely two aspects of the universal force of Consciousness which in their intertwined interaction comprehend the warp and woof of its action upon itself. And to a consciousness higher than Mind which should regard our past, present and future in one view, containing and not contained in them, not situated at a particular moment of Time for its point of prospection, Time might well offer itself as an eternal present. And to the same consciousness not situated at any particular point of Space, but containing all points and regions in itself, Space also might well offer itself as a subjective and indivisible extension,-no less subjective than Time. At certain moments we become aware of such an indivisible regard upholding by its immutable self-conscious unity the variations of the universe. But we must not now ask how the contents of Time and Space would present themselves there in their transcendent truth; for this our mind cannot conceive,-and it is even ready to deny to this Indivisible any possibility of knowing the world in any other way than that of our mind and senses.”
Supramental:
Sri Aurobindo continues, “What we have to realise and can to a certain extent conceive is the one view and all-comprehending regard by which the Supermind embraces and unifies the successions of Time and the divisions of Space. And first, if there were not this factor of the successions of Time, there would be no change or progression; a perfect harmony would be perpetually manifest, coeval with other harmonies in a sort of eternal moment, not successive to them in the movement from past to future. We have instead the constant succession of a developing harmony in which one strain rises out of another that preceded it and conceals in itself that which it has replaced. Or, if the self-manifestation were to exist without the factor of divisible Space, there would be no mutable relation of forms or intershock of forces; all would exist and not be worked out,-a spaceless self-consciousness purely subjective would contain all things in an infinite subjective grasp as in the mind of a cosmic poet or dreamer, but would not distribute itself through all in an indefinite objective self-extension. Or again, if Time alone were real, its successions would be a pure development in which one strain would rise out of another in a subjective free spontaneity as in a series of musical sounds or a succession of poetical images. We have instead a harmony worked out by Time in terms of forms and forces that stand related to one another in an all-containing spatial extension; an incessant succession of powers and figures of things and happenings is our vision of existence.
Different potentialities are embodied, placed, related in this field of Time and Space, each with its powers and possibilities fronting other powers and possibilities, and as a result the successions of Time become in their appearance to the mind a working out of things by shock and struggle and not a spontaneous succession. In reality, there is a spontaneous working out of things from within and the external shock and struggle are only the superficial aspect of this elaboration. For the inner and inherent law of the one and whole, which is necessarily a harmony, governs the outer and processive laws of the parts or forms which appear to be in collision; and to the supramental vision this greater and profounder truth of harmony is always present. That which is an apparent discord to the mind because it considers each thing separately in itself, is an element of the general ever-present and ever-developing harmony to the Supermind because it views all things in a multiple unity.”
To conclude, we all have faith (whether we are aware of it or not) that there exists a single integrated reality that includes all, pervades all and connects all, even though it starts from our little self with our limited understanding. One may wonder if this faith/knowledge is the Existence, its primordial aloneness is the Truth, its self-evident irreducibility is the Bliss, its infinitude/ inexhaustibility is the Power and everything matters because it is Conscious.