Two Brahmas: Zero and Infinite

Guruji:

1. Dve brahma veditavye. Śūnyaṃ ca aśūnyaṃ ca.

Two types of Brahman are to be known: Zero and non-zero.

How did this phenomenal world of such great variety come into existence from nothing? That is the question we will ponder here.

Some say, there was Nāda, the primordial sound, from which everything has come into being. Nāda means a vibration. For vibration to exist, there must be something that is vibrating, and some space in which to vibrate. When nothing — Śūnya — was there, what vibrates in what space? Obviously, Nāda cannot be primordial. Bible says, “First there was the Word, and the Word was God.” I can’t make sense out of this.

How can anything come out of nothing? That is the fundamental question. Only nothing can come out of nothing. Here then is the clue: we ought to investigate the properties of nothing.

Zero, zero, zero. Can zero produce anything other than itself? How about, say, a pair? Well, it may be feasible. Hmm, let us see.

0 = 1 − 1
0 = 2 − 2
0 = 3 − 3
0 = 1.5 − 1.5

Looks like zero is very fertile in producing pairs. How about π − π? Why not? How about,

0 = x − x
0 = y − y
0 = z − z
0 = t − t

It looks like we can create “xyz” space and “t” time out of zero.

We have hit on the very clue to create a space-time interval, in which something can move — a vibration. Methinks, creation of space-time interval precedes the “word, the Nāda.” Physics tells us that space and time chasing each other creates matter, which is a vortex of space-time.

This pair — the subject and object, jñātṛ and jñāna, or mātṛ and meya — have to have an interval. So much space between what I see and me; so much time between the two of us. Together they constitute the triad, the tripuṭi, the tripurā: subject–object–interval. So, from zero the triad can come. Not two, but three. The object is the reflection of the subject in zero. It appears, zero is like the pinhole in the pinhole camera.

We have here the concept of the center, the source of all, the mother of cosmos, the yoni from which everything springs, the central triangle of Śrī Cakra. In its center is the bindu, the zero — a very fertile zero — the liṅga.

Śūnya, Aśūnya. What about that?

“A” means negation. Negating zero means something exists which is not zero.

After producing any large number of pairs equal and opposite, is the zero exhausted? No. It can produce more. You give me any number, however large. I will produce more pairs than that from the zero. This is exactly the concept of infinity — Aśūnya.

Both infinity and zero seem to have the same type of properties. They are both inexhaustible. One is smaller than the smallest; the other is larger than the largest.

You subtract infinity of all even numbers from all integers — infinity of all odd numbers remains. So infinity minus infinity is infinity. What about zero minus zero? Zero minus zero is zero.

Let us ask a few more questions. Is the central triangle of the Śrī Cakra equilateral? Is it completely symmetric?

The answer is no. Why?

I see myself in the mirror of my mind. I think I know what is happening in the mind of the mirror image. But wait a minute — there is a distance in time between me and my reflection. I can almost know, but not quite. What I can know depends on the time it takes for light to go to the mirror image and come back. So I can know what existed, but not what is currently going on.

It looks like my image is jaḍa, while I am caitanya. The interval is also creating the knowing and not-knowing. So there is an asymmetry preventing equilateral.

Now, pray who is going to decide whether I am real or my image is real? No one can, really. Any examples?

Well, if I stand on the sun, earth is going round me. On the contrary, if I am standing on the earth, the sun is going round me.

It looks like I am always the unchanging part — consciousness — and my image is always moving, changing consciousness. The “I” in me am always the unchanging awareness. Whatever I see or know is transient, limited in time, space, or matter.

Buddha called Brahman the Śūnya.
Hindus call it the Pūrṇa.

We are both talking of the same thing: the zero and infinite aspect of it. These are the two Brahmans that the sūtra talks about.