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Being and nothingness

Last Updated 28 December 2010, 15:38 IST

The biggest thing out there is emptiness. It is in the lap of this nothingness that everything else has happened.

Now, you have always been told, God is everywhere. Something can never be everywhere. It can only be either here or there. Only nothing can be everywhere. That’s why we say Shiva; for that which you refer to as God, the most appropriate name in terms of meaning is ‘Shiva’, because it means ‘that which is not’. Generally, you thought God means somebody sitting up there. If he’s sitting here or there, he would be a limited possibility, he cannot be everywhere. So if God is everywhere, it must be nothingness.

Today, science tells you that everything comes from nothing and goes back to nothing. Now, for example, you are awake, you are something, isn’t it? If you fall asleep, you become nothing. To look at, you are still something, but in your experience you are nothing. So let’s say tonight you are not allowed to go back to your nothingness, you are not allowed to sleep. Tomorrow morning your somethingness will be shaky. If for one more night you are not allowed to go back to your nothingness, the next day you will be really wobbly. For a third night if you are not allowed to go back to your nothingness, the next day you will crack and fall apart. Only if you go back and are in touch with that nothingness, your somethingness has some stability. Your well-being, the very basis of who you are right now, is always coming from nothingness and going back into nothingness not just on a day and night basis; it is happening every second in many different ways.

Today, modern science tells us that it is happening at a very rapid pace all the time. If you can consciously go back to that nothingness and come back, suddenly everything is different about you. There’s a new kind of stability and balance about you.

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(Published 28 December 2010, 15:38 IST)

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