Sachchidananda 'The Life Divine' Book I,Ch.9, 10, 11, 12 - Track 302

Sri Aurobindo says this is the meaning of samam brahma. Brahman is equal everywhere. Therefore in the consideration of  the energy of the world, we may be dust of dust but as important to it as the mightiest objects in the world. Even to create these little things that we are the same energy is spent by the Supreme energy as in fashioning huge astronomical objects in the world. So to make a correct balance of the universe, we should put universal on one side, individual on the other side and put them into right relationship. We should see on one side the hugeness of quantity which may not have so much of quality as perhaps an animal possesses, or a fish possesses, or a man possesses.

We sometime have the illusion of the quantity and say that the quantity is as if it is very huge we say, it is very big but it may not be so, as in that story of the mouse and the lion. The lion is greatest in his own place but the mouse is also greatest in his own place. It’s the same energy, it is samam brahma. But there is another aspect of this movement of energy that we are seeing that this energy is moving so fast according to the latest theory of what is called expanding universe. It is said that each galaxy is running away from another neighboring galaxy at a tremendous speed. The average speed at which it is receding from one another is at least four lakhs thirty two thousand miles. Where? Where is the space where it is moving out. Therefore, the theory that the universe itself is constantly expanding in that speed if you try to look at any object you find that before you can even point this out, it is gone at that speed. It is normally when there is some kind of duration of an object before our eyes that we can say this. But if it is moving very fast the past is already gone, the future has still not taken birth, but even the present that is before you even before you watch it, it is gone. This perception is very important for determining existence, does it exist? The past is gone, the future is not born and the present before you, just even point it out, it is gone. So, what is it that is before you, what is it that is existing and can you call it existence? And then if you examine the nature of movement, you come to a further complication, particularly when you try to understand movement, either by your rational thought or by spiritual experience. Rational thought tells you that movement is subordinate to utter stability, although, we see only movement. In this whole world we only see movement. Even this table, which is stable considering that it is mounted on earth, which is spinning and considering that it is spinning in a huge system of a galaxy, which is only one among one thousand million galaxies of the world, which are also moving away one from the another at a terrific speed, what you call the stability of this table is hardly stable at all. And yet when you look at it from a rational point of view, not merely as you see it, but from a rational point of view you arrive at the conclusion that there is an utter stability without which this movement cannot be − this whole huge vast movement, limitless space, interminable time, beginingless time.

Let us now try to understand this statement that if you look at it rationally, you find that this whole movement is subordinate to stability. Even spiritual experience tells you that this huge movement rests upon a complete peace and silence in which there is no movement at all. That there is sthanu, sthanu is that which is utterly stable. When we say that when we examine this thing from a rational point of view, we must know how does the reason think. We are being invited to think about the movement and how do we go about thinking about the movement. So let us do a few exercises, so that we can arrive at certain kind of perception, which we can call a rational perception of movement.

If you examine the nature of movement, you will find there are four main characteristics. You will find that in this world of movement there is what can be called plenty of quantity. This is the one aspect of this whole movement, which you can designate by the word quantity. Quantity can further be understood in terms of plurality that is to say there is not one object but there is plurality of objects. Then you find that there is not only plurality but even totality. You might not have seen totality anywhere except in small circles, for example, I can say I have seen the totality of this house but once you have this experience of the totality of this house, you are enabled to think of the totality of the whole universe, by analogy this is called the rational way of thinking. The moment I have the experience of totality of this house, it is very easy for me by rational thought even if I have not seen the totality of the universe I begin to imagine the totality of the universe; this is called the rational leap.  

How does a reason function? From a small experience the reason can take a leap and can say even about things which it has not seen this is the specialty of reason. Reason can move over and above what is experienced by our senses. It’s a special capacity of Reason. You might say this is the magic of reason. Reason has a kind of a magical power, although our senses perceive only totality of one house; it can then transfer it to something which is not seen by means of imagination. Imagination is also a kind of a process of reasoning, by a process of analogy, by comparison, which is also a kind of a process of reasoning. It can also vary itself from experience by means of imagination and analogy. Analogy is a way of thinking, where two objects, when they are similar and if you know one thing, you can transfer the qualities of this thing to the other one, by the leap of reasoning that is called analogy. Although totality is not seen by anybody, merely our experience of having seen the totality of this particular object, you can imagine that the whole universe is like this home because this home is nothing but a portion of space, fundamentally, an enclosure. An enclosed space is what you call this house. Similarly the whole universe could be conceived as an enclosure, may be slightly different because universe is expanding.