Consider this - you are walking on an empty road. Which of these luck based events has a larger possibility of occurring :
A. you find a wallet with money and credit cards in it lying on the road.
B. you find one billion dollars lying on the road.
The answer is obviously A.
Ludwig Boltzmann used similar reasoning to come up with a hypothesis that in any eternally existing void, such as ‘what’ existed ‘before’ our universe, a sort of floating brain with the solipsistic ‘memory’ of a reality like ours is more likely to emerge than a supercomplex structure, which our universe actually is. (Apologies for the oversimplification.)
[I have heard of the idea before, in my Philosophy of Science classes, but read this exceptional article a few days ago and did some further reading, fascinating, do check it out : http://cosmos.nautil.us/feature/120/the-crisis-of-the-multiverse?mc_cid=52fadec20e&mc_eid=c98af9845d.]
I will not go into further scientific problems that the hypothesis of Boltzmann Brains poses - that is for others to do. But for the ordinary folk like me out there, this is a valid starting point for a question that is in a sense the beginning of all philosophy: why is there anything rather than nothing; and the companion question, why the anything that is, is this.
Perhaps we will never know the final answer, limited as we are by the organic capacity of our human bodies. We might have to wait to transition to a higher form to have access to higher questions. But the understanding that there is a Structure, even if it lies beyond our understanding, is somewhat liberating.
For some, the dead ends of Physics, which the discipline has pushed itself into over the past few decades, might lead to nihilistic frustration. I would argue, it is our inability to reconcile with the fact that we cannot look beyond a certain point in the Structure, or beyond the veil of the perceptible reality that emerges from it, which has engendered the Culture of Crisis in our times, evident in the nihilistic existentialism so pervasive in most of our societies. This, consequently, has been pushing us into a self-corrupting hedonic decadence : which we all, admittedly, must struggle with, coiled, as we are, in this mortal state of being.
But the acceptance of defeat is worse than its actuality. We have to rise. Ways must be found. Or made.
For Sikhs, or those interested in the philosophy or theology of Sikhi, nihilistic deadends are perhaps only meant to be foundations for building anew. Younger Sikhs especially, should take up the mantle of engaging with science, philosophy and even the theologies of other faiths from a Sikh perspective. Also, the histories of other nations and civilisations which have fallen prey to overripe decadence.
This will not just be rewarding in itself, and giving meaning to the seeker’s life, but would also offer something to the world. And there is no doubt about the need, or necessity, of a Sikhi inspired vision of ascendant ‘existentialism’ (chardi kala) - especially through interventions in the intellectual public sphere from which the Cultures of Crises spread tentacles outward; to destroy the poisons of depressive negatively that is leading to hate, which in turn is destroying human communities everywhere.
—
That there is something rather nothing, and that something is what it is - for a reason, and what that is, we might never know.
hukam hovay(n) aakar, hukam na kah(i)ya ja-ae
But, also:
hukam hovay(n) jih, hukam miley vadya-ee
Due to whatever the specific nature of that Structure is, or the force that motivates it to be and become what we perceive, we have life. Here we are. On Earth. Alive. And with the opportunity to rise, discover and ascend.
And ascending to the highest heights we are capable of, which the Structure allows for us to be in our organic form, that is, perhaps our reason for being what and where we are.
[See more of Trilok Singh’s Art here : http://www.triloksinghartist.com/galryhistory.html]
—
gur parsád.
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