Everything Comprises of Two Contradictory Elements

The universe has a single cause or two causes.

We say the whole universe has come out of Brahman, Parabrahma, Paramatma — which is single. But when you look at every living being or object in the universe, it is clear that they are all made up of two contradictory elements.

This moment and the next moment — nothing is the same. Everything keeps on changing moment to moment.

A child when born weighs 3 kg. By the time he is 25, he becomes 70 kg. Is it a single moment at which this change happens? No. It is a continuous process which takes place every moment. There are thousands of processes happening in the body every moment. Cells die every moment. New cells are born every moment. You will wonder whether it is the same body only.

Look at the trees — they sprout from a seed, grow, bear flowers and fruits. This moment a fruit is there on a branch, next moment it falls. Same with birds and animals.

Rivers change path, maybe by a few millimeters every moment. A study by Uttarakhand Space Application Centre says that Ganga has changed course by 500 meters in the past four decades. That means if you had taken bath in Ganga at a particular place 40 years back, if you go and see there now, Ganga will not be there anymore. This change is constant, continuous, does not even stop for a moment.

Apparently lifeless objects — say a mountain — keep on becoming smaller at the rate of 1 mm/year. This doesn’t happen at one moment. It happens every moment.

This impermanence is one element that is spread across every single living and non-living entity in the world.

At the same time, the human body — irrespective of this continuous change — is identified by a name. Even if you change the name of this person through a gazette notification, the person doesn’t change. We identify him as the same person — at the age of five and at the age of fifty. When he is an ignorant preschool child and when he is a PhD — we consider him as the same person.

The coconut tree which, when planted, was two feet tall — is now twenty feet tall. Take pictures of these two and show them to a stranger and ask him whether they are the same — he will say no. But for us it is the same tree.

You can’t take a dip in Ganga where it used to flow 40 years back — now it has moved elsewhere — but for us it is the same Ganga.

This duality is essential for the existence of the world — permanence and impermanence together, in the same object, in the same being.

Veda calls this duality by several pairs of names:

आभु अभ्व
अमृत मृत्यु
रस बल
ब्रह्म कर्म

They coexist in every object and being in the world — permanence and impermanence.

If you ask, how can you say a man is permanent — he dies, he stops to exist? Only that identity stops being visible. Body disintegrates and becomes panchabhutas. If his weight is 60 kg when he dies, an equal amount of matter is formed when it disintegrates. That matter just goes here and there. It doesn’t cease to exist.

So he is permanent and impermanent at the same time.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi