What we perceive in the outer world is already contained in the inner Self!
The philosophy of the Self!
Do you agree the contents of the title? Scriptures proclaim that everything is contained in the Self! But only those who believe in the concept of Self, can understand this philosophy. Especially those who believe in the non-dual philosophy can take it in. We consider the space as 'all pervasive'. But the Self is still subtler than the space. Then we can surmise the infinite nature of the Self. As I have already written in some hubs, Self is ever existing, full of knowledge and Bliss. It is formless, birth less and suffer no death or destruction. Now let us take the case of sky, It is formless and can not be destroyed by any weapon. It will never become wet, nor fire can burn the sky. History tells us about the most destructive weapons used in the aftermath of world war II. Two cities were destroyed in few seconds due to the dropping of Atom Bombs. But the sky was as it was. When the Self is subtler than the sky, we can understand the above points clearly.
What was there before the beginning will last beyond the end too! Many scientists call this as an 'emptiness beyond our imagination'. Yes, imagination comes only after there is somebody to perceive something. When there is nobody, how anything or emptiness can be perceived. Even Einstein's theory postulates an observer. But before the creation started there was not even an observer. Now let us analyze the created world. Since every thing happened in the middle, it recedes in the middle. Be it a human being or other species or even the so called permanent structures, hills and valleys are subject to destruction. Scientists prove many thing now. The earth surface was once a monolithic surface. Then the five continents came into existence. We read that many volcanoes exist under the sea. Due to climatic change we understand that the ice is melting raising the water level of the oceans a few centimeter and if this trend continues, the land surface will be submerged one day. Hence, all that is created will suffer destruction eventually!
The only thing we can rightly say about the Self is that it is beyond human imagination or intelligence. Creation issued forth from emptiness. How the created being can imagine about the creator? We can only feel 'awe' at the multiple features of the created Universe and enjoy the same through our senses. Here, I would like to emphasize that the "scenes are meaningless without our vision power. The thunders of the sky and roars of the ocean is meaningless without the hearing power. The fragrance has no meaning without the power of smell. The sweetness or otherwise is useless without the power of taste. The smoothness and coarse variety has no meaning without the power of touch. Hence we can say that what we see is already contained in the vision and what we hear is within the auditory power etc. Likewise, the entire external world is contained in the SELF which enable all the senses to operate and function! Without the SELF, there is no meaning in creation itself and it is absurd to think like that.