LECTURE - 38 : SPATIO-TEMPORAL DISTANCES

If a person lives for sixty years, in fact every moment of all these year the person is bestowed upon life and death alternatively. Death of one moment gives birth to the other moment. When one year dies away the child enter into the life of the next year. We experience this thing daily in the state of dreaming.

A person sees in his dream that he is having a chat with one of his friends living far away. In the dream he remains oblivious of the actual distance between them. Similarly a person goes to sleep at 11 O’clock in the night. He travels far and wide, from country to country for many months. After spending a considerable time in journeying around the world, in his dream, when he wakes up and looks at the watch, to his surprise he notices actually only a few minutes have been spent in that state of dreaming. In this types of dreams the temporal distances or the units of time equals to a naught.

Everyone of us in his lifetime do see one, two or more such dreams in which the Spatio-temporal distances are found to be non-existing whereas in the state of wakefulness when the similar activities like journeying here and there and talking to friends are undertaken the Spatio temporal distances do not abolish. God has termed the nocturnal senses or the senses operative in dreams as lail (night) and the diurnal senses or the senses of the wakefulness are called the nehar (day).

The statement of the holy Quran, “The night enters the day and the day is made to enter the night”, means the senses of the day and the night are of similar nature only the distances become existing or non-existing in them.

In order to understand this thing more precisely let us consider this example. Tom and Dick are sitting around a table where a candle is lit. In the light of the candle Tom is looking at Dick and the Dick is watching Tom. The light of the candle is the medium of sight for both the persons. The light is traveling in two directions simultaneously. The light from Tom is reaching Dick’s eyes enabling him to see Tom and vice versa. The light of the same one candle is traveling from Tom to Dick and from Dick to Tom, that is, the light after originating from one source is traveling in different rather opposite directions. Tom is seeing Dick because of the light of the candle and Dick is beholding Tom due to the very same light. When this light produces images in Tom’s mind these are known as the Tom’s concepts and when the same light produces images in Dick, these are called the concepts of Dick.

From this process, this law of manifestations is discovered that the change of direction is not taking place in the light but it is there in the angles of the sight of the viewers because, as we notice in the above example, Tom and Dick both are seeing the same one light but both are having different images. The concepts resulting from this light in the mind of Tom are altogether different from those of the Dick’s. The difference of the concepts of Tom and Dick is not because of the changes in the chemistry of light but it is due to the difference of the angles of sight.

When it is admitted that the light is one and the same then we also have to acknowledge that the medium of sight is one central point, which is called the Self of the observer that is adjacent to Holy Being of God. It has been stated by God, “Verily, We are closer to you than your jugular vein.” An important point to note here is that God is use the First Person Plural pronoun ‘we’, which means that God is associating Himself with the self of every individual in plurality. And, this is the reason that the individuality of every person is maintained.

We have explained just now that the light is one but it travels in two different directions. In one direction it is heading towards Tom and in the other it is going towards Dick from the same one source. When the light travels towards Tom, it is known as the concepts of Tom and when it goes towards Dick, it is called the concepts of Dick. The variation does not take place in the light; the light remains constant in its form. The variation is only in the way of stating things by the persons because the very same light is portraying the pictures of Tom’s life in Tom and the Dick’s life in Dick. In Sufism, this thing is known as martaba (Mechanism). The basis of this mechanism is one and the same, only the names are different. This mechanism is covering the countless species and their individuals. This very mechanism is Tom, Dick and Harry in mankind; fig, olive and almond in trees and, sheep, deer and loin in animals.

When the light travels at the individual level, it portrays the pictures according to the concepts of the individuals. This mechanism consists of those Black Points, which are the basis of the universe. These are the points that have dual revolution. Wherever the word ‘repetition’ occurs in the holy Quran, this very dual revolutionary movement is referred to. This dual movement is taking place in every direction and in this way it is pervading in every depth, in every obscurity and in the smallest fraction of time simultaneously. This dual movement is recurring as well. It means that the Black Point, which is Time, continuously leaping in every obscurity, depth and in all directions. The range and reach of the leap by this point is the Space. All those forms and features that occupy space are hidden in this point. Leaps of this Black Point causes the manifestations to come into being. This very phenomenon is collectively known as the universe.

This Black Point consists of countless screens. The diurnal and nocturnal senses are the two aspects of the dual movement of this very point. The nocturnal senses are hidden in the diurnal senses but the diurnal senses are not hidden in the nocturnal senses. This is the reason that a person in the diurnal senses cannot observes the nocturnal senses by means of the diurnal senses but the person enjoying the nocturnal senses can explore the diurnal senses using the nocturnal senses. This also means that the person who manages to acquaint himself with the nocturnal senses gets the God gifted ability of liberating himself from the Spatio-temporal bondages, as when he desires so.

Black Point

Time does not have distances and the Space has to have demarcations and limits. Universe is a point that is traveling with different movements. Repetition or the division and subdivisions of this very point give birth to other incalculable points. God has created this universe using a mechanism composed of multitude of Black Points.

Time has two levels, one is the time by itself and, the other is the space that has distances, which the time does not have.

At one level the observer observes in an orderly sequence and perceived the moments in regular succession, that is, one after the other moment is attended by the perception. We measure time in seconds, minutes and hours etc. We enter from one minute into the other and from the other into the third one. This is the repetition of the perception.

This recurrence of perception is responsible for the depth of observation, which are known as the spatial distances. For instance, the day is a space, night is a space, flower is a space, a thought is a space, and all that is seen and is visible to us is a space whether it is a tiny particle or a celestial body, are all spaces. If a second were broken down into millions and billions of fractions then every fraction would also be a space. Or to say, all the forms and features that could possibly exist, from Eternity to Infinity, are packed in the Black Point, layer upon layer and all these form and features are also spaces.

The Black Point recurs and leaps from one place to another. Its every leap has its significance and meanings. In the other level of time the depths of Black Point are so fathomless that the perception of the former level simply fail to comprehend them. At this level our viewpoint has its own way of perceiving things and in this perception the speed of mind is so swift that it cannot be estimated in numbers or worldly quantities. When using that speed of mind, we manage to get down into the depths of the Black Point we observe that infinitude, which cannot be explained in any narrative style. God has termed this very perception, in the holy Quran as the laila-tul-qadr (the Night of Power). It is stated in the holy Quran, “We sent it down in a Night of Power and what will explain to you, what this Night of Power is? It is the Night that is better than thousand months. Angels and spirit get down on errands with the permission of God. Peace is this Night till morning.”

The perception named as laila-tul-qadr is sixty thousand times better than our conscious perception. In other word, the senses of one thousand days and one thousand nights are collectively equal to the senses of this Night of Power by virtue of their speed. The speed of the senses and perception in the Night of Power is sixty thousand times more than the speed of ordinary senses.

In the universe four perceptions are operative simultaneously. For having the understanding of the perception, it is necessary to understand the obscurity and the depth of the universe. One angle of viewing the universe is to see it superficially and the other one is to observe it deeply. Observing the obscurity of universe, feel it in its depths or to observe the universe using the inner eye, are the ways of perceiving. When depth is produced in observation of a person the inner eye starts functioning and this mode of sighting is so effective that the whole universe becomes available for observation. Seeing in the manifestations is viewing in the obscurity and seeing in the inner self is the seeing in the depths. Understanding of seeing in the depths and obscurity demands profound deliberation.

God has stated, “God is He who made the earth and the heavens in six days and then established Himself on the High Throne.” And, at another place it is stated, “ We are closer to you than your jugular vein.”

Establishment of God on the Throne and His being closer than the jugular vein, in fact, are two different ways of perceiving the same one thing. Exercising perception in the obscurity takes the human thinking in remote areas of Boundlessness, which has been termed as the High Throne whereas exercising the perception in the depth takes it closer to the human conscious and this thing has been termed as ‘Closer than the jugular vein’. It must not be overlooked here that both the remoteness of the Boundlessness and the nearness of the conscious, in fact, are the same things only the ways of perception are different. The perception, on the one hand, reaches the High Throne after journeying in the obscurity and, on the other hand, absorbs in the vicinity of the Jugular Vein after immersing in depths. In both the way the ultimate destination remains the same.

The first perception is tasweed (Black Draught) and the second one is tajreed (Abstraction), which is the other side of tasweed as there is a depth against every height and a height for every depth. Similarly, Tazheer (manifestation) is the lower side of tashheed (Evidence). Both these two sides are pertinent to those final limits of the universe that extends up to the ultra-cosmos.

These four perceptions originate and flow like four channels from Hijab-e-Mehmood (The Extolled Veil), Hijab-e-­Kibria (The Grand Veil), Hijab-e-Azmat (The Great Veil) and Arsh (The Supreme Empyrean), respectively. All these four stations are the height and depth, and depth and height of the universe. God has elaborated this thing in these words.

“God is the Light of the Heights and the Depths, as if there is a Niche, in it a Lamp, the Lamp is enclosed in a Glass. This Lamp of Divine Oil is luminant without any phenomenal light. And, whose Light is independent of all directions. Light upon Light.”

As long as the Black Point is filled with the Light of God, it remains free from all bonds of directions. When the Black Point, after its repetition, descends to enter the limits of the visible light, Time and Space starts taking shape. When the Attributes of God are explored, these are found to be ceaselessly active in the veils of Light upon Light. These attributes are activated because on one point, which descends as it is stimulated. Two aspects of height and depth form this descent. After completing its descent, it starts ascending and again passes through two aspects of depth and height. All these four places are the lights of the Beatific Visions of God. The above name four channels are the four types of perceptions, And, the cognition of God is possible only when all these four perceptions are activated in a person, simultaneously.

The Black Point mentioned earlier is the source and origin of all these four perceptions.