Everything is relative

Sep 10, 2010, 12.00am IST

R K Gupta.

By the time you read this, we would have traveled great distances. We would have moved through space - the earth, the solar system and the galaxy of which we are a part, are all moving at tremendous speed.

We are no longer where we were a moment ago. Yet relatively speaking, with reference to our own surroundings, we are in the same place. Buildings, towns, cities, rivers, oceans and mountains, all of them stand in the same place with reference to each other, although in absolute terms this would not be so at all. A person located in space might see us moving, but we ourselves do not see this. This is what relativity is.

Everything is changing every moment but in a short span of time, the change is not noticed. In fact time and relativity are interconnected. An atom and its sub-atomic particles all rotate on their own axis. The fundamental particle, that is, the smallest sub-atomic particle, also rotates on its axis. The time taken by it in making one rotation on its axis is the fundamental unit of time. Every particle and all celestial bodies have their own time. We are aware of the moon-day, which is much shorter than an earth day. The rotation of the particle around its axis is what relativity is. Since the particle moves around itself, for the viewer, change keeps occurring continuously. It is the relationship between the seer, the one who sees, and the scene, which determines relativity. This duality between the seer and the scene is the root cause of relativity.


Philosophically, what is called maya or illusion is in fact relativity. Things are as they are, but different viewers see them differently depending upon their own relative position. In other words, it depends on their perceptions. Maya does not mean falsehood or non-existence; it is anything and everything that is constantly changing and therefore, causing an illusion. Since things keep on changing, they do not have permanence and hence they are called illusionary. The same things put differently or in different circumstances appear differently.


The example of a fabric is apt to illustrate the nature of things. A piece of fabric is an arrangement of yarn. Yarn in turn is a combination of fibres and fibese are made of molecules and so on. At different stages they all look different but their reality remains unchanged. It is the manifestation of the same fundamental existence in different forms that gives it different names and character and the viewer sees them differently.


At the level of consciousness, the field of relativity is set because of i-ness; that is, because of the feeling of 'I' and 'you'. This duality of 'I' and 'you' is the subtlest level of relativity. Every person sees the whole world from his own perspective. He keeps himself at the centre of the whole world around him and relates every thing to himself.
All creatures thus see the whole of existence from their own perspective and gain different impressions of the same event or happening. What is good for one becomes bad for the other and vice-versa, which gives rise to agony and suffering. But when this feeling of duality ceases to exist, one sees the same Self that is present and acting in all living beings, which makes the perceiver realise the truth.
That is, it confers on him the ability to penetrate the veil of relativity. It then makes him content and peaceful.