Alan Paige Lightman a physicist,a writer, and a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and famous as a author for his best selling book “Einstein’s Dreams” raises very intriguing questions in his book The Accidental Universe .
In the chapter two of this book named ‘Temporary Universe’ he mentions the instance of when his beloved daughter is going to get married and he is reflecting into the past and experiencing nostalgia ,and he recalls as follows-
“It was a perfect picture of utter joy, and utter tragedy. Because I
wanted my daughter back as she was at age ten, or twenty. As we
moved together toward that lovely arch that would swallow us all,
other scenes flashed through my mind: my daughter in first grade
holding a starfish as big as herself, her smile missing a tooth; my
daughter on the back of my bicycle as we rode to a river to drop
stones in the water; my daughter telling me the day after she had
her first period. Now she was thirty. I could see lines in her face.”
and then he starts asking many meaningful questions of life-
Why do people so long for permanence, why the fleeting nature of the world disturbs us. why old people sit down in the park, and talk of the days when they were young. why we look for old photographs to remember our childhood ,why we visit and revisits our neighborhood where we grew up. Why remembrance of the past gives us nostalgic experiences.
People desire permanence in such a temporary and fleeting world ,where even our bodies evaporate in a matter of time and nothing really lasts.
Everyone goes through the same but a hardly few understand that there Is something wrong with this world.
why do we search for eternity?
because we are spiritual beings in these temporary material bodies.According to the great ancient wisdom Bhagavat Gita, the real self known as atma is completely different from the body and is completely spiritual.this spiritual element is totally opposite of material element.by virtue of its inherent characteristics, atma is conscious and always searches for 3 things
- eternity
- knowledge
- permanence
and it has qualities opposite of matter
- matter is unconscious where atma is conscious.
- matter is temporary but atma is eternal
- matter is ignorance, atma is knowledge
- matter gives suffering ,atman give pleasure
Do our aspirations indicate to a place where they turns into reality
All people of the world dream of a place where they are happy forever ,having everlasting lives ,with sweet relationships of brothers ,sisters ,mother ,father and friends. are these aspirations indicative of such a place where everything is full of bliss ,and not having even a tinge of suffering and impermanence .
if you have ever thought like that than you are at the right place.the great Indian literature belonging to Vedas Known as Brahma Samhita says as follows -
I worship that transcendental seat, known as Svetadvipa where as loving consorts the Laksmi in their unalloyed spiritual essence practice the Loving service of the Supreme Lord Krishna as their only lover; where every tree is a transcendental purpose tree; where the soil is the purpose gem, all water is nectar, every word is a song, every gait is a dance, the flute is the favorite attendant, effulgence is full of transcendental bliss and the supreme spiritual entities are all enjoyable and tasty, where numberless milk cows always emit transcendental oceans of milk; where there is eternal existence of transcendental time, who is ever present and without past or future and hence is not subject to the quality of passing away even for the space of half a moment. That realm is known as Goloka only to a very few self-realized souls in this world.
so this place talked about here is known as spiritual world, totally opposite of material world, that means it is eternal ,full of knowledge and bliss
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