Back to Start - Why Life Keeps Hitting Replay

The Cyclic Nature of Existence

Dear reader, you’ve been here before countless times — you just don’t know — reading these outlandish words, perhaps lying in your bed or sitting on an uncomfortable chair. Hard to believe, isn’t it? To comprehend what it is, loosen the grip on your belief system, just for this moment, and accept what you’re reading as true. It’s not only that you’ve read this before — right now having no memory of it whatsoever — but also that the act of reading these very statements in the same manner will repeat itself; there’s no end to this. Dear reader, you’ll find yourself here again like climbing flights and reaching the same floor — like हनुमान looking for राम’s ring, like Sisyphus rolling a boulder. It’s an unsettling thought. It is both a curse and blessing — that you remain unaware of the repetitive nature of occurrences. Each time you die, information vanishes and your consciousness ceases to exist. Some say “चेतना (consciousness) and आत्मा (soul) depart the body at death and seek a new form to inhabit. Your कर्म ” But let me say it loud and clear: चेतना and आत्मा do not exist in the way we've been told.

चेतना is a blend of perceived reality and imagination that plays with information stored in your brain, while आत्मा (soul) is your true nature — the way you behave when not conditioned. Both (चेतना and आत्मा) entities die with the death. This has happened infinite times just like reading these words. Quite interestingly, whether you read this to the end, leave halfway, or skim for the sake of finishing the task at hand, every possibility has already occurred. There is nothing new you can do. It has occurred countless times and will happen countless times in the future. The choice you make at this moment, has already been made before. And who made that choice — you, the very person. The curse or blessing is that you are never aware of this occurring and you’ll never be. Regardless, ignorance opens an opportunity for you to seek the truths of existence.

So tell me what you will do now.

Why We Do What We Do

If we want to understand everything and you're a reference point, then simply put you’re a form of energy that is spread in such a way that it is aware of its existence and we call it life. But you’re not life and you’re not energy; otherwise you’d be immortal, because life, energy don't die. What perishes is the identity given to you. Life only flows through you for a period of time. Only if you are detached from your identity, then it’s life — then it’s energy and then you’ll be immortal. From birth you’ve been shaped to fit into society. The first thing you get is a name, and that happens, in some cases, even before you take a birth — लड़का होगा, तो this; लड़की होगी, तो that. Your surroundings have a huge influence on your personality. You’ve been burdened with roles and responsibilities — live up to people’s expectations. The more people you’re attached to, the more complex roles you play. Maintaining the status quo, at one point, your body can’t hold the energy together, and you die. This way of nurturing lays so much emphasis on identity building and individual's responsibilities to not to deviate from the expectations of people. This, in turn, creates a false sense of free will. Between your birth and death, the energy wants to move and it moves when it gets pleasure. For instance: you can get it either from drinking wine or abstaining from consuming it.

The Loop We’re In

For a moment, life passes through you and, in the end, leaves you pale and still. There’s a limit to the number of lives that can exist at any one time on Earth – in the universe. Death is the absence of life. For you to live, somebody and something had to die to let go of life — energy.

Science says that the total energy in the universe is constant. The basic definition of life is movement; otherwise you’re dead. Life keeps moving, leaving behind a pile of dead bodies. Life has the propensity of attaining a stable state. For that, life should be distributed evenly.

What is energy?

It's an entity that has only one pro-attitude and that is to move. Lewis Caroll, American poet and author, says “If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Energy moves without a destination or purpose; its nature is simply to flow. Like a river winding down a hill or a tree extending its branches, it acts without knowing why, adapting fluidly to obstacles and changes in its environment. It follows no set path, just the impulse to move.

Science says:

Everything in the universe is built from elements, which are composed of atoms, and atoms are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons are themselves made up of even smaller particles called quarks, bound together by the strong force. Electrons, on the other hand, are fundamental particles, meaning they are not made up of smaller components. These fundamental particles, alongside quarks, form the basic building blocks of matter.

The two images below illustrate the Standard Model of particle physics, representing the fundamental particles and forces. The behaviour of these particles forms the basis of how the universe operates, as every interaction and phenomenon depends on the properties and dynamics of these particles.

The Standard Model

Image from: https://cds.cern.ch/images/OPEN-PHO-CHART-2015-001-1/file?size=large

Image from: https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_article_width/public/2024-07/doe-explains-standard-model-particle-physics.png

The universe is सनातन — eternal and infinite, with no beginning or end. Time, as we perceive it, is merely an illusion within this vast cycle. The universe's expansion and contraction resemble the rhythm of human breath, as it inhales and exhales. The fundamental particles that form the universe possess a fixed nature — they remain consistent in their behaviour.

For instance: if something flows, it continues to do so consistently. It doesn’t change its behaviour unless some entity interacts with it. Such interactions adhere to universal laws, which are constant and unchanging, whether or not we have discovered them yet.

This suggests that even chaos abides by universal laws. Free will is an illusion; we’re simply adhering to these cosmic principles. If the universe’s nature is to expand and contract, it does so consistently in a recurring pattern, meaning history inevitably repeats itself. The universe acts predictably, as if following a script. If there is a god, then he’s watching an endless movie that loops back to the beginning each time it ends.

It might not be an exaggeration if I say — you have been born from the womb of every person who exists at this moment, and you have also given birth to each one of them.

मोक्ष

मोक्ष is the concept of liberation from the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. The cycle will continue infinitely. There is no way out of it.

Welcome to the cosmos of infinite rebirths.