Why does the Cosmos exist?

Rarely in moments of joy, more often in sorrow, man questions his existence. He wonders who he is and why he is here. But few ever wonder why, in the first place, the Universe is here at all!

Why is there something instead of nothing?

Why was ‘god’, or whatever energy that manifests as the cosmos, not content with its own being – content just to be?

If, as defined by most religions, god is complete, whole, intelligent, self-existent and self-contained, then why should such a god feel the ‘need’ to create the cosmos and inhabit it with incomplete, fragmented, imperfect, mortal beings? And why do we evolve to the pulsating level of awareness where we are able to ask, “What am I? What is the meaning of life? Why does the cosmos exist?”

It is not an idle wondering, for the very meaning of our life depends on the answer to the question: “What is the definition of god? Why are we Here? Why the cosmos? Why us? Why all this drama?”

These questions arise, in some form or another, at some time, in every healthy young mind. But the din of living is usually allowed to drown and prematurely suffocate them. It is only a clear, unconditioned, unwavering mind, fired with the thirst to know the Truth, which realizes the importance of these innocent questions and makes efforts to nurture them to maturity. To such a mind these questions are not theoretical but highly practical and important, for it ‘realizes’ that even basic decisions that are required in day-to-day living, such as – What is right, what is wrong? What is good, what is bad? What is the right relationship with self and others? What are right priorities and values in life? What is the right living so that this one and only precious life does not go waste? – can be taken confidently only when we know the raison d’être for our origin and existence.

And the answer needs to be sought right here, right now. It is too late to sigh and lament on one’s deathbed that one has not found any meaning in life – that one was too busy earning a living to have found time to live.

Each life is a short, unrepeatable miracle, and we need to start living the right and purposeful life at the earliest.

Why do we exist?

A theistic minded person would find the meaning in worshiping a God-like being that is the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the world; a scientific minded person would take the support of ‘quantum cosmology’ to explain why a universe was bound to leap into existence out of the void; a philosophical minded person would deduce the reason for the world’s existence from abstract considerations of value, or from the sheer impossibility of nothingness. Only a mystic would experience the reason and meaning through direct illumination.

But what is this direct experiencing of meaning, and what can we learn from it about the cause and mechanism of the origins of the cosmos?

What could possibly be the ‘first cause’ – the ‘meaning’ why the universe came into being, and why we came into being? Ever since the ‘ape’ became human he has felt the need to explain his origins through myths, superstitions, and religions on one hand; and through science and philosophy on the other.

First, let us try to examine the beliefs.

(1) Do you believe that the cosmos and life came into being by chance and evolved by random selection?

(2) Do you believe in right and wrong, good and bad, and feel there is a meaning of life?

If the answer to both the questions is in the affirmative, then you should ask:

(3) Am I rational and logical?

The moment you feel that life has a meaning, and at the same time hold the belief that life evolved by blind chance, then you should become aware of inconsistency, for these two statements are contradictory.

Now, if you feel in your bones that life has some ultimate meaning, whatever that meaning may be, and are convinced by the scientific theory of evolution that life evolved from dust, then you must admit that meaning must exist even in the dust, and in the very first big-bang that gave rise to the stardust that eventually evolved to ask the meaning of its existence. The process of evolution can not be doubted, but then, the theories about the origin of life need to re-examined.

The cosmos exists! This appears obvious. And when a phenomena is observed, various hypotheses are put forth to explain it, based on the evidence one gathers.

The Creationists sing the praises of a creator without questioning the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of creation.

The Scientific Cosmologists, as soon as they observe that the cosmos exists, promptly get busy examining ‘how‘ it originates and works.

The Evolutionists ponder over the ‘how’ life originates and evolves.

For a Philosophical Cosmologist the mystery lies not in examining ‘how’ the universe ticks, but ‘why’ it exists!

To make things clear we can take the help of the Watchmaker Analogy popularised by William Paley. He argued, more than fifty years before Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, that the complexity of living organisms was evidence of the existence of a ‘divine creator’ by drawing a parallel with the way in which the existence of a watch compels belief in an intelligent watchmaker. So, using that analogy, according to the Creationists the watch appeared readymade, created (neither designed nor evolved) by god – The Watch Creator. The ‘Blind Evolution’ Scientists says that the watch assembled itself through blind chance through ‘natural’ processes – The Blind Watchmaker. (popularised by Richard Dawkins). The ‘Intelligent Design’ Scientists say that some intelligence guides the designing of the watch – The Watch Designer. (Some call the designer ‘divine’ and attribute ‘supernatural’ processes, and thus rub the scientists the wrong way. Then, others try to clarify that the existence of intelligence and of a design does not mean that that intelligence is a ‘person’ named god.) It is the Philosophical Cosmologists who do not debate whether the ticking watch is made by a watchmaker that is blind or sighted, but ask ‘why’ the watch is needed in the first place, and what the proper use of the watch is.

HYPERLINK TO WEE TEA TABLE).

The nesSutras sets out to explain what a watch is needed for and show how that need guided the designing of the watch and its evolution, and above all, explains why the need arose in the first place. And it explains the proper function for which the watch is made – the proper use of our life, of our time and energy and of our money (arth) (to buy time and energy).

And this explains that it is awareness that gives rise to the cosmos and not the other way around; the term to be used henceforth is not cosmogenesis but awarogenesis;

The eye does not see what the mind does not know!!!

The essence of the nesSutras is given below:

The Question is: Why Cosmogenesis/ Awarogenesis?

The Answer is: Because ness is All there is! (This is derived from knowledge of self-awareness and of self-less awareness that is experienced in the enlightened state of non-dualness)

The Reason why an ‘All’ needs to bring forth a cosmos: Ness’ itch to know itself! Because as a singular ‘All’, ness cannot experience itself. And awareness needs bring forth a cosmos in order to know itself

The Proof is: The enlightened experience of non-dualness is experienced as a state of completion.

Simply put: Since ness is All there is, ness needs ‘think forth’ a cosmos/CAT and with the help of that cosmos/CAT evolve awareness through various levels to the level of ‘non-dual self-less awareness’ that experiences itself as ness.

The comprehensive nesSutras explores by wondering what possible first-cause could have led to the creation of such a cosmos that evolves to ask the meaning of its own existence and finds completion in the experiencing of the enlightened state of non-duality. According to the nesSutras, the cosmos /CAT came into being for man to experience himself as non-dual from the ultimate Truth. This experience is called Enlightenment, and hence we can state that: Enlightenment is our Birthright.

The nesSutras does not contradict the blind evolutionists or intelligent designers, rather asserts that intelligent design and its ‘natural’ evolution are the means to the end of ness’ game – which is a thought experiment of ness.

The nesSutras attempts to string together the reason for cosmogenesis and its scientific proof, condensing all fields of knowledge into a coherent whole and presenting it in the form of a theorem along with its proof. Though the nesSutras are short (…so many….. STANZAS), their explanation is long, since the topic is vast, and unique. But having the ‘condensed’ sutras in mind helps provide a clear map so one does not get lost in the labyrinth of knowledge.

The nesSutra uses the (a-priori ontological) argument of “God” as: “A being than which no greater can be conceived”. It also invokes the (a-posteriori cosmological) argument of ‘necessity’ of God as first cause to explain the existence of the universe. But the nesSutra also goes beyond, and propounds the ‘reason’ for ness to give rise to the cosmos. Threading together the latest knowledge of the physical, biological and emotional evolution of the cosmos, it reveals the game that underlies the unfolding of aware-ness.

The nessSutra is presented in the form of a theorem which simply states that All there Truly wISbe, is ness – Conscious Intelliness.

So, given just these bare facts that ‘before’ the cosmos came into being, all there truly wISbe, is an ‘All’ that is conscious intelligence, the nessutra needs derive that the reason for this ‘All’ conscious intelligence to bring forth the cosmos is to lead to the experiencing of non-dualness – the state of enlightenment – which is the ultimate purpose for which ‘human’ life evolved. But mere ‘conviction’ about life having a meaning, that too a meaning like ‘enlightenment’, is not easily acceptable to the modern, left-hemisphere dominated mind. Such a mind needs proof.

Now, though written ‘after’ the right-brain experiencing of enlightenment, the nesSutras provide the proof that can try to convince the left brain dominated mind to quest for the experiencing of enlightenment. For the real proof of the pudding is in the eating. The left brain knowledge can merely help appreciate the right brain experiencing, but is worthless in the absence of such experiencing. In this quest, unlike in mathematics and pure logic, the conviction and certainty of the answer needs be ‘existential and experiential’ besides being logical and scientific.

And so, though the experiencing of this truth, like experiencing love, is personal and cannot be shared, we can still provide the proof for the logical and scientific proof can be demonstrated. So the nesSutras, through the scientific and logical process of proving the nessTheorem, provides the proof for the reason for cosmogenesis and man’s role in the scheme of things.

The term enlightenment is used in the nesSutras to describe ‘the state of experiencing non-dualness from the ultimate Truth’ or rather ‘being the truth,’ or ‘being-ness’. In the state of enlightenment, non-dualness (literally meaning not two) is experienced after the experience of dualness, but in essence when applied to ness as being non-dual, it means: “not two, not one, only That”. In enlightenment there is the experience of being one with the truth that is ness, which enables ness to experience its own self.

Enlightenment is not something esoteric or ‘other worldly.’ The enlightened person lives the same ‘routine’ life, only the reasons for all his actions become entirely different from the motives of unenlightened men. Living life after ‘enlightenment’, in a state of non-dualness from the truth, life becomes full of bliss, with a sense of connectivity with all that exists, with a sense of completion and contentment that makes all rat-races appear futile and foolish. (SEE: Surviving Enlightenment in end-notes). The enlightened being experiences a sense of completion, which signifies that experiencing this state WITH THE accompanying experiencing of the truth is the final meaning of life. The proof of this being the ultimate purpose is that its experiencing gives rise to a sense of completion and fulfillment and puts an end to all rat-racing in the enlightened being.  ((The experiencing of non-dualness will become clear in the model presented in chapter 2: A Conceptual Cosmology