A Sufi Story
Once an ant strayed across a piece of paper and saw a pen writing in fine, black strokes.
“How wonderful this is!” thought the ant. “This remarkable thing, with a life of its own, makes designs on this beautiful surface, to such an extent and with such energy that it is equal to the efforts of all the ants in the world.”
He then went and told other ants about his experience and observation. So now some more ants came together to observe the pen writing and gradually they realized the pen is attached to certain other objects, which surround it and drive it on its way. Those were fingers discovered by the ants.
But another ant, after a long time, climbed over the fingers and realized that they are attached to a hand. He thoroughly explored the hand by scrambling all over it and returned to his fellows and said excitedly, “Ants! Listen, I have news of importance for you. Those smaller objects are a part of something large. It is that large thing that gives motion to them.”
Then after some time it was discovered that the hand was attached to an arm, and the arm to a body, and that there were two hands, and that there were feet which did no writing.
The investigations continue. Of the mechanics of the writing, the ants have a fair idea. Of the meaning and intention of the writing, and how it is ultimately controlled, they will not find out by their customary method of investigation. Because they are not “literate”.
This is a story from Rumi’s Mathnavi. It tries to make us aware of dimensions that could be beyond our understanding. It insists on developing another kind of “literacy” that would let us know the Whole Truth. If we are able to see the larger picture from a distance, we understand the true meaning of our existence in this world.
It is true that presently modern science is unable to identify or prove the presence of other dimensions, but it is not that all scientists have limited vision or are unaware of the small periphery of modern science .
Michio Kaku, an internationally renowned physicist, in his book ‘Hyperspace’ which is on higher dimensions and parallel universes, talks about his own experience and understanding of human beings’s limited understanding of the greater reality. He begins the book by narrating an incident from his childhood when he used to sit by a pond and look at the fishes in the pond. He used to wonder how the fishes in the pond would view the world around them. He thought that the fishes lived their entire lives in the shallow pond and believed that their “universe” consisted of the murky water and the water lilies. Spending most of their time foraging on the bottom of the pond, the fishes would probably be dimly aware that an alien world existed above the surface.
Michuo Kaku goes on to say, “The nature of my world was beyond their comprehension. I was intrigued that I could sit only a few inches from the fishes, yet be separated from them by an immense chasm. The fishes and I spent our lives in two distinct universes, never entering each other’s world, yet were separated by only the thinnest barrier, the water’s surface.”
Then he says: “I once imagined that there may be fish “scientists” living among the fish world. I thought these fish “scientists” would scoff at any fish who proposed that a parallel world could exist just above the lilies. To a fish “scientist”, the only things that were real were what the fish could see or touch. The pond was everything. An unseen world beyond the pond made no scientific sense.”
And Michio Kaku does not hesitate to add: “I often think we are like the fishes swimming contentedly in that pond. We live our lives in our own “pond”, confident that our universe consists of only those things we can see or touch. Like the fishes, our universe consists of only the familiar and the visible. We smugly refuse to admit that parallel universes or dimensions can exist next to ours, just beyond our grasp. If our scientists invent concepts like forces, it is only because they cannot visualize the invisible vibrations that fill the empty space around us. Some scientists sneer at the mention of higher dimensions because they cannot be conveniently measured in the laboratory.”
Rumi’s allegory seems to be very close to Michio Kaku’s observation and experience. Perhaps modern science is gradually getting to the stage from which it would start accepting and consciously work in alignment with the Greater energies of the Universe.
At present, we are in a phase of human history where science is unable to break-free of the conventional way of perceiving life and is dominated by profit-making business strategies. But soon or sooner this too could change. Science could become Greater Science and it could work towards the true transformation of human life.