Not always but rarely my mind tries to be free from the mundane life activities n starts reflecting upon itself. Sometimes I feel that really everything around me is so much covered in mystery, including myself. Just think for a moment that the computer in front of you is made up of the so called omnipresent ATOMS, n you too are made up of atom but of different elements(a few can be common though). We are nothing but a bunch of electrons surrounding messily something known as nucleus. We say the nucleus is positive n electrons are negative(mugging up this crap from childhood), but I wonder what IS a charge? I know you can tell various properties of a charge, but if you keep aside those properties, how can you imagine it? I mean just try to make a memory picture of an electron…try it…

What you came up with? I asked this question to many friends of mine n 90% of them gave a similar picture(rest 10% suggested me to get a life ) Their answer was – “ An electron is something of a spherical shape rotating about its axis n revolving around the nucleus”. I agree, this picture comes to me as well when I have to write an exam, but when I am out of my mind(not a rare case), I really can’t objectify an electron but feel that electrons n other subatomic particles are just an EFFECT trying to balance out some sort of disturbance that caused the big bang, n in that balancing process, it kept on creating things n ended up creating this universe n other multiverse.(n still creating). I don’t want to get into the electron spin now as it would divert me from what i am trying to say. Anyway, if you think at quantum level, you will find that these fundamental charges are not prominent, they appear at one location but its effect spreads more than the point covered by it n then reappear at other location almost instantly, of course confined by the boundary conditions. Schrodinger, in his theory, basically said the same thing(excluding the ‘effect’ thing) of course his version of saying this was much more accurate n scary than mine.

If you look at a curve showing the probabilistic distribution of electron in a confined space, you will find that with the spread of distance from a particular point, the probability of finding the electron decreases(to sound scary I should say, the wave function collapses)* both ways n in the middle it is peaked. This suggests that within two points say A and B, there is a point say C within where the probability of finding the electron is maximum but this does not mean that you won’t find it anywhere else apart from c, you may find it at A or near B as well. Modern theories claim that an electron can be at multiple places at the same time. Now the weird thing is (yes, till now it was not supposed to be weird), we are also made up of the same electrons n other little inkly dinkly stuff, but probability of finding me at my home (where I am now sitting n typing this for no good reason), automatically cancels out the probability of finding me sitting next to you. If those little mischievous electrons can be at more than one place at the same time, I am also made up of the same electrons n other subatomic particle but I can’t be at two places the same time( life would have been much easier, you know…sitting n giving an exam n simultaneously watching a movie at some multiplex, cool!.).

Another thing that confuses my mind is how can we have consciousness but the subatomic particles cannot.? Why I can think but a pen which I hold in my hand during an exam, cannot! After all, we all are the same, mess of distributed energy chiselled meticulously by infinite mathematical constraints n conditions. Even Hindu religion thousands of years ago claimed the same thing which theoretical physicists are discovering now, that ‘everything is same’. The great master Shri Ramakrishna, the guru of Swami Vivekananda used to say-“ Me and this table is the same thing, I can perceive myself as this table as well”. I really think, at some point, when the mind saturates with intense purification n thirst for truth, dawns a phenomenon which I call ‘the merger of consciousness’ . And it is logical, see, the most granted theory regarding the formation of this universe is BIG BANG, right? Though I personally don’t believe in this theory much, but still considering it true for a while, everything emerged out of it. That includes really everything we see n beyond. So in other words we are part n parcel of the same thing, our source is ONE. So it should be no surprise that we all are connected in some mysterious ways.(just like every branch of a tree is connected to the stem directly or indirectly). Its like a many to many relation, where everything is connected to everything else. So if by the above thought process, I have consciousness, then the table chair pen paper computer etc can also have that consciousness n we are all ONE n SAME at the basic level. So, Ramakrishna’s experience of universal consciousness should not be a great surprise now, because everything is connected to everything else. Hence, every bit of thing around me is just my own extension, the only thing is that we have lost the method of perceiving it.

(* means that I deliberately didn’t discuss those points else it would have been a long article)

-kaavya

PS: I really think I need to get a life.