By now, I hope it is understood that my truest passion in life is studying nature. Not in its fragmented pieces but in its entirety. It fascinates me, really. And I don’t see why it shouldn’t fascinate anyone else. I see this universe as the ultimate wonder and try to understand it in all its factual realities. We visit the 7 wonders of the world quite often and call them “wonders” of Earth. Why? Yes, it is democratically decided on a worldwide forum basis. But behind all those wonders there are stories. I have visited only one of them but three times. It’s the Taj Mahal.
There are many funny stories attached with it and some sad ones too. Taj represents perfection — in terms of its architecture. Perfection in the sense that no matter from which angle you look at it, nothing will seem out of place. It looks perfectly erected, no matter where you stand within its grounds. Interestingly, British tourists specially have harder times visiting it because (a) they pay — as all foreigners do — quite hefty fees compared to Indians to visit it and (b) Once they are inside, they are told stories that goes something like this: “When Taj was first built, it was ornate with silver lamps and golden carpets. But during the British Raj, they took it away and all that remains now are stones.”
I don’t know if is true but I can imagine what one must feel like being told that.
Despite the perfection, though, there is one thing which strikes as “not perfect” about the entire structure. When Shah Jahan built it, he had his consort Mumtaz buried right at the very epic center of the building. Stories abound that he also wanted to build another Taj but with black marbles and create a bridge between the two over the river Yamuna. Perhaps he wanted his own grave to be inside that black Taj. Alas! He died before all of that could happen. And alas still that that others put his grave inside the Taj, right next to Mumtaz. And that one aspect alone is what marked the single imperfection about it.
Let’s take all of this and apply it around to other things. It is hard not to be fearful when studying nature and finding patterns in its chaos. But as I have learnt, fear stops creativity. It stops our minds from thinking anything beyond what is known. And as soon as we step into the unknown, uncharted territory, fear is natural. My own parents have dabbled in it for roughly two decades and what I have learnt from them is that one must fight this fear. Internalize it. Then and only then can one move towards the light. One of the first things that happened after the Big Bang was that stars were created. Why? They produce light. Amidst the complete and total darkness, even nature went first towards the light because one cannot produce anything life-like if it cant see or be seen.
Please do not take anything aforementioned as factual (regarding the Taj Mahal story) because… like I said, these are “stories” and that is created by humans. Ape-descendants are only as good as their nature allows them to be. Nature never reveals herself. It is the super duper highest level enigma. For me, nature represents the ultimate enigma of this entire universe. Hence the fascination :) One Enigma, protected by four ultimate Universal Forces.
When singularity chose to rip itself apart, it decided upon four fundamental forces which shall govern all of what happens with whatever its part make out to be. They are Strong and Weak Nuclear Force, Gravity and finally, electromagnetism. No matter where you are in this universe, some or all of these forces apply. Therefore, 4 forces are all there is OR there can be, as far as our universe is concerned. But they all bind together to keep 1 enigma safe.
Mysteries are therefore the reasons people explore the world and everything in it. This is how all of what we see is balanced. And there is elegance to it. There is dance to it. When I imagine our galaxy’s movements around that blackhole, I think of dancing. And the fact that scientists have recently figured out that it isn’t only our galaxy which is synchronized but there are multiple others out there which follow the same pattern doesn’t come as a surprise. How could it not be? I mean, how can you have balanced movement without synchronization? Aren’t all great dancers also the greatest movement balancers? From cha-cha-cha to Bharatnatyam, what I have understood — by watching those great dancers perform — is the level of their balance. Sure, they move. Whether via their feet or their eyes and expressions, they are all expressing emotions. Thus, all dance is an expression.
Let’s talk about dance, then. It is movement. All entities in this universe are involved in a dance for perfection. And this is exhilaration. This is also love. And so, here’s to you. I know you are out there somewhere. May this resonates with you too :)
