Change and Constant

Rule 39: While the parts change, the whole always remains the same. For every thief who departs this world, a new one is born. And every descent person who passes away is replaced by a new one. In this way not only does nothing remains the same but also nothing ever really changes. For every Sufi who dies, another is born somewhere.

Having lived with people from diverse cultures, I have realised that people and their emotions are essentially the same. Only the forms to express them change as indeed the cultures are diverse. This has always given me a base to interact with people without any inhibitions and prejudices. I feel that if I tap into the basic human emotions, I would find same kind of fountain of feelings everywhere, be it Iceland or Timbuktu. People have same needs, desires, fears, hopes and they act similarly to fulfil their desires. 

So, when Shamz writes about the whole remaining the same while parts change, I think of it not only in spiritual terms but also in terms of human race. I think of all the civilisations gone by and how people in them must have behaved and acted. I think of all the efforts that are put to build civilisations and then all the negative human deeds which bring those civilisations down: a never ending cycle. 

On a more closer plane, even cells in our body keep on regenerating all the time. In fact, all our body cells are no older than eleven to fifteen years old. Similarly, the accumulation of our experiences gradually change our mind and whole personality. In fact, the great philosopher Rudolf Steiner considered that even our mind changes every seven years or so. It doesn’t happen overnight yet it does happen. Some call it being mature, some call it being wise, some call it being smart and some being old J So, body and mind also continuously change. We do think that we are getting older, smarter or mature but how many of us think that we are actually transforming? So, on the physical as well as on the mental plane we keep changing but does that mean that the universe, the whole that we are part of also changes? The universe that we know of, keeps changing and yet it remains in essence the same. In Hinduism, the concept of Atman (true self or soul) is considered eternal. We may die and change shape however it remains the same. I feel that we are part of universal nature and hence we may change in many ways but essentially we remain the same. 

What Shamz wants to say is that the people in the world keep changing and yet the human endeavours to attain that constant state where one is eternally happy and blissful remains the same. Hence the world remains the same. People strive for making their lives better driven by many motives and all these motives have one main theme: to be a part of the stable and unchangeable constant. Usually people see this constant as state of being happy and contended. In order to feel secure, man needs certainty and stability hence is more than drawn towards the idea of unchangeable whole. 

Religions explain it in different manner. For instance, in order to explain Vedanta (texts explaining Vedas), the great Indian philosopher and mystic of nineteenth century Sri Aurobindo has put it this way, “To the phenomenal world around us stability and singleness seem at first to be utterly alien; nothing but passes and changes, nothing but has its counterparts, contrasts, harmonized and dissident parts; and all are perpetually shifting and rearranging their relative positions and affections. Yet if one thing is certain, it is that the sum of all this change and motion is absolutely stable, fixed and unvarying, that all this heterogenous multitude of animate and inanimate things are fundamentally homogeneous and one.”

I feel that one can feel more meaningful if one understands that he or she is part of a spiritual whole. Let us understand it in this manner: when one sees himself as an individual and strives for greater things in life, then he is still being in a world where he is in competition with others and hence separate and lonely at some level. However, only when one thinks of himself as part of the whole and also considers everyone around him as the part of the same whole, he can feel empathy and union with others. Hence, this gives more meaning in life than competing and finding the world as your enemy. 

Since the time I started realising that I am part of this world where everything is changing and yet everything is just the same, I have started feeling more peaceful. This feeling was there somewhere in me that every human has the same emotions and yet everyone sees things differently. Everyone has their own version of truth. It used to disturb me that people can’t empathise with each other even after having same type of emotions. However, now I feel that what is important is to see that ‘unchangeable one’ in everyone rather than seeing how differently people behave. People will always be different in their outer shells and behaviour as this is nature but we need to see the true nature of beings and that will bring a lot of peace to our minds. 

Although things keep changing and as they say ‘change is the only constant of life’, in my opinion change and constant are but the two sides of the same coin. Every time life shows us one face of the coin, we know that it is hiding the others side just underneath. I have realised that whenever situations have not been to my liking in my life, they have enhanced my understanding of self and others. However, each adverse situation has given me more than it has taken from me. Human evolution is like the waves of sea. The waves and wavelets of humans and human existence keep changing and yet the sea of the humankind and its aspirations remain the same. And so as they say, the life goes on….