Ritual

V Astronomical equations, based
on time units, used to determine the
mean position of a planet.
Rajasthan, c. 18th century.
Gouache on paper.
VI Astrogram. This painting
represents how astronomy blends
with astrology. The symbols
depicted on the various parts of the
body map out the interaction of the
twenty-eight Nakshatras, or lunar
mansions, on the micro-self. The
body, depicted in the shape of a
bow or Dhanu-asana, represents
the energized unit of the vast
macrocosm. Rajasthan, 19th
century. Gouache on paper.
100
The process of evolution of the material universe is always
conceived in relation to space, time and causality. Time is a
continuum of one dimension which distinguishes 'then' and 'now'.
A moment or an instance is the ultimate irreducible unit of this
continuum. A moment also represents the ultimate moment of
change or an instantaneous transit of an atom from one point of
space to the next. In the time sequence only a single moment is real,
and the whole universe evolves in that single moment; the rest,
past and future, are potential or sublatent phenomena. Time is
relative and has no objective reality, being always conceived in
relation to its antecedents and sequence. Space, like time, is also
considered to be only relative, constructed on the basis of relation
or position. Both these categories are forms of intuition of our
empirical consciousness and arc real only in finite terms. The
contradictions and inconsistencies of the old scientific theories
forced Einstein to ascribe new properties to the space-time
continuum. According to him, space and time are not absolute
quantities imposed on the universe but have significance only
when relations between events and systems are defined. The
ancient Indian thinkers also stressed this aspect.
In Samkhya, cause and effect are more or less evolved forms of
the same ultimate energy. The sum of effects exists potentially in
the sum of causes. Production of effects only means an internal
change in the arrangement of atoms already present in potential
form in the cause. The material universe, which is a product, is
only a change of appearance of Prakriti and the three gunas.
According to the physicist Joseph Kaplan, the principle involved is
identical with what is known in Western physics as the principle of
superposition:
In our modern description of nature, we proceed as follows: Let us say we
are describing a molecule of nitrogen. Instead of giving a completely
detailed account of its structure, as we might do in describing a chair or a
house, we say that the molecule is adequately described for experimental
purposes by giving all the possible energy states in which the nitrogen
molecule can find itself, and then assigning to each such state a number
which gives its relative weight, that is, the relative number of times that
state appears compared with other states. Thus the molecule is not
something which takes on successive states, but it is the states themselves.
So dice are the sum of possible ways in 'which they can fall. The principle
is known as the principle of superposition. So the three gunas represent
the universe, and as the three occur in various relative intensities, so the
properties of things are determined. 23