Infinity............. one or many??

[Guest guest]

The following interesting dialogue deals with ideas of

infinity which have puzzled many. Can infinity be just one or

many? ..... I am sharing my response with the list.....jay

 

 

-

" Leon Dawson "

<vivekananda

Wednesday, June 20, 2001 06:44

Re: [selfknow-l] soul

 

>namaste

> In reply I would like to ask a question about the following :

>

> " Now, if it is beyond time, space and causation,

> it must be infinite. Then comes the highest speculation in our

> philosophy.The infinite cannot be two. If the soul be infinite, there can

be

> only oneSoul, and all ideas of various souls - you having one soul, and I

> having another, and so forth - are not real. "

>

> ****************** question:

>

> How can the infinite exist without the infinitestimal - the infinite is

that

> which is forever expanding - and the infinitesimal is that which is a spec

> in comparison. - and yet both could be of the same quality

'consciousness'.

>

> How can there be infinity without diversity, if only one thing exists then

> that is not infinity...but if simultaneously an infinite amount of

entities

> exist and also they are all one - inconceivably, then that I feel would be

> the true nature of infinity.

>

> Namste...Leon

 

=====Response=====

 

Namste Leon

 

Infinite and Infinitesimal are mirror images of each other.

As a mathematician would say one is the reciprocal of the other.

 

Mathematicians find infinity highly entertaining. As you perhaps

know - infinities can come in different varieties too. The infinity you

can find as all points on a line from zero to one unit is of a higher

level than an infinity of say list of all positive integers.......

 

Hence your conclusion: infinities are many and " not one " may seem valid.

But then why is Vivekananda saying 'Infinity cannot be more than one'?

He is saying that all infinities that we refer to whether it is in terms

of all points on a line or a set of positive integers, all these are limited

approaches to the infinite -- being such they reflect the limitations of our

process of reaching infinite - this makes them look like different

infinities -- same infinity approached using different methods seem to

produce many infinities. As with the case of infinite and infinitesimal.

 

Does this really in any way hinder spiritual understanding of

Brahman ? Answer: No.......

 

Infinite is just that, an expression you generate in the thinking process

and no thinking process holds copyrights on Brahman (thankfully).

Hence when we say Brahman is infinite that is a liberty we take

with Brahman but a tolerable liberty provided we are aware that our

approach in trying to come to terms with infinity seems to impose

limitations on infinity too, hence making infinity appear as many.

" One appearing as many "

 

Though a bit long winded response, I hope it made sense.

 

: )

jay

Vivekananda Centre London