Man: Both Centrifugal and Centripetal
Man is both a centrifugal and a centripetal force. The centrifugal force is his future, his potential and ultimate possibility. At present he is a centripetal force, drawing everything towards himself. This is called selfishness. In his book 'The Selfish Genes', Richard Dawkins expertly unravels the secrets of the selfishness of both man and animal. Because of his notion of separation with the whole and being caught in the duality of 'I and non-I," 'mine and thine" and sensual pleasure, man has developed a strong egoistic attitude. All the known human conflicts and miseries are due to that.
However, man is not only a product of his ancestors" or his own genes, but much more than that. He is a mind or an ego that can expand to become one with the cosmos and thus participate in the cosmic celebration that life is. The symbols of chakras or lotuses, as mentioned in spiritual sciences like tantra, yoga and others, are nothing but a symbolic representation of the two forces that man represents. One is the centripetal force with a tendency to draw everything to oneself and the other the possibility to open up and merge with the cosmos.
Being centripetal, man is heavy, thus he is stuck to the earth or the world of matter. In the esoteric symbol below, the inverted triangle represents the first three lotuses that keep him to the world of matter, while the upright triangle symbolises the three higher lotuses that open his entry into the subtle realm of light and spirit.
With the thousand-petal lotus situated at the crown of the head, man becomes a fully developed centrifugal force, totally unselfish. By living egoistically, man misses the opportunity to expand and only from expansion are love, peace, bliss eternal and freedom born. The lotus is considered in some schools of thought and religions as a divine symbol. Its symbolism is only that it represents these two forces, the centrifugal (full-bloom lotus) and centripetal (closed lotus) forces. Creation is expansion while annihilation is contraction.
Except man, the whole of nature obeys the law of centrifugal force. First, let us take creation. It was a seed, then came the big explosion. It expanded and continues to expand to give birth to existence. Human civilisation started as a small group and expanded to attain the present size. Man, however, has remained selfish, egocentric and closed, though the possibility of expansion is present. He is not ready to change or to transform. He finds suffering and death in it. This is why for old and uneducated people, change is an anathema. Nature is constantly showing us the cycle of birth and death or death and rebirth, yet man clings to his ego or seed state. In that endeavour, he has created an unbelievably conflicting and chaotic society.
The lotus is born from the mud, yet how beautiful, pure and attractive it is. Man is presently in the mud. He can stay there till the whole human race becomes extinct or he can choose to blossom and expand. In so doing he can embrace the whole cosmos, shower the fragrance of love, the vibration of peace and harmony and enjoy eternal and unconditional freedom. Man is always willing to embrace things that soothe his senses, therefore whether it is wealth, sex, drugs or politics, it is the bliss and satisfaction that matter. If only he can sacrifice the mud of sensuality and materialism and use them as a base instead, he can rise above the mind and become a golden lotus.
In the scriptures, there is a story about the search of the golden lotus. It symbolises nothing but the search for enlightenment when the kundalini passes through the six chakras to reach the seventh one at the dome of the head. The kundalini is nothing but the lower instincts and human nature transformed. Just as when water is heated, it rises above in the form of vapour, likewise when the lower forces are 'heated" or sublimated through spiritual practices, they go up through the spinal cord to the seventh centre and cosmic consciousness ensues. Man becomes spiritual or the centrifugal force.
To become spiritual does not mean to be associated with any religion or school of thought. It simply means to open up like a lotus and embrace the whole existence. However, so that the lotus of the mind can blossom, great understanding about one's selfish nature is required. We should know how closed and egocentric we are, only then we can decide to open up. That will be a kind of death and rebirth. Let the lotus blossom, water it with understanding, self-education and a scientific style of living, and finally with spiritual practice, expand your awareness.
