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Cosmos and cosmic language (part I)
by
Dr Ghayur Ayub
Over two decades ago, a Dervish once told me that cosmos speaks to us all the time in it's own language. It is different matter that we don't perceive or understand it. It's like a person sitting next to us talking in a foreign language sounding gibberish. All we hear are unintelligible words and see antic gestures. In order to comprehend him partly, we link his utterances with his body movements. When I enquired of him if he was talking about the non-conventional languages observed in numerology, astrology, astronomy, palmistry, etc., he replied in negative. He added that these languages may play a tiny part in it as parallels can be drawn from these languages and applied to unite past, present and future occurrences in a single continuity thus reflecting past with present and present with future and vice versa. Otherwise, these languages operate by a set of rules, while cosmic language has no such rules. What the Wiseman said further about the Islamic world and Pakistan was bewildering. Before I delve into that, let me briefly talk about the cosmos and it's language.
Generally speaking the word cosmos is applied to an orderly or harmonious system. The word originated from the Greek term kosmos, meaning "order" the opposite of chaos. Pythagoras is said to have been the first philosopher to apply the term to the Universe. It has become synonymous to universe ever since. In many Slavic languages such as Russian and Bulgarian, the word means the "outer space", while in Mandarin Chinese, it is translated as “space-time”.
In theology, the term denotes the created universe, not including the Creator. For example, in Christian theology, it is referred to "this world" as opposed to the afterlife. Similarly, in the Quran Allah says that He created the universes and the earth and everything in between. In Zoroastrian theology the term aša is used signifying the concept of a divine order, or divinely ordered creation.
If we take cosmos as universe then according to current scientific theory, it began 13.7 billion years ago as a result of the Big Bang. Some scientists estimate the beginning at 18 billion years. The current diameter of the observable cosmos is thought to be about 93 billion light years, while the diameter of the entire cosmos is unknown and possibly infinite. Before going further, it is important to know the place of life in cosmos. Philosophically speaking observations of the physical Universe (cosmos) must be compatible with the conscious life that observes it. This became the basic rule of the anthropic principle. The principle was formulated as a result of a series of observations that the laws of nature and parameters of the Universe take on values consistent with conditions for life on Earth as we know it.
This principle gave rise to controversy as some thought it discouraged the scientific search for a deeper physical understanding of the universe. By invoking the ideas of multiple universes or an intelligent designer, the principle is criticised as more of a philosophical concept than a scientific reality. One way to bypass the controversy is to emphasize on the part of the principle which states, "conditions that are observed in the universe must allow the observer to exist” This became 'the weak anthropic principle' which makes fewer claims of substance and 'easier' to support. Thus, in its wider understanding, three aspects of the cosmos are studied; first, its width; second, its intelligent designer (some dispute this concept) and its sustainer (spiritualists believe in this notion); and third, its language.
The concept of 'intelligent designer' is an important part of this principle making it acceptable by the theosophists. In traditional theosophy, the beings that govern our particular Cosmos are called the Cosmic Logos. Various versions of such 'beings' have been recorded the details of which are beyond the scope of this write-up. But two beings became popular in theosophical and paranormal world. They are Alpha, the Heavenly Father and Omega, the Heavenly Mother which are said to live in the Great Central Sun, a hyperspherical body said to be located in the fourth dimension.
As opposed to this concept, the organised monotheistic religions believe in one 'Being' which governs the entire Omniverse and all its Multiverses. The attributes of this 'Being' were given the status of deities making a way to pantheistic theologies. This notion in its turn became the principle of communication in universal spirituality and a potent bond between various religions to make the warring theologies drop their guns of hate and open the door of tolerance.
Talking about language, theories about its origin are divided. Some state that language evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among our pre-human ancestors. It did not just appear from nothing. The opposite viewpoint is that language is such a unique human trait that it must have appeared fairly suddenly in the transition from pre-hominids to early man. It is believed that pre-human australopithecines did not have communication systems until the appearance of Homo some 2.5 million years ago. Some scholars assume the primitive symbolic communication started with Homo erectus,1.8 million years ago and proper language started with Homo sapiens sapiens around 50,000 years ago. Formal study of language began in India in the 5th century BC when 3,959 rules were formulated in Sanskrit morphology. Two hundred years later in 280 BC, one of Alexander the Great’s successors founded a university in Alexandria, where the ancient texts were studied and Greek was taught to speakers of other languages. This school was the first to introduce "grammar" in its modern sense. The first book ever published was in Esperanto, the world's most widely spoken constructed language. Today, approximately 3000–6000 languages are spoken by humans.
The millennia years old evolution of human language is unique as compared to the forms of communication used by other animals, In this system the symbolic communication, is seen as consisting of three parts: signs, meanings and a code connecting signs with their meanings. In this way it allows humans to produce a limitless set of utterances from a limited set of elements and symbols and joined them through grammatical rules acquired as part of human social interaction. In other words the language has become a collection of symbols governed by grammatical rules combining signs with meanings and used in formal logic by evolved human brain. The areas of brain involved in this process are Broca's area, Wernicke's area, Supramarginal gyrus, Angular gyrus, and Primary Auditory Cortex. Through complex interactions between these areas and depending on whether the language is spoken, signed or written, it is uniformly transmitted through sounds, gestures, letters or symbols in orderly fashion.
Conversely, the cosmic language is entirely different ball game. It has non structured rules based essentially on intuition which brings it closer to spirituality without disconnecting it from theology or logic (philosophy). In this way it links theology, philosophy (logic) and spirituality completing the basic framework of any organised religion. As cosmic language is a comparatively new system with close links to spirituality, and spirituality being the main attraction of 21st century, this language can emerge a new dynamic phenomenon in the current century.
(To be continued)
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