Typology: Illustration, Philosophy
Role: Research, Concept, Content writing and Illustration
Location: Dessau, Germany
Completed: 2017

An illustrated artwork based on the subject of "Nothingness", derived from ancient Indian historic, mathematic and philosophical concepts.

Manifesto:-

God is Nothing

To begin with, I intend to explain the value of space in its purest essence. In a world full of ‘clutter’, we have forgotten the value of nothingness, and there lies the true realization of the value of space. We are surrounded by a farrago of things, objects and entities all around us. To realize what it means to be free of it all, is by itself a sense of awakening within our consciousness. To express this first I intend to explain Space in its bare form, without any entity or object within. A  concept of a sort of nullity in space, devoid of all matter, which one would call Zero space or the Void. This would be a starting point of explaining the concept of space itself. To understand this concept I realize that one has to understand the state of nothingness. I begin exploring this with the origin of mankind’s realization of it. 

The invention of zero in mathematics by the Indian mathematician and astronomist, Brahmagupta, led to profound revelations in Science and Mathematics. It’s discovery had not only influenced the logical practices but also in the spiritual and philosophical realms. 

In the first millennia BC, scholars from the ancient Hindu school of thought and philosophy called the Advaitha Vedantha, contemplated over the concept of realizing/discovering/understanding the penultimate level of consciousness. On occasions when they would sit and debate over such subjects, they consumed a potion of herbs called the ‘Som-ras’, which heightened their consciousness to seek answers on the questions their minds dwelled upon. And so they came up with an intriguing deduction on the concept of nothingness.

There are millions of deities and gods in Hindu mythology, over 33 million infact. Each categorised under Elemental types (like Earth, Fire etc) and Conceptual types (wealth, knowledge, Creation, destruction etc). But there is one that prevails over all is an enigma called Nirguna Brahman. Nirguna brahman is conceived to be an inconceivable spirit, an unimaginable kind of divinity. One that exists everywhere but does not exists anywhere. This might be a paradoxical thought on the surface but this idea can be further explained.

To recognise day, night should relatively exist. Similarly, to recognise the existence of unimaginable nature, relatively the imaginable nature must exist. And the concept of nothingness or zero is a unachievable concept for a living being to experience, unimaginable. A feeling that can never be experienced by a conscious being.

Zero.

Formless, shapeless. A non entity, A non being.

A non-being that transcends all beings…

In other words, Nirguna Bhavan is nothing or no-one. Nirguna Brahman is true Nullity in spirit. An all supreme consciousness, which is free of any conscious thought or feeling. Pure and free by itself. The ultimate reality underlying all phenomena in the Hindu scriptures. Brahman is formless but is the birthplace of all forms in visible reality. Nirguna can be translated from Sanskrit as “ without qualities”, a consciousness free of thought and conception, a consciousness absolute. The ancient Hindus understood and realised, in their terms, that the God of all Gods was in fact “Nothingness”. And going by the definition of God, as a divine entity beyond man’s comprehensions. One which is primordial, has no beginning or end. One which is Omnipresent, that is present everywhere. One which is immortal. Upon whom the rules of the universe were not applicable. A transcendent being beyond all real comprehensions and conceptualisations. Nirguna Bhrahman is zero in every sense.

So if god according to the ancients is zero, what would be the physical manifestation of it? This could be understood better by understanding the idea of what is not God, the opposite of zero.

Something can not be nothing. And in physical terms, matter is something. Matter has presence. It can or can not have a consciousness. It has form and thereby it can not exist everywhere. limits in physicality define its parameters of existence. Matter is imaginable. matter exists. If matter is the anti-concept of zero by physical terms, then what would be the physical manifestation of zero? non matter? 

Something that does not have a physical presence or absence. Something that is everywhere omnipresent. Something primordial.

There could only be one unaffected by the rules of the universe, unaffected by time, truly immortal…

Space.

A non-being.

One that exists everywhere

One that is within all.

Space is God.

Only in understanding the absence of something, can its presence be truly realised.