Avadhoot Dandekar

Is there a cause and effect in everything? There is no conclusive and definite answer to this. There are always two answers to this question. One answer is coming from the depth and the other answer is coming from the surface. The scientists believe in everything that has a cause and an effect. They strongly believe that there is no effect without a cause. They have infact done a great experiment in this direction. They created an emptiness. They removed all matter and created emptiness. And they found to their surprise that there are quantum fluctuations even in that emptiness. What caused these quantum fluctuations? They have no clue on this. There is no definite and conclusive answer for this. There is nothing in that space and still something causes these quantum fluctuations. Is emptiness really empty? Is emptiness fullness too? In fact emptiness and fullness are two perspectives of the same reality.

There is a story anologous to the above in the Yogavasistha. The story is that of the Crow and the Coconut (Kākatālīya). There was a crow and it was cawing. There was also the wind blowing. The crow sits on a palm-tree and the coconut falls. The cawing of the crow, the blowing of the wind, the sitting of the crow on the tree, and the falling of the fruit off the tree, all these happen simultaneously. They all happen at once. The question is what caused what? What caused the fruit to fall off the tree? Has the cawing of the crow caused the fruit to fall off the tree? Is the falling of the fruit a cause for the cawing of the crow? Are these two events, the sitting of the crow on the tree and falling of the coconut, independent of each other? Are they coincidental? Are they just an accident? Do they have a cause and effect? There can never be a definite and conclusive answer to this. The duality is a manifestation of the reality. And hence there are always two answers to this. One answer is coming from the depth of the reality and the other answer is coming from the surface of the reality. At the depth of the reality the answer is, nothing is causing nothing. And at the surface of the reality the answer is, everything is causing everything. These are the only two possible answers. So, at the depth of the reality, at the center of the reality we come across of the causeless, and at the periphery of the reality we come across of the many causess and its effects. 

The same is true when it comes to our words and the silence. Has the silence caused the words or have the words caused the silence? Is it better to say something or just keep quiet? People say that the silence says everything. No, silence can not say everything. The silence may create a misunderstanding. The words also can create a misunderstanding. And the same words can also be used to remove that misunderstanding. Therefore, it is better to say something than say nothing. It is better to say something than just be silent. Can the words say everything? No, the words can not say everything. The truth is far bigger than the words. Whatever you say, something is always left out. And it is always better to say something than say nothing.