“Baba is Here”

“Swami, what was the first, the word or the image?”
“The Om, its vibration propagated in the form of light.”
“How can sound spread through space in the form of light, Lord.?”
“There was no space. Space was created as the light expanded through the nothing, permeating the ether so that it could serve as a resonance box to the primordial sound.”
“What was there in the place of nothing, Swami? An emptiness, a hole?”
“Nothing. It was only nothing. No vacuum. No holes. Nothing.”
“And where was God, Baba?”
“God was no where, because being somewhere would imply that he was in a place, in the nothing. That cannot be. God simply was.”
“What was God, Swami? Was He the nothing?”
“No, because the nothing, being nothing, still is. When nothing was, God was the unmanifested and formless, that for which there is not possible description. Man conceives the nothing as the absence of something. But that is not the nothing, because the nothing is also the absence of a vacuum, the absence of a hole, the absence of the absence. The nothing implies even the absence of the nothing. Look: even the absolute vacuum is something, which is more than nothing.”

“Can man conceive the nothing, Swami?”
“No, he cannot.”
“Why not, Baba?”
“Because he names it. And any word always refers to a representation of a concept. If you name the nothing, there is already something there, it is no longer ‘the nothing.’ Man cannot think without naming what he is thinking about. The elementary essence of man’s mind is made up of words and images, each one leaning upon the other. In name and form, you have diversification and multiplicity and individuality. It is that which makes each man different. In other words, this is the opposite of nothing.”

“Is that why man is anguished by the idea of returning to the nothing, Swami?”

“Yes, because man characterizes the nothing as the absence of perception of the external. It is through his senses that he makes contact with the world. Man conceives the nothing as the absence of images, sound, and touch. For him, this condition is total loneliness. There, all the senses are absence. The anguish is overwhelming. One of the most fearful sensations is living in a vacuum where man loses himself, because he cannot find a reference point that will return him to his individuality and his position in the world. Only God can save him from this frightening experience.”

From page 63 and 64

An excerpt from “Baba Is Here”, Conversations with God on His Omnipresence, by Graciela Busto.