Yoga understands that anything that “is” will become “is not.” Whatsoever “is” ends up as “is not.” Whatsoever has a birth has a death. Whatsoever has existence has non-existence too. Whatsoever is seen can also become the unseen. Yoga understands that in this universe everything has double dimensions; in this universe nothing is one-dimensional.

We cannot say that a man was born and he did not die. However much we may prolong his life span, we will have to come back to the same point: that he must have died at some juncture or he will die sometime. It is impossible even to conceive that one pole of something is birth and the other pole will not be death. It may be far away, far, far away – the distance may seem to be endless – but the other pole is a certainty. Every pole must have its opposite pole, just as a coin must have two sides. It is simply impossible that there can be a coin that has only one side – it cannot be. The second side has to be, because for one side to be, the other side is an absolute certainty.

So the second sutra of the science of yoga is: Everything is two-dimensional. One dimension is existence, the second dimension is non-existence.

The universe is; it can also become “is not.” We are; we can also become “are not.” All that is can become “is not.” By “is not,” don’t understand that it will exist in some other form. No, it may simply become non-existent. Existence is one side, non-existence the other. It seems difficult to conceive how existence can come out of non-existence. How can existence become non-existence? But if we look at life all around us, we will realize that each moment, what is not will be, and what is will move into not-being.

Our sun is becoming colder and colder every day. Its rays are getting lost in the void. Scientists say that it can remain hot for four billion years more. In four billion years all its rays will have dissipated into endless space; then it will also become void. If the rays can disappear into the void, they must also be arising from the void – otherwise how can the void come into existence? Science says that our sun is dying, but other suns are being born in some other places. From what are they being born? They are being born out of the void.

The Vedas talk about a time when there was nothing; the Upanishads also say there was a time when nothing existed, and the Bible also talks of the time when there was nothing. Out of that nothingness is born all “isness,” and the “isness” goes on disappearing into nothingness each moment. If we take the whole existence as one, then too we will have to accept a non-existence beneath it.

So the second sutra of yoga means that every form in existence has its non-existence attached to it.

Energy has two dimensions – existence and non-existence. Energy can “be” and it can also “not be.” Hence yoga’s understanding is that creation is only one side, the other side is annihilation. It is not that all this will exist forever. It will disappear, it will be destroyed, and it will go on becoming again and again.