A raindrop falls from the sky and hurtles towards the ocean. For now, it is still a raindrop. Pause the timeframe of all time and space, consider the moment—a nanosecond before the raindrop plummets into the vast ocean—and think: when does the raindrop disappear? In the exact moment the raindrop disintegrates into the ocean, does it still carry its authentic self, or has it given up its sovereignty in favour of being one with the ocean?

Let’s take it a step further. In another part of the world, raindrops fall on a busy, long stretch of a road where you are stuck in heavy traffic. Think about the traffic you are referring to. Peer into the distance, looking at your watch with increasing anxiety, you’ll perhaps see vehicles closely huddled together enveloped in moisture, all part of the traffic.

As you sit in your vehicle, frustrated, many other things are simultaneously happening in the world. Maybe the first thing on your mind might be how mad your boss might be. However, at that very moment, mentally freeze the fabric of all space and time. Veer your vision to another part of the world to the ocean which was mentioned before. At that moment, the raindrop is at an infinitesimally microscopic distance from disintegrating into the ocean. Imagine if you could extract all the events that are happening in the earth at the time and put it into one big picture. The person you love the most is somewhere, perhaps laying on a couch, thinking about you. Your favourite celebrity is somewhere, miles away, shooting another episode of your favourite show. The person you hate the most is also somewhere, doing something you probably are not interested in.

Resume the paused images. The raindrop falls into the ocean. Your loved one gets up from the couch and starts thinking about something else. Your favourite celebrity gets off the camera and calls it a day. The person you hate takes their phone out and starts texting you. You move a little bit forward on the road, when your phone rings. It’s your boss.

The world is a soup of many events happening in a continuous timeframe. At one moment, we tend to forget about the people and things which are not in our immediate vicinity. However, all these things still exist and they are happening as we continue with our lives. At any given moment, we may pause time and space and find that everyone and everything in the world is in a different physical, emotional, and existential state.

However, as you become aware of these emotions right now, the universe continues bubbling, churning, expanding. It is all one big bubble soup in a steamy bowl. If a marine biologist asked for a sample of the ocean and you gave her the drop of rain which fell into it, she would readily accept. But now, imagine, if a scientist from an entirely separate universe arrived in our world asked us for a sample of our universe, and you stepped in saying, “Take me. I am the sample.” Would the scientist accept?

You, your boss, your love, the raindrop, all are a part of a bigger entity. Just like the raindrop which entered the ocean in order to become a part of the ocean, you entered this universe in order to become a part of the universe. So did your boss. How do you feel about your boss now?

As you are stuck in the rain in traffic, a person in a big truck picks up their phone and yells, “Hold on, I’m stuck in traffic.” You look at the person with skepticism and think, “Stuck in traffic! Bollocks, you are a chunk of traffic, a big one.” As you think this and honk your vehicle to the traffic in your field of vision, the people behind you honk their vehicles at you. In the conundrum and chaos of the noisy streets, everyone curses their luck thinking that they are stuck in traffic. What they fail to realise is that: they are not stuck in traffic. They are the traffic.