Two. The prettiest number espousing the greatest concepts in logic, mathematics, philosophy, physics, electricity and why even database. The only even prime number in mathematics. The number whose powers can be added to get any integer of any magnitude. The number of logic states (0 and 1). The no of states in which an electric charge can exist. The number of physical states- male and female. The number of sides in a coin. Philosophy says Vidya and Avidya. Hindu Religion says Shiva and Shakti. Jews say Yahweh and Shekinah. Physics says proton and electron, neutrino and anti-neutrino and even matter and antimatter. And in each and every place when the two are fused they become the whole or there is nothing left of them. Or viewing from another angle the two are different sides of the same. Hinduism says Shiva and Shakti are incomplete without each other and truly they are two sides of the formless nameless spirit. Before Genesis the universe was void and thus when matter was created its opposite antimatter also came into existence.
All this brings us to the principle of duality which is the very basis of nature and for the more realized souls it’s the singularity in this duality that strikes.
Einstein showed that light has to be treated as a particle as a stream of photons to explain photo-electricity which thus came as a full circle in Physics after Newton’s corpuscular theory of light which was later disproved by Huygen’s wave theory to support interference and diffraction. It was then accepted that light can be treated as a particle as well as a wave in different conditions in concurrence with Nature’s duality. Similarly Einstein’s E=mc^2 also propounded that mass and energy are interconvertible and they are nothing but two different states in which any thing can exist. De Broglie’s equation also showed that even humans can be treated as a wave when they run but we don’t do that because the wavelength is too small to be significant. But one cannot deny its existence.
Even electricity and magnetism previously treated as separate subjects are now accepted as different expressions of the same force when seen from different frames of reference. The power of 2 and its powers can be seen from the Egyptian legend. It says that once a king was impressed with a farmer and asked to him choose anything as his reward. The clever farmer said that he wants the courtroom measured and for the first square inch he needs a rice grain and for each further square inch measured double the previous number of rice grains would be added. The king laughingly acceded but little did he expect that at the end of the measurement that number would be staggering.
Coming back to duality Nature has very rightly chosen this principle in order to maintain the balance in its scheme of things. The perfect example is the presence of two forms in its most exalted creation-humanity. Masculine and feminine are two completely contrasting forms having different views, ideas, psychology, mental make-up everything so to speak. But no one form is superior to the other as a whole. The feminine might be responsible to for the deliverance of new life but even that is not possible without the masculine. The spiritualists would say a child is the Divine’s reflection because it is a result of the union of the two forms and when the two forms unite in Nature – it might be physics, maths, philosophy- it becomes the whole and either completely destroys itself or creates a completely new form.
The Gita says the events are the results of one’s own actions. The old adage says “As you sow, so you reap”. Everything happens in a two bit cycle of cause and effect. Cause and effect- again two in number. That’s why they say Nature and life- “it’s a game of quid pro quo.” You give some you take some. Give and take.
