If imbalance reigns in the material world, and harmony sets in only rarely and for brief spells, then on the metaphysical plane it must be the other way round, and there a permanent harmony reigns, seasoned at times – and not disrupted! – with imbalance. If balance in the world is a rare blessing and the result of processes, then on the other side it is a self-generating mechanism, existing in itself. At the same time, diversity and the tension springing from it are the necessary complement of homogeneity, and so perfect fullness comes into being. For no two cherries, sunflowers or people are the same, and yet the great universal law of existence binds them together.
In a metaphysical sense, we may also understand balance as a synonym for perfection. In earthly terms, balance is bound up with stillness, calm and harmony, on the moral level with peace and happiness, good-humoured acceptance and wise equanimity, and on the metaphysical level with fullness. Man, too, may come closer to this great balance if he holds, all at once, the information of existence that concerns himself, his surroundings and the cosmos, and if it all stands in a harmonious spiritual constellation. Then human insight into perfection can be realised, whose heavenly counterpart is divine influence.
Others may think that balance, perfection and the like are human notions, as opposed to which the divine is asymmetrical, but for the higher divine harmony, which unites even opposites, there is no either-or solution: opposition only heightens beauty. Indeed, higher than balance is symmetry, and more sublime than symmetry is beauty. Metaphysical being-ness is perfection, and this does mean separateness, an autonomous, individual existence, but not being cut off or estranged from divine harmony. Thus metaphysical balance is the synthesis between one-ness and duality. The lasting equilibrium of the preceding levels of existence – physics, psyche, morality – can be secured only by metaphysical balance.
Man may ultimately have a heavenly calling, yet he must hold his own on earth as well. For the creator gave him two hands, a left and a right, to govern material and spiritual affairs. A cart cannot move on one wheel, nor does fate lead to success without human striving – so ancient philosophy holds. On three points of support, or on four legs, a body is more easily balanced, but man was allotted only two legs. That is precisely why his movement, too, sways and wavers, owing to his unusually high centre of gravity. Balancing on two legs is not easy, as we feel at once if, for instance, we try to stand on stilts. But even this precarious physical balance is child's play compared with psychological equilibrium, not to mention metaphysical balance.
It is surprising how closely the physiological insights of the ancient philosophy of yoga are bound up with cosmological truths. The organ of hearing is the ear, and its object is sound, which is the property of ether, otherwise called the cosmic void, that is, space, just as smell is the property of earth, or taste that of water. Now the ‘hearing’ of the void, or of space, is in truth nothing other than the sense of space, the recognition of balance. Among the sensory functions, the last that Western medicine identified was the organ of balance, which plays an important part in the sense of space and is housed precisely in the semicircular canals connected to the ear.
For metaphysical balance, we must know the constituents and the nature of the higher reality. According to the wise, these are eternal existence, awareness and bliss, and also imperishability. Eternal existence has meaning in a pure state of consciousness, and being and consciousness, allied with each other, marvel at perfect blessed bliss – imperishably.