The tiny amount of air inside seems to be able to do nothing to help, while the air outside seems to be all powerful – blowing the air bubble along with it in whichever direction it wants. The bubble also struggles to retain its form against the force of this external air. However, this lasts only for a very short period of time. The bubble eventually bursts and the air that was inside the bubble merges with the air that was apparently outside the bubble & becomes indistinguishable.
Much like that, our individual life force (or consciousness) can be compared to that of the air inside the bubble. It seems tiny, fragile and completely at the mercy of the natural forces outside the body. Our identification of this consciousness with the gross existence of body & mind, makes us feel insignificant and infinitesimally small compared to the universal consciousness.
Either upon Realization of the Truth of our Real nature or upon the death of the body, the individual consciousness merges with the universal existence. Sw. Vivekananda’s statement points to the fact that it is possible to realize the infiniteness of our Being in this life itself and having achieved that realization, one identifies their existence with the universal consciousness, thus able to claim all the powers that Nature herself owns.
The soap in this analogy of the bubble can be compared to the gross body & mind along with the subtle ego that identifies itself with the gross body & mind. This is also the realm of Ignorance, where our intellect stops our mind from exploring the possibilities of anything beyond itself. The ego continues to drive attention towards the lower Self, that is the gross body & mind & all our energy goes in attending to the demands of this materialistic ego.
Nature however has its own way to drive the Truth home. Sw Atmapriyananda, an illustrious monk of the Ramakrishna Mission, said in a lecture that the physical laws of entropy works in similar ways for spiritual life as well. The conscious mind we have tends to become chaotic with age & becomes very difficult to control with time. Hence severe training & nurturing guidance from a preceptor becomes a must-have if one has to progress even an inch in this direction.