70 Sanskrit verses (with English translation) providing an essence of Sri Aurobindo's teachings. Themes : Creation, 7-fold world. the Supramental Person etc.
70 Sanskrit verses (along with English translation & explanatory notes) to provide an essence of Sri Aurobindo's teachings with focus on themes like Creation, 7-fold world. the Supramental Person etc.
अधिष्ठाय परां शक्तिमीश्वरो व्यज्यते यतः । अव्यक्तव्यञ्जको योगः स व्यञ्जयतु नः शिवम् ॥ १ ॥
सा शक्तिश्चितिरीशस्य चितेः कार्यमिदं जगत् । निगमागमसिद्वान्तसारोऽयं विदितो विदाम् ॥ २ ॥
परमोऽर्थः परं ब्रह्म शव्दस्तच्छक्तिरुच्यते । अनयोरविभाज्यं तत्सत्यमेकं सनातनम् ॥ ३ ॥
परः शब्दात्वको भूत्वा शक्तस्तपति वर्धते । स्वतोऽविभाज्यान्येतानि जगन्ति विसृजविभुः ॥ ४ ॥
नानालोकाः प्रजायन्ते कारणादेकतो विभोः । तस्मादेकत्र नानात्वमुत्पन्नमुपपद्यते ॥ ५ ॥
उत्पन्नानामनेकेषां लोकानामीशजन्मनाम् । अनुत्पन्नस्य चैकस्य सम्बन्धो ध्रियते सतः ।॥ ६ ॥
अथ चैकत्व-नानात्वसम्बन्थो ध्रियते न चेत् । क्रमो वा नियतिर्न स्याल्लोकयात्रासु लक्षितः ॥ ७ ॥
नियतिर्यदि निर्मूला निरर्था सा भवेद्, यतः । प्रयोजनमनुद्दिश्य न मन्दोऽपि प्रवर्तते ॥ ८ ॥
तस्मात्सर्वस्य लोकस्य गतिरर्थवती यतः । प्रज्ञानेतृ जगत्प्राहुरिदं नान्धेन नीयते ॥ ९ ॥
इच्छापूर्वमिदं सृष्टं नेश्वरस्य तटस्थता । अनाप्तकामदोषस्य न गन्धोऽपि प्रसज्यते ॥ १० ॥
अपूर्णः स्रष्टुकामोऽपि जगत्स्रष्टुं कथं प्रभुः । आनन्दस्य समृद्धत्वात्पूर्णत्वादस्य सर्जनम् ॥ ११ ॥
यस्माज्जगदिदं पूर्णादंशः पूर्णमुदच्यते । तस्मादशेऽपि सम्पूर्ण आनन्दः परमेश्वरः ॥ १२ ॥
कोऽप्यंशो जगदाकारस्तपसा जायते यतः । तत्र पूर्णः परः शक्त्या रमते नित्ययेश्वरः ॥ १३ ॥
एक एवाऽव्ययः पूर्णः सच्चिदानन्दलक्षणः । उपादानं निमित्तं च विसृष्टेर्जगतः स्मृतः ॥ १४ ॥
प्रकृतिः स्यादुपादानं जगतां ब्रह्मणो वपुः । आकाशश्चिद्घनानन्दोऽप्यदितिर्वेदभाषया ॥ १५ ॥
चितिशक्तिस्तपोवाच्या निमित्तं जगदुद्भवे । सन्नेवमेक एवात्मा त्रिरूपः प्रोच्यते बुधैः ॥ १६ ॥
अदितिः प्रकृतिः प्रोक्ता तपो मायेति कीर्तिता । अदितिः सा त्वखण्डत्वान्मानान्मायेति गीयते ॥ १७ ॥
एका स्वरूपं सत्यस्यापरा व्यापार उच्यते । उभाभ्यां सर्जनं धत्ते स्वयमेको परात्परः ॥ १८ ॥
शक्त्या यया मिमीतेऽयममेयं स्वं परः पुमान्। माया सा कीर्त्यते कैश्विदस्माभिस्तप इष्यते ॥ १९ ॥
एवं त्रिरूपो भगवाननन्त- स्तपःप्रभावाद्विसृजत्यजाण्डान् । स्वांशेषु जातेषु विसृष्टपूर्वे- ष्वात्मानमेकं बहुधा व्यनक्ति ॥ २० ॥
जगतोऽपि त्रिरूपत्वं त्रिरूपत्वात्परेशितुः । व्यापारात्सिद्धमीशस्य तपश्चिच्छक्तिवाचिनः ॥ २१ ॥
भूर्भुवः स्वरिति ख्याता त्रिलोकी सृष्टिरुच्यते । सेयं प्रकृतिरीशस्य क्लृप्ता शक्तिविलासतः ॥ २२ ॥
गुणत्रयविभागेन लोकत्रयविभागिनी । तमोरजस्सत्त्वमूर्तिरन्न-प्राण-मनोमयी ॥ २३ ॥
बृहस्तपसः पुंसो व्यापारो भावना ह्यसी। अखण्डमण्डलाकारफललीला विनिर्मिता॥ २४॥
सच्चिदानन्दरूपस्य त्रिरूपस्य परात्मनः । इदं विपर्ययेणेह बिम्बितं भुवनत्रयम् ॥ २५ ॥
पराशरेण मुनिना शमीकाय निबोधिते । लोकसंस्थानसङख्याने रहस्यं किञ्चिदीरितम् ॥ २६ ॥
भूरादिसप्तलोकानां संस्थानं वर्णयन्मुनिः । भूरादिलोकत्रितयमनित्यं कृतकं जगौ ॥ २७ ॥ जनस्तपस्था सत्यमिति चाकृतकत्रयम् । महार्लोकं तयोर्मध्ये कुताकृतकयोर्द्वयोः ॥ २८ ॥
सप्तस्वेतेषु लोकेषु नित्यलोकास्त्रयः स्मृताः । आनन्दाज्जन्म भूतानां आनन्दो जन उच्यते ॥ २९ ॥
चितेश्च शक्तिरूपत्वाच्चिच्छक्तिस्तप इष्यते । सन्नेवात्मा सत्यलोक इति बोध्यं सतां मतम् ॥ ३० ॥
तमेकं सच्चिदानन्दं परतत्त्वविदो विदुः । जनस्तपस्सत्यमिति लोकसंस्थानवेदिनः ॥ ३१ ॥
त्रैलोक्यस्येह भूरादेस्त्रैलोक्यस्य परस्य च । सन्धिलोको महर्लोकस्तुरीयः संस्मृतो बुधैः ॥ ३२ ॥
कृताकृतकयोर्मध्ये द्वयोश्चापि त्रिरूपयोः । अनेनैव त्रिलोकीयं कर्त्रा कार्यत्वमाश्रिता ॥ ३३ ॥
नानात्वैकत्वयोः ख्याति भावयन्यो विराजते । नानात्वैकत्वसंवादोऽमुष्मिन् लोके प्रतिष्ठितः ॥ ३४ ॥
तुरीयेऽसति लोकेऽस्मिन्मध्यमे महआह्वये । त्रिलोक्यत्यन्तभिन्ना स्यात्त्रिरूपात्परमेशितुः ।॥ ३५ ॥
परलोकत्त्रयं नित्यं परार्धमिति कीर्त्यते । अपरार्धमिदं लोकत्रयं कृतकमीशितुः ॥ ३६ ॥
उभयोरर्धयोर्मध्ये राजन्तं पुरुषोत्तमम् । महार्लोकपति विज्ञा विज्ञानमयमूचिरे ॥ ३७ ॥
आनन्दः परमं ब्रह्म प्रजानमिति चक्षते । लोकचक्रपरार्धस्य यत्रान्तर्भाव इष्यते ॥ ३८ ॥
तुरीयं धाम विज्ञानं तैत्तिरीयैर्महः स्मृतम् । अपरार्धगतं ज्ञानं मनः शुद्ध स्वरात्मकम् ॥ ३९ ॥
भुवर्लोकात्मकः प्राणस्त्वपरार्धपरा क्रिया । भूरित्यन्नमयो लोकस्त्वपरार्धावधिर्जडः ॥ ४० ॥
सङक्षिप्यैवं समाख्याता लोकसप्तकधोरणी । विचित्रबन्धरचना विनिष्पन्नेयमीशितुः ॥ ४१ ॥
अवस्थाभेदनिर्मात्री चित्रबन्धा जगद्गति : । क्वचिद्गुप्ता क्वचिद्व्यक्ता चिन्मयी क्वचिदुल्बणा ॥४२॥
परस्मात्प्रस्थिता सेयं भूमिकानां परम्परा । सोपानकल्पिताकारा निःश्रेणिरिव निर्मिता ॥४३॥ ईशस्य तद्विसृष्टस्य जगतश्चान्तरे स्थिता । ऊर्ध्वाधोगतिकक्ष्येयनुभयीं कोटिमास्थिता ॥४४॥
पद्या योगविदां हृद्या तमःपारमहोदया । सोपानक्रमसम्पन्नाऽऽरुरुक्षोरधिरोहिणी ॥४५॥
चिदियं परमेशस्य कक्ष्याक्रमविभासिनी । भिन्नशक्तिगुणा ह्येषा भिन्नमाना च सर्वतः ॥४६॥
जगतोऽनुप्रवेशोऽयं निर्देशात्परमेशितुः । महर्लोके समारब्धो विज्ञानमयभूमनि ॥४७॥
अस्माकं मूलपुरुषो जीवत्वमिह बिभ्रताम् । विज्ञानात्मा महर्लोके त्रिलोकी यद्वशे स्थिता ।॥४८॥
एष क्रियाज्ञाननिधिर्महसि प्रतितिष्ठति । तुरीये धाम्नि सप्तानां व्याहृतीनां च मध्यमे ॥४९॥
यस्यांशवोऽस्मद्व्यक्तीनां हेतवो मूलधातवः । सूत्रात्मरूपनानात्मव्यञ्जका नियतक्रियाः ॥५०॥
एकस्यैवात्मनो नानारूपाण्याविष्कृतान्यतः । एकैकमपितद्रूपं जीव इत्युच्यते बुधैः ॥५१॥
विचरन्तीह भूतानि रूपाण्येव प्रजापतेः । एकैकस्य च भूतस्य मूलांशः स तुरीयगः ॥५२॥
अविच्छिन्ना दृष्टिधारा माहसी जगदीशितुः । यतो भूतानि जायन्ते तद्रूपाणि पुनः पुनः ॥५३।।
उत्पन्नस्येह भूलोके देहं स्थूलं शरीरिणः । अत्र धारयितुं भूमौ यः प्राणः समपेक्षितः ॥५४॥ स भुवर्लोकतो देहमभिमान्य विकारतः । बिर्भात व्यापृतस्तत्र समाविष्टो बुभुक्षया ॥५५॥
मनस्त्रिलोकविषयं स्वर्वेभवविकारजम् । पुरुषो भूमिगस्तस्मादिह ज्ञानक्रियाधरः ॥५६॥
भुवि सञ्चरतोऽस्येह पुरुषस्याल्पमेधसः । प्राणो यथा भुवोंके स्वर्लोके च यथा मनः ॥५७॥
तथाऽस्य महसि प्रोक्ता विज्ञानमयजीवता । यत्रास्ते सर्वजीवात्मभूतोऽसौ पुरुषोत्तमः ॥५८॥
जीवानामस्मदादीनामादिमूलं परात्परः । लोकानामपि तच्छक्तिनेंत्री माता परात्परा ॥५९॥
ईशितव्यानुगुण्येन शक्तिमुल्लासयन्त्स्वयम् । तपोवैभवसम्पन्नं महोऽध्यास्ते परः पुमान् ॥६०॥
परो निसर्गसिद्धन सर्गसद्भावधायिना । अपरिच्छिन्नमात्मानं तपसा मानहेतुना ॥६१॥ परिच्छिन्नमिहांशेन दधानो लोकभुक्तये । परिच्छेदेऽपि सम्पूर्णविकासाय विभासते ॥६२॥
व्यक्तानि यानि तत्त्वानि तुरीये धाम्नि सन्ततम् । तानि गुप्तानि भूलोके जडेऽस्मिन्पाञ्चभौतिके ॥६३॥
अजस्रं सच्चिदानन्दं प्रकाशं महसि स्थितम् । अधस्त्रिलोक्यामस्माकमप्रकाशमिह स्वयम् ॥६४॥
भुवो गतिस्तु गुप्तानां प्राणादीनां विकासनम् । प्राणस्याऽन्न ऽनुप्रवेशादन्न ं प्राणवदास्यितम् ॥६५॥
अन्नाद्विकासः प्राणस्य वृक्षादौ दृश्यते यथा । मानुष्यके च मनसो विकासश्व तथा स्फुटः ॥६६॥
विज्ञानस्य विकासः स्यादित ऊर्ध्वं भुवीह नः । यस्मिन्सिद्ध भवेत्सिद्ध दिव्यत्वं मनुजन्मनः ॥६७॥
परिणामक्रमद्वारः स नवः सर्ग उच्यते । निर्वाह्यः परया शक्त्या भुवि जीवति मानवे ॥६८॥
अयं भगवतः श्रीमदरविन्दमहामुनेः । सर्गार्थदर्शिनः सारो दर्शनेभ्यः समुद्धतः ॥६९॥ तन्वी तत्त्वप्रभा सेयं कलितेह कपालिना । रसिकानामिवार्धेन्दुकला कुर्याद्विदां मुदम् ॥७०॥
(English translation with explanatory notes)
1) May the Yoga manifest the Blissful in us—the Yoga that manifests the unmanifest, whence the Lord presiding over the Supreme Shakti manifests Himself.
This is a benedictory couplet with which the treatise starts, in accordance with the time-honoured custom. The manifestation of the Blissful in us is the object of the invocation. The truths about the Lord, the Yoga, the Supreme Shakti and their implied relation are to be noted. First, there is the assumption that the Lord presides over the Supreme Shakti for Self-manifestation. Next, there is a tact, an attitude, a poise that is inherent in his presiding over the supreme Power that makes the unmanifest manifest. Then, it is His Shakti that manifests, and He himself is the manifested; but the Shakti is not a mere manifesting instrument, She can remain in and as the unmanifest, She can be in rest as well as in movement. Therefore, it is stated that the manifestation proceeds from the Yoga, while certainly it is the Shakti that manifests. Now, what is the character of the Yoga whence the Shakti reveals the Lord? Derivatively, Yoga is union—union of the individual with the Universal or the soul with God. But when the term is applied to the Lord Himself, obviously it means something comprehensive and more radical which does not exclude the meaning that it is a power which effects the union of the soul with God. While the Yoga-power in the individual ultimately brings about the desired union with the Universal or the Lord, the same in the Lord is a creative poise sustained by the Shakti for bringing out and developing the World-existence. It is an aspect of the Lord which initiates the movement abroad, pravritti, for working out some of the possibilities in the infinitude of His Being, maintaining at the same time his union with everything that is put forth in the Manifestation. It is thus that every creation runs its course for the fulfilment of the purpose for which it is propelled into manifested existence. Therefore while Yoga for an individual soul wending its way to its own source in the Divine Being may be called nivritti, withdraw' from the outward life, not necessarily from world-existence, the Yoga of the Lord is pravritti in as much as it initiates, supports, brings to fruition the fuller development of the manifested being in the individual and collective or Cosmic existence.
It is the Yoga of the Lord in this definite sense that is aspired for and invoked; it is the supreme Shakti of the Lord that works out the purpose of the manifestation; it is the Lord of the Yoga, Yogeshwara himself that is to be manifested—the Blissful in us, Shivam. The Yoga, the Shakti, the Lord—each is distinctly mentioned and related to the Manifestation, which is another term for Creation as we shall see in due course. That this is the subject-matter of the treatise is thus mentioned in the opening verse, and this is in conformity with the ancient convention of Sanskrit authors viz. indication of the subject-matter by implication or suggestion in the opening lines of a work.
2) That Shakti is the Consciousness of the Lord; this world is the product of that Consciousness. This is the substance of all Vedic and Tantric Teachings, known to the wise.
The supreme Power, Para Shakti, mentioned in the opening verse, is not a fund of energy or blind force; it is the Intelligence, which we call Consciousness that is fundamental to Existence itself. She is not a self-existent Power apart from the Lord, but is the very nature of the Lord's Being. She is Consciousness, static and eternally at rest, self-aware in the Lord, but throws out a movement of Herself from the Lord's Being; and the world, what we call creation, is the product of that movement. Then, it is stated that this world-existence is a product of that Consciousness-Force which is dynamic in its own becomings. It may be asked: what is the basis of such a statement? The reply is that this is the conclusion arrived at by the intuitive thinkers and seers of the Vedic and Agamic persuasion. Reference to the authority of scriptures here is quite relevant because these truths and their direct knowledge transcend the sphere of intellectual endeavour and the reasoning mind normally has no data to proceed on for arriving at conclusions about things that are out of its reach, howsoever wide, exalted, and sharp it may be in its own realm. Therefore the straightforward intelligence of man has to wait and strive for the development of higher faculties to penetrate into these truths or seek help from the trustworthy utterances of those who have had some contact with the region of Truths, some direct perception and intuitional knowledge of the ultra-mundane. For what is natural for the seer with the revelatory faculties for instruments of knowledge of the Sublime is extraordinary and abnormal to the metaphysical seeking of the normal mind. And scriptures are but recorded statements of those who have knowledge of these truths which are facts of their experience. And because these truths are always verifiable by those who are in right earnest and equipped for undertaking the task and as a matter of course could convince themselves of their universality, it is proper to hold the scriptures as authentic. Also, because these supra-intellectual truths are expressed in terms of the intellect in order to make them intelligible to the intelligent mind, it is implied that the higher and subtler faculties of the mind are not there to nullify the intellectual efforts of the mind, but on the contrary the latter find their fruition in the development of the former when properly directed through a felt awareness of their limitations and the consequent openness to receive the higher truths. This is the relevance for referring here to the scriptural teachings and it is not intended to suggest that one is obliged to accept blindly dogmatic statements asserted in the name of Scripture or Revelation.
3) The supreme meaning is Para-Brahman, the Word is said to be his Shakti; the Truth of both is One indivisible, Eternal.
The fundamentals of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo are presented here in terms of the Vedic and Tantric systems of Cosmology. The First Cause, the ultimate term of Being is called Para Brahman, which is the meaning, the essence or the substance. The term ‘artha’ meaning denotes Being to whose very nature consciousness is fundamental. There is a power of expression inherent in it, Shakti; it is Shabda, the Logos, the Primal Sound, the Word, the vibrant movement of that Consciousness which manifests and points to the Being that is its reserve. Hence the Word and the Meaning, Shabda and Artha, the Power of the Being and the Being are both of them, the same Truth, the One Eternal, presenting a biune aspect, yet inseparable because of their essential oneness.
4) The Supreme One, the Lord as the vibrant Word, is and becomes the Powerful, incubates, increases, releases these worlds inseparable from Himself.
The Supreme Sole Being has been already stated to be the fundamental consciousness and this latter, while static in the conserving poise, is by the very nature of its infinitude, endued with an expressional aspect which translates itself into a movement for Self-manifestation, connoted by the word Shabda, the vibrant consciousness. He is Shakta, Powerful, ever fresh with a power to bring out something of himself; He maintains it in himself, by the force of Tapas, in the heat of what may be called the creative incubation, tapati, preparing what is to be brought out of himself for the assumption of huge and varied dimensions, of gradations in degree and kind, of difference in stress and quality and feature. By virtue of this poise of His Consciousness which is the agency for manifesting something of the Unmanifest which is beyond all formations, He may be said to increase, vardhate. From such an increase, the outflow of something in himself in the form of these worlds results. This is called the release, visriṣṭi, of the worlds. And these again are not separable from himself since He is said to be the Indivisible One out of whom these worlds are loosened, released and set forth.
5) From the sole Cause, the Mighty One, many worlds are born; hence it is apposite that the Manifold Birth subsists in the One.
It was stated in the previous couplet that Creation is a release, sriṣṭi, from the Supreme Being. The release or creation of the worlds is a self-interpretation by the power and consciousness of the Lord in the process of his own unfoldment. And each object in the shape of a world or a system of worlds being a self-manifestation of the Supreme, contains in itself all that is necessary to bring out the innermost secret Bliss of existence. Irrespective of their bulk or quality, the manifested forms can have no existence apart from the One from which they are derived, like the thousand leaves of a tree which have no living separate from the trunk and branches from which they shoot forth. Hence it is stated that the Cause is one and mighty enough to hold the many in itself. The common conception that the One is opposed to the Many is an error in the mental reasoning consequent on its constitutional inability to perceive the propriety of apparent opposites that are really aspects of a larger whole. Hence the appositeness of the many in the One has to be affirmed here. It is also to be noted that when we say that the manifold manifestation takes place in the One, it must be understood not only that the One is the ground in which the manifestations appear, but also that it is not a numerical one that is meant but the Substantial One that is the underlying principle as well as the overruling factor of the manifested Many.
The couplet is content with the statement about the appropriateness of the Many sustained in the One. But a doubt may arise that the birth, the Many from the One may continue its existence without any necessary relation maintained between itself and the essential background from which it has sprung. The next verse removes such a possible doubt.
6) Relation subsists between the One unborn and the many worlds that are born of the Lord.
The unborn One maintains its connection with its own Manifestation in the form of the worlds. This had to be stated because in some of the systems of philosophic thought it is held that God is aloof from and indifferent to the creation which has somehow come to be and the worlds, once they are born, are left to their own. We need not concern ourselves with the different reasons or considerations that motivate such arguments, for instance, the desire to absolve God from responsibility for the existence of ignorance, evil and suffering in the world. These worlds, with all their imperfections, have taken their birth from the Lord, Iśa-janmanām, and this parental relation does not snap with the moment of their inception. It continues, but with varying stresses on its functional aspects. The relation is real and incessantly operative.
7) And were it not for the relation sustained between the One and the Many, there would be no order, no law, seen in the world-movement.
It is not the intention here to suggest a logical argument to prove the existence of God, the Lord of creation; for it was stated in the opening lines that the Ultimate Reality, the God—the beginning and end of all the worlds—cannot be proved to exist by means of cold logic and that the truth of it can be comprehended only by the higher faculties of the mind. intuitional, revelatory and other functionings of the Light above the reasoning mind. No keen eye could fail to perceive a certain rhythm, a kind of Order, side by side with disorder, running on its own larger lines, a Law of apparent Necessity in the grand operations of forces in the World-movement. It would even seem clear to the discerning mind that only the Law, the Order abides and the chaos we observe in Nature only indicates the unavoidable or initial failures or necessary evils in the working out of the Cosmos, Order, even as revolutions quite often prove to be necessary or concentrated steps in evolution. But it is not a mechanical law, an Order fixed to a pattern, that we meet with. It vibrates with a Life that overcomes with on irresistible force all obstructions, and operates with the ease and certainty and precision of a Master Intelligence that is unmistakably working it out in the material aspect of this Creation. This fact of a directing intelligence has to be admitted here, without which a working faith in the ultimate manifestation of the Most Blissful in us would be impossible, For, the presentation of this system to the enquiring mind is after all a help, ancillary to the aims of Yoga which is our utmost concern, as stated in the beginning.
8).If the law were groundless, it would be devoid of meaning; for even the dunce does not engage in activity without purpose.
Till now we spoke of the Supreme Lord as the Cause of all the worlds, as their ground and base and as their essential being also. Here for the first time it is stated in unequivocal terms what was hinted earlier that there is a purpose in creation. That purpose is the meaning for the realisation of which all laws and movements, ways and means are determined. Here again the idea is this that creation or any part or whole of it has not come to be against the Will and without the knowledge of the Supreme, but it has come to be with the full knowledge and with a purpose and as an effect of the workings of the Divine Will. It is a common saying of the Mimamsakas, recalled here, that even a dunce does not undertake a task without purpose. That is to say, there is the God's Will and there is a divine purpose in the Creation; for otherwise, there would be no point in His Will initiating this gigantic Movement to set it going out of His Being in Eternity.
9) Hence the universal movement has meaning. The world has Intelligence for its guide, is not led by the blind.
Once we recognise that the world-creation is a willed movement of the Divine, it acquires a deep significance. The entire world-movement, all Nature, revolves round the central purpose laid down by the Nature's Lord. Not merely as a whole, but in every detail there is a law that is being observed, there is an end that is being served. For, if what propels the world-activity is the Divine Will, what guides it is the Divine Intelligence. It is the shining light of the seeing Wisdom that looks ahead, lights up the way and leads the course of the creation along the foreseen line of its gaze. The Path may appear dark, uneasy, zigzag, meaningless to the human mind but in fact, looked at from the heights of the supernal Intelligence, it would appear different and in its true light. The movement may appear unsteady, wasteful and even guideless or with a blind leader for guide. But it forms no part of the Divine Scheme to entrust a making out of His own Being to a blind force or agent for guardianship. The guiding Intelligence is as fully present in the minutest detail as in the huge magnitude of its labour and may so overwhelm our little minds and seem to them as if it were void of vision and aim.
10) Preceded by Will this is created; God is not indifferent. There does not arise the question, even a whit, of the fault of unfulfilled desire.
It has been stated that the universal movement is not guideless and left to the care of a care-free blind force, but that there is a conscious principle, the guiding Intelligence which is present in each and all of the created existence. Now the question arises if it is an omnipresent Intelligence that guides, it may be guide of a sort even by its passive presence and itself may not be actively disposed to the universal movement; and the creative principle in the Godhead may work out and formulate the universal existence through forms of mechanical laws, while the Godhead may remain indifferent to the world-product. Here, the answer is given that there is a Will in the Godhead using the creative principle and that this Will carries with it the Intelligence and therefore there is no question of indifference on the part of God. This is what is stated in the first half of the couplet. It must be noted here that God's will is not restricted to this or other world-movement, nor the Intelligence confined to the function of directing the Will and the Will-force towards the world-formation and world-guidance. What is meant here is this: in certain lines of latter Vedantic thought stress is laid on the indifferent aspect of Brahman in regard to Creation. There is no gainsaying that the equality or sameness of Brahman in all creation is in a practical sense the same as indifference of the Impersonal Reality. In that view, one can say that creation is an indifferent expression, natural and effortless, of the Force, Shakti, inherent in the Consciousness, Chit, that is Brahman. But the standpoint taken here, and the truth upon which emphasis is laid is that it is not the Brahman which is passive and equal or indifferent that is meant here as the Cause, but Brahman which is also the Godhead, the Person as the Cause of creation that is willed and held in His infinite being. Therefore there is the Will with its executive force that fashions the forms of creation; consequently the willing Godhead cannot be said to maintain indifference in regard to the universal movement.
Then, it may be asked why there should be a desire or will to create at all. Now we are apt to forget that what is desire in us is a perversion and corrupt counterpart of the Will in the Creative Godhead and imagine that God too is afflicted with wants and to fulfil them he desires and creates. Here the latter half of the verse says that there is no fault, the fault of want, the question of fulfilling any desire on the part of God. It is childish to reason that God need not desire or will to produce because he is full and there is no want in him, and desire after all arises from want while God, the Full, cannot be thought of as having wants causing desires. This is an irrational imposing of the kind of human wants and desires on the Will-force inherent in the Consciousness of the Lord. Thus the question of the fault of unfulfilled desire as the cause of Creation does not arise. How? The next verse says:
11) Can He create the world if He is not full Himself, even though He desires to? Delight, Ananda, being rich and full, this effusion (this creation) takes place.
It is the Will of the creative Godhead that releases the universe of world-movement—what we call creation; and this is no more than an expression or manifestation of the Delight of Being. We may conceive of this effusion as an outflow of the supremely full and rich Bliss of Existence that is immense. It is no desire or want that creates, it is the Will that does. If we pause and consider the course of human activities, the fact will be obvious that it is force that works and effectuates and not desire though it may be an incentive for action in all activities of the ego-ridden individual. Desire without force and substance is impotent and can have no place in any creation which is an output of energy even in human affairs. This is what the text drives at. The creator is full of substantial Delight on which the Will-force plays bringing out quite naturally something of that Delight, Ananda, in the form of what we call creation. The radical significance of the Sanskrit word Ananda itself is at once richness and fullness, samriddhi and all-embracing joy. This truth has been perceived by the seers of old who state in unequivocal terms that the creation issues from Fullness.
12) Because this universal movement, a fragment, is taken out full from the Full (Being), (therefore) in the fragment, the Bliss is intensely full, the Supreme Lord.
The couplet recalls the statement of the Upanishadic truth which makes a summary disposal of the argument of certain schools of metaphysicians. It is an old question, not a living challenge. Still it is but proper to make mention of it here and present in unmistakable terms our position in regard to the infinitude of Being, the Immensity from which the world issues and comes to be, as an emanation or expression of the ultimate Reality. It used to be asked—it may still be asked—how can the Ultimate truth or Absolute Being or Non-being conceived rightly to be infinite have finites in it to be released? If the Infinite is made up of finites, then these finites or parts make up a whole which means that the whole also is finite. And the Infinite being Absolute, how can it include finites in it? If they are not included in it, how can there be finites outside of the Absolute, the Infinite, this latter being all-inclusive? It is the same question in another form of the Absolute and the Relative. The answer is simple and clear. The difficulty arises from the assumption that the Infinite is opposed to the finite or beyond the finite and therefore treated as something negative, not positive like the finite of our common experience. But the sages of the Upanishads see and think differently. This is clear from their statements that He is full of all qualities, sarva gandha, sarva rasa etc. Again there is another class of passages in the Upanishads such as ‘That is not gross nor subtle’ asthula, ananu etc. It is clear from these parallel statements,—not contradictory as certain schools contend—that both are equally valid and the negative description is meant to drive home the truth that the Infinite is beyond the finite, the Absolute beyond the Relative, and that the positive statement that He is all etc. purports to inculcate the truth that it is the same One that is He and It,—He is the positive all, the All; He is It also as the Ineffable beyond all qualities and relatives and not as opposed to them, but as source and support of them. Therefore if to the superficial reasoning of metaphysical ‘logic for the sake of logic’ Infinite cannot exclude or include the finite, to the truth-vision of the ancient seers corroborated by latter sages up to our own times, the same One is Brahman, the It, and is God, the He. That One is at once the Impersonal, the Personal and the Beyond, even as it is at once the Sat, the Chit, the Ananda as we shall see.
If so, we can put it that the Infinite is not devoid and a negation of the finite, but that it is something positive and so immense as to hold in itself an infinite number of finites and allows their release, wills their manifestation in and out of itself.
The question then does not arise that the finites being released from the Infinite go out of it separated, or diminish it. For the finite has no existence at all without the Infinite. After all, what is the finite? Is it not but a limitation in and of the unlimited in the space-time formula of existence? Is it not essentially one with the Infinite, while it is distinct and separate in the formal existence presented to the senses, i.e. the sense-mind, or even the thinking intelligence based upon it? We can call it a quantitative existence against a background that is at once all quantity and beyond all quantity. The same may be said of the quality of the finite with a background that is all quality and beyond it. The sages of the Upanishads put it trenchantly: “That is full and this is full, out of the Full the Full is lifted up. Fullness being taken from Fullness, Fullness alone remains.” And this means clearly that the finite holds the Infinite in itself and every part and whole are essentially one. Therefore the Finite, the creation in this sense is taken from the Full and even though it is but a part, a fragment, still there the Full is present, the Supreme Lord as the Delight of Existence.
13) Whence, by dint of Tapas (self-contained Conscious Force) a part assumes the shape of the world; there the Supreme Lord is full, and takes delight along with the Eternal Power.
It has been stated in the opening couplets that it is the Consciousness as Force, Chit-Shakti, that works out the World-existence. Here it is to be noted that the same Force in the self-contained poise is called Tapas in the early Vedantic texts. It conserves and incubates and turns out the Will-Force for the execution and shaping of the creation that is loosened forth from the Infinite Being. It is necessary here to avoid a likely misconception that all creation is an output of the Force and in a sense the Force itself because of its character as a movement and that the Supreme Lord is unconcerned and aloof leaving the creative work to the Shakti alone. Therefore it is stated that He takes delight in the creation along with the Eternal Power, the Nitya Shakti. Now a confusion may result from the use of certain terms in the statements made about creation as caused by the Tapas, by the Consciousness-Force, by the Will-Force or as an effect and effusion of Ananda, a manifestation of the Delight in Existence etc. Therefore the couplets that follow attempt to give an idea of the senses in which these terms are used such as Sat, Chit, Ananda, Prakriti, Maya, Tapas and the rest, for they represent certain aspects of the Sole and Ultimate Truth called variously with due significance.
14) The Inexhaustible, the Full, the One alone, known as Sat-Chit-Ananda is the Lord of the world-creation, the Cause material as well as efficient.
The One is viewed here in the various aspects that pertain to Creation. First, it is stated that He is One, ekah, inexhaustible, avyayah, because infinite; second, it is the Full, as already explained; next, He is always spoken of as Existence-consciousness-delight, Sat-Chit-Ananda. We have spoken of these three terms separately, but here.for the first time the triple formula is applied to the Sole Reality. The connotation of each term must be clearly understood especially in regard to its being the Cause. And Cause is essential and material as clay for a pot, to use the stock example of Sanskritists; Cause is also efficient, as the potter in the case of a pot. We shall see what aspect of the triple formula of Sat-Chit-Ananda constitutes the material Cause and what the efficient.
15) The substance of the worlds is the Material Cause, Prakriti; it is the Body of Brahman called Akasha, etherial extension; it is intense consciousness-bliss, Aditi in the language of the Vedas.
It is a fundamental truth and solid bold statement of the Vedantic seers that all creation including the Physical Existence is formed out of Brahman, the Substance, and therefore this latter is the radical Nature, Prakriti, of all world-creation. Even though what we call Matter may appear as devoid of consciousness, still it is Brahman denoted by the triple formula of Sat-Chit-Ananda. Prakriti is generally translated as Nature, but to be precise we have to make a distinction between the primordial and the executive; for the former is the substantial part of Nature, while the latter denotes its play caused by something else, some other element, by another aspect which is the dynamic principle to which we shall presently refer in the verses that follow. It is necessary to remember that Prakriti is generally used or understood in the latter systems as Nature or Force of Nature or Nature at work. But the term is used here to denote the primordial substance which in its manifest form includes Matter also. But essentially, it is the substance pure, the untranslatable Akasa, the etherial Extension, whose nature is Bliss, Akasha Ananda. This is the body of Brahman, akasa-sariram Brahma, in the words of the Upanishad. This Indivisible, the Infinite field we may say, is called Aditi, the Matrix of all Creation. Thus in this couplet Aditi, Akasa, the primordial Prakriti, the body of Brahman, all refer to one and the same aspect, the Delight, Ananda of the triply mentioned Sole Brahman, Sat-Chit-Ananda. Now that we have seen how the Material Cause, Upadana Karana, is Brahman as Ananda, we shall consider the character of the efficient Cause. And this is the text:
16).Consciousness-Force, indicated by the term Tapas is the cause efficient for the rise of the world. The one Atman who exists is said to be threefold by the wise.
We have already spoken of Tapas as the Chit-Shakti, Consciousness as the Force that implies the Will to create. And this is the efficient cause, nimitta karana. The Force acts upon the substance, the material which is Brahman, the Akasa Ananda. It shall not be supposed that Brahman the Ananda is separate from Brahman the Chit-Shakti. To drive home this truth the text says that the Atman is One but triple in aspect; for He exists, therefore He is conscious and powerful and full of Bliss. Or it may be put in terms of the Impersonal It, that whatever is, exists, sat. Consciousness exists, Delight exists, and pure existence challenges analysis. It must not be supposed that the three make up the One Brahman, but Brahman the One presents a threefold aspect of the Self-existent Atman, Conscious and Blissful. The comprehension of the One in the triple formula is a necessity for the human mind. It is correct thought and is justified by the corresponding lines of practical approach of the seeker, for they yield the results appropriate to the path leading to that aspect of the Goal. More is not warranted here and will be a digression. The next verse clarifies the distinction between Prakriti and Maya.
The significance of the term Aditi and of Prakriti has been already stated. Here what is stated anew is that Tapas is the same as Maya. We have stated that the field is the Akasa, Ananda, substance on which the Tapas force acts and effectuates; hence it is the efficient Cause. The same Tapas is Maya in this sense of the term. Maya is indeed illusion in the later Vedanta. It is Shakti or Power in the Tantrik systems. Certainly Maya is a power of the Consciousness which in its working, displays cunning, and illusion is a result under certain conditions of its play. But Maya in the supreme consciousness is a Power, Tapas-shakti, with the Will-force and high cunning to divide the Indivisible, to finitise the Infinite, to measure out the Immeasurable. Hence, it is stated that if Aditi is so called because it is indivisible, Maya is so called because it measures the Immeasurable. In the case of both the terms the root-significance is brought out and to be noted.
18) The one (former) is the nature or substance of what exists, the Truth, the other the activity. The transcendent and supreme One himself sustains the creation by these two.
The above-mentioned two are the Prakriti, the substance that is Akasa Ananda, and Chit-Shakti, Tapas, the conscious Will-force that dynamises the creative substance. By means of these two aspects of Himself, the supreme Lord, source and support of All, sustains the Creation that is the world-manifestation.
19) That Power by which the Supreme Person measures out himself, the Immeasurable, is according to some the Power of Maya; for us it is the Force of Tapas.
The substance of this couplet has been already explained in the preceding verses and further elucidation here is not necessary. But the point to be noted here is this. The One is generally the Brahman, the Impersonal It, the Sat existence, the One is also She, as the Shakti, Consciousness-Force; but in regard to creation that One is He, the supreme Person who measures out his measureless Being by this Shakti, the Maya already described.
20) The Lord Eternal is thus threefold, sends forth from the splendour of Tapas the Cosmic Eggs. And in his own portions that were previously released and are born, He manifests the One Self as the Many.
Bhagawan in the text is rendered Lord; but the Sanskrit word connotes something more than being the Master. It suggests the endless qualities that are natural to him. He is Ananta (literally endless, which means he is boundless, inexhaustible, Eternal. He is Sat-Chit-Ananda, therefore mentioned here as threefold which is the term that intimately pertains to him. He lets loose the worlds by the Force of Tapas. This has been explained. The one thing to be noted here is that it is the heat of incubation with an innate splendour that radiates the creative force and hatches the world-embryos, Brahmanda. Ajanda means literally Brahma's egg from which the universe springs. And there are many universes. It is translated here as the Cosmic Eggs. The latter half of the stanza is important in that it briefly but in assured terms mentions the meaning of Manifestation. For it says, the Supreme Lord manifests the Sole Self as many selves. And where are they so manifested? In his own portions that were previously released and thrown as seeds in the creative movements that has produced the world-systems. Here ends the first section of 20 couplets dealing in general with the question of Creation as conceived in this scheme of Teaching. The full import of this verse will become clear in the sections that follow and that is, indeed, the central theme of this treatise.
21) Because of the triune aspect of the Supreme Lord, the World also is triple, a result of the activity of His Tapas that is Chit-Shakti, Consciousness-Force.
The triune aspect mentioned here is the Sat-Chit-Ananda spoken of in the previous section. The world is threefold being a product of that triune Oneness. We proceed on the assumption that this creation of the threefold world is a reproduction of the triplicity of the Supreme Lord. Enough has been said that Chit or Chit-Tapas is the dynamic element that effectuates Creation, and it works upon the Substance, the Prakriti or the Essential Being of the Infinite, and sections out this creation which is indeed a reproduction of the original triple Being. It is not and cannot be an exact reproduction, but one that is in-formed in its movement by and represents in a way the original threefold principle of Sat- Chit-Ananda. The Agency that starts and brings out such a Manifestation is the Principle of Chit-Shakti. What then is the triple world that we call this creation?
22) The well-known Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah, are the terms that denote the triple world that is this creation; this is the Lord’s Prakriti, the Essential Nature so formed here by the play of Shakti, the Force.
The three terms are called Vyahritis; they refer to the Earth bhuh, the mid-region between the Earth and the Heaven bhuvah and Heaven svah. The exact character of these three worlds is stated in the next verse. It is sufficient to note here that Svar in the Veda very often refers to the World of Light above the triple world, though the term as the third Vyahriti is applied to the world of Heaven, called Dyauh in the Veda. This triple world constitutes the creation, which does not spring from nothing, but issues from the original Substance of Being as a result of the action of the Force upon it. Therefore it must be understood that whatever there is in the World-Creation is the original substance in Essence, whatever shape it may have taken, whatever form it may present to our sense and mind, whatever character it may have developed in the process of modification impressing itself upon our general feeling and stuff of experience. Hence it is stated that it is the Prakriti, the Essential Nature that is formed into this World-Creation by the action of the Force. What is the character of this triple world—not the essential Nature, for that is Sat-Chit-Ananda itself— but its nature in the Manifestation, this creation?
23) The creation of the three divisions of the world is based upon the division of the three qualities, tamas, rajas, sattva, Inertia, Activity and their balancing Calm. These again are the dominant principles of formation in Matter, Life and Mind.
It was stated previously that the triple world was a manifestation of the Primal Prakriti, which is Sat-Chit-Ananda, not the Prakriti, the Primordial Nature of the Sankhyas, which is by itself an insentient blind thing, jada. But in the Manifestation, there is modification of the original substance that brings about a triple form of the world characteristic of the three qualities or modes of Nature. Here we leave aside for the present the three Vedic terms Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah, that are the names of the worlds already mentioned and use the language of the Sankhyas in regard to the characteristic qualities of the triple world. The Pure Mind is the principle of the third world Svar; it is dominated by the quality of Sattva, a calm that balances the two opposite qualities of inertia and activity, which are the distinctive features of Matter and Life respectively. For Matter, the indubitable field for activity, is by itself blind and inert, and it is life-force that acts upon it and vivifies it; therefore the quality of Tamas is its main property. Life, prana, is the active principle, the corrective of inertia that is opposed to it and is all action and above it. Matter is anna, Life is prana, Mind is manas; these three principles, the luminous, the active, and the inactive are the chief qualities that govern the triple creation here. What is the Agency that brings into play the forces of world-formation?
24) This (the creation) is the Purusha’s becoming, the Purusha’s Tapas that ever looms and is set in the Infinite (Indivisible) sphere of self-developing play.
The Agency is indeed Chit-tapas, as has been noted already. Here the idea is put in a different way in order to make it clear that the agency is the agency of the Agent who is the Spirit, Purusha and not an impersonal Force, not the neutral Brahman, the Sat- Chit-Ananda. It is the Purusha’s bhavana that is the act of becoming. For the Infinite there is no increase or decrease; but when by the act of Tapas the Purusha delimits himself, the tapas- force increases and grows as it were brimhatah in the confines of the delimited sphere, and that is the Purusha’s act of becoming. It takes place in the infinitude of being which is the field of play for the Force that develops the various forms of the informing Spirit. Having stated this much by way of reminding that it is not the Impersonal that is at the top and back of becoming or creation, but it is the Person who is the Agent, the text proceeds to say that the three qualities that describe the triple creation do not spring from somewhere capriciously, but have a basis in the ultimate truth of things.
25) This triple world is a reverse formulation of the triple term, Sat-Chit-Ananda, of the Supreme Self.
The reverse formulation consists in the fact that this world of Matter anna, Bhuh represents the Sat, the world of Life prana, Bhuvah is a distorted figure of the Chit-Shakti, the dynamic element in Chit, and the world of Mind manas, Svar, represents the Chit proper, and for the purpose of this classification carries with it in its essential and higher parts the Ananda. That is why the Upanishad says satyatma pranaramam, mana anandam. We will hear more of this before the section closes. Here it may be asked if it is our own classification or this idea had a fixed place in the ancient scheme in regard to the world systems. This our classification corresponds to and tallies with what is stated in the ancient scriptures, beginning with the Rig Veda. But it is more explicitly stated in the Puranic texts, a reference to which is made here.
26) In stating the position of the world systems Sage Parashara has spoken to Shamika of some secret.
This is a reference made to Vishnu Purana which is among the oldest extant Puranas. Though the author of the Purana is Vyasa, as indeed he is of all the Puranas, Parashara is the author here in the sense that he is the instructor who narrates and Shamika receives the instruction and listens to the narrative, just as in the case of Sri Bhagavata the dialogue is between Shuka and Parikshit, though the author of the Purana is another and different from Shuka. What is the secret that Parashara reveals to his listener and pupil?
27-28) Stating the order of the seven worlds beginning with Bhuh Earth, he proclaims that the triple world beginning with Bhuh, the Earth etc. is created, non-eternal. Jana, Tapas and Satya form the triple world that is not created, Eternal; between the two triple worlds, the created and the uncreated is the world Mahas.
The Vishnu Purana (II. 7-19, 20) makes mention of the seven worlds of which the first three beginning from the Earth are the created and are non-eternal though they are the triple derivation of the triple Eternal. The triple Eternal world, and its correspondence in the non-eternal and the link, the middle world between the two triples are explicitly stated in the Purana. And these statements remarkably fit in with the scheme of the Cosmic ladder i.e. of the system of seven worlds variously constituted, but governed by a co-ordinating principle ultimately as well as primarily by the Supreme Intelligence, which we call Consciousness chit. What is the triple world Eternal, and what also that world which lies between the Eternal and the non-eternal triple worlds?
The upper three worlds rising in order from Jana, through Tapas to Satya are the eternal three of which the lower three Bhuh, Bhuvah and Svah are the counter-parts in this created existence. Between the two triples is the world of Mahas. The following verses clearly state the character of these worlds and their corresponding principles in the cosmic constitution.
29) Of these seven worlds, there are three that are eternal. Of Delight ananda, all beings are born; hence Ananda is called Jana.
The verse does not require elucidation. The point to be noted is that the Ananda is the Soul-principle of Jana Loka. The latter is so called because all birth whether of beings or worlds is possible because of Delight, Ananda which by its very nature and substance is full and flows out as it were, in self-creation, the same as self-manifestation. Thus Jana is the first world in ascending order of the Eternal triple. The noteworthy fact here is the equation of the Jana Loka to the principle of Delight in the triple formula.
30) Consciousness having the aspect of Force, Consciousness-Force is called the Tapas, while Atman, the Sat, Existence, is the world of Satya in the view of the Wise.
Above the Jana Loka is the Tapoloka which constitutes the principle of Chit Tapas in the formula of the world-system. That Tapas is the same as Consciousness-Force, Chit-Shakti, has been already explained. Above this in the world-order is the Satyaloka, the Truth-world, of which the sole self-existent principle is Sat, that is the Truth, Satyam, the Self, Atman above all, at the summit of the series of the worlds and beyond them.
31) Those who know the fundamental principles of the Supreme know that One to be Sat-Chit-Ananda. Those who know the position of the World-system (and its truth) know that One to be Jana, Tapas and Satya.
When we speak of the principles of the Supreme Existence, we mentally comprehend it as Sat-Chit-Ananda. But the same when approached for realisation through the Manifestation presents a larger and vaster view of itself, intense in the world of its self-delight, forceful and immensely exalted in the vistas of worlds in the Consciousness, and Ineffable and Supreme in the Sole Self-existent limitless world of Being. Thus the threefold principle is equated to the threefold Eternal world.
32) Between this trinity of Earth, bhuh, etc. and the higher triple world, is the Link-world, Mahas, called the fourth, turiya, by the Wise.
The Eternal and the created triple worlds have been stated. Between the two triples is the Mahas; it is here called the link-world. It is called the fourth world, the Mahas, because it is above the triple world of ours, bhuh, bhuvah, svah. It stands between the two—between the higher triple world of the plenary Sat-Chit-Ananda above on the one hand and the lower triple on the other. It carries within it, above it, and one with it in a sense the higher triple, and it also releases the lower triple world through various agencies for the formation and perfecion of the higher half what is called Parardha—in terms of the lower, the created triple. Radically it is this world of the Mahas that is responsible for the lower triple creation and it is from this world that forces of manifestation of the Many are released and set to play to work out certain possibilities of the Immense Intelligence and power of the Spirit in the finite formations of the world-being and Force-movement. Because its centre is charged with the infinitude of Sat-Chit-Ananda, it is one with it Above; because its face is turned towards Manifestation, it is one with the Many that represent the self-limiting and self-conditioning attitude and capacity of the Supreme Spirit. Therefore it is the World which is a status of the Purusha where the Many is realised as a harmonised unit. Rightly then, this is called the Link-world, for without it this triple creation is a truncated creature which could not hope to realise the Sat-Chit-Ananda in the Manifestation.
33) This triple world is an effect of the action, certainly, of this Agent—the Mahas (which stands) between the two triple worlds, the created and the uncreated.
The verse is clear; but it must be understood that by the Agent is meant, the original Being and the Creative poise and mood for Manifestation. It must not be supposed that Mahas, the Agent, or the Creative Godhead is the agency for bringing about the darkness and suffering and imperfections of various sorts that are characteristic of the lower creation. They are the results of the workings of forces on the way, of many agencies that are formed or deformed for working out through the vicissitudes of darkness the desired results in the limited and finite and conditioned fields of imperfect Nature.
34) Which (the Mahas) shines manifesting the Glory of the One and the Many; it is here that the harmony of the One and the Many is established.
The Glory lies in the fact that the One in manifesting the Many is not lost in it, but retains in it the co-ordinating principle by which the Many and each of the Many are rooted in the core, in the Central Unity. While each of the All is one and identical with the rest at the Radical Centre it is still different in formation from the rest, for the working out of the possibilities and is free in the field, in the Spirit-conditioned body of world-extension. Thus one can say that the Many is at once free and conditioned, free in its source and support and self-subsistence, conditioned for the purpose of the play, for the definite formulation of the Eternal principles of the Spirit in terms of Space-Time existence. This is the glory of the One and the Many, self-established in the fourth world with its natural and spontaneous unity embracing in the self-same identity the Many of the creative urge.
35) In the absence of the fourth world, Mahas, this triple world would be absolutely cut off from the Supreme Lord who is triple in aspect.
The substance of the verse has been explained earlier while speaking of the Mahas as the Link-world. Here a reminder is made that the triple world of ours, whatever may be its form presented to us, whatever experience we may have of it, however imperfect and false and pervert and blind it may be in its construction and practical aspect, is still a derivation, a remote reflection, rather a refraction of the Supreme Lord denoted by the triple formula of Sat-Chit-Ananda.
36) The higher world eternal that is triune we call the Upper Half, parardha, and this created triple world of the Lord, the lower Half, aparardha.
So far the character of the Higher Triple world and with it the world of Mahas and its status in the hierarchy of the sevenfold world-system has been noted. The following four verses proceed to give an idea of the correspondences of the threefold principle in the Parardha and the Aparardha. And this correspondence is made possible, as we have seen, by the Mahas. It is not an abstract principle, but a world; not a world alone, but a world with its Lord; for it is He who is really the Sat-Chit-Ananda that is impregnated in the Mahas.
37) Between the two halves, there shines the Supreme Person, Purushottama, the Lord of the Mahas-world; Him the Wise call the Supramental Person, Vijnanamaya Purusha.
Vijnanamaya Purusha is a term taken from the Upanishads. It is used in a definite sense here to denote what is called in Sri Aurobindo's Teachings the Supermind, Vijnana. Even the latter English word does not merely mean the Mind par excellence, above the normal mind. It means all that has been spoken of the Mahas, the fourth term, Vyahriti, of the world-system, with its corresponding status in the hierarchy of Consciousness. Ordinarily in latter Sanskrit and especially in philosophical works Vijnana is used as a synonym of Buddhi, intellect, as in the Vijnana-skandha of the Buddhists. But in the earlier texts terms are used with precision to denote certain categories of knowledge and things, and their significances are lost to us and the same terms are used to connote things of knowledge which are different from those that were their original significances. Thus Ajnana, Sanjnana, Vijnana, Prajnana, Jnana are all terms of profound psychological significance based upon direct perception of spiritual truths. It is sufficient to note that Vijnana, the principle of the world of Mahas, is neither the intellect, buddhi, nor knowledge of the intellectual kind, the mind. It is Knowledge indeed, but Knowledge proper to a higher grade of the Spirit's Being in its Self-extension in the supernal altitudes of Self-projection, a Knowledge immense with Power, or it is something that is at once Knowledge and Power or Know-ledge that is Power. This is the Purusha, Vijnanamaya, the Supramental Person.
38) The Supreme Brahman is the Delight, it is called Prajnana, intense consciousness; it is the Ananda which includes the Upper Half of the Sphere of the worlds.
The worlds and the principles from Ananda downwards are now mentioned. This creation of our triple world is immediately concerned with the Mahas, the vaster world above that is next to it in this broad classification; the higher half parardha, (Jana, Tapas and Satya) is treated as one block, and for all practical purposes, it is included in one term, the Ananda which is next to the Mahas and with which the latter is charged through and through. The significance of the statement that Brahman is called prajnana is this that it is the intense, concentrated, and in a sense the apprehending, Consciousness as distinct from the vast and comprehending Consciousness turned to the Manifestation, designated by the term Vijnana—the Supermind of the Mahas world.
39) The fourth status Vijnana, the supramental is called the Mahas by the Taittiriyas. The knowledge that pertains to the lower half of the world here is called the Pure Mind, Manah, of the nature of Svar.
The Vijnana principle that is proper to the world of Mahas is so termed by the sages of the Taittiriya school. For in that Upanishad a broad division of Brahman, the One, into several aspects is made, having in view its bearing on the practical side leading to the realisation of Brahman in those aspects. It will be more pertinent to state that the Upanishad begins with the statement that Matter is Brahman and ends with “Ananda, Delight is Brahman”. In this scheme there are only five divisions, five principles and not seven. But that is reconciled by what we have stated already to the effect that the higher half is included in the Ananda and the explanation is also given. Now the Taittiriya Upanishad starts with an eye to the realisation of all Matter, anna, and in its extended sense, the Physical Universe as Brahman. Then, when all Matter is resolved into Force the latter's special and radical form, Life, as Brahman is placed before the seeker as the next immediate goal for realisation. It is not sheer force and blind energy that is life, prana, which is realised as Brahman, but there is some intelligent principle in and behind Life called the Mind, manah, which is the driving power of Intelligence that is to be realised as Brahman. Beyond and above and further than the Mind is Vijnana, the Supermind and the Ananda is still above. Thus when the Upanishad teaches that Matter anna, Life prana which is subtler than Matter, Mind manah still subtler, and still further Vijnana and Ananda—each is Brahman, it proceeds on an all-inclusive basis and the principle is applicable to the universal as well as to the individual. Applying the same to the individual person, later Vedantins discovered the truth of the five sheaths Kosas, and went on with the classification of bodies and states of consciousness corresponding to them. It does not form part of our purpose to enter into a discussion of these classifications based on a different teaching for a definite purpose. Suffice it to say, that the Manas, the Mind-principle is the highest of the triple existence, Matter, Life and Mind, that is developed and organised in man, while the Vijnana as we have envisaged it is not.
Now the Mind, as a Universal principle is the Pure Mind, which partakes of the substance and nature of what is called Svar, the topmost of the triple world of this lower creation.
40) Prana, Life is of the nature of Bhuvar Loka. Its nature is activity that pertains to the lower half; Bhuh is the World of Matter, the Inconscient, the terminus of this lower half of the World-system.
If Mind, the pure and luminous mind, represents the Svar and partakes of the substance and character of the third world, Life, Prana, is derived from and partakes of the substance of the middle world, Bhuvah. Then, the World of Matter, annamaya loka, is called the Bhuh; it is blind, the Inconscient, the boundary, downward limit of the descending hierarchy of consciousness (where it lapses) and the corresponding layers and fields of its activity.
41) Thus in sum is stated the course of the sevenfold world-system, a marvellous arrangement, variously constituted, that has issued from the Lord.
An elaborate discussion of the seven principles of existence is not what is attempted here. The line of thought that will be helpful for a proper understanding of the unitary Existence in its relation to its own colourful Manifestation as the Cosmic Existence is all that is briefly mentioned now. And this conception will go a long way in loosening the rigidity of the intellectual mind and widening it out of its habitual groove into large vistas in the Cosmic Manifestation. That is a gain contributed to mental development and knowledge that can make way for a deeper and higher living in response to the luminous ideas of the Mind in the Spirit. We will have occasion again to make mention of these fundamental principles and their bearing on the practical aspect of the Life that is the aim of Sri Aurobindo's Teachings.
42) Consciousness modified institutes varying conditions (or states of itself), becomes the World-movement in variegated structures, and is here veiled, there revealed, and elsewhere quite manifest for ever.
In the first section and subsequently also it was stated in unequivocal terms that Consciousness is fundamental to all existence. It is this first principle of the Vedanta that provides a broad base for the structure in all its details for the comprehensive system of this philosophic thought. Static, indeed, is the basic aspect; but the power of Self-manifestation brings out in its wake the Cosmic movement in a graded structure. It is the self-conditioning poise that produces the varying states and creates conditions in an order of successive steps of the movement that commences from the Pure Existence, the Absolute Beyond and comes down towards the formation of Material Existence. Corresponding, then, to the stress and modes of Consciousness are their fields conditioned, formed and constituted by the creative force that is its inalienable right in the active mood. This movement is not, and of course cannot be, uniform in its grades which are separate and different from one another, and variously constituted and formed and have their own predominant principles, distinguishing features and outstanding powers in different degrees. The term world-movement Jagatgati connotes the movement of the Cosmos and is not restricted to this world. The variegated structures in the Cosmos denote the colourful and variously constituted and conditioned existence in the ordered steps of the movement. That the Consciousness is not the same everywhere in the Manifestation is stressed here when it is affirmed that it is here veiled etc. It is veiled, but exists as the substratum in the lowest grade of Matter, what is called the Inconscient; it is unveiled in the higher grades as in the mind-levels, ‘quite manifest for ever’ in the Supermind, in the Eternal triple existence.
In order that it may not be supposed that the same thing that is stated about the sevenfold world in the previous section is repeated here, the text avoids the mention of the worlds here and proceeds to describe the character of the states of consciousness and the corresponding planes of being. It must be noted here that the worlds and planes are neither synonymous nor interchangeable terms. There is a distinction which must be clearly understood. Planes are grades, levels of being and consciousness; they are steps in the Cosmic Existence and at each step, or each level of being there can be many worlds. For a world is after all an organisation constituted in a settled poise of the Spirit to work out a general relation between the experiencing spirit and the powers of the Cosmic becoming. From this it would be clear that the worlds of the different planes are differently constituted and each has its own laws and government. The seven worlds spoken of in the previous section are on the seven levels or planes of Consciousness. Stress is laid on the fact that the true character of these planes or levels of existence is consciousness which in its power of becoming is featured in the sevenfold condition of Existence. These planes are likened to series of steps in a ladder in the next verse.
43) (These conditions of Consciousness are) the series of Planes that start from the Supreme and are framed like a ladder in ordered steps.
44) Between the Lord and the world released from Him lie the series of planes in a vertical pose reaching the two ends.
Since the origin of the whole Cosmic movement is the Supreme Spirit, the hierarchy of planes of Consciousness starts from above, from the height of Being, in the Sat-Chit-Ananda, the Supreme; it gradually comes down and lapses in the world and plane of Matter, in the apparent total absence of consciousness, what we call the Inconscient. Hence these steps in the hierarchy are likened to a ladder, as the movement is vertical from high on downward here. At the summit of this Cosmic existence is the Supreme Lord, Ishwara; at the lower end here is the world of Matter. Between the two ends stretch the planes and worlds built by the Energy of the Cosmic movement that starts from the Supreme Will above. In between the two poles, one the supreme above—the Consciousness, the other here—the Inconscient, are stretched the planes of Being where Consciousness varies in its force-movement, in degree and intensity in accord with the constitution of the particular level that is its field; these lie like the rungs of a ladder that is the passage that leads on from the Earth plane here to the higher regions of the Spirit above. Apart from the nature of the Cosmic structure that is briefly characterised as the passage between the two ends of Existence as formed in the scheme of this creation, this formation of the planes as a passage has a great utility and is of the utmost importance to the Yogin of this persuasion. And this is stated in the next verse.
45) This is the passage pleasing to those who are aware of Yoga, whose sublime origin is in the shore beyond Darkness, which is rich with a series of steps, a ladder for those who wish to ascend (to the summit).
It must be noted here that all spiritual realisations are not of the same kind or order. It is perfectly true that whatever path one may tread and follow—successful, it does lead ultimately to the One Divine, Sat-Chit-Ananda. But the aspect on which stress is laid is determined by the path of one's choice. Devotion, Knowledge, Works, some or all of them combined or each severally yields the right result ultimately. But we may speak of two lines of realisation. The one broad distinction between the two is this. Whether through devotion developing into love for the Divine or through knowledge, one gets God-realisation or direct perception of the Reality—and this experience can be of such a radical nature that it becomes a permanent feature of the devotee's life or the Jnanin's, the man of knowledge—such realisation, dvaitic or advaitic or any other, can come suddenly or gradually growing into a sudden realisation. But that need not be related to the Cosmic manifestation. Even when it is related to it, the tendency is to attach less and less importance and value to distinction leading more and more to the unitary Existence, i.e. Brahman, the Divine, the Self.
But if one pursues the path of Yoga, especially this Yoga (which does not exclude devotion and knowldge, on the contrary they become indispensable elements from the very beginning or at some stage) the development of the Yogin takes place in such a way that there is gradual unfoldment of the closed centres of consciousness which are linked to the planes above the Material. For the dominant principles of these planes above the Earth, Life, Mind, and still higher and subtler and spiritual principles are already centred in the individual, asleep, half-awake, half-asleep, and by Yoga when they are opened, they can be switched on by practice to the corresponding planes proper. The Yogin's inner realisation of the Spirit, Self or the Divine grows towards the enrichment of the various parts of the being which take their places in the Cosmic and universal plan, as they too learn to be real and realised parts of the whole, purposeful limbs of the ensouled spirit, instruments and focii of the Cosmic planes in the individual. Therefore it is stated that this ladder of planes is a passage pleasing, nay, indispensable to the Yogins. For each rung in the ladder represents a particular centre of the plane proper; and by ascending the ladder through the opening of these centres, one gradually reaches the summit. This is what is meant by the statement that this Yogic realisation is related at every step to the Cosmic manifestation. But such an opening of the centres, even though it may be possible without a radical spiritual realisation, cannot be of enduring value. For it is only against a spiritual background that these realisations can endure, and their value and unfaltering functionings are assured only in the achievement of a stable and central experience of the Spirit.
Through these centres opened the Yogin reaches the shore beyond Darkness where the hierarchy of planes begins. The Yogin who desires liberation from ignorance can arise and climb the ladder and need not wait till the dawn of the essential spiritual realisation which can come at any suitable stage. While the supreme importance of the constant experience of the soul in contact with the Divine within or the Divine in the Cosmic existence or the Divine as the origin and support of all manifestation is given its due place and fully recognised, the ascending order of progress towards the Divine at the head of the Cosmic existence is presented to the Yogin through the opened centres of consciousness linked to the rising planes from below upwards as has been already mentioned.
Now in concluding this topic on the hierarchy of planes, the next verse reiterates the real character, so as to avoid a possible misconception that the planes and worlds are outside the Supreme whence they start as the Cosmic movement.
46) This is the Consciousness of the Supreme Lord, shining as planes in order which everywhere vary in the measure of Force and quality and bulk.
This is the concluding statement. Having dealt in the very beginning with the nature of the Consciousness with its inherent force of movement a reminder is made here that these planes, parts of the Cosmic movement are but formations of the Chit, rather the Chit-shakti, of the Supreme Lord himself. For the soul in ignorance, growing from the earth-consciousness upwards beyond ignorance to the heights these planes are outside of itself, but the whole Cosmos with all the levels of Being dwells as grades and varied forms of and in the Consciousness of the Supreme Lord. And the very fact of the variety implies the difference in the structure and form and characteristics as well as in the size and shape and dimensions.
47) From the enjoyment of the Supreme Lord his gradual entry into the world commences in the world of Mahas, in the Vast of the Vijnana (Supermind).
In the previous sections we have spoken of the seven planes and worlds of which parardha, the triple Sat-Chit-Ananda forms the higher half, and is eternal. Now this verse states that the middle or the fourth plane from either end is the origin of creation. But it is not the result of an impersonal action, not a mechanical movement without a Will behind that springs from the Impersonal Being on the fourth plane, but the product of the workings of a Will-force from the Supreme Lord who presides over the Mahas world, in the vastness of the Supermind. It issues forth from the joy the self-delight of the Lord—and all creation takes place, indeed, from an outflow of Ananda. Nor is this creation a sudden jump from the heights of the Mahas downward here, but a gradual descent and the Lord Himself—for nothing is there apart from Him—enters step by step into the creation as its Soul and substance, in the course of its manifestation from Him. “That itself gradually entered” says the Upanishad, tadeva anupravisat. To show that it is not a sudden jump and entry, anu is used significantly. It is not that the Lord in the Mahas vacates his abode in the Super-mind and makes his entrance into the creation but something of him, a portion, amsa, a certain substantial aspect getting down into the creation is all that is meant here. For in the infinitude of his being, a ray is enough to create, enter, occupy and possess the whole Cosmic existence.
48) The original Person of ourselves who sustains the condition of Jiva (a living being) here, is the Supramental Self (Vijnana Atma) in the Mahas world wherein lies the control of this triple world.
The Impersonality of the creative Being and movement is kept in the background and stress is laid on the Creative Person, the original Being and Self from whom all beings and selves here are born. For whatever may be the condition of the Jiva, the living being here, whatever the ignorance, limitations and bounded existence, the ultimate source and support is that One, the Supreme who sustains in his self-limiting power of being the conditions of the Jivas who therefore are the soul-forms of the Supreme Spirit. Even as the Jiva here is a spark or ray of the Supreme in the Mahas and is under his final control, so is the soul's triple instrument of matter, life and mind under the real control of their respective worlds of Matter, Life and Mind. And this triple world is of course subject to the control of the fourth world, Mahas, from which it derives its existence.
49) He is the treasure of all Knowledge and Action settled in the Mahas, which is the fourth plane, the middle one of the seven Vyahritis (world-terms).
The substance of this verse has been expounded already. It is stated here to show that the Supreme in the Supermind is not aloof from the activities in the lower triple world. For He is the head and at the head of all activity and knowledge. It is His active interest that is to be noted in the world-condition and the soul's movement and progress here. The next verse explicitly states that the many souls here are really the formations of the Supreme Spirit above.
50) Whose rays are the radical elements, the causes of our individualities with their activities determined, and it is they that manifest the Many in the form of Sutratman (subtle soul-forms).
Indeed, the soul is never born, nor does it die. How then can it be said that the souls are formations of the One Spirit? It must be clearly understood that the soul as a spark of the spiritual Fire or a ray of the Sun is certainly unborn. But a spark on Earth growing into a flame heavenwards is certainly a form, rather a formation of the Spirit maintaining its relation with the world and sustaining itself with the experiences of the world-contact, assimilating at every step and turn the essence and meaning of Nature's interaction presented to it for the need of its growth ultimately towards the Supreme Spirit from which it has come down and with which it is essentially one. The term soul, then, is used here not in its essential sense of the pure Spirit, but as a formation here of that Spirit which takes up the essentials of world-contacts and gradually develops in itself, in its being and nature, all the Cosmic principles that go to build a more and more perfected individual Spirit, what we may call the soul-form, that can answer to the universal impacts correctly, discovering its right relation with the Cosmos and the Cosmic Spirit while still moving onward towards the Supreme station of the Spirit. Here what was stated in verse 20 must be noted. “And in His own portions that were previously released and are born, He manifests them as the Many.” Also, therein the explanatory note adds: “The Supreme Lord manifests the sole Self as many selves. And where are they so manifested? In His own portions that were previously released and thrown as seeds in the world-system.” Thus the distinction is clearly drawn between the unborn Spirit and the developing soul. The meaning of the soul's development is the great miracle of the Infinite Spirit revealing gradually in the finite soul-form itself with all that is natural to and inherent in it. Thus alone formation and progress of the soul from here towards the Supreme finds its meaning and fulfilment. Now these souls are originally the Rays of the Supreme. They are said to be, the radical elements that cause the individuation of the Spirit; the cause and meaning of the individuality; it is they from the Supreme that determine all activities of the soul-forms, that retain the thread of the soul-forms that reach down here from the Supreme. Hence they may be termed Sutra-atmans, subtle soul-forms.
51) Of the one Self many forms are manifested; hence each one of these forms is called Jiva by the Wise.
Many selves or many souls are several forms of the Self; and these are the manifestations of that One. Each is called the jiva, the living soul as distinguished from parama, the Supreme.
52) Here move about the beings, forms, indeed, of the Lord of creation; the Radical part of every being is He on the fourth plane.
The original and Real centre of every being here is the supreme Lord who retains the thread, as has been mentioned, of these beings in himself, in the fourth world, the Mahas.
अविच्छिन्ना दृष्टिधारा माहसी जगदीशितुः । यतो भूतानि जायन्ते तद्रूपाणि पुनः पुनः ॥५३॥
53) Without break is the course of the supramental gaze of the World-Lord, whence are born and born the beings that are his forms.
The remoteness of the fourth Plane from here is no bar to the uninterrupted long glance of the world's Lord that is operative in every being that has come of him and has taken shape here; they are indeed his forms after all, and as such carry with them, something of Him, the essential Spirit round which their formations develop here.
54-55) That life-force, prana, which is required to sustain the gross body of the embodied being born on earth is active from the Bhuvarloka (Life-world) through the modifications bearing on the body from desire of enjoyment.
When we speak of formation and development, we imply that the spiritual spark or the soul takes in substance from the environment of its habitation and builds subtle sheaths and vehicles by which it can sustain itself here and traverse the planes of being. The soul in its essence is the spirit, and for its pure existence it does not require any support other than its Self, the Supreme, the Divine who is everywhere though his especial abode in relation to this Cosmic Manifestation is the Mahas world. But when that soul gets embodied here, the life-force that is necessary for its living is drawn by it from the life-world. Even as the substance of the material body is provided by the physical world, so the living force by which the body is enabled to be active is drawn from the vital world wherein is dominant the principle of enjoyment and possession of Matter for and over which it is incessantly active. But it must be understood that the life-force from the Life-world does not act on the material body in its purity but it is modified in its workings here on the material plane and body through perverse movements of desire for enjoyment and is certainly a disfiguration of the pure Prana, the Life-force.
56) Mind has for its object the triple world, is born of certain modification of the splendour of Svar-world; therefore earthly being, man, holds in him here the principles of knowledge and action.
Similarly, the luminous principle of mind is active in the thinking life of the human being here; it does not function in its pristine purity, in its native splendour that belongs to the Mind-world, otherwise called Svar, the third term, vyahriti. With all the perverse modifications consequent upon its entry into the embodied life of the soul here, it is still radically a luminous principle that is at work in man and represents the principle of Knowledge struggling in the Ignorance to outreach itself and grow into the heights and wideness of the Spirit of which it is the nearest instrument and vehicle here. Because of this luminous principle, however limited, half-lit and stumbling it may be in its workings here, man on earth is endowed with thought that controls and directs his activities to an appreciable extent.
57) Just as the Life of the human being who walks here, with his small powers of intelligence is really of the life-world, even so the Mind in him is of the Svar world.
The verse does not require elucidation. Suffice it to say that the three instruments of the Spirit here, matter, life and mind, really belong to the category of the three different worlds though they are intermingled, and seem to be one in the, embodied being. After mentioning the real nature of the threefold instrument the text goes on to reiterate the fact that the progressive soul does not stop with the mind for its highest instrument.
58) Similarly his supramental living is in the Mahas where the Purushottama is,—He, who has become the Atman of all living beings.
The soul developing the powers of the spirit in embodied being here still moves onward to what is above mind, to Vijnana, Supermind. It can and has to manifest and organise that supreme spiritual principle for functioning in the Earth-life. Just, as Life from the life-world entering into Matter makes it living and active, as Mind from the mind-world entering into living matter makes of it the thinking animal, man—the mental being in living matter—even so, the next higher principle vijnana, supermind comes down from the Mahas-world into the embodied soul for organised functioning in life. Hence it is stated that the supramental living of the soul is really rooted in the Supermind. And that is the Abode of the Supreme Spirit, Purushottama, the Self who is the original Soul and Self of all his becomings, all these beings here on Earth.
59) The primal source of us, the Jivas—is the supreme Transcendent; His shakti, the Mother supreme and transcendent, is the leader of the worlds.
Indeed all the living beings, Jivas, have their source and root in the Supreme that transcends the triple world of Ignorance; and it is His power, Shakti that manifests Him and throws out the world-movement and hence She is said to be the Mother, Creatrix and leader of the worlds.
60) The supreme Person presides over the world of Mahas, rich with the Glory of Tapas, himself directing the play of the Shakti suitable to (the condition of) what is to be governed.
While the Supreme Spirit is inalienable from His Power and both are essentially One, the distinction must be made clear that it is He who is the Lord and it is His Glory that is brought out in the manifestation by His Shakti; and here again it is not to be supposed that He is passive and does not actively take part in the Cosmic Movement. For at every step taken forward by the Shakti, He is inseparable from it and closely follows or is behind it. Hence it is to be noted that He directs the whole play of His Power, Shakti. His directing the whole play of the Shakti according to the needs of every detail in the creative movement is the result of His immense capacity to control, limit and condition Himself in the finite, in the minutest detail and observe the Self-made law of the conditioned existence in its infinite variation. This is what is meant by ‘suitable to the condition of what is to be governed’.
61-62) The Supreme is radiant even in the finite for the full blossoming, by His inherent Tapas which upholds the existence of Creation, causes the measuring (of the Measureless) and sustains the limitless Self in limitation by a portion of Himself for world-enjoyment.
Now we have come to the end of the treatise and this is the concluding part in which is summed up all that has been stated in the earlier sections. Here in this double couplet, the efficient cause and the purpose of creation are succinctly stated and this is a reiteration of what was stated in the first section, especially in verses 13, 16 and 20. Now the question how the creation comes to be has been discussed and it is settled that Tapas or Chit-Shakti of Ishwara is the cause of creation and that is natural to him. The low. idea and the vulgar fancy that the Creator created by a fiat or from desire akin to human want has been dismissed with reasonableness and appropriate citations from sacred texts. To release the world-being from his own being is natural to Ishwara in view of the Bliss-nature of the Supreme Sat-Chit-Ananda. This well understood and granted, there does not arise the question why there should be creation at all. But still another aspect of the same question remains: is there a purpose? If there is meaning, then does it pertain to the Creator or to the created? Surely, we cannot presume by any stretch of imagination to scale into the heights of the Spirit and read the intention of the Divine Lord; Creator of the universe; for the Divine Reason and Knowledge and purpose in regard to creation can be understood, as they are, by a consciousness above the human level and one with the Divine Consciousness itself. But it is no forbidden ground for man to rise to his own heights nearer the Realm of the spiritual consciousness and understand the Intention and meaning of creation in terms of the highest reasoning mind. This he is entitled to do inasmuch as no serious thought or action in life proceeds from him without purpose. The idea of purpose being natural to.man, he can translate into the terms of his reasoning, the Divine Intention and purpose as perceived by mystic seers or recorded perceptions in the scriptures or as glimpsed by him in his intuitive moments. Thus the meaning of creation is not sought in terms of the consciousness of the Lord, but is to be understood in human terms: What, then, is the purpose? ‘For the blossoming even in the finite’ is the answer. That is to say, the Divine possibilities of the finite are worked out and made to manifest. The Divine potentialities of the Infinite Self are latent in the finite and it is the revelation of the Divine Nature and infinitude hidden in the finite that is the purpose, of the Limitless Self discovering itself in the limitation of the finite. That ‘It is radiant even in the finite’ shows the dynamic character of its presence. And this is worked out by Tapas otherwise called Maya, that which causes the ‘measuring'. The Infinite revealing itself in the finite, the finite human working out the infinite Divine possibilities in some measure, and a fuller realisation of the possibilities of the Divine in the apparent limitations of man—these are one and the same thing that is the meaning of creation so far as man on earth is concerned.
63) Whatever principles are manifest for ever on the fourth plane are hidden in this Earth-world of elements, in the Inconscient (Matter).
The self-revelation of the Infinite in the finite is a statement made in abstract terms. It is the discovery or the self-unveiling of the Divine in the human that is meant by the term as the goal of human existence on earth. But it is not a passive presence of the Divine, which is everywhere in the human as well as in the nonhuman, though veiled, that is sought to be revealed, though that is sine qua non for the expression of the unexpressed Divinity in man. It is the sublime principles that are always associated with the Divine Being, Knowledge, Power, Light and the rest that are to be unfolded in their divine splendour in the human being. And this is a dynamic power, not a realisation by man of the Divine presence alone. For this purpose, it is stated that the principles of Truth, Knowledge, Power, Light, etc. are hidden in Matter. But they are quite manifest on the fourth plane. Why the fourth plane is mentioned instead of the Eternal triple Sat-Chit-Ananda above it is due to the fact that we are immediately concerned with the fourth, the Mahas or the Vijnana principle which is the ultimate saviour of this triple world of Ignorance even as it is its first cause. This Earth-world of Matter, the Inconscient has within it folded all the higher principles of life, mind and the rest and they are to be unfolded because of their ever-manifest presence in the fourth world that exerts now in a veiled manner its pressure upon the earth to yield the fruits of its labour.
64) Always, in the Mahas, the Sat-Chit-Ananda is manifest; but here in this triple world below it is by itself unmanifest, obscure to us.
Sat-Chit-Ananda is indeed everywhere present. But in the Cosmic Hierarchy it is in the higher heights and above the Mahas, the fourth world, and as such ‘is ever manifest’ in it. Or in other words, the Sat-Chit-Ananda is viewed in relation to the Cosmic Manifestation; it is the eternal uncreate triple world close to and above and harboured in the fourth, the Mahas, which is the goal for this triple world to which we belong. But this our existence is in the lower rungs of the cosmic ladder, and as such, under the hold of Ignorance, hence it is stated that the Sat-Chit-Ananda is obscure to us here, for it is not manifest as it is above in the Mahas.
65) The course of the Earth's movement causes the blossoming of the hidden (principles of) life etc. Because of the entry of Life into Matter the latter became endowed with life.
It was stated that the Sat-Chit-Ananda, the Power, Light, Knowledge and other properties native to the Higher Half, parardha, of the Cosmic Existence are to manifest here on Earth and that is the meaning and fruit of the Divine self-revelation in man. But the Supermind with all its properties, or even a little of it, does not come down in a leap upon earth. There is an order, as we have seen, in the development of creation itself from the Supreme. Step by step the higher comes to the lower and the lower under the pressure of the higher reveals and brings out the element previously hidden in it, but now awakened by the coming down of its active principle and power from the plenary world high up to which it belongs. Life was already latent, involved in Matter; when life-force from the Life-world which is just next above it entered into it, Life appeared in Matter, Matter evolved Life.
66) Just as the blossoming of Life from Matter is seen in the trees etc. even so the blossoming of Mind in mankind is quite (manifest) clear.
The first appearance of the life-principle on Earth is nothing else but the fact of the emergence of life submerged in Matter; what was there already in it, came out under the downward pressure of life from above. And this is illustrated in the vegetable kingdom. Once we know that Brahman or Sat-Chit-Ananda is omnipresent, we also understand by that omnipresence, not mere featureless, ever sleepy nothing-like presence, but the One with all the properties native to It, not as they are in the plenary home of. Sat-Chit-Ananda in the upper half of the Creation, but latent and unmanifest, yet having within it the possibilities for manifesting them under suitable conditions when they are ready. This point is to be noted as a characteristic feature of Sri Aurobindo's teaching as distinct from the Vedantic dictum that all is Brahman or that It is everywhere. That its veiled presence is a sign-post for the manifestation of something of itself ultimately is not a proposition admitted or even conceived of in the other teachings, Vedantic or any other. But the Manifestation is gradual, the Divine Purusha coming down from above to meet and unite with the emerging purusha who also is divine in essence but in the conditions of the triple world of Ignorance. Before such a manifestation, the higher Light and Power of the Divine Spirit in its degraded form as mind and life is to be brought out on earth, in Matter. And when it is so evolved, it retains the Matter from which it has come out, in which it is encased as it were. Just as life was present in Matter, submerged, or involved and latent as has been stated earlier, even so the mind representing the principle of Consciousness is present even in the plant-life, though it does not emerge fully as it does in man. We may note in passing that it was given to an eminent Indian scientist in the early years of the century to prove experimentally that the plant life has a nervous system. His references to the ‘perception part’, the plant's ‘power of perception’, ‘the feelings of plants’, in the course of his scientific demonstration left no shadow of doubt in the minds of eminent scientist-observers that the plant-life is charged with consciousness of the kind suited to its nervous system. Indeed the ancients knew that plants have not merely life but a consciousness and feeling of pain and pleasure as can be gathered even from the comparatively later works like the Mahabharata or Manu Smriti. But that was part of their intuitive knowledge, not a truth arrived at by experimental science of the kind known to our times. As Sri Aurobindo remarks: ‘The ancient thinkers knew well that life and mind exist everywhere in essence and vary only in degree and manner of their emergence and functionings. All is in all and it is out of the complete involution that the complete evolution progressively appears.’
That mind in man is an emergence from life in matter points to the truth that the emergent principle sustains itself at the base on principles already evolved and organised in appropriate structure to serve as the foundation for the manifesting element to express itself and function.
67) Henceforth shall be the flowering of the Vijnana, Supermind, for us on Earth. When that is accomplished, accomplished also is the Divinity of Manu's progeny, Man.
Just as plant-life is a remarkable proof of Nature that life has come out of Matter and having once appeared retains its basis in matter with suitable adjustments, even so mind has come out of life and organised in living matter proceeds with its functionings of organised life initially in the animal and with an increasing self-expression and development it finds its level of higher possibilities in man.
This emergence of mind is not the last term of the gradual evolution of man, the spiritual being. For it must be noted, what is very often ignored in the religions, rather religious philosophies, that man is a complex proposition. He is indeed a soul, essentially the Spirit—a modicum or shadow or reflection according to philosophical preferences, something very substantial in the core of his being. But he is not only that; he is much else, a spiritual being finding himself in a mind encased in living matter. The evolved elements of mind, life and matter are his property and sheaths, instruments for stability and action and thought. But thought is not the highest instrument or principle of the spirit's power of manifestation. The next higher principle of light, power and knowledge—called Vijnana, the Supermind—has to emerge from the highest region of the most evolved and therefore most developed mind. And this emergence of the Vijnana is not a one-sided labour, is not possible without the coming down of the Vijnana from its native plane above. And when it comes down, touches and processes upon its own element involved in the mind, the latter opens and receives and accepts it for its organisation and rule here in man when he lives in the material body. Thus, we can say that the Supermind is the Divine principle of action and thought; it is an instrument of the Purusha, the spiritual Being, organising itself in the human vehicle with all its instrumental faculties and at the same time transforming them to suit the new conditions in the new situation imposed on the evolving soul. Be it noted that the evolution of life and mind is, strictly speaking, the evolution of the soul in plant-life or animal or human mind; it is really the evolution of the soul of which life and mind are bodies and vehicles. It is not the Divine or divinised soul, though it is divine in the sense that all existence is Brahman. It is yet to be divinised and that transformation is a natural effortless consequence of the next higher principle of supermind getting down for self-organisation in the human being. It is only then the human evolving soul recognises its identity with the Supreme Spirit above and in the act of recognition commences the change of the mental into the supramental, the human into the Divine, the mortal into the Immortal. When the Vijnana is settled and organised, then the human being, son of Manu, God the Thinker, the mental Person realises his title to get divinised, himself and along with him his triple body of matter, life and mind by dint of the Divine Organ now established, called Vijnana by the Upanishad, Supermind by Sri Aurobindo.
68) This is called the New Creation of which the evolutionary order is the passage; it could be accomplished, while man lives on earth, by the Supreme Shakti.
This manifestation of the Vijnana hitherto latent and unmanifest of which we have so far spoken is called the New Creation; for creation of anything does not proceed from nothing, na asato vidyate bhavah, and nothing comes out of nothing. It is, therefore, a new formation of what was already existent and immanent, a thorough overhauling and reconstruction of the old stuff of the triple instrument of matter, life and mind and a complete reorganisation of the whole being necessitated by the entry into it of the superior Divine Principle for the emergence of its own part, rather human counterpart, submerged portion in the lower being.
The means of this new creation is the evolutionary order and his has been stated. Such a profound change is certainly a new creation; for the Power, Light and Knowledge that the Divine Principle of Supermind brings are such that it creates a new mode of living and acting in the human being; the difference between the animal mind and the human is not less than that between the mental and supramental. Therefore it is stated that such a creation could be achieved by the supreme Shakti, the inalienable Power of the Divine Purusha. Instead of mentioning the Purusha, Shakti is mentioned here as achieving the task. This is done to lay stress upon. the principle of Female Energy who is ever in the forefront of all creation while she is backed by her own reserve and capital and yet the active presence of the Purusha. The two are one and the same Divine Truth, but at the summit of Manifestation the bifurcation takes place for the purpose of Cosmic development and the fulfilment of the diverse functions in the unity of all existence. Therefore it is stated that Para Shakti could work out this creation and not human endeavour or tapasya alone.
69-70) This (work) is extract from the Teachings of Sri Aurobindo, the great sage who sees into the meaning of Creation. This slender Tattvaprabha (Lights on the Fundamentals) was composed by Kapali; let it bring joy to the learned as the moon's digit does to the aesthetic minds.
These are the two concluding couplets which take the place of a brief colophon in Sanskrit. Teachings of Sri Aurobindo are based upon his perceptions. Hence the Sanskrit word darsana in the plural is used not in the sense of philosophy as in the Six Systems but in the sense of direct knowledge founded upon the seeings of truth as distinguished from speculative thought and hypothetical philosophies, religious or intellectual. The essence of these Teachings is this extract. It is slender, thin in size, tanvi, a term suggestive of the charm associated with a slim figure of the fair sex. It is compared to the Moon's digit that appeals to the aesthesis of refined souls. In the crescent moon the digit is luminous, but the whole lunar orb is quite perceptible. This compact work also is clear in so far as it has found expression, but the whole teaching of Sri Aurobindo of which this is the essence is doubtless understandable from the arc-like sketch of this Tattvaprabha (Lights on the Fundamentals).
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