Chapter 1	Ananda Marga Ideology and Way of Life in a Nutshell Part 3 [a compilation]

The great sage Aungirá said, –

Sa vedaetatparamaḿ Brahmadháma
Yatra vishvaḿ nihitam bháti shubhram
Upásate puruśaḿye hyakámáste
Shukrametadativartanti dhiiráh.

The one who has known the Supreme Brahma has really known Him as the refuge of this universe. The One Who is the ultimate refuge of each and everything, animate and inanimate, movable and immovable, from the Supreme creation… Brahma – to the lowliest blade of grass, is the supreme goal, the final beatitude. The universe has been created within Him and is indeed radiant with His radiance. That the universe is created within Him is not all that can be said. It is the transformation of His own Self. It is evolved by Him. He is the substance as well as the cause of this universe. It is the cooperative creation of the sixteenfold distortions (ten sensory and motor organs, the mind and the five Tanmátras or inferences) and the eight binding factors of Prakrti that are there as the cause and effect of His qualitative manifestations. The seeds and potentials of this universe are also inherent in them. It is for this vastness that He has been called Brahma, which means Great (Brahatvád Brahma). Then again the One who makes another great, the One with whose thought and bearing the small unit establishes itself in the vastness, is also called Brahma (Brḿhańatvád Brahma). When this world is within Him, then He must necessarily be greater than the world. Suppose there is a box in a room; then the room must be greater than the box. That is why there is space for the box, otherwise it could not have been accommodated. That in which this universe is implanted is naturally greater than the universe. The entire universe is pivoting around its knower, its Nucleus, in a cyclic order in the vast body of Puruśa. Revolving thus in this cycle the one who progresses towards the knowing Entity by virtue of one’s spiritual force attains unity with Him, becomes one with Him. They become Brahma themselves, and that is why He has the quality of making one great.

Brahma is effulgent in white radiance. The Shruti says that Puruśa and Prakrti are indivisible and inseparable. Where Prakrti (the operative principle) is active over Puruśa, Puruśa is of white radiance. In the Gáyattri mantra the word, “Bharga”, is used in the sense of white radiance, and that is why this “Bharga” and Saguńa Brahma (The subjectivated Transcendentality) are inseparable. The inseparability of Brahma and His Radiance is fully substantiated by the real meaning and analysis of the word “Bharga”. It is trilateral, the combination of three letters, viz., “Bha”, “Ra”, “Ga”.

“Bha” – Bhásayatiimállokániti, i.e., by which the world is illuminated.

“Ra” – Raiṋjayatiimátáni, i.e., That which provides happiness for the living beings.

“Ga” – Gacchatyasmin ágacchatyasmád imáh prajáh, i.e., That in which the entire creation merges after emanation therefrom.

The Shruti says, –

Bheti bhásayate lokán Reti Raiṋjayati prajáh
Ga ityágacchatyajasraḿ Bharagát Bharga ucyate.

Generally speaking, the word, “Bharga” is used verily in the sense of Brahmic effulgence. Now the question arises, whether Brahma and His radiance are two different entities. If we say Ráma has such and such qualities or Shyáma has such and such qualities – aren’t the individuals and their qualities two absolutely separate entities? Such distinctiveness is not applicable to limitless, integral, Brahma, who is without a second. Brahma and His radiance are not two separate entities, for He is autophanous – self-luminous. Citing the instance of Ráhu’s⁽¹⁾ (Dragon’s) head we have to say that He is characteristically radiant.

This creation is triple-attributional. The game of the three attributes goes on in everything and everywhere in the universe, and they have not spared the human body. The region below the navel is dominated by Tamoguńa (Static principle), the region from navel to throat, by Rajoguńa (Mutative influence) and the region from throat to Trikuti (the junction of the two eyebrows, where the seat of the mind is located,) by Sattvaguńa (Sentient influence). Normally, a particular region in the body becomes more active in accordance with the Vrtti or epithymetic influence or the inter- and intra-ectoplasmic occupation of an individual. When a Sádhaka is established in his/her mental seat by virtue of his/her hearing, thinking and profound meditation, he or she being then established in Sattvaguńa (Sentient quality), realizes the Supreme Being in His Super-white glory, as is the wont of Sentient quality. When one goes beyond the mental sphere, one merges in the objectlessness of the Nirguńa Brahma in the Brahmarondhra (An aperture in the crown of the head) and thus reaches beyond the scope of colors. Bharga or white color also disappears from him. A desireless person, who worships this Supreme Puruśa absolves himself from the momenta of rebirths due to mind being objectless or desire-free. Such an individual goes beyond the cycle of ordinary birth and death. In other words, one’s mental force goes beyond the stars (’Shukrá means Venus, a planet) due to one’s being established in the Supreme Entity.

Kámá yah kámayate manyamánah
Sa kámábhirjjáyate tatra tatra
Paryáptakámasya krtátmanastu
ihaeva sarve praviliiyanti kámáh.

According to human longings and desires or according to human propensive pursuit, their minds take form i.e., they will gradually acquire the like Saḿskáras or reactive momenta. They first see within themselves what they aspire for and then let their minds flow towards it. Thereafter the external organs i.e., hands and feet, etc., set about achieving it. And so it is generally seen that the desires that they had been giving indulgence to throughout their lives, come hurtling over to them in a condensed form at the last hour, i.e., their mind-stuff takes the like mental form for the last time in order to shape itself into a fitting medium of the like Saḿskáras. Even during the life-time as well it is seen that the mind-stuff of a drunkard, which imbibes within it an indomitable desire or Saḿskára for wine, turns into a vantage ground for undergoing the next Saḿskáras or momenta of pleasure and pain. That is to say, such a person gets scent of the wine shop by the sheer propulsion of his acquired mental propensity, if he happens to go to a new and unfamiliar place. A man who has cultivated dog-like or swine-like desires all his life, dies with the same dog-like or swine-like frame of mind. Thereafter with the help of Prakrti’s Mutative force he acquires the form of a dog or swine in order to undergo the dog-like or swine-like Saḿskáras. The great ascetic, King Bharata, died thinking of a fawn, and that was why it is written in the Puráńas (Indian mythologies) that he had to take the body of a deer at his next birth.

But he who is fully satiated, i.e., he whose longings and desires have consumed themselves, obliviates even the possibility of any such thought-wave later because of the absence of any Saḿskára. Such all-satiated persons are indeed self-purified. How can final satiety possibly come unless and until that Whole – that Supreme Spirit – is achieved? Hence he who has attained full satiety has indeed reduced all his Saḿskáras to nothingness right here in this world and so he has gone beyond the cycle of life and death.

From the inanimate to the animate goes the process of evolution. Take a piece of stone for instance. It has neither the power of action nor the sensation of mind. What is the reason? It is because hitherto there has been no manifestation of mind in the stone at all. Thought-wave or sensation can take place or an action can take a form only if there is a mind. Take, for instance, trees and plants which are more animate than stones. There are activities in them. They grow, draw the vital juice from the earth, maintain their species by creating seeds in their own bodies and enjoy and suffer pleasure and pain, when taken care of or smitten. We see in them the manifestation of consciousness or animation, for the mind has awakened in them. Thus progressing on the path of psychogenesis or mental development we see in humans the greatest manifestation. Just as during the Cosmic thought-process the evolution takes place from the subtle to the crude, similarly the unit retroverts step by step from the crude to the subtle, towards the same Absolute Consciousness from where it had come. It is just like the waves of the sea rippling back from the shore to the ocean from where they had originally come. Now, just how much should a person strive on his return journey? He has got to be alert, so that he may easily end the journey in his characteristic Self. Then alone shall we call him self-purified. Then alone shall he become saturated with Brahma, within and without.

To become self-purified one has got to make some effort – this effort is what is known as Sádhaná. The greatest Sádhaná is that which comprises three aspects viz., devotion, action and cognition. Medium Sádhaná is that which comprises two aspects i.e., devotion and action, and the inferior Sádhaná is that which consists of only tall talk (cognition or knowledge cannot exist singly without action and devotion – whatever may exist will be merely the debris of knowledge). The ability of a Sádhaka cannot be based on his common or worldly knowledge alone. It can only stand on the firm base of his knowledge, devotion and action (Jiṋána, Bhakti and Karma). By firmness I mean unflinching intensity of zeal and earnestness. By just saying that Rasagollá is sweet, one cannot get the taste of a Rasagollá (a spongy and juicy sweetmeat). One has got to make some efforts to obtain it and eat it.

Náyamátmá pravacanena labhyo na medhayá na vahuná shrutena
Yamevaeśa vrńute tena labhya stasyaeśa átmávivrńute tanúḿ syám.

By tall talks alone one cannot achieve Brahma. An almanac forecasts that there will be so much rain this year. But mere knowledge of such a forecast will not save the crops of a farmer. No amount of squeezing the almanac will produce even a drop of water. One has got to do sádhaná to habituate one’s mind to Brhamaward projection in order to attain Him.

Anubhútiḿ viná múd́ho vrthá Brahmańimodate
Prativimbitashákhágraphalasvádanomodavat.

–Maetreyii Shruti

If a person, without Anubhúti or intuitional susceptibility, studies scriptures a million times or lectures on Brahma, his Brahma will ever remain a bookish Brahma, not the Brahma of one’s conception or realization. Just as one seeing in water the reflection of fruit dangling overhead from the branch of a tree cannot taste the fruit, similarly an erudite scholar, versed in the six philosophies, will remain far away from Brahma if one refrains from Brahma-Sádhaná. No matter how vastly learned you may become in worldly knowledge, without Sádhaná you can know nothing about Brahma, for along with your knowledge of these lores, a vanity of knowledge will also grow in you. With this result, you will go on enhancing the volume of your burden unnecessarily by habitually giving importance to your small ego. This burden becomes the cause of your sufferings and enjoyments, not of your salvation. Ácárya Shaḿkar said:

Vák vaekharii shobdajharii shástravyákhánakaoshalam
Vaeduśyaḿ vidúsaḿ tadvat bhuktaye na tu muktaye

You will come across many such people who do not practice spiritual meditation themselves but will run after great spiritual men in order to hear their sermons. These people are totally wrong. Only running after great men will be of no avail. A person has got to establish himself in the path of realization of Brahma by doing sádhaná himself. God does not bestow His mercy upon anybody after seeing how great a speaker he is or how many books he has read. Only one who has devotion can exact His mercy. The great devotee, Maharśi Nárada said.

Mahadkrpáyaeva bhagavadkrpáleshádvá.

That is, Brahma can be realized by achieving even a tiny bit of God’s grace or that of a great person. Take a very intelligent boy for instance. If his teacher does not teach him how to read and write, he will not be able to become a great scholar in spite of having the potential for becoming one. Similarly, all persons have the ability or potentiality of achieving spiritual development or of establishing themselves in the Brahmic stance, but for want of a worthy guide it cannot take practical shape. That is why a spiritual Preceptor or Sadguru is necessary – his grace is indispensable. His grace is but God’s grace, for God is the ocean of grace.

Náyamátmá balahiinena labhyo na ca pramádáttapaso vápyoliuṋgát
Etaerupáyaeryatate yastu vidváḿ stasyaeśa átmá vishate Brahmadháma.

Those who are weak, i.e., who have neither spiritual nor mental force, do not achieve intuitional knowledge. The timid and cowardly remain remote from Brahmabháva or cosmic ideation. You may have seen that bribe-takers or liars will talk ill of Ánanda Márga out of fear of following the principles of Yama and Niyama.

Another great trait of a Sádhaka is his self-confidence. “ I must have fulfilment” – “I must attain final beatitude” – this strong conviction is the stepping stone to success.

Phaliśyattiiti vishvása siddherprathamolakśańam
Dvitiiyaḿ shraddhayá yuktaḿ tritiiyaḿ gurupujanam
Caturtho samatábhávo paiṋcamendriya nigrahah
Śaśt́haiṋca pramitáháro saptamaḿ naevávidyate.

–Shiva Saḿhita

He who has taken the determination to attain final beatitude cannot be indifferent to Sádhaná. Indifference to mundane duties or flying above the world with a resolute detachment is but a mental disease. Those who want to give themselves up to divine contemplation in the cave of the Himalayas, leaving their homes, are misguided. The word, Sannyása, means to dedicate oneself for the attainment of God. When Brahma is everything, whatever you are, you must behave properly with everything around you. Hence to be callous about family and society is completely contrary to Brahma Sádhaná (Divine Contemplation). One cannot know Brahma through showy, superficial knowledge. You can only attain Brahma, when your knowledge has become strong and powerful through austere devotion to Truth. Only the soul of the one whose knowledge is identified with austerity, enters the abode of Brahma. Ultimately the united qualities of sedateness, mental and spiritual force, firmness, devotion to Truth, knowledge, the proper use of mundane things etc. will certainly enable a Sádhaka to attain unity with Brahma.

Samprápyaenamrśayo jiṋánarptáh
krtátmano viitargáh prashántáh
Te sarvagaḿ sarvatah prápya dhiirá
Yuktátmanah sarvamevávishanti.

The word “Rśi”, means a Sádhaka who has cultivated Brahma within himself. So long as a Sádhaka does not attain Brahma, there exists in him a feeling of incompleteness. Suppose you want a thousand rupees. If you are given a thousand rupees, will you be contented? No, you will then ask for more. Such is the characteristic of human mind. Man has a limitless thirst. He keeps on harping ceaselessly, “I am hungry.” The hunger for a thousand will change into hunger for a lakh, and hunger for a lakh will make room for hunger for a crore. Thus the amount of hunger goes on increasing until a limitless amount of money is attained. This limitlessness is inherent in Brahma, and so your hunger can be satiated in Brahma alone. Hence when a “Rśi” attains complete self-control (krtátman), he goes beyond the sphere of attachment and detachment, and attains full realization of his characteristic Self. He becomes imperturbably tranquil, i.e. he reaches the stage which lies beyond the momentum of rebirth or regeneration. Attachment and repulsion exist so long as the proclivities of fascination and contempt exist. For instance, a puritanical sádhaka will consider wine as an object of disdain and will regard touching it as an act of impiety. A wine addict, however, regarding it as an object of greed, will run after it with total disregard for all social conventions and norms. But he who has become really desireless as the result of self-realization, will keep himself above these two. He will take wine as medicine under medical advice, otherwise he will carefully keep it away from the sight of people. He will have neither attachment nor aversion for the wine.

If you go to Kanyákuḿarii (Cape Comorin), you will see on one side the restless surging waves of the Bay of Bengal and on the other the tranquil Arabian Sea. The Bay of Bengal is not very deep and so there are as much waves as roars, and the Arabian Sea, which is very deep, remains calm and meditative. Similarly, he who is satiated of knowledge and desireless, remains calm and tranquil. Why on earth should he indulge in self-publicity? To whom will he publicize himself? Such acts are the antics of common, avaricious people with beggar-like mentality. Man who has attained Brahma will see His Glory in everything and feel that nothing is separate from Him. Where is the fear of any Saḿskára or reactive momentum for the one who has surrendered himself to Brahma?

Abhaypade práń sanpechi
Árki shaman bhay rekhechi.

The Sádhaka who has known Brahma loses himself – merges himself in Him. He does not have to undergo the cycle of births and deaths any more.

Gatáh kaláh paiṋcadasha pratiśt́há
Deváshca sarve pratidevatásu
Karmáńi vijiṋánamayashca átmá
Pare’vyaye sarva ekiibhavanti.

Human existence is concerned with sixteen factors, (Kalás), from which there is no means of escape, so long as human desires are efferent or extrovertive – so long as he is busy, seeking the objects of happiness from this material world. There are ten organs, (five sensory organs, e.g., eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin, and five motor organs, i.e., speech, hands, feet, anus and generative organ), five práńáh or internal vital airs, viz., Práńa, Apána, Samána, Udána and Vyána (Nága, Kúrma, Krkara, Devadatta and Dhanaiṋjaya – these five external Váyus or airs do not belong to the sixteen Kalás for these are the resultants of the internal airs themselves), and Ahaḿtattva (ego) – sixteen in all. The sum total of fifteen Kalás of a theopathic Sádhaka get merged in their original causes. All these gods⁽²⁾ or organs finally lose themselves in their respective counter-gods, i.e., controlling powers.

Behind each manifestation of the indescribable games of sound, touch, form, taste and smell that are going on in this vast universe, there is a significant expression of some particular forces. These forces we call gods. Playing and frolicking on the boy of the Macrocosm, each of these forces is activating and controlling the human body as a whole and individually with each and every action and sentiment of the human limbs and parts. The forces that activate the ten organs, through which one acts, are called of the senses. After death each of the organs of an emancipated Sádhaka gets merged into its own god. His deeds, his soul become ensconced in the Viijnánamaya and Hirańyamaya kośas, the fifteen kalás and the counter-gods of the gods (what we call gods in reference to unit bodies are known as counter-gods in their pervasive sense in reference to the Macrocosmic Body) – all merge in the Supreme Being after the demise of the Sádhaka. In other words, the emancipated Sádhaka attains a place beyond the pale of life and death. He becomes one with the imperishable Brahma in His final beatitude.

The union of a Sádhaka with Brahma has been elucidated through an excellent example. Just as a river giving up its name and identity, completely merges in the sea and thereafter cannot maintain its own existence except that of the sea, similarly a Sádhaka, after merging himself in Brahma, can no more think of himself except Brahma.

Yathá nadyah syandamánáh samudrestaḿ gacchati námarúpe viháya
Tathá vidvánnámarupádvimuktah parátparaḿ puruśamupaeti divyam.

Seeing the Ganges we can identify the water of the Ganges. Similarly we can recognize the water of the Yamuná or the water of the Sarasvatii but once they merge in the sea, we cannot separate them nor can we distinguish the one from the other. Nevertheless, they are all there. They all have lost their respective names in the identity of the sea. Similarly when a knower of Truth merges in the Supreme Being, his petty sense of existence loses itself, and, attaining unity with the Supreme Entity, he becomes Supreme Himself. Spiritual practice is meant for the expansion of the soul, not for the annihilation of it and so Samádhi does not mean suicide but self-oblivion.

Sa yo ha vae tat paramaḿ Brahma veda Brahmaeva bhavati;
Násya brahmavit kule bhavati;
Tarati shokaḿ tarati pápnánáḿ
Guhágranthibhyo vimkto’mrto bhavati.

He who has known Supreme Brahma, becomes Brahma Himself, for the unit takes on the very form of its object. He who has Brahma as his object, goes to the world of Brahma after death, i.e., becomes Brahma Himself. In the family of such a Brahma-knowing one, is never born a non-Brahma-knowing person. The word, Kula, is derived from the root Ku + lá + dá. “Ku” means world and “la” means to hold. That which the world holds is called Kula. (Its third meaning being the unit force or Jiiva-shakti.⁽³⁾ The lowest part of the vertebral column or spine is also called Kulakuńd́alinii). The word holds the human family and that is why the family or lineage is called Kula. Here the word, Kula, is used in the sense of Brahma-sútra (Divine link), which is denotative of hereditary preceptor-disciple relationship and by which the creation is held – or which is held by the creation. It is claimed that the intuitional knowledge is thus preserved hereditarily. The knower of Brahma goes beyond the sphere of all pains and inequities. When through Sádhaná or spiritual practice the Kulakuńdalinii-force pierces through the heart, the Sádhaka gets emancipated and attains deathlessness and thereafter goes to the region beyond the reach of death for all eternity.

Elsewhere in the Shruti it is said:

Bhidyate hrdayagranthishchidyante sarvasaḿshayáh
Kśiiyante cásya karmáni tasmińdrśt́e parávare.
Násájiivo na ca brahmá na cányadapi kiiṋcana
Na tasya varńáh vidyante náshramáshca tathaeva ca.

–Páshupata Brahma

In such a condition can we at all call the emancipated Puruśa a unit being? This great man, [[whose guhágranthi [anáhata cakra] has been pierced and who has merged himself in Brahma due to the absence of saḿskáras [mental reactive momenta], has attained a position even above Brahmá, Viśńu and Maheshvara]].⁽⁴⁾

Brahma is not classifiable under any Varńa or color, but His thoughts are of course coloured. Colour co-exists with the sound that necessarily exists in the thought. These colours and sounds are indicative of different guńas or qualities.

Varńa Quality Colour

Bráhmańa Sattva (Sentient) White Kśatriya Sattva plus Rajah Red (Sentient plus Mutative) Vaeshya Rajah plus Tamah Yellow (Mutative plus Static) Shúdra Tamah (Static) Black

Brahma Himself is beyond all colors. So He is above the four Varńas or Áshramas like Brahmin, Kśatriya etc. The end of Varńas (colors) and the beginning of Avarńa (Absence of color) takes place in the Trikuti (the seat of the mind) and so in the Sádhaná of the Avarńa (or colorless) we have got to recognize and accept the Trikuti directly or indirectly.

Na tasya dharmo’dharmashca na niśedho vidhirńa ca
Yadá brahmátmakaḿ sarvaḿ vibháti tata eva tu.

–Páshupata Brahma

To the knower of Brahma Dharma and Adharma (piety and impiety) have no distinction. He is not even cognizant of discrimination between Scriptural sanctions and inhibitions. To him all have become one. There is nothing to accept or shun. The knower of Brahma will keep himself engaged in the meditation of Brahma all the time, awake or asleep, standing or sitting, eating or fasting. Constantly he will keep himself absorbed in thought of Brahma. All his acts, small or big, are dedicated to undergo the consequences of his deeds. The body to him is but a machine, through which his suffering and enjoyments of past deeds are done but no new action or its consequence can touch him.

Tadá dhukhádi bedo’yamábháso’pi na bhásate
Jagat jiivádi rupeńa pasyannapi parátmavid.

–Páshupata Brahma

Pleasure and pain are but the distortion of mind. In Samádhi (suspension of mind) comes the full equilibrium. At that time not a semblance of pleasure or pain remains save an attitude of absolute happiness.

Incidentally a story flashes across my mind. Pańd́ita Rámanátha of Navadvipa was a self-oblivious man. The King of Nadia, with a view to giving him some financial help, had once asked him, “Are you in want of anything?” The Pańd́ita had then been absorbed in the world of ideas. He took the word “want” for his want of knowledge and replied, “Yes, I did feel the want of an explanation of a shloka but now it is clear to me.” The Mahárájá then said, “No I am talking about want of money.” Rámanátha replied, “Look, you had better ask my wife about domestic affairs.” Then the Mahárájá enquired of the wife. As is husband, so is his wife. She informed the King point blank, “Look, there is rice in the house and there are plenty of leaves on the tamarind tree. My husband relishes the stew of those leaves immensely. I don’t know of any other necessity.”

That is why I say, the greater the height reached by a person, inspired by a great ideal, the lesser shall be his sense of pleasure and pain. A wonderful show! People get dumb-founded at it but the magician himself remains unaffected as the secrets are all known to him. The spectators get stunned and overwhelmed by such a demonstration. The magician also sees the magic play but he does not get affected or overwhelmed. He only witnesses the play. Why? His only duty is to see if the play is being enacted properly. This world is also a magic play like this. Similarly the knower of Brahma only witnesses this game but he remains unaffected, by it. He remains unattached in spite of his being in the midst of the world, living beings etc., – in spite of his being in the midst of sufferings and enjoyments. Maháprabhu Caetanya had said to his dear disciple, –

Sthir haiṋá grhe yáha ná hao bátul;
Krame krame páy loke bhakti-sindhukúl.
Markat́ vaerágya ná kara lok dekháiṋá;
Yatháriiti viśaya-bhuiṋja nirásakta haiṋá.
Antare niśt́há kara báhya lokavyavahár;
Avashyai Krśńa tomá kariben uddhár.

–Krśńadás

Na tat pashyati cidrúpaḿ Brahma vasteva pashyati
Dharmadhar mitva va rta ca bhede sati hi bhidyate.

–Páshupata Brahma

The knower of Brahma is like Consciousness itself. He has a thorough grasp of all objects. To a person of average intelligence water and ice are two different entities, but one who knows a little knows that ice is only a crudified form of water. Similarly where an average person sees a big difference between a pot and a potter or the religion and the religious, the knower of Brahma sees only the homogeneous oneness among them. Are the world and Brahma two different entities or are they indivisible? Is the one true and the other false? Is the difference that appears between the two, the truth or the lack of it? Such questions or such ways of thinking would never arise in the mind of a person with a Cosmic outlook.

Bhedábhedastathá bhedo’bhedah Sákśa Parátmana
Násti svátmátirekeńa svayamevásti sarvada.

Whether the world and Brahma are two separate entities or one singular entity – such thoughts are wrong in themselves. The knower of Brahma feels that the world is indeed His own manifestation. He knows that all is He. Rámbábu and Shyámbábu are two entities in common parlance but do you know how that difference looks from the Cosmic perspective? No more than the difference between man and human being, between sea and ocean, between wife and better half. From a sádhaka’s standpoint distinction does not exist. If I think of London in my mind, is there actually any difference between myself and that mental London. That is my own mental form, isn’t it?

Adhiśt́hánamanaopamayáumanasagocaram
Yattadadreshyamagráhyamagotraḿ rúpavarjitam

–Páshupata

The knower of Brahma then feels that as Brahma he abides in all objects – the nucleus of every thing. He feels that there exists no second entity in the universe. “No tasya pratima asti,” i.e., He has no comparison. Comparison calls for two objects and this means that there are two Brahmas. Hence Brahma is incomparable. Brahma is beyond the scope of words and mind and yet even that verbally and mentally incomprehensible Brahma is attainable by effort. You have got to touch Him with your innermost heart of hearts, got to hold him with your intuition, got to attain him by merging your soul in the Supreme Soul. His body is not a quinquelemental, finite entity that you can see with your eyes. He is indeed subtler than the subtle, vaster than the vast. To see Him you have got to use the lens of knowledge, moving aside the blinding obstructions or bondage of Avidyá or the forces of microcosmic distraction. If a salt doll goes to fathom the sea, it will certainly melt and become the sea itself. Similarly if the knower of Brahma goes to fathom Brahma he will merge in the Sea of Brahma and become Brahma Himself “Brahmavid Brahmaeva bhavati.” Constantly absorbed in the thought of Brahma, you too will become Brahma. Constantly thinking of a cockroach you will eventually become a cockroach. You cannot see Him with your crude eyes, for He is super-sensual, He has no pedigree or family line. This is so because He is unborn, beginningless and without causality. He is shapeless and formless. He has no form, for to ascribe a form to Him would be to impose a limit of demarcation around the infinite entity. As soon as the limitless Brahma is given form and turned into a limited entity, He ceases to be Brahma or the Great.

Acakśurshrotramatyarthaḿ tadapáńipadaḿ tathá
Nityaḿ vibhuḿ sarvagataḿ susukśmaḿca tadavyayam

–Páshupata

He has no crude eyes but He sees everything with His cognitive vision. He has no ears, but He hears everything with His cognitive ears. Since nothing is outside Him He has no motor and sensory organs, but He does everything by dint of His imagination. For example, if you imagine a tree in your mind, its shadowy likeness will impress itself on your mental plate and a sense of visualizing the tree will be aroused in your mind. Does any independent tree actually exist outside you. Similarly Brahma is observing, hearing and doing everything by virtue of His thought-projection. He is an eternal, perpetual Entity beyond the purview of past, present and future. Being without beginning and end, He is called Vibhu or Eternal. He is subtler than the subtle and beyond all kinds of destruction.

Bráhmaevedamamrtaḿ tatpurastád brahmánandaḿ paramaḿ caeva pashcát
Brahmánandaḿ paramaḿ dakśińe ca brahmánandaḿ paramaḿ cottaraḿ ca.

–Páshupata

The characteristically deathless Brahma is present in front of us, behind us, right and left of us in fact – everywhere. It is impossible to run away from Him. We are completely surrounded by Him.

Umásaháyam parameshvaraḿ prabhuḿ trilocanaḿ nilakánt́haḿ prashátam
Dhyátva munirgacchati bhútayonim samastasákśiim tamasah parastát.

–Kaevalya

Parama Puruśa is with Umá, Umá means Prakrti His operative principle. Brahma is the combined name of Puruśa and Prakrti. When the influence of Prakrti expresses itself upon the Puruśa, the cosmic thought process goes into action and by virtue of this activation by Prakrti, the sound of oṋḿkára can emanate. But when Prakrti is inactive, i.e., when Puruśa is predominant, in that case the Oṋḿkárá sound also stops. By a slight transposition of A. U. Ma the three constituent letters of the ideogram ([DEVANAGARI CHARACTER] or Oṋḿ), i.e., placing, “A” at the end, we get the word UMÁ. That is why Umapati (Pati means husband) means Puruśa. Brahma, in conjucation with Prakrti, is the cause of creation. In a particular content He may also be called Iisvara, means Controller Brahma is the controller of the organs and their gods directly and indirectly. His cognitive eyes are not two but three, i.e., He is the seer of all the three – past, present and future. He is Niilakańt́ha or blue-throated, i.e., the vast bluish sky is in the region of His throat. His initial extroversion or expansion from the subtle to the crude is the sky. The sky is of blue color and is capable of imbibing and carrying the sound. Hence Niilakańt́ha is a very suitable epithet for Brahma. His throat is not limited and demarcated like that of a unit. The entire creation is within Him. His depth is unfathomable and hence He is calm and tranquil. Reaching the original cause of all elements by virtue of their meditation and ideation the sages eventually attained the very Brahma Himself. His place is above all extroversive forces. He is all-knowing, all-witnessing and self-effulgent.

Sa Brahmá sa Shivah sendrah so’kśarah paramah svarát́
Sa eva Viśńu sa práńah sa kálágnih sa candramá.

He is the Brahmá i.e., when He is engaged in the act of creation, He is known as Brahmá. As Shiva or Consciousness He is the witnessing Entity of the mundane affairs. He is the Indra of the universe, i.e., the greatest of all. He is effulgent in His own effulgence – Svarúpena rájata iti svarát́. For His all-pervasiveness He is known as Viśńu. He is known as life itself because the existence of all entities is ingrained in His Entity. It is because of His possessing the inexhaustible power of destruction that He is known as Kálágni or the fire of destruction. He is called the moon, for He is shining in the Hrdayákásha or the firmament of the heart as the great and noble Intellect. Briefly speaking, all that you can think of concerning the worlds are within Him. He is the seed of all the Tanmátras, i.e., the generic essences of physical elements like sound, touch, form, taste and smell. The germ or sprout is verily His expression.

Sa eva sarvam yadbhútaḿ yacca bhavyaḿ sanátanam
Jiṋátvátaḿ mrtyumatyeti náhya panthá vimuktave

He is all that exists in this universe – all that exists in all objects. What ever has taken place, is taking place or will take place are all sustained in His existence, vibrated in His vibration, echoed and re-echoed in a thousand and one in his sound. His voice is the cosmic voice that establishes the beings of the mortal world immortality. His voice surges as the seed of the world, as the germ of the world, as the fruit bearing world-like tree. [It is] said in the Bible, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.”

The vedas also sing the many glories of this vast mystic syllable or sound, oṋḿkára. The all merciful God has been teaching the fundamental of all learnings through the medium of this oṋḿkára. A person transcends death as well as all cares and woes for all eternity by the supreme being. There are two ways in which this can be achieved – through thought and through meditation of God at every step of his evolutional sport.

All are false, only Krśńa thrills
Pray, O mortals, Death at your heels.

Footnotes

(1) Ráhu being the head itself. –Trans.

(2) Of the countless number of veins or tubular organs of the human body, thirty-three are most important. The controlling entities of these thirty-three veins or tubes are called thirty-three gods, vid, eleven Rudras, eight Vasus, twelve Adityas, Indra and Prajápati. The Chief manifestation of the Cosmic Force is called Indra, which controls the human body entirely.

(a) The eleven rudras: Ten organs (sensory and motor) and the mind. “Rudra” means that which makes one cry. At the time of death when all the organs merge into their corresponding counter-gods, the mind becomes inactive and the human body becomes still and immobile. Due to this near and dear ones of the dead person cry piteously. These eleven gods make the human cry, and hence they are called Rudras.
(b) The eight vasus: Vasu means the habitat of the units; that is to say, those that are receptacles, shelters, or objects of the organs are called Vasu. The sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, the ether, the air, the fire and the earth are the eight Vasus.
(c) The twelve Ádityas: Áditya means Collector. Here it means that all those which takes or take away the consequences of deeds and life. Every moment the duration of life is being reduced, and the unit is being compelled to undergo the process of metamorphosis in order to enjoy or endure the consequences of his deeds. All these are taking place through the passage of time. Hence time is Áditya, for it takes away the life and the consequential moments of deeds. The twelve months are the twelve Ádityas.
(d) Indra: Indra means lightning, thunder or actional force.
(e) Prajápati: Prajápati means Yajiṋa (sacrifice) or action.

Some are of the opinion that the veins of the human body are uncountable. Others say that they are a few crores, as if they had counted them all. Many people say that the number of veins totals thirty three crores and so the gods are also of the same number. Truly speaking it is due to ignorance and blind faith that the controlling nerves and veins of the human body have been converted into thirty-three crores of gods, having so many different names and forms. Shaḿkara said in reference to gods –

“Sarvadyotanátmaka akhańdacidaekarasah.”

Yájiṋavalkya said –

Dyotate kriidate yasmádudyate dyotate divi
Tasmáddeva iti proktah stúyate sarvadevataeh.

The gods are of two kinds – (1) Daehik Devatá (the physical gods). The manifestation of soul is accomplished through the organs, and so the organs are called Daehik Devatá and (2) Brahmik Devatá (Cosmic gods through whom the whole universe is manifested and controlled). Both are thirty-three in number. Each of the Cosmic gods is the counter-god of the respective physical gods. These physical gods get merged into the counter-gods, which again merge in Brahma, and that is why the liberated Sádhaka becomes Brahma Himself.

(3) Author’s footnote on the other two meanings of kula omitted here. –Trans.

(4) It is the Supreme Brahma Who is the creator of the universe and to create is also an act. Where there is action, there is sound. The prańava or Oṋḿkára is indeed the sound of the creative thought-process of the Supreme Spirit and he who has merged himself in Brahma due to the absence of Saḿskára or reactive momentum, has attained a position even above Brahmá, Viśńu and Maheshvara.
Of the three letters (A, U, Ma) of the Oṋḿkára “A” (অ) is the seed of creations, “U” (উ) is the seed of stability or preservation and “Ma” (ম) is the seed of destruction. “A” being the creative alphabet, Brahma is called Brahmá (Brahma + a) in reference to creation. Suppose a man’s name is Rámbabu. His son will call him “father” and his pupil will call him “sir”; these are but the titles of Rámbabu applied to his specific occupational conditions, Actually Rámbabu is one, Saguńá Brahma imbibes three chief acts, viz., creation, preservation and destruction. These acts of creation, preservation and destruction are taking place in the psychic sphere of Brahma. With the termination of its thought process all the manifestations of these three kinds of acts will also cease. For instance, when we think of Bhagalpur, a clear picture of Bhagalpur gets projected on our mental plate and when we give up the thought of Bhagalpur, the picture of Bhagalpur gets lost in that very mental plate. If afterwards we cease to think at all, the mind also loses its existence. So Brahmá, Viśńu and Mahesh are the nomenclatures of the different psychic acts of Brahma Himself. When a Sádhaka, having gone beyond the mental stratum, gets ensconced in the immutable, pure Brahmic region, he certainly enjoys greater importance or superiority over these three gods. That state is the characteristic state of the unit – the supreme state of Shiva or Cosmic Transcendentality. Asked to reveal his identity, Lord Saḿkarácaŕya said –

Manobuddhyahaḿkáro cittani náham
Na ca shrotrajihave na ca ghráńa netre
Návyoma bhúmirna tejo na váyuh
Cidánandarúpo’shivo’haḿ shivo ham.

That is,

Not mind nor I-feeling nor ego am I
Nor ear nor tongue nor nose nor eye
Nor air nor earth nor sun nor sky
The Soul Eternal am I, am I.

Chapter 2	Ananda Marga Ideology and Way of Life in a Nutshell Part 3 [a compilation]

Manah evo manuśyánáḿ kárańam bandhamokśayoh
Bandhasya viśayásaúngimuktonirviśayaḿ tathá.

Matter or object is indispensable for the existence of the mind, for mind thrives on matter. Mind exists only as long as it is concerned with matter. As soon as it becomes objectless it dies. The unit mind accepts the unit objects around it as its objective or livelihood with the help of the organs. The unit entity cannot conceive any integral, infinite object in its mind. Brahma alone is integral, and other objects are but fractions of Him and can be brought within the jurisdiction of the mind. Take the Himalayas Mountain range for instance. The mind finds it difficult indeed to comprehend it straightway; although vast, but it is not limited, also only a part, and so it can be brought within the mental compass easily through the medium of a map. But we cannot draw a map or picture of the integral entity, Brahma. We cannot bind Him to an image from the ten directions. That is why the scriptures say, “Na tasya pratimá asti” i.e., He has no image. Mind cannot apprehend this integral Brahma, for every object that is encompassed by the mind is demarcable from the ten sides. To demarcate Brahma would be totally antagonistic to the concept of limitlessness.

If holding or apprehending Brahma is beyond the capacity of the mind, how then can man attain Him? When, through spiritual sádhaná, the mind is gradually transformed from crude to subtle and goes on advancing on the path of withdrawal, it (the unit mind) gradually goes on surrendering itself unawares to it Hirańyagarbha or subtle Cosmic mind. And when this self-surrender reaches its apex, the unit mind, i.e., the sense of Ráma, Shyáma jadu, Madhu etc. meets its waterloo. What remains then is only the Supreme Mind of that Supreme Puruśa. This state is called Savikalpa Samádhi or determinate concentration of the mind. So we see that the first and last word of Sádhaná or intuitional practice is total surrender of the unit mind to the Supreme Mind. Similarly when the unit mind has been dedicated to the Supreme Consciousness, and as the result of this there remains only an objectless unity, the Lord of Máyá, this state is called Nirvikalpa Samádhi i.e., supersensual or total suspension of the mind. The first and last word of this Sádhaná also is total surrender. To the unit mind Brahma is unthinkable,

Acintyamavyaktamananarúpaḿ shivaḿ prashántamamrtaḿ brahmayonim
Tathádimadhyántavihiinamekaḿ vibhuḿ cidánandamarúpamadbhútam.

He is unimaginable, for He is beyond the sphere of imagination. Not only is he unimaginable He is also unmanifest because He is inapprehensible to the sense organs through sound, touch, form, taste, smell etc. Any object, having the above five qualities like sound, touch etc., no matter how huge it is apprehensible by the sense-organs. He is formless, as we cannot give a form to infinity. But then, is not this perceptible world His form? Yes, it is, but these countless forms of this observable world are but His psychic manifestations. Only unit entities are evolved in the sphere of His mind as the objects of the unit minds, whereas countless and endless, big and small unit entities are being created and recreated in the imagination of Brahma the possessor of the infinite mind. Apparently they are His “form” in this observable world. But none of these forms of His psychic flow – none of these bubbles that are originating, rising and bursting are the ultimate entities. They are all progressing through spatial, temporal and personal changes with a view to merging in that Supreme Bearing, the Nucleus of the Thought-Cycle. That is why none of these mundane manifestations of Brahma can be taken to be permanent and held on to as such. No matter how charming or captivating a form of His may be, one day it must take its leave from us must go away to some unseeable region in response to the beckoning call of time, leaving us behind to rue and wail in profuse tears. So none of His unit forms can give us any perennial peace or real, abiding happiness. That is why a Sádhaka is taken aback at the sight of the infinite, manifest form of form of the infinite of the Infinite Brahma. Shrii Rádhá said –

Askest thou, Sakhi, the experience mine
Describing that Love with the love of mine
Each moment bringeth a newer theme
All my life that Form have I seen
Yet eyes untired insatiate, keen
Only ears doth hark His honeyed hymn
Still indelible the touch on my ears
Sweet nights passeth in pining tears
The uncanny game beyond my ken
For aeons in heart my heart have I kept
Yet lodging heart is ever bereft
Trekked many a talent His essence-den
Could none describe that feel divine
Sayeth Vidyápati, that Love so fine
Not one in a million could ever explain.

He is the selfsame Shiva. The word, Shiva, means Puruśa. It is also used in the sense of benevolence. Here “Shiva” is used in the latter sense, for his psychic manifestations. The evolved objects, are all employed for the good alone and so. He is Shiva, He is benevolent, He is the image of benevolence. Does He punish us to afflict us with pain and suffering? No, there too, His benevolent wishes abide. It is for the rectification of our character, that the benevolent penal dispensation is there. He is perfectly free from the stigma or darkness of Avidyá, etc. Hence He is perfectly in peace – in absolute tranquillity. The Avidyá-like gale creates stormy waves in the sea of the mind, destroying its equipoise and tranquillity. In the sea of Brahma shocks and clashes of Avidyá (forces of microcosmic distraction) or (distracting forces which act upon the microcosm) do not exist and so there is no wave at all. The more the Avidyá evolved ego, the greater the agitation of the waves – the greater the shallowness of its knowledge. One can observe that a Kanyákumárii, on one side there are the surging waves of the Shallow Bay of Bengal and the calm serenity of the very deep Arabian Sea on the other, He is deathless and free from distortion mutation. Distortion cannot take place in an object, unless there is the influence of a second object or of an outside agency upon it. If you want to transform milk into curd you will have to mix some thing sour into it. As nothing exists outside of Him, He precludes the possibility of being distorted by any outer influence or agency.

The word, Brahma means “uniquely Great”. He is the greatest of all – Brhattvád Brahma, By absorption in His thought, all become Brahma, i.e., He has the power of making one and all Brahma – Brḿhańatvád Brahma.

He is the original Cause of everything, for He has been creating the world in His mind by virtue of His imagination. He has neither beginning, nor middle, nor end, for He is indeterminate and infinite. If He had a beginning, it would not be possible to call Him endless and infinite. For one that has neither a starting-point nor a last point there cannot be a middle point. If he possessed those three aspects, there would have been a possibility of something else existing – a second entity beside Him, and such entities could have either existed before or after His point of origin. In such an event it would have been possible to apprehend Him through the mind and the organs, for in that case He would have been a mere entity made up of the five elements. If we consider an image to be God, then behind the pedestal, under His feet and habare the crown on his head, must some other entities exist. To call such an image beginningless and limitless is rank madness, for we can see both its first and last points and can also apprehend it by our minds, as well as by our organs. This is because it made of the quinquelemental ingredients like earth, stone, metal etc.

As everything is within His psychic body so He is the real Supreme Controller of everything. He is Consciousness – Bliss Absolute. All mental feelings are either pleasant or painful. When the mind remains associated with any object for a long time we call that state “happiness” and when it is repulsed by any absent (while is characteristically inimical) for long, we call such a state sorrow. When the mind is neither concerned with the feeling of happiness nor with that of sorrow, it ceases to exist. In such a state here remains only an objectless soul, when the soul revels in the happiness of the soul. That is why He is the self-same Consciousness – the Bliss Absolute – the ever-blissful Spirit.

I have already said that limitlessness cannot be given particular form, therefore He is formless, and shapeless. The countless perceptible unit forms are all within the formless Whole aren’t they? Differentially and severally they are so many countless forms but integrally, they are He, Who is beyond the ambit of forms. So sang the great Sádhaka, Rámaprasáda –

Distinctions, O, Mother, shall I shun
Thus put my mind in order
Hundreds of knowledges Truth spun
Formless remains my Mother.

The One Who is formless is indescribable I cannot call Him anything but the wonder of wonders.

Sarvabhútashamátmánaḿ sarvabhútáni cátmani
Sampashyan brahmaparamaḿyáti nánena hetuná

He who sees his own entity in all the evolved objects (all elements), animate or inanimate, and all objects within himself, has alone the capacity of realizing Brahma i.e., the realization of Brahma is possible in him alone. He cannot be attained through any other means except through such a cosmic vision. Now the question arises as to how it is possible for a man to see all (elements) in him and him in them.

Átmánamarańim krtvá prańávaiṋcottarárańim
Jiṋánanimarthanábhyását páshaḿ dahati pańd́itah.

“Let the pańd́ita or the learned man free himself from or subdue his fetters (the eight páshas) by virtue of his reasoning and knowledge, using his átmá [self] as the arańi or [[main wood]] and oṋḿkára as the uttarárańi or the striking [[wood]].”

The word, arańi, means mantra-sanctified wood used for sacrificial fires, by the friction of which people of olden days used to produce fire. The main wood was known as Arańi and the striking wood by which the friction was to be accomplished was called Uttarárańi. Árańi used to grow in the forest, the place of meditation for the Rśis of those days. Metaphorically, one is advised to use one’s soul as the Arańi or [[main wood]]. But to light up the Brahmic fire it is necessary to have Uttarárańi or the striking flint for friction. Here the Uttarárańi is the Prańava or Oṋḿkára. The roots pra plus nu plus al make the word, Prańava. The root, “Nu” means to worship. That is to say, prańava is one by which worship is carried out in an excellent manner. The oṋḿkára-mantra itself is the prańava. It is after coming in contact with this excellent medium of worship that the Cosmic sentiment is roused in the soul. Many of you know that listening to the refrains of the Oṋḿkára-sound man gets lost in samádhi [the trance of absorption] – gets absorbed in Brahmabháva [Cosmotheistic trance].

“That I permeate everything, that my ego or I-ness pervades the world” – such a state of sentiment or thought, such a mental bearing is what is called knowledge. “Stirring up this vast vista of knowledge by reasoning, I have come to understand that, from the spiritual standpoint, all that exists is Brahma and that I am all and everything.” It is by such constant inculcation and practice of this sentiment alone (whose easiest method has been taught to you at the very outset of your Sádhaná) that the empyrean fire of Brahma is lit and realized out of the contact between the soul-like Arańi [[main wood]] and the Prańava-like Uttarárańi [[the striker]]. In other words this churning by reasonings represents the act of friction between the Arańi and the Uttarárańi. [[When]] the fire of Brahma is lit up in the heart, man’s mind is freed from its fetters or páshas which are its chains of bondage. These pásha or fetters are eight in number:

Ghrńashaḿkábhayaḿlajjájugupsácetipaiṋcamii;
Kulaḿshiilaiṋca mánaiṋca aśt́ao pásháh prakiirtitáh.

[(1) hatred, (2) doubt, (3) fear, (4) shame, (5) censure, (6) attachment, (7) vanity of culture, (8) false sense of prestige.]

The one who consumes these fetters is known in the society as Pańdita, with the realization of Brahma or the attainment of Savikalpa Samádhi (determinate trance of absorption) the above fetters disappear from the human mind. During the time of determinate concentration the sentiment of “I am Brahma”, exists in the mind of the Sádhaka. In the Saḿskrta language the state of “I am Brahma” is called Pańdá. The one who has Pańdá is called Pańdita.

Ahaḿ Brahmásmiiti buddhitámitah práptah pańd́itah.

If Brahma is one and without a second (Ekameva advitiiyam), then why is there the distortion in Him? This question is quite natural and its answer is also very easy. Distortion comes on account of the Prakrti, the Operative Principle, and this distortion takes place within the Body of Brahma, not outside It. Hence on final scrutiny His oneness remains unassailed. The unit beings that have been in possession of the Cosmic Mind in part and that have been progressing within It, are also conscious of their smallness and this very sense of smallness is their individuality – unit-hood. Sádhaná or intuitional practice means an effort to break through the barrier of this smallness, and Siddhi or beatitude is the state, wherein the barrier has been broken through. Under the influence of Prakrti there exist three conditions or states between the small conscious unit and the unfathomably great Brahma. These three conditions are wakefulness, dream and sleep. None of these three are permanent, for they are evolved by the influence of Prakrti’s three guńas or attributes, viz., Sattva (Sentient, Rajah (Mutative) and Tamah (Static). In all these three conditions macrocosm and microcosm remain apparently separate. But the influence of Prakrti being absent in the fourth condition, which is known as Turiiya (the state of non-duality) or Kaevalya (absolute identity with the divine essence), there remains no distinction between Brahma and the unit. Both are one consummate Whole, Wakefulness, dream and sleep – these three conditions feature in the game of evolution. It is to these three attributes, viz., Sattva (Sentient), Rajah (Mutative) and Tamah (Static) that Prakrti owes her creation. When the influence of Sattvoguńa (sentient attribute) is greater on Puruśa, He is called Kśiirávdhi or Kśiirasamudrá or the Sea of Milk. The comparative condition in the unit is called the wakeful state. People generally think that Knowingness only exists in the awakened state. It is not correct. Knowingness does also exist during dream and sleep. I shall clarify this point for you later.

The part of Brahma, which is knowable, i.e., which has been objectivated under the influence of Prakrti, is called Kśara or decaying, i.e., when distortion has taken place, and that part of Brahma, does not undergo distortion itself but remains as the knower of the Kśara, whilst apparently involving itself with distortion, is called Akśara or undecaying. This Akśara remains intermingled with Kśara. The part of Brahma, which is neither Kśara nor Akśara and which bodily exists as the nucleus or the central point or sovereign point of the Cosmic System, is the Controller of both the knowable (Kśara) and the knower, (Akśara). He is not directly connected with anybody’s action or its consequences – Him we call Supreme Soul or the Puruśottama.

Kśaraḿ pradhánamamrtákśaram Harah kśarátmaná vishate deva ekah
Tasyábhidhyánát yojanát tattvabhávát bhúyashcánte vishvamáyá nivrttih.

The word, Náráyańa, can also be used for Puruśottama. “Nárá” means Prakrti (it is also used in the sense of devotion or water) and “Ayańa” means refuge. So Náráyańa is used for Puruśottama, since He is the refuge of Prakrti, the Operative Principle or Cosmic Energy. The Puráńa (Hindu Mythology) says Náráyańa is lying in the ocean of milk and Lakśmii (the Goddess of wealth and prosperity) is massaging His feet. I have already explained to you that Kśiirasamudrá or the ocean of milk means he state of wakefulness of Brahma. Náráyańa means Puruśottama. He is lying, for He is the cognitive force. He has nothing to do except to think only – “Pure shete yah sa purúsah.” Lakśmii massaging His feet, i.e., the introversive Prakrti is subservient to Puruśottama. This great Náráyańa is beyond the purview of words and mind. To create His image is tantamount to sheer madness.

When the influence of the Mutative principle affects the Supreme Entity, He is called Garbhodaka or the Fluid of Creation. The corresponding state of the unit is called the state of dream. When the static Principle of Prakrti is manifest in the Supreme Puruśa, He is called Káranárńava or the sea of Causality. The corresponding state of the unit is called the state of sleep. Out of the Static condition of Brahma comes the first expression of the wakeful creation. That is why this condition is called Káranárńava or Kárańa Samudrá. Kárana means cause and Arńava means “sea”, the central point of which is the Puruśottama, around whom the waves of the Sea of Creation are rolling and billowing with extreme alacrity – found the panoramic pageantry of Kśara Akśara is moving fast. Centering round the small egos, amidst the crowd of Kśara and Akaśra sits the coolly cognitive Puruśottama, the cosmic nucleus.

In the wakeful state the unit beings consider themselves distinct and separate from Brahma. In the dream state such a sense of distinction diminishes a little. In the “sleeping” state it is still less. The fevers and frets of the small ego being absent in sleep, a sort of calm tranquil happiness or static passive pleasure is felt. But in the dreamful state where mind’s internal sufferings and enjoyments go on as usual, such a pervasive sense of happiness cannot be felt due to the existence of various kinds of pains and pleasures.

Sa eva máyá parimohitátmá
Shariirmástháya karoti sarvam
Striyannapánádivicitrabhogaeh
sa eva jágrat paritrptimeti.

Why are the unit entities more vulnerable to Avidyá (Force of Microcosmic Distraction) during the wakeful state? Because within their minds there are eight fetters and six passions, which are ever susceptible to the captivating charms and deceitful superficialities of the external world. Every mental action of his is vulnerable to both internal and external influences. Under the influence of the passions and fetters of their minds he races towards objects related to the body like, women, food, drinks etc., thinking them to be the objects of self-gratification. The Sádhakas (spiritual aspirants) have to scrupulously guard themselves against the glamour of these external baits. They have to be self-controlled. But will self-control be possible unless it becomes firmly established within their minds? It is certainly not possible by becoming a hypocritical Sádhu, tramping about with a smear of ashes on the body and a Kamańdálu (bowl) in hand. Without going in for the external paraphernalia and formalities one has to prepare oneself internally, maintaining the balance between the internal and the external? One has to remain alert so that the external environment will not be detrimental to one’s purity of mind. A high-thinking man may meet his downfall within a short time, if he continually associates himself with bad company. Hence it is necessary to maintain a balance between internal and external expressions. Although bodily pleasures are perceived by the mind in the wakeful state, the objects of such pleasures always come from without, with the result that the privations of the external world will always stand in the way of real happiness, as the external world cannot always supply objects in accordance with the desires and wishes of the mind. Due to this the mind has to run up and down in search of them. It becomes very agitated in the process and peace becomes and impossibility. The influence of the external world is absent during the dreamful state, accordingly the amount of pleasure is due to want of efferent desires in the mind or increased organs (for that matter here the desire is not afferent either). In the state of sleep, as the internal activities of the mind are substantially less, the amount of happiness (Static happiness) is proportionately increased.

Svapne sa jiivo sukhadukha-bhoktá svamáyayá kalpitajiivaloke
Susuptikálesakalevliine tamo’bhibhuto sukharupameti.

I have already said that the unit can perceive more pleasure or pain during his dreamful state, for in that state there is no possibility of a clash between efferent desires and the external world. Normally, even during the dreamful state the unit keeps themselves aloof from Brahma, for there remain dual sentiments of the perceiver and the perceivable. The difference in the dreamful state as distinguished from the wakeful state is that during this state none of the perceivable objects are taken from the external quinquelemental world. Whatever perceived are all self-conceived. Ordinarily we are acquainted with three aspects of the mind, conscious mind, subconscious mind and unconscious mind, that are generally called Cetana mana, Avacetana mana and Acetana mana, the respective proper terms of which should be Kámamaya kośa, Manomaya kośa and Kárańa mana. All the three conditions being in the right order during the wakeful state, the imagined objects do not appear to be true during imagination (as is the went of the subtle or sub-conscious mind), for the unit can very well understand that the actions of the sub-conscious mind are all simply imaginary. For influenced it’s by the conscious mind, the perceiver of the perceivable quinquelemental objects with the help of the organs. But during the dreamful state the crude or conscious mind lies quiescent and the relation of the unit being with the external world is disrupted. At that time the imaginary, perceivable objects appear to be real. That is why it is said that during the dreamful state the unit being becomes the perceiver of imaginary pleasure and pain.

“Can a dream ever be true?” Such question arises in the minds of many. What the unit entities imagines or do during the wakeful state are recorded in their subconscious minds. In any condition, when concerned with similar sentiments acts or things, the unit being determines the character or shape of the subsequent things, acts or sentiments in the light of the recurrence of his previous acts. In the absence of any comparison with already perceived objects, the unit is unable to recognize subsequent objects. Where there is negligible difficulty in comparing things, then people think within themselves: “Yes, this thing appears to be similar to that thing to some extent – perhaps this may be the changed form of that” – thus they come to recognize an entity. In the language of psychology this is called consciousness of identity. For example, suppose we had once seen a boy of 12 or 13. He had was merely a lad at the time. Now we come to see him after twelve years, as a fully developed youth. A great change has come about in his form and features. Still in most cases we can recognize him with a little difficulty. We come to the conclusion within ourselves that that very boy of 12 may now look like this. We call it pratyabhijiṋá or consciousness of identity. But if the difference between the two forms be very great, Pratyabhijiṋá does not occur. So we can see that the accumulated experiences of the subconscious mind help us a great deal in our daily lives. The non-recurrence of these enlightening vibrations would have created great difficulties in this common world as well as in the world of imagination, had they not expressed themselves according to necessity. In sleep if the flatulent gas moves upwards on account of stomach trouble or if there is some nervous disturbance, the brain and the sub-conscious mind will become agitated. Our previously imagined or felt objects reappear in our subconscious mind in a disjointed form. This we call a dream. Obviously such a dream is of no consequence. Not only that, the story formed therein will not be well-knit as it consists of merely the re-appearance of the objects, stored in the different parts of the brain.

There is yet another type of dream. The Atimánas kośa (supramental mind) is the store-house of all knowledge. At times a premonition of a coming be great happiness or sorrow, which only the omniscient causal frame can visualize, is created during deep slumber in the subconscious mind of an individual, who is deeply concerned with that particular happiness or sorrow. Such dreams do not take place very often. Nevertheless such a dream does carry the prognosis of a true event.

Both the conscious and the subconscious mind take rest during sleep, while only the unconscious mind (the collective name of the causal or astral mind consisting of the Amman’s, Vijiṋánamaya and Hirańyamaya kośas) functions. The inordinate unconscious mind in spite of its being the receptacle of all knowledge cannot be the knower of any object due to its being surrounded by darkness. Whatever be the reasons behind it, in spite of being objectivated, it is unable to maintain its objectivity (objectivity) and so it remains in a particular stance of satiation – in a particular state of happiness. In spite of a person’s heart being rent asunder by hundreds of shocks, sorrows and insults he or she forgets everything during sleep and lapse into a condition of ease and comfort. Such comfort or happiness is static born our of ignorance. Sleep is devoid of all feelings. The person then realizes only after waking up that his wood-like condition of sleep was an objectless state.

Abhávapratyayálambanávrttirnidrá.

–Pátaiṋjala

During sleep the unit is enveloped by Brhamic Kárańárńava (sea of causes), thus his sense of unit-hood becomes temporarily dormant. That is why the amount of his happiness in this state is far greater than that experienced during his wakeful state.

The difference between sleep and death is that after death all the three minds – crude, subtle and causal – cease to function and during sleep, due to the fact that the ten Vayus or airs remain undisturbed and unaffected in the body of the causal mind, the vital force remains intact. But in death due to disturbance of the ten Vayus, the life force leaves the body and the causal or unconscious mind is compelled to cease functioning. The nerves and nerve-cells become weak and powerless and the body becomes stiff and inert.

The difference between sleep and unconsciousness is that during sleep the conscious and the sub-conscious minds (Kámamaya kośa and Manomaya kośa) take rest after fatigue, and during unconsciousness they are compelled to stop functioning under circumstantial pressure due to some external blow or mental shock. Sleep is a temporary repose; that is why one feels better after it. During unconsciousness activity is forcibly stopped and so the body feels excessively weak and limp.

The difference between “Savikalpa Samádhi” (determinate absorption of the mind) and sleep is that during “Savikalpa Samádhi” the unit-mind attains unity with the Cosmic Mind, and at that time the Cosmic Mind enjoys infinite happiness, for once the Cosmic Mind having no perceivable entity outside It, Its peace stands no chance of being perturbed by any clash or counter-clash with any external phenomenon. As in sleep and unconsciousness, so also in “Savikalpa Samádhi” the vital force remains intact and the physical bearing, like any other crude object, remains directly under the dictates of the Cosmic Mind. But the unserved Saḿskáras (i.e., the remnants of past reactive momenta) do not let the unit remain in the Cosmic stance for long. The Mutative principle of Prakrti brings one back to unithood in order to undergo and serve those Saḿskáras.

The difference between Nirvikalpa Samádhi and Savikalpa Samádhi is that during Nivikalpa Samádhi (total suspension of the mind, or trance of Complete Absorption) the unit mind merges in the Supreme Puruśa, and that is why, in that condition, Bhoga (pleasure and pain), Bhogya (that which is to be undergone or perceived) and Bhoktá (the perceiver), or Jiṋána (Knowledge), Jineya (Knowable) and Jiṋátabháva (Knowership) do not exist. There remains only an unexpressed Bliss-Entity, whose perceiver remains self-lost in ecstasy, completely oblivious of what he or she will get. Such a condition of the unit entities does not last long either. The Mutative Principle of Prakrti will bring them back to their unit-hood or microcosmic state in order to undergo and serve the unserved Saḿskáras. Thus returning to their individuality they feel as though some inexhaustible spring of ecstatic exhilaration of some unknown region is inundating their mind, their soul, their entire entity. –

Abhávottaránandapratyayálambaniivrttirtasy apramáńam.

–Ánanda Sútram

After that sense of void when the tide of happiness floods the mind, then one can understand that, that so-called state of want or void was nothing but Nirvikalpa Samádhi (The void, because, in the absence of the mind there was no matter or object). The question of breach of, or return from Savikalpa or Nirvikalpa does not arise in the case of one who has no remnant of Saḿskára to serve. Such a lasting Savikalpa is called Mukti or liberation and such a lasting Nirvikalpa is called Mokśa or final beatitude – salvation. You must have thoroughly understood these two through Ananda Marga way of Sádhaná.

Punashca janmántarakarmayogát sa eva jiivo svapiti prabuddhah
Puratraye kriidati yasya jiivastatastu játam sakalaḿ vicitram
Ádharamánandam akhańd́abodhaḿ yasminllayam yáti puratrayaiṋca.

–Atharva

The cause that effects the breach of Savikalpa and Nirvikalpa Samádhis will also be responsible for the breach of sleep, as long as unserved Samskáras or reactive momenta of past and present deeds exist. The seeds of reactions remain accumulated in the sub-conscious mind. Just before the end of sleep the sub-conscious mind (Manomaya kośa) and along with it the conscious mind (Kámamaya kośa) gets awakened through the influence of Mutative principle of Prakrti. This we call “waking up”. When, upon awakening from sleep, the sub-conscious mind has awakened but the conscious mind has not, people dream according to their Saḿskáras. Such dreams, which are generally not due to any physical disturbance or disease and which follow an unconscious state of mind, often come true. That is why people say, “The dreams that take place in the concluding part of the night come true.”

The three states that are created in Puruśa as a result of His conjunction with Prakrti are called Tripura. In the case of unit entities these Tripuras are the three conditions wakefulness, dream and sleep; and the One that is lying quiescent as the witness is the Átman or Puruśa. This variegated world continues to vibrate in these three states within each individual unit mind. The creation of this vast world of Tripura, which is meant for the enjoyment of the unit entities and which is know as Kśiirasamudrá Garbhodaka (The Fluid of Creation) and Kárańárnava, lies in the imagination of the Supreme Puruśa due to His sentient, mutative and static principles. The base of these three states is what we call the fourth state (Cathurtha-Pura). This fourth state is beyond the ambit of the three attributional principles, it is beyond the scope of time, space and person beyond the scope of the Tripura. This fourth state is called the State of Nirguńa (objectlessness), Kaevalya (absolute identity with the Divine Essence) or Turiiya (the state of non-duality). As long as any Saḿskáras remain, the unit entities have to wander about the three regions of Tripura – wakefulness, dream and sleep, undergoing pleasure and pain. But when, as a result of Sádhaná they free themselves from their reactive momenta, they merge in the Turiiyapada or the state of non-duality, the Supreme State beyond the precincts of Tripuras.

The ideogram [DEVANAGARI CHARACTER] (Oṋm) or Prańava or Oṋḿkára is a quadrisyllabic mantra. A, U, M and a sonic dot (Nádabindu). This sonic dot is the fourth state which indicates Nirguńa or the Objectless Entity. In this state one of the three binding principles, Sattva (Sentient), Rajah (Mutative) and Tamah (Static), are manifest. The letter “A” indicates the predominance of the sentient principle (Sattva guńa) and of wakefulness. The letter “U” (oo) represents the Mutative principle and indicates the state of dream and the letter “Ma” indicates the static principle (Tamoguńa) and sleep. In Saguńa Brahma the letters A, U, Ma, indicate respectively Ksiirabdhi, Garbhodaka and Kárańárńava. The dot indicates the fourth state or the state of non-duality – Nirguńa Brahma, the Objectless Entity (Pure Consciousness). A point has position but no magnitude.

We cannot think or say anything about Nirguńa Brahma.

The point is merely used for our own comprehension. The crescent-like mark between the point signifying Nirguńa Brahma and the letter “oṋm” signifying Saguńa Brahma represents the manifest culmination of the expressed form of the unmanifest Prakrti (the Operative Principle).

The witnessing counterpart of the wakeful state of unit entities, is Vishva (a philosophic word meaning causal unit mind) or Subjectivated Puruśa. The proper enjoyment of objects through the sense organs is possible only in a wakeful state. So the Puruśa of this state is called Subjectivated Puruśa. Similarly in reference to the microcosm, the Puruśa, of the dream state is called Taejasa or subtle unit mind; and that of the state of sleep is called Prájiṋa or spiritually dormant cognition. The Puruśa subjective of Ksiirávdhi, Garbhodaka and Kárńarnava is respectively called Virát́a (causal Cosmic Mind). Hirańyagarbha (subtle Cosmic mind) and Iishvara (Crude Cosmic Mind). Hence we find that “A” is the seed or primary cause of Vishya or Viŕáta; “U,” Taejasa and Hirańyagarbha; and “M,” of Prájiṋa and Iishvara. In the state of non-duality (Túriiya) there is no distinction between the unit entity and the supreme entity, for the I-feeling is absolutely nil; and so there is no seed or acoustic expression of this state. The seed or acoustic expression is the cause of origination; and so where there is no question of origination or non-origination, creation, preservation or destruction, the question of seed also does not arise. The knower, known and knowledge, the contemplator, contemplated and contemplation – all become one in the state of Turiiya. Hence that supreme state of final beatitude which is denoted by the Sonic Dot, is called Iishvaragrása – that state in which even Ishvara or the Lord of the universe is devoured. Here the three puruśa also merge in the Nirguńa Brahma or the supreme Non-attributional Entity. Hence it is absolutely correct to call it Iishvaragrása.

This observable world is the manifestation of the Parama Puruśa, the supreme. The world exists as long as the influence of the three guńas or the three binding faculties over Puruśa exists. When a spiritual aspirant destroys the three Puruśa by constant spiritual practices and deep analyses, and churns the cream of knowledge, there remains no distinction whatsoever between Brahma and the unit beings; this is the state of Turiiya or non-duality. The heterogeneity of objects becomes conspicuously absent due to the absence of guńas or attributes.

Etasmád jáyate práńo manah sarvendriyá ńi ca
Khaḿ váyu jyotirápashca parthvii vishvasaya dhárińii.

This world is indeed a Macrocosmic conation. The vital energy or vital air begotten, or the union and disunion of the five fundamental factors active in the microcosmic body, are but the products of His own imagination. At the embryonic stage, human beings derive vital energy from the bodies of their parents and from their mother’s food and drink delivered from the five fundamental factors. Then after birth, they receive vital energy directly from their own food, drink, air, light etc. Hence the source of the life of unit beings lies in Brahma. He is the Life of the life of the microcosms. (The word Práná or life, when used in singular number, means functional energy, and when used in plural, means vital energy). The quinquelemental manifestation is the crudest expression of His psychic action and so the microcosms have to draw vital energy from the quinquelemental world. Vital energy is generated in the unit body through the media of five internal and five external Vayus (airs). Of the five internal Vayus, viz., Práńa, Apána, Samána, Ud́ana and Vyána, the Práńa, situated between the navel and the throat controls the functions of lungs, heart etc.; the Apána, situated below the navel (i.e., between the navel and the anus) controls the excretion of stool, urine etc.; the Samáná, situated within the navel, maintains the equilibrium between Práńa and Apána; the Udána, situated in the throat, controls the vocal cord (power of speech) and the Vyána, permeating the entire body, controls the circulation of the blood, vital secretions etc., and, with the help of the nerve fibres brings the sensory and motor organs into contact with the knowable i.e. the objects to mentally dealt with. The vibration necessary for the faculty of contemplation is also supplied by Vyána Váyu. The five external airs, viz., Nága, Kúrma, Krkara, Devadatta and Dhanaiṋjaya, control expansion and contraction, yawning and hiccup, hunger and thirst, sleep and drowsiness. Hence it is clear that it is with the help of the Váyus by created Parama Puruśa, living beings derive their mind-stuff from the Cosmic Mind. The Indriyas find their expression when the Práńa comes into contact with the mind. Ether, air, fire, water and earth are all created and sustained in the Cosmic Mind. That is these five factors, the psychic creation of Brahma, are preserving the existence of the universe.

Yat paraḿ brahma sarvátmá vishvasyáyatanaḿ mahat
Sukśmát sukśmataraḿ nityaḿtattvameva tvameve tat.

The significant part of this above mantra is that words of neuter gender have been used for Brahma instead of words of masculine or feminine gender. In fact, the Entity or that which has neither beginning nor end and is devoid of any form, can hardly be called masculine or feminine. He is the Life of all lives, the Soul of all souls, and that is why He is Paraḿátmá or the Supreme cognition. The finite objects require a shelter, a base. Only the Infinite does not requite a base. All the finite objects of the universe are but the unit-manifestations of this Brahma. They are all sheltered in Him. All of them are the objects of His imagination. Inconceivably vast as His fundamental intellect is His existence-cum-cognitive Entity. It radiates as the Knowing Entity through His mind-begotten, subtler than the subtle, smaller than the small unit objects also. The One that abides in the unit entities as the Knower, also abides thus in the vast cosmos. Actually the faculty of His Knowership does not undergo any change. The change appears only in the receptacles because we see Him differently, because we imagine Him to be a separate Entity, abiding in separate receptacles. A Sádhaka, however, knows that by knowing One’s own self, one can know the Supreme self, for they are essentially one. Shrii Rámakrśńa Paramhamsa once said that if Sádhakas can know themselves, they can also know the Supreme Consciousness. The great seer of Truth, Rabindranath, expressed this idea in one of his beautiful poems. –

Háy gagan nahile tomáre dharibe kevá,
Ogo tapan tomár svapan dekhi ye
Karite parine sevá.
Shishir kahila káṋdiyá, tomáre rákhi ye bándhiyá
He ravi ámár náhika teman bal
Tomá viná tái kśudra jiivan kevalai ashrujal.
Ámi vipul kirańe bhuvan kari ye álo
Tabu shishirt́ukure dhará dite pári
Básite pári ye bhálo.
Shishirer buke ásiyá kahila tapan hásiyá
Chot́a ha’ye ámi rahiba tomáre bhari
Tomár kśudra jiivan gaŕiba hásir matan kari.

[“Alas, who can hold thee except the sky
O Sun! I only dream of thee and sigh
Alas, I cannot serve thee.”
Said the dew in tears,
“O Sun! To bind thee, strength have I none
So my little life is only tears without thee.”
Said the Sun, “I flood the world with my mighty ray
In the tiny dew I also can stay,
I can love her too, can’t I?”
So on her bosom down came he and said laughing,
“Tiny I’ll be engulfed in thee and make of thy life a smiling ray.”]

Every unit object is subject to the law of causation, every action is the object of the mind. The cause of the mind, functioning within a unit entity is embedded in the Cosmic Mind. It is not only a creation of the Cosmic Mind, it is its object as well. The Cosmic Mind has no cause, for no other active entity ever existed before the Cosmic Mind came into being. To look for an answer to the question as to why and how the Cosmic Mind came into being, will involve the fallacy of infinite regress, for no one can claim to have witnessed the origin of Saguńa Brahma. At that time nothing existed which we would call “mind” and so there was also no existence of the relative factors like Time, Space and Person. To investigate the time of His origin involves the necessity of the existence of a being endowed with a mind at that time. It is because His origin, existence and extinction are beyond the scope of mind, as well as of time, space and person, that He is called eternal. The intuitional science is beyond the realm of causality. Nothing exists outside Brahma and so nothing can be the cause or primal form of Brahma, for the transmuted form of the cause is called action. Milk is the cause of curd, for it is the primal or former state of curd. As nothing is outside Brahma, so nothing can be the cause of any subsequent action. The change in an object takes place out of contraction and expansion and for this contraction and expansion the influence of a second entity upon that particular object is necessary. Thus Brahma is unchangeable – the only Truth. As long as the mind exists, the law of causation will also exist, thus people say:

Kárańábhávát Káryábhávah

“Where there is no cause, there is no effect.” That which is apparently the transformation of Brahma, takes place entirely within Him. All these immutable objects are created, preserved and destroyed within Him. That is why the Rśi (sage) has said, “He is you and you are He.” The objects, which undergo metamorphosis are all made of the five fundamental factors – ether, air, fire, water and earth, which must be present in some form or another; and they remain in one or another of the three conditions – wakefulness, dream and sleep.

Jágratsvapnasuśu ptyádi prapaiṋcám yad prakáshate
Tad brahmáhamiti jiṋátvá sarvabandhadeh pramucyate.

Objects which are made out of the combination of the five factors are called Prapaiṋca. The differences in the forms of objects occur due to the momenta of the Cosmic thought process, and proceed from the subtle to the crude (Saiṋcara or the process of Extroversion) and then retrace their path, from the crude back to the subtle (Pratisaiṋcara or the process of Introversion). That is why they are perishable, for any of their forms is dependent on the three factors of time, space and person. Their manifestative, active and inert states are all respectively ensconced in the states of wakefulness, dream and sleep of microcosms. But what is the source of their different kinds of expressions? What are their main ingredients? They all originate from the Supreme self, the Supreme Subjectivity, that limitless centre of energy of the ego. So in spiritual terms all these states of wakefulness, dream and sleep, as well as this quinquelemental world, are all I. Those who have understood the real meaning of this “I”-ness, do not consider anything to be a bondage, nor are they afraid of anything.

Trisu dhámasu yadbhogyaḿ bhokábhogashca yad bhavet
Tebhyo vilakśańo sáksiicinmátro’ham Sadáshivah.

Wakefulness, dream and sleep – these three conditions are called in the Shloka above the Tridháma or the three abodes. The fourth abode, which is unmentioned is of course, undistorted, unchangeable “I”. Whatever objects there are in these abodes, appear as enjoyable, enjoyer and enjoyment. The fourth entity, with characteristic opposite to those of the above three, is their witnessing Consciousness, Sadáshiva. “I am that Sadáshiva.” Generally in Tantra, (the Esoteric Science) Ardhanáriishvara Shiva is addressed as Sadáshiva. The word Sadáshiva, is not used here in that sense. Here Shiva means Puruśa, benevolent or benign. Hence one who is always absorbed in a Shiva-like stance, is Sadáshiva.

Mayyeva sakalaḿ játaḿ mayi sarvaḿpratiśt́hitam
Mayi sarvam layaḿ yáti tad Brahmádvyamasmyacham.

The one who is established in the stance of Sadáshiva feels: “All of these creations are emanating from my mind, their existences are etched on my mental plate and they are all being dissolved in me. I am that Brahma, eternal and unchanged.”

Anoraniiyánahameva tadvanmahánaḿ vishvamahaḿ vicitram
Purátano’haḿ Puruśo’hamiisho Hirańmayo’ham Shivarúpamasmi.

“I have taken the form of the smallest molecule of molecules and again I am greater than the great. It is I who am manifest as this observable universe. Wonderful is my functioning, unique is the flow of my thoughts and ideas. None of those wonderful vibrations, none of those indescribable radiances, whereby I am scattering myself endlessly, have any comparison with one another. Each of them is unique in its own individual glory. Each of them, manifesting my grandeur differently, is rushing in various speeds towards formlessness from the world of forms. Oh, how wonderful I am! I am unborn. I cannot find any cause of myself. I am beyond the scope of causality, and that is why no one is more ancient than I. I am the Eternal Cognition. No harmful or malevolent thought can enter into me. I wish only good to all beings.” When sádhakas are established in such an awareness they get lost in themselves, realizing the Infinite form within themselves – their external awareness is lost. This stage we call Savikalpa Samádhi. In this the sádhaka’s microcosmic ego merges in the Cosmic Ego completely and totally. The difference between this state and the state of Nirvikalpa Samádhi, is that in Nirvikalpa no I-feeling, whether small or great, exists at all; everything is lost in the integral Consciousness. Since external awareness is absent during Savikalpa Samádhi, the sense of duality does not exist in the sádhaka. For those who are established in introspective trance the objects which are visualized internally appear to be indistinguishable from their own ego. Onlookers cannot comprehend such a state as this. Some ridicule such sádhaka’s, some call them crazy or mad. They do not know that to become like them requires the merit of several births, and demands a concentrated yearning to attain the One to the exclusion of all. It is only these “lunatics” that can lead the collective mind foreword, thus the great poet Rabindranath said,

Ye tore págal bale
Táre tui balis ne kichu,
Ájke tore keman bhebe
Aunge ye tor dhúlá debe,
Kál se práte málá háte
Ásbe re tor pichu pichu;
Ájke ápan-máner bhare
Thák se báse gadiir pare,
Kál se preme ásve neme
Karbe re t́ar máthá niicu.

[Say nothing to those who call you mad
Who throw dust today, and call you a cad
Tomorrow at the break of dawn,
They will approach you, garland in hand.
Leave them alone on their cosy seats
Reputation mad and puffed with conceit
Surely tomorrow they will have to bow down
With flowing love and humbled crown.]

Such a lunatic, viewing their characteristic self introspectively, says, “Really how wonderful I am!”

Apáńipádo’hamacintyashaktih pashyámyacakśue ca shrńomyakarnah
Aham vijánámi viviktarúpo nacástivettá mamacidsadáham.

When a sádhaka realizes: My hands, feet, in fact all my Indriyas are not actually mine. I am an Infinite Entity. Of what good are they to me? My characteristic self my Citishakti (the force of consciousness) is incomprehensible beyond the scope of imagination. All the sensible and perceptible objects, the sense of sight, the sense of hearing are all ensconced in my mental sphere. Of what use are those eyes and ears to me? I see without my eyes. I hear without my ears. I am aware of the variegated rise and fall of every wave, every movement of this creation. I am the knower of each and every object, crude, subtle, causal. I am concerned with all. But no one knows me and no one is my subject, nor am I the object of anyone. I am the pure Consciousness. No other mind can hold me in its thought.

Vedaeranekaerahameva Vedyo vedántakrt vedavidevacá’ham
No Puńyapápe mama nástinásho na janmadehendriyabuddhirasti.
Na bhumirápo na vahńirasti nacánilo’me’sti nacámbaraiṋca.
Evám viditvá paramatmarúpaḿ guháshyaḿ niskalamadvitiiyam.

“Every branch of knowledge has an object of study.” For example, the objects of the study of geography are the various political and natural features of the different countries of the world. Mathematics deals with various sums and problems. Similarly, of all the Vedas or books of knowledge that exist, I am the focus. Whatever, finite objects there are in this observable world, they are nothing but the manifestations of my very own self. And those who are revered as the expounders, of Mantras, the seers and Rśis, the authors of the Vedic scriptures are none else but Myself. In other worlds it is I who impart Brahmavidyá, the intuitional science, under the various names and forms of great personages.

“Due to my limitlessness I have no body, no indriyas and no intellect. Being always established in the Supreme Consciousness, sin and virtue do not exist for me. I have no birth and no death; My existence is not dependent on earth, water, fire, air or ether.” This is how sádhakas in the state of Samádhi feel when they realize their characteristic Supreme Self, lying covert deep within their hearts; when they realize the pure consciousness, the witness-Brahma Himself. He is unique and pure, for He is beginningless and endless. In the absence of anything outside Him. He is without a second.

Being above the influence of Prakrti and without any action, any contraction or expansion, He is the single Absolute Truth. He harbours no distinction, whether homogeneous, heterogeneous or internal. To reach this ultimate and absolute stage of homogeneity is the Supreme attainment of a Sádhaka or spiritual aspirant.

Samastaśakśiḿ sadasadvihiinaḿ prayátishuddham paramátmarúpam

During the first stage of Savikalpa Samadhi the sense of “I” feeling still exists and so also does the process of cosmic imagination of the universe in its vastest scope. But when the sádhakas attain the zenith of this state, they gradually enter a realm beyond the reach of action and thought. At that time they regard their own characteristic Self as the absolute, Supreme Consciousness, devoid of good and bad. They do not then appear to themselves as the doer; rather it seems to them that they are but non-active witnesses to all the affairs of the universe.

Chapter 3	Ananda Marga Ideology and Way of Life in a Nutshell Part 3 [a compilation]

During the last Dharma Mahácakra (Spiritual Congregation) I told you something about the cosmological system. There I also explained the Cosmological system, vis-a-vis solar, earth and atomic systems. The sun is the nucleus of the solar system. The different planets, such as earth born out of the sun, are revolving around the sun as their nucleus. They are neither approaching the sun by coming close to it, nor are they moving away from it, for their centrifugal and centripetal forces are on the whole in an equipoised state. If this equipoise is lost, the planet or planets will either merge in the sun due to the intensity of their centripetal force or gradually recede from it due to their centrifugal force.

Similarly the nucleus of the earth-system is the earth. The moon is revolving round the earth as its nucleus. Here, too, the centrifugal and centripetal forces are functioning with equal intensity. In the same way the electrons are moving around he nucleus of the atomic system. There, too, the same play is going on the same system is working.

By cosmological system we mean this vast universe, whose nucleus is the Akśara or the immutable Puruśa as the witness, around whom are revolving His psychic objects like the sun, the stars, etc., in His imaginative flow. Here too the centrifugal and centripetal forces are maintaining equilibrium. This balanced state of the forces is what we call Prakrti. To the cosmic system the centrifugal force which is dominated by the static principle (Tamaguńa) is known as Avidyá and the centripetal force dominated by the sentient principle (Sattvaguńa) is called Vidyá. When these objects, revolving around the nucleus, were initially created out of the nucleus, there must have been the predominance of the centrifugal force, and in the evolutionary process the static principle must have been dominant. Then again, when its created objects rush in intense yearning towards it with lightning speed, defying all hostile forces, surely at that time the equipoise of forces is lacking. Just as the meteor races down to the surface of the earth, similarly the unit object also races towards, and merges in, that Macrocosmic nucleus, leaving its own orbit in the Cosmic System. Certainly this movement towards the Cosmic Consciousness is dominated by the centripetal force: Hence the path of liberation is the path of the Sentient Principle (Sattvaguńa). Why do we call it the path of liberation? It is because after the merger with its nucleus, an entity’s individuality ceases to exist. After the earth merges in the sun, the earth no longer remains.

Sarvájiive sarvasaḿsthe brhante
Tasmin hamso bhrámyate brahmacakre
Prthagátmánaḿ preritáraiṋca matvá
Juśt́astatastenámrtatvameti.

The unit entities have been moving around the cosmic nucleus throughout eternity and this movement will continue as long as an entity maintains the feeling of distinctions; that is the rotation will not cease until their sense of separateness from the nucleus is dissolved. When the intensity of their attachment for the nucleus will reach its climax – when they will seek to forget everything but Him – no force whatsoever can then dissociate them form Him. This intense attachment is what we call devotion. This momentum towards the Supreme One becomes easy and smooth, when unit entities realize that He always wants to get them back on His lap. His desire to bring them to Himself is simply His grace. In fact He is showering this grace on all. But when peoples eyes are blinded with materialistic enjoyment, they cannot realize this. The great Sage Nárada said, “Mahat krpáyaeva bhagavat krpáleshádvá”, for this His grace is essential. I already said that He had been showering His grace on all. One has only to realize that grace with one’s intensely concentrated mind. His imagination is incessantly flowing. As long as you are incapable of realizing His grace, as long as you do not try to move towards Him you will have to go round and round like the bullocks in the oil-mill in the endless cycle of creation, life and death.

So sang the great mystic poet Rámaprasáda –

Má! Ámáy ghurábi kata?
Kalur cokha d́háká balder mata,
Gháni-gáche juŕe diye má
Pák ditecha avirata.

[How long, O Mother, Thou wilt spin me around
Like the blinkered ox, plodding round the mill
Making me thus go round and round
Always yoked to the grinding wheel.]

The nucleus of the cosmic system is called Puruśottama. He is the Supreme Lord of this imagination-born world of the mutable (kśara) and immutable (akśara) aspects of the Cosmic Mind. In Him is knowership as well as the doership. He Himself is never metamorphosed into any action. We cannot call Him Nirguńa or non-qualified, in Him lies the witness-ship of the entire universe. Saguńa Brahma is the name for the combination of the Puruśottama and His psychic object, the universe. Judging from attributional point of view, the difference between objectified form of Brahma and the witness-ship of Puruśottama is that in His objectified form He is under the bondage of the guńas (guńádhiisa). Yet in both Brahma and Puruśottama He is related in some way with the guńas. Thus I have said that He is the transcendent controller of the guńas.

He cannot be called Nirguńa or non-attributional due to His relation with objects. In the Vedas, Savitr-Rk composed in the Gáyatrii mantra is used to describe Saguńa Brahma. The first three syllables of the oṋḿkára (a-u-m) have also been used to describe Saguńa Brahma. In ancient times, however, only Anuśt́upa mantras were used for Puruśottama, the Nucleus of the Saguńa Brahma. It should be mentioned here that of the seven metres, Gáyattrii, Usńk, Annuśt́upa, Vrhati, Paḿkti, Triśtupa and Jagati, Gáyattrii and Anuśt́upa commanded the greatest importance. Gáyattrii-mantra is composed in three lines of eight letters each, totalling twenty-four letters, and Anuśt́upa of eight letters, dedicated to Puruśottama, stands for each of the syllables of Oṋḿkára.

Ugraḿviiram maháviśńum jvalantam sarvatomukham
Nrsiḿhaḿ bhiiśańaḿ bhadram mrtyurmrtyu namámyaham.

Ugram: In the above mantra the traits and the signs of Nrsiḿha (a mythological form of Brahma, half-human and half-lion) have been described. He has been called Ugra: “Ur” means “anu” i.e., “anu” plus “graha”, that is to say, “He who is merciful is Ugra.” “Ugra” is He who sustains the world through creation, preservation and destruction, by whose endless flow of grace the creation has been continuing in its cycles of births and deaths from time immemorial. To this little earth the sun is Ugra or merciful, for the sun is the cause of its creation, preservation and destruction. Similarly, Puruśottama is the cause of the Cosmic Cycle. Hence none else can be ugra except Him.

Viiram: Puruśottama is called Viira or brave. Why? Because He has been confronting every problem, every obstacle of this universe with His extraordinary courage. With unflinching boldness He has been making decisions and acting accordingly. One who always deals properly with each and every entity must perforce be brave.

Maháviśńu: Visnu means great, all-pervading. Who else shall we call Viśńu but Him who has expanded His mental existence to limitlessness beyond the bounds of all limitations. Hence it is justified to call Him Maháviśńu.

Jvalantam: The One Who is the original force of all forces, the central source of all effulgences, must be Jvalanta or blazing. He is indeed the primal flame – the vital effulgence of all supramundane radiances. All lights pale before His brilliance.

Na tatra súryo bháti na candratárakam
Nemávidyutobhánti kuto’yamagnih
Tameva bhántamanubháti sarvam
Tasya bháśá sarvamidaḿ vibháti.

That is, even the sun loses its brilliance in His presence. So too the moon, the stars and the lightning, what to speak of fire. All are radiant in His radiance.

Sarvatomukham: He is all-witnessing. He is in all forms from the highest to the lowest. He is the witness of all the activities of all the entities, from biggest mammoth to the smallest white ant. This all-witnessing Entity must be Sarvatomukha, with faces on all sides. All that has been, is or will be, are but the unit manifestation of His mind, and so He is the Supreme witness of all. Are you not the witness of your internal thoughts? Just as your mental eye views the objects of your imagination, similarly to see his creation in all directions, Puruśottama has to be all-facing.

Eśo ha deva pradisho’nusarvá
Purvo ha játa sa u garbhe anta
Sa eva játah sah janiśyamána
Pratyauṋ janáḿstiśt́hate sarvatomukhah.

–Yajuh

He is all facing because He has eyes in all the ten directions – the six directions of East, West, North, South, Above and Below, and four sub-directions, like North-east, North-west, South-east and South-west.

Nrsiḿha: Nr means Nara, “human” and it also means puruśa or consciousness, and Siḿha means Shreśt́ha or “Supreme.” The two words together means Puruśashreśt́ha or Puruśottama; that is, the Supreme Entity. Incidentally, it must be remembered Nrsiḿha cannot mean a strange half-man and half-lion creature, which is merely a fanciful contrivance of the authors of the Puráńas (mythologies). Only that Puruśottama, who is the Supreme Entity deserves to be called Nrsiḿha, it is He who has been protecting from all anti-spiritual forces those spiritual aspirants who seek to attain Him. At times He has to take drastic measures according to necessity, to save devotees like Prahlad from the unholy forces like the demon Hiranyakashipu. To ridicule the Supreme Puruśottama by imagining Him as half-human half-lion is not at all proper.

Bhiiśańam: The one who is the Supreme Judge of all deeds, often has to take apparently cruel steps in order to maintain the dignity of His divine justice. Otherwise He will be guilty of partiality, and His stainless name will become tarnished. It is those that kept themselves within the bounds of petty selfishness that are called the unit entities (jiivas), for their thoughts filled with petty selfishness have kept them limited and fragmented by subjecting their minds to the bondage of time, place and person. This feeling of finitude and unit-hood has bred in them a sense of fear for the limitlessness of the Cosmic Consciousness. Such is the nature of the unit beings they fear and hold in awe what is beyond their own limitations, what is greater than them. You will certainly be afraid of one who is your better in education, intelligence, wealth and power, if you do not have a feeling of oneness with him. Those who have realized that Puruśottama is the life of their lives, the Soul of their souls, those in whom the sense of oneness with Him has awakened, will not at all be afraid of Him but will love Him – whereas those who are always conscious of their unit-hood, will be ever afraid of Him and to them He will be frightening (Bhiiśańam).

Bhiiśásmádváyupavate bhiiśodetisúryah
Bhiiśasmádagnishcendrashca mrtyuh dhávati paiṋcamah
Tasmáducyate bhiisáńamiti.

–Atharvaveda

Out of fear of Him, the wind blows, the sun shines and the fire burns. Out of fear of Him, the god Indra does his duty and death also appears before the unit entities. Whom shall I call terrifying except Him of whom even the horrible Death is afraid. According to a story in the Vedas, once a vast, radiant Entity appeared before the gods. In order to know His identity the gods sent Fire, Air and Indra. Approaching Him, the Fire said by way of self-introduction, “I am Fire – I am Játaveda. To consume everything is my dharma (characteristic).” The Supreme Being then said, offering him a blade of straw, “Here, burn this.” The Fire, whose inherent characteristic was to burn, could not burn it, howsoever it tried. Then the air approached and said [[by way of self-introduction]], “I am Air, I am Mátarishvá, to blow everything always is my strength.” Even the vainglorious Air could not blow away that piece of straw. Finally Indra was able to know the identity of that Puruśa. Thereafter the gods could very well realize that the power they wielded was not actually theirs. They were powerful only with His power. Their unit identities were but His orderlies. So even all the gods remain at the fringe of fear.

Bhadram: He is the embodiment of welfare. His auspicious flow of imagination is guiding the unit entities and the world to the path of good, to the path of prosperity. There never was, is, or will be, anyone as benevolent as He. Hence He is Bhadra, compassionate and benign.

Mrturmrtyum: This has a double meaning. The first meaning is that even death is afraid of Him, death fears Him as much as a unit entity fears death, and so he is the Death of death. The second meaning is that to this observable world although all other objects die, only death does not, for the unit entities do not die once but die repeatedly – they take birth after death and then die and take birth again, and then again die. Thus countless deaths come to them, countless number of times. But those who have attained the Puruśottama, attain a supreme death; their worldly death is the last one for them. In other words, with their worldly death, death also dies and further death becomes impossible. It is only through His grace that a unit attains the Supreme, and so He is the Death of death. I bow to this Puruśottama.

Now the question may arise: “Is this Puruśottama identical with the state of Turiiya?” If Puruśottama and Turiiya are identical, then how can such adjectives as Ugra, Viira, etc., be applicable to Him? Truly speaking those words are only used for particular conditions or states of the Akśara Brahma which are concerned with objects. In other words such a condition may be called Kút́astha (lying covert). Such epithets in reference to His Turiiya condition or the state of non-duality are quite inappropriate. The Puruśottamahood is on the whole discernible only in the first three stages of Turiiya, wherein His witness-ship is explicit or implied due to the manifest or half-manifest influence of Prakrti. The fourth state of Turiiya , that is, the unchangeable state, wherein the material or objective involvement is nil, is the perfect state of Nirguńa (objectlessness) or Turiiya (non-duality) or Nirakśara (changelessness). This state is also known as Iishvaragrása or the Final Doom, because it is the finality of all divine endowments and powers.

In the Cosmic System, Nŕsiḿha or Puruśottama is the original nucleus, and the Air, Sun, Fire, Indra, etc. Are the subnuclei. That is why the worship of Nrsiḿha is called Paiṋcavyuhátmaka or “five-nuclear” worship. The Anuśt́upa mantras are composed for this five-nuclear Nrsiḿha.

Quite a number of times I have told you about Prańava or Oṋḿkára. Now a question may arise in the minds of people regarding which is the greater of the two, Prańava or Anuśt́upa, or if the two enjoy equal status, then what is the necessity for their separate existence? In reply it may be said that Anuśt́upa stands for the Cosmic Nucleus (Puruśottama) only, while Oṋḿkára stands for the entire Cosmic System, all the manifestations of the five fundamental factors, and so I am obliged to say that Oṋḿkára is greater than Anuśt́upa. Anuśt́upa too, falls within the scope of Oṋḿkára. Oṋḿkára is composed of four syllables: a, u, ma and the sonic dot, of which the first three are indicative of Saguńa and the sonic dot stands for Nirguńa.

Bhútaḿ bhavadbhaviśyaditi sarvamouṋkára eva
Yaccányattrikálátiitaḿ tadapyouṋkára eva.

–Nrsiḿha Tápaniiya Shruti

That is, past, present and future – all co-exist in Oṋḿkára is the sonic expression of the Macrocosmic vibration. So the creation, whether of the past, present or future, could not have been, and cannot be, distinct or separate from the Oṋḿkára. Wherever there is manifestation of creation, wherever there is the imaginative flow of Saguńa Brahma, time, place and person must also be there. The existence of Saguńa Brahma is impossible without this Oṋḿkára produced by His imaginative flow. That is why I have said that the existence of Saguńa Brahma and even the existences of all the objects, are dependent on the measurement of the motivity of their action. The mind’s measurement of the motivity of an action is Time; the measurer of this motivity with the help of the mind is person; and that which establishes the relation between time and person is space. The existence of these three is dependent on the mental activity, i.e., on the thought-process or Oṋḿkára. Sunrise to sunset, the beginning of the year to the end, all belong to the vast periphery of Time; hence they are but the manifestations of the Oṋḿkára. From any one extreme point to another extreme point, no matter how short or long the distance, all belong to the sphere of space, and hence they too are the manifestations of Oṋḿkára. So, as I have said, all that we can or cannot think of within the compass of Time, all belong to Oṋḿkára. Saguńa Brahma, being subject to time, place and person is Sopádhika or qualified. It is not a Nirupádhika or unqualified Entity like the Nirguńa Brahma. Time, place and person are also qualified relative to other entities, and so they are also not the absolute truth but relative truths. The Scriptures say, –

Prańavátmakaḿ Brahmá
Tripáda-Bibhúti-Náráyańa Shruti
Tasya Vácakah prańavah.

–Pataiṋjali

As mentioned before, Oṋḿkára is the sound of process of expression – the very seed of manifestation. As long as the functioned vibrations of creation, preservation and destruction continue on the bosom of the entity beyond time (Kálátiita) Oṋḿkára shall remain as the seed of creation, preservation and destruction – as A, U and Ma. Thus, I say that Oṋḿkára is not a sound for utterance but for hearing. The human voice cannot give proper form to that mystic sound and so it is futile to attempt to pronounce it. Apprehending the effulgent form of this Oṋḿkára a Sádhaka realizes the half-letter “Ma” and then realizing the fourth letter, the sonic dot representing the state of Turiiya he or she attains the changeless objectless Nirguńa Brahma – achieves the final beatitude in the Iishvaragrása. The Yama (god of death) said to Naciketá, –

Sarve vedá yatpadamámananti,
Tapámsi sarváńi ca yad vadanti.
Yadicchanto brahmacaryamcaranti
Tatte padam saḿgraheńa Braviimyomityetad.

–Káthaka Shruti

Now you can very well understand that oṋḿkára denotes of both Saguńa and Nirguńa Brahma. The dot in the Ideogram of the oṋḿkára ([DEVANAGARI CHARACTER]) indicates Nirguńa. A. U. and Ma indicates Saguńa and the crescent denotes the distinction between Saguńa and Nirguńa. A dot cannot be described properly; it has a position but no magnitude: and that is why it has been used to represent Nirguńa Brahma.

The characteristics of Puruśottama have already been explained above. Now I shall deal with the characteristics of Saguńa Brahma. Indeed they are too vast to be described, yet I shall tell you whatever is said about Him in the Vedic Scriptures. About Saguńa Brahma it is said in the Kaevalya Shruti:

Mayyeva sakalaḿ játam Mayi sarvaḿ pratiśt́hitam,
Mayi sarvaḿ layaḿ yáti Tadbrahmadvyamasmyaham.
Jágrat svapna suśuptyádi Prapaiṋcaḿ yad prakáshate
Tadbrahmáhamiti jiṋátva Sarvabandhaeh pramucyate.

[Everything emerges from Me Everything is being maintained in Me And everything is finally dissolved in Me I am that Brahma without a second The Supreme Entity from whom all the three States originates – wakefulness, dream and sleep. One who knows That Supreme Brahma Becomes liberated from all bondages.]

The Rgveda says –

Yato vá imáni bhútáni yáyante
Yena játáni jiivanti
Yat prayantyabhisaḿvishanti
Tad vijijiṋásasva tad Brahma.

[The entity from whom all created beings emerged,
By whom they are sustained
And in whom all are finally dissolved –]

Said in the Maháńirváńa Tantra, –

Yato vishvaḿ samudbhútam
Yena jataiṋca tishati
Yasmin sarváni liiyante
Jineyam tad brahma laksańaeh

[The entity from whom the entire universe has been created
By whom all created beings are maintained
And in whom all entities finally dissolve –
These are the characteristics of Brahma.]

Said in the Nrsiḿha Uttara Táponiiya Shruti –

Sarvaḿhyetad brahma ayamátmá brahma tametamát mánamomiti brahmańdekiikrtya brahmacátmaná omityekiikrtya tadekamajaranamrtamabhamomityanubhúya tasminnidaḿ sarvaḿ trishariiraḿ áropya tanmayaḿhi tadevati saḿharedomiti.

Whatever you see, whatever you think or you feel, whatever is beyond your vision, thought and perception – all are Saguńa Brahma or oṋḿkára. Your Soul is also Brahma. There is unicity or oneness between your existence, the existence of the world, and Brahma. They are not separate entities. Bring the world and your existence into unicity with Brahma and you will find yourself, verily, that same oṋḿkára. In that condition you will become one with that oṋḿkára. Having thus attained unicity, there will remain only one Entity, which has no distortion: for distortion two entities are necessary. Where He alone is the sole Entity, where is the scope of any distortion? If there is only milk but no curdling agent, can there be any distortion of the milk into curd? That is to say, to transform milk into curd, a second entity is necessary, the curdling agent. Hence Brahma is immutable due to His being One without a second.

Exactly for the same reason where there is only One Entity, death cannot exist, for death is only a state of transformation: death is also a distortion. Where there is no distortion, there is no death. So oṋḿkára is established in deathlessness, Similarly, fear requires two entities for its expression – the one who fears and the cause of fear. Where there is only One entity, since there can be no cause, fear cannot exist. So that Supreme stance is without fear; even a unit entity becomes fearless, when he or she attains that supreme stance. Thus the sádhaka Rámaprasáda said –

“I have dedicated my life to those deathless feet
Should I then be afraid of the Lord of Death?”

Dedicate the three states of your existence (Trishariira) to undistorted, immortal, fearless, Oṋḿkára. Every unit entity is a combination of four states; wakefulness, dream, sleep and one’s innate characteristic Self. The first three states are but the distortions of the fourth, the characteristic Self. Surrender these three states to Brahma, to oṋḿkára and be absorbed in that stance. In that state only one thought will be uppermost in your mind – that you are part and parcel of Oṋḿkára, that you are oṋḿkára itself, that you are ensconced in your own characteristic Self. That is why whenever any crude thought arises in a person’s mind, he or she should then ascribe cosmic ideation to it. In that case, one does not have to separate from the oṋḿkára.

What are these three states? What are their features and forms and to whom do they belong? This is a natural question of the human mind. Do they belong only to the unit entity or to Brahma as well?

Tvaḿ vá etaḿ trishariiramát́mánaḿ trishariiraḿ evaḿ brahmátmánusandadhyát.

–Atharvaveda

In all these three conditions one thinks oneself separate from Brahma. This distinction between unit entity and Brahma is dependent on their attributional differences. The difference in the states of wakefulness, dream, sleep are due to the greater or lesser dominance of Sentient, Mutative and Static Principles. The unit entities are concerned only with their crude physical existence; while the Cosmic manifestation, however is concerned with the entire, vast universe. I have already said that the Cosmic manifestation is also affected by the three binding principles. The existence of these three states in the unit entities is only possible when these three attributes of the Cosmic manifestation are explicitly evident. This is because the crude, subtle and causal existences of the unit entity are wholly dependent on the cosmic thought-process. The crude unit-body is made of the quinquelemental, earthly ingredients, begotten of the Cosmic thought-process; that is to say, it is created in His Kámamaya Kośa or Conscious Mind. It is out of this crude Cosmic Mind that innumerable unit bodies have come into being, for in order to preserve their individualities, the distinctiveness of the receptacles (bodies) has to be maintained, or else the units lose their individual freedom. In order to maintain the continuity of the Cosmic thought-projection, the distinction among objects in the sub-conscious world are unavoidable necessity; this also accounts for the creation of innumerable bodies, or else the thought process becomes Sthánu or static for lack of material distinctions. Since Saguńa Brahma has to take recourse to imagination for the exhaustion of His unserved Saḿskáras, it naturally becomes incumbent on Him to evolve a heterogeneous world. The experiencing of actions and reactions by the unit entities are done, to be sure, through the medium of the bodies or receptacles; and when these unit entities abjure their sense of separateness or separate existence from the Cosmic Entity, they no longer have to undergo the consequences of their actions. Being emancipated from the worldly bondage, their separate physical entities cease to exist.

This observable world, which is called Paiṋcabhúta (the five fundamental elements), is the Kámamaya Shariira or the psychic body of Brahma. He has no finite crude body and that is why no wakeful, dreamful or sleeping condition, centering round His crude body, is possible. Everything about Him is psychic.

THE WAKEFUL STATE or THE FIRST PHASE

Sthúlatvat sthúlabhuktvácca súkśmatvát súkśma bhúktvácchekya ánandabhogácca so’yamátmá cotuśppájjágaritasthánah sthúloprajiṋa saptáḿga ekonavimshatimukhah sthúlabhúk ca bhútáymá vishvo vaeshavánarah prathamah pádah.

This very wakeful state is the crudest state of the self for in this state it subsists on apprehending tanmátras (sensible and supersensible inferences) from the crude world, desiring things relating to them and materializing those desires by making them explicit or extrovertive. Its thought-wave and its resultant action also is crudely materialistic, and so in the wakeful state it thrives on the crude; i.e. crude world is its pabulum, its food. In the wakeful state it also thrives on the subtle, for the source of its materialistic acts actually abides in its subtle mind. Actually, its real bhaga (the experience of pleasure and pain) takes place in the mental sphere. If the mind is disturbed, one cannot properly enjoy a beautiful sight, a tasty food or a delectable drink. In this wakeful state the Átmá or soul is called catuśpada or four-phasic; that is, in this state all its four phases are present either explicitly or implicitly. In other words the wakeful state is explicit and within that are latent the dream state, sleep state and the state of Turiiya. This wakeful condition is concerned with the cognizance of the crude; that is, its function is to acquire knowledge of the crude. This relatively crude wakeful state is sevenfold or septilateral; the quinquelemental citta (mental plate), the Mahatattva (fundamental intellect) and the ego. It is nineteen-faced, for its manifestation are in nineteen directions – ten sensory and motor organs, five váyus, mind, the fundamental intellect, ego and Múla Prakrti (the primordial Prakrti in equilibrium). In the wakeful state all objects are the food for the mind, thus, it is called Vishva or Vaeshvánara. It is the first páda or phase of the soul. Microcosmically the witnessing Puruśa of the wakeful state is called Vishva and Macrocosmically He is called Vaeshvánara or Viráta.

THE DREAM STATE or THE SECOND PHASE

Svapnasthánah súkśmaprajiṋah saptámga Ekonaviḿshatimukhah súkśmabhúkcaturátma Taejaso hiranyagarbho dvitiiyah pádah.

When the soul is wholly dependent on the psychic body for its sustenance, that is, when the objects of enjoyment and endurance are limited to the domain of thought, such a state is called the dream state. In this dream state the organs and limbs like hands, feet etc., remain in proper order and so do the nineteen endowments, but at such a time the soul does not accept any pabulum or food from the crude world. The soul at that time is hungry for the subtle; it accepts only those things apprehended in the realm of the mind. The appearance of such mental objects does not depend on the inferences or tammátras received from the senses at that time but on the reactive momenta or seeds of previously acquired tanmátras upheaving waves of the Omniscient seed. In this state, too, all other three states – wakefulness, sleep and Turiiya remain dormant in the dream state. The unit soul witnessing its dream state is called Taejasa, and similarly subjective witnessing entity of the supreme Consciousness is called Hirańyagarbha or Viśńu, or the Subtle Cosmic Mind. Here it is important o note that the word Hiranyágarbha, is also comprehensively used for Saguńa Brahma.

THE SLEEPING STATE or THE THIRD PHASE

Yatra suptona kaiṋcana kámaḿ kámayate na kaiṋcana Svapnaḿ pshyatitatsusuptaḿsuśuptasthánah ekiibhútah Prajiinánaghana eva ánadamayo hyánandabhúk Cetomukhashcaturátmá prajiinaiishvarastriiyah pádah.

In the morphetic or sleeping state when neither the crude or conscious mind nor the subtle or sub-conscious mind is functioning, that is, when none of the waves of desire arise in the receptacle of the soul, nor there appears any dream of any kind – such a state is called the state of sleep. In the wakeful state both the conscious and the sub-conscious mind are functioning: Thought-waves originate in the sub-conscious mind and are translated into action through the medium of the conscious mind. In the wakeful state the role of the conscious mind is solely predominant, but due to physical inertness in the dream condition, the sub-conscious mind cannot properly control the conscious mind and so here the sub-conscious mind alone is predominant. But during sleep the imaginative power, the sub-conscious mind – also becomes as inactive as the physical body: There remains only the unconscious or causal mind, the Atimánas Kośa, Vijiṋánamaya kośa and Hiranyamaya Kośa. Then how does dream occur during sleep – how does the stage of dream come between sleep and wakefulness?

What is dream? When certain impressions perceived by the sense organs, agitate the conscious mind and sensory or material thoughts are thereby vehemently awakened in the conscious mind, the nervous system, the crude receptacle of the Kámamaya Kośa and the mind itself becomes unsteady and restless. This leaves an impression on the cells that is short-lived or long-lasting depending on the degree of its intensity. Sometimes even a significant impression being compelled to give way to a newer one under the impact of some other sense-agitation or restlessness, loses its previously acquired permanence. In the sleep state, if a person’s nerve-tissues are agitated due to some physical cause, often either as the result of this or on account of cerebral heat caused by some vehement thinking, the nerve cells also become tired and disturbed. Such agitations give rise in the mental sphere to desires similar to those impressions, accumulated in the nerve-cells. Thus the agitated citta (the sub-conscious mind) accepts as real the stream of thoughts arising from one or more such impressions. The crude organs having stopped functioning, the identical desire arising from the previously acquired desire, do not then seem to be imaginary but appear to be quite real. Such dreams often do not come true, for these are actually pure imaginations or a mere stringing together of different disjointed thoughts, a confused or inconsistent dream. Only those whose nerve tissues have become weak due to some ailments of the brain or head or to some protracted illness, or those whose digestive system are malfunctioning, generally experience such confused dreams, which we may call Sensual Dreams. These dreams, as I have already said, are the true reproduction of previously imagined objects or the disjointed expressions of previous thoughts. Excessive eating also gives rise to such dreams in a person. Those who have purity of thoughts and also restraint over their diet, are generally less susceptible to such dreams. Such dreams never occur during sleep.

There is still another type of dream. Even when people are in a deep slumber, there may arise in their sub-conscious minds through their dreams, the prognosis of some good news or bad news, or even a huge calamity. The all-knowing causal or unconscious mind usually cannot express its all-knowingness due to the unsteadiness of the conscious and sub-conscious minds as well as due to its own expressional inability, but sometimes it can awaken in the calm conscious and sub-conscious minds of people in deep slumber visions of past, present or future and those visions overwhelm the sleepers’ minds. A surging vibrational flow emanating from the fountain head of the unconscious mind and vibrating the sub-conscious mind, is also a sort of dream; and that dream is not insignificant for its cause is the all-knowing causal mind. This type of dream we may call a supramental vision. Sometimes even in the wakeful state the cognitive flow of the unconscious mind penetrates into the subtle mind, as the result of which people even in the wakeful state, with a little concentration, can know events concerning their distant near and dear ones, this is called telepathic vision. Through the concentrated state of this telepathic vision, when conscious mind is more calm and sedate, people can visualize events concerning their distant beloved ones, enacted before their eyes in the external world or feel as if they are seeing them; this is called telepathic clairvoyance. Mistaking such acts as those of spirits many people come to believe in spiritism or spiritology. Truly speaking such incidents have no connection at all with spirits or ghosts. Telepathic vision and telepathic clairvoyance are intrinsically the same as supramental vision. They are born of the inspiration of the unconscious mind, the knower of the universe. To believe in ghosts and spirits is merely to perpetuate the cowardly mentality of the pre-historic people. But compared to supramental vision, the incidence of telepathic vision is very much less frequent, and still less is the occurrence of telepathic clairvoyance due to the activeness of the Kámamaya Kośa or the conscious mind. Nevertheless the supramental vision itself does not occur more than 8 to 10 times in the life of a person. The greater or lesser frequencies of such experiences wholly depends on ones sádhaná (intuitional practices) or saḿskáras (reactive requitals). (One, however, must bear I mind that self-acquired telepathy or self-acquired clairvoyance is something different.)

Even in supramental vision people often do not rasp things properly for such cognitive waves are generally expressed through the media of their personal saḿskáras. Suppose, for instance, in some country cows are necessary for various indispensable jobs like cultivation, the milling of oil-seeds, or bearing conveyances; normally people of suck countries will have very great regard for cows. Having lived on cows milk since their childhood, they will revere as mothers, and regard healthy, strong cows as symbols of good fortune and prosperity. These sentiments about cows are the resultant saḿskáras born out of their day-to-day necessities. Once someone in such a country had a dream about a cow growing leaner and thinner by subsisting only on the dried straws of the paddy field. Then another cow appeared who met the same fate. Then appeared still another cow, and that too fared no better. From such a dream he may infer that his next three years will be inauspicious. As the cows and paddy were symbols of good fortune and prosperity, lean cows and dried paddy plants in the dream were a premonition of misfortune. So for the prescience of the truth through the medium of dreams it is necessary for people to control their conscious and sub-conscious minds. Those who have brought both these minds under control through spiritual practices can, with a little effort, visualize pictures of the past, present and future even in their wakeful state. This accounts for the meditational clairvoyance or intuitional foresight of the stages regarding distant objects or events. Some power of visualizing past, present or future or distant events may also be found in an average person through crystal-gazing, mirror-gazing, etc. These are nothing but the expansion of the cognitive field as the conscious and sub-conscious minds are partially absorbed in the unconscious mind, as the result of earnest concentration on a particular bright object. In the hypnotic state or during planchette-concentration (ouija board) also, the activities of the conscious and sub-conscious minds become stilled, and the range of a particular individual’s knowledge is expanded at least for a short duration. But here one must bear in mind that in the hypnotized state or in mirror-gazing one sees only the reflections of one’s own saḿskáras or previous bias. This occurs in almost cent percent of the cases; for instance when a hypnotized person utters, words according to his own saḿskáras while people gaze at him in awe and with folded hands, taking his utterances as absolute truth. Those who feign theophanic or demonical trances are total frauds – all that they do or say are tricks and hoaxes. But even those who invoke the spirits of gods with devotion or sit around the planchette – even their statements are almost entirely the expressions of their respective saḿskáras and previous bias. One or two percent of their predictions may even come true due to their mental concentration; but such chance truths may not always be the expressions of the unconscious mind, for there is nothing unusual about one or two predictions out of many, coming true – it may happen to any ordinary person. There is a Bengali proverb, “The crow dies of storm, the Fakir strikes his form.”

The state in which conscious and sub-conscious minds do not function, when the unit entity is not motivated by any longing or any desire nor is seeing any dream – this in the language of the scriptures is known as the state of sleep. That is to say if there is any desire or dream, we cannot then call it sleep. In the absence of any particular conceptual or external expression, such a state is one of absolute cognition for the individual. Due to this absolute cognition people enjoy a special kind of bliss. In the absence of any crude or subtle function of the mind, they do not experience any happiness or sorrow, any pleasure or pain. That is, why in that state they feel special type of joy in the crude as well as in the subtle spheres of mind, and so in such states material distinctions do exist. But in the state of sleep, the crude and subtle functions of the mind are absent, and thus the awareness of material diversities is also non-existent. All worldly objects become one. This state of absence of distinction creates a special kind of bliss which the individual goes on enjoying in the sleeping state. But this unicity of sleep is not actually the state of self-expansion or absolute identity with the Divine Essence.

The knowledge of material distinction can be dispensed within two ways. In a very brilliant radiance the perception of differentialities is lost, for at that time all objects appear radiant. Then again, in absolute darkness material differences as well vanish for them there is only a cimmerian darkness in which all objects lose their respective outlines. The unicity of sleep is the same as that of the stupefying cimmerian darkness; that is to say, the power of vision is intact and so are the objects, but there is no visualization. Hence the joy of sleep is static or passive, and gradually this state gives way to dream or wakefulness. The seven-sided and decennoval (nineteen) outlets of the wakeful and dreamful states are not lost but remain as seeds in the state of sleep. And so there can never be happiness in this state either. Such a state is called Prájiṋa or the quiescent state of cognition, and that of the Supreme Spirit is called Ishvara or the Crude Cosmic Mind. Since the entire world is linked together in Him just as the pearls are strung on a thread or sútra, so He is called Sútreshvara. It is this thread that has encircled the individuality of the unit. The reason for calling the Puruśa in the sleep state as Prájiṋa is that in this state the seed of all knowledge is embedded. Yet due to darkness, discrimination is nil – such is the state of sleep. The seeds of the wakeful and dreamful states abide in this state too, and so its happiness is not absolute but merely, a fragmental or partial one.

TURIIYA – The State of Non-Duality

Eśa sarveshvara eśa sarvajiṋa eśontaryámyeśa yonih sarvasya prabhavá pyayao hi bhutánám trayamapyetat susuptaḿ svapnaḿ máyámátraḿ cidekaraso hyayamátmá atha caturthashcaturátmá turiiyávasitatvadekaeka syotánujiṋátranujiṋá vikal- paestrayamatrapi susuptam svapnaḿ máyámatram cidekaraso hyathayamádesho na sthulaprajiṋam na sukśmaprájiṋaḿnobhayatah prajiṋaḿ na prajiṋam náprjiṋam na prajiṋánaghanamadrśt́amavyavahar- yamapratyay asáram prapaincopashamam shivam shántaḿ advaetam manyate. Sa evátmá sa esa vijineya iishvaragrásasturiiyasturiiya.

Turiiya is neither Omniscient nor the Lord of all, for to know anything the presence of different entities like knowledge, knower and knowable is unavoidable. Likewise, the Iishvaratva or the right of control over anything is not possible without the existence of a controller, control and the controlled, so the state of omniscience or all-knowingness exists only when one’s cognitive self remains separate from all the rest, from the knowable entities. Similarly, in the state in which one experiences “I am” the Iishvara or the Lord of all, here too the separateness of ones characteristic self from all others is necessary. But in the Turiiya state the sense of existence of all other entities does not exist at all; there remains only one entity and that is why, an individual in this state cannot be the knower of any object nor the Iishvara of anything. An individual endowed with omniscience or Lordship, we shall call Prájiṋa not Turiiya. The Prájiṋá is the root of all, the giver of inspiration, the cause of the existential ratification of the world. That is why His body is known as the Causal Body. He Himself is the Quiescent Soul or the Causal Soul. Turiiya is the Witnessing Consciousness, and the Causal Body or Causal Brahma is the qualified manifestation is expressing itself through the media of endless unit manifestations in the hope of finally attaining the great union in the Supreme Perfection – in the Absolute Supreme Bliss. The qualified thought projection of the Cosmic expression, that is the initial stage of the centrifugal action (Saiṋcara) is called the Causal Body, and the Puruśa, which is the subject of this Causal Body, is the Causal Soul, for the word “cause” here actually means seed. His Body is the seed of the universe and thus He is the Causal Soul. The manifestativeness of the entire universe lies covert in this stage and that is why He is the Controller of all manifestations. He is the Omniscient Being and the Lord of all.

The last phase of Introversion (Prati-Saiṋcara) is somewhat like Extroversion (Saiṋcara); but the main difference between them is that during the time of extroversion the Causal Soul has the germinating potentials of the seed but in the last stage of introversion it is just the reverse. In other words, due to the lack of germinating possibility the Causal Soul returns to the Original Entity. Thus, it will be more correct to call returning Causal Body the ordinary body instead

Turiiya Brahma (Nrsiḿha or Puruśottama) is concerned with the Causal Body in four kinds of associations or dissociations:

1. Ota Yoga or the state of pervasive or intimate association.
2. Anujiṋatá Yoga or the state of cosmotheistic bearing.
3. Anujiṋá Yoga or the Cognitive meditational approach to infinity.
4. Avikalpa Yoga or Absolute identity with the infinite.

OTA YOGA

Ota Yoga is that pervasive state of Turiiya, in which He is omnipresent as the knower of the Causal Body. He is just like the sun associated with its own manifestation, the world, by means of its own rays. Here the sun-ray is but a particular state of the sun itself and through the medium of that state the sun itself is united with this its manifestation, intimately and physically linked with this world as well as with other planets; it is inherent their very molecules and atoms. Similarly Puruśottama is also intimately and physically associated with the manifest and unmanifest unit entities as their witness. This associational bearing of the Turiiya is called Ota Yoga. In other words the yoga or link that constitutes the witness-ship of the unit entities is called Ota Yoga and that which constitutes the pervasive witness-ship of the collective whole is called Prota Yoga.

Nrisḿha is connected with the Causal Body in Ota Yoga just as the sun is connected with the causal body of the world through the medium of its rays. Where the knowership is Puruśottama, the known is the Causal Body. Where the knowership is Akśara, the known is Kśara, that which has deviated from its characteristics. Where the knowership is Acyuta (undegraded), the known is Cyuta, that which has degraded from its original characteristics. Where the knowership is the Supreme Brahma, known is the microcosm or reflected Brahma. This knowership is the Infinite Entity, the known is finite.

ANUJIṊÁTÁ YOGA

Is not that Causal Body, which Turiiya Brahma is associated through Ota Yoga, also Brahma? Of course that too is Brahma. When the unit entities ascribe pantheistic bearing to the Causal Body and run after it, they virtually impose Turiiyabháva or oneness on the Causal Body itself. The Causal Soul itself is Brahma. This bearing being the state preceding the Turiiyasthiti or establishment in non-duality this Pre-Turiiya Cosmotheistic state, is called Anujiṋátá Yoga. It is similar to knowing the sun, keeping in view the fact of its inalienable relation to the creation, preservation and destruction of the world. Truly speaking the Yoga by which the sense, that the world is intrinsically inalienable from the sun, is awakened, is called Anujiṋátá Yoga.

In this Anujiṋatá Yoga the relation of knowership and known though not fully manifest, does exist, it is semi-manifest, and so, like Ota Yoga, I cannot call the either the Supreme state of Turiiya.

When the finite, qualified unit entity, makes efforts to reach, through the Dhyána Yoga or meditation, the state of infinity of non-qualifiedness or non-distinctiveness, such a state is called Anujiṋátá Yoga. In other words it is as though attempting through cognitive sádhaná to regard the world itself as the finite form of the sun, while understanding the sun’s essential and characteristic unicity with it.

AVIKALPA YOGA

In Avikalpa Yoga there is no room for any second sentiment or thought. Here the entity is essentially one, the soul is purely cognition devoid of attributional aspects of the three states like knowledge, known and knower. This Avikalpa state is the seedless state of absolute identity with the Divine Essence, the eternal tranquillity of Nirvikalpa Samádhi or indeterminate, super-sensual trance of absorption.

We cannot call this Turiiya Sthulaparájiṋa, for He is not apprehensible by any crude objective intellect or knowledge. Nor can we call Him Suksmaprájiṋa either, for He is beyond the knowability or apprehensibility of the subtlest of the subtle intelligence of the subjective or objective intellect. Then again we cannot say that He is Ubhayaprájiṋa, that He is knowable, but through some middle condition between the two. It will be also incorrect to say that He is attainable through synthetic knowledge or intellect for in that state, which is in reality a state of absolute cognition, the seed of all-knowingness as well as Omnilordship does exist and so that state – not to speak of the Avikalpa or seedless state – is not even a Turiiya state. We shall call the state absolute cognition the Causal Soul, which is known as Prájiṋa and Sútreshvara according to individual and collective distinction respectively. Truly speaking, the Entity which is neither a crude cognition – nor a subtle cognition neither a bilateral cognition nor an absolute cognition – can have no relation with the mind or its activities at all. That Entity is beyond the scope of mind, common knowledge or intelligence, be it crude or subtle, condensed or uncondensed, or any of the other imaginative processes of the mind – none of these is Turiiya Brahma for He is beyond the orbit of the mind. He is free of all adjectives or attributes, like commonness, uncommonness, density, non-density etc. To attribute all these to Him is to brand Him with positive or negative traits. Being beyond the purview of the mind, He cannot be seen nor can He be used for any transaction of give and take. The differences of objects are determinated by the differences rather than attributes. As the mind cannot determine His attributes, it cannot determine His distinctiveness from any other object either. He is not a material thing. He is non-material. This Turiiya Entity, being beyond the scope of mind, is also not apprehensible through meditating. His characteristic form cannot be described, for how can any material language describe the immaterial? This Turiiya Brahma exists behind the existential sense of every object in His characteristic, intransmutable stance only, which remains as the characteristic essence, the ultimate result of all metaphysical and philosophical analyses. He indeed is Shiva-the Bhumánanda (Macrocosmic Bliss). Being free from all duality He is Absolute Tranquillity. He is without distortions, for distortions occur due to the application of force by one object upon another.

His singular stance is His only characteristic. Thus the first three of the four states are not the absolute Truth. The fourth state, the Turiiya, is the only Truth. The states of wakefulness, dream and sleep are not spiritual entities for they contain in them the semblance of attributes, their existential entities are dependent on the crude, subtle and causal knowables. So the first three states of the soul are relative truths because they are dependent on other factors whereas the fourth state, the Turiiya, being independent of all others, is the spiritual Truth, the whole Truth, the Absolute Truth.

Earn your deathlessness by establishing yourself in Him. He is the real Soul. If any condition is worth attaining at all then it is this condition – the Turiiya condition. In such a condition there cannot be any distinctions of microcosm or macrocosm. In this condition there is no form for action, inaction or counter-action – no scope for extroversive or introversive vagaries. This bearing is the natural characteristic of the soul, its characteristic Self. In wakefulness the collectivity is called Viráta (the subjective counterpart of the Causal Cosmic Mind) and the individuality is Vishva (the subjective counterpart of the causal unit-mind). In the dream state the collectivity is known as Hirańyagarbha (the subjective counterpart of the subtle Cosmic Mind) and the individuality is Taejasa (the subjective counterpart of the subtle unit-mind). In the sleeping state the collectivity is Sútreshvara (the subjective counterpart of the crude Cosmic Mind), the individuality is Prajiṋa (the subjective counterpart of the crude unit-mind), the dormant cognition, being completely free from all attributes or the semblance thereof, the states of collectivity and individuality cannot exist due to the absence of all kinds of differentiations. In this condition He is called the One unique Iishvaragrása or the Cosmic Finality regardless of any collectivity or individuality. Only in the soul is He experienced. He is the summum bonum of all sádhaná or intuitional practice. He is not attainable through arguments or science. When one is ensconced in Him, wakefulness, dream and sleep are but mere imaginations and illusions – merely the mistaken recognition of untruth for Truth. Even the entire quinquelemental or Paiṋcabhútatmaka world is lost during this Turiiyabháva, in such a supreme state all elemental bearings recede into nothingness. In every human being there are the states of wakefulness, dream, sleep, the unit soul and the Supreme Soul. It is that Soul we must know.

He is the ultimate Finality, the Iishvaragrása. The range of the dream state is greater than that of the wakeful one, and the range of the sleep state much greater than that of the dream state. And the state encompasses the entire vast extent of the sleep state, and that is why Turiiya state is the vastest of all, the all-devouring. Even the Supreme Puruśa (Iishvara), the subjective witnessing entity meets His end in Him and that is why His name is Iishvaragrása or the Cosmic Finality.

This Turiiya or non-dual state is beyond all guńas or attributes. No language can describe Him. The scriptures have only tried to elucidate and explain Him, but the language for the proper explanation is not within the bounds of the scriptures. In the state of Turiiya not only does subjectivity not exist, but in the fourth aspect of the turiiya, the Avikalpa, there is not even a semblance of witness-ship. No matter how assiduously the wavering and indecisive mind exerts itself to reach that Turiiya, it can never hold Him within its grasp. To attain Him one has to do the sádhaná of self-surrender, one has to surrender oneself wholly – giving the full sixteen annas.⁽¹⁾ Withholding of even a single anna will not do.

Peace be with you all.

Footnotes

(1) One rupee contains sixteen annas. –Trans.

Chapter 4	Ananda Marga Ideology and Way of Life in a Nutshell Part 3 [a compilation]

On the 9th of January last year I told you something about the theory of Prakrti. Today I will tell specifically about Avidyá or the Extroversive Force.

Brahma is the composite of Puruśa and Prakrti. Prakrti is the Operative Principle and Puruśa is the Consciousness or the Cognitive Principle. Brahma is two in one. Jiiva or the unit manifestation of Brahma is also composed of Puruśa and Prakrti, that is cognitive and operative principles. The sense of ego or “Doer I” that exists behind all that a person does, says, thinks, understands, or hears is the product of Prakrti. And behind this ego, the “I know I am” that exists as the Supreme Knower is a human being’s cognitive force – the undistorted Puruśa. Not only humans, every entity, whether animate or inanimate, movable or immovable, consists of Puruśa and Prakrti. Sentience or insentience are only relative conditions. Truly speaking, there is nothing which is insentient or inanimate. Rather we do them injustice by calling and believing them to be so. Take, for instance, a piece of stone. Is it insentient? No, nothing is insentient from the spiritual point of view. Only those things appear insentient or inert, in which the influence of Prakrti or force over Puruśa or Consciousness is more in evidence. In other words, I would call only that inert, in which due to the greater influence of Prakrti, Puruśa is not manifest, or is lying dormant. In the Sun Prakrti is manifest but Puruśa is subdued. That is why the Sun, in spite of being the nucleus of the solar system – whose inhabitants, human beings, possess such a highly developed intellect – whose countless organisms are conscious of their respective egos – does not know itself as the Sun. But its progeny, human beings, very well know it as the sun. Not only that, they have tried to know and understand its functioning more and more deeply and have persevered and will persevere to possess and unravel all its mysteries through philosophical researches and analytical experiments. This conquest of human beings over the sun – the credit for this feat, does not belong to human beings but to the developed Puruśa or Consciousness. I cannot, from the spiritual standpoint, call anything inert or crude which looks apparently so under the greater crudifying influence of Prakrti, because the entity, which appears to be passive or crude, is actually the crude manifestation of Prakrti-influenced Consciousness. That is to say, in such a state the Consciousness is incapable of expressing its knowership, for its expression has been curtailed at the very outset by Prakrti. Thus a piece of stone which seems to be inanimate or inert, is not actually so. It only exists in a particular state of Consciousness and it too has the potentiality of transforming itself into a glorious human being like you one of these days. The dormant Puruśa in such seemingly inert objects will certainly one day awaken.

It is by the influence of Prakrti that Puruśa comes to be imbued with inertness, for to make the integral body of Brahma divided and diversified, everything has to be demarcated, and that demarcation is not possible unless the thing is crude. So to bring about such plurality in Puruśa, inertness has to be imposed on Him and this imposition is accomplished by Prakrti. Prakaroti iti Prakrti, that is, that, which [[has the]] multi-creative power or plasticity is called Prakrti.

This Prakrti has three constituent attributes or forces (guńas) – sentient (sattva), mutative (rajah) and static (tamah). Had there been no such multi-creative, triple-attributive Prakrti, the diverse manifestations of different animals and plants would not have come into being. In other words the entire universe would have remained purposeless and unvaried, unexpressed or unmanifested.

Prakrti and Máyá are almost synonymous, but in common usage there is a shade of difference in the meaning. In cases where the three guńas or attributes, sattva (sentient), rajah (mutative) and tamah (static), are in equilibrium, the word Prakrti, is generally used. Such equilibrated Mulá Prakrti (Primordial Force or Operative Principle) is unmanifest but where the three components are not in equilibrium, such a state is called Máyá (the Creative Principle). Where there is no equipoise or equality, where there is disparity – either sattva or tamah is predominant. The state of disparity in which sattva (the Sentient Force) is greater, is called Vidyámáyá or Introversive Force and the state in which Tamah (the Static Force) is greater, is called Avidyámáyá or Extroversive Force.

So you see, it is only due to the disparity in the trivalent factors of Prakrti that the world is conceived in the Cosmic Mind. Similarly when the unit mind races towards Brahma, it is also due to the same attributional disparity of Prakrti. If Prakrti had been in equipoise, no movement would have been possible in the primordial state where Prakrti is inexplicit and dormant in Puruśa – this state is a stationary state. Manifested Prakrti is of course dynamic, be that momentum introversive or extroversive. By the introversive momentum of Prakrti under the influence of Vidyámáyá, the unit beings (jiivas) proceed towards sublimity. But the stage when it reaches in that Sublime Uniformity, not only does the Avidyámáyá or extroversive force [[not]] exist, but even Vidyámáyá’s potential influence over the individuality of the unit also disappears due to her own super-exaltation. For the purpose of sádhaná (spiritual practices) sádhakas (spiritual aspirants) have to take the help of Vidyámáyá or introversive force though finally they have to forgo her also.

This Máyá (creative principle) is the Mother of the individuality of the unit entity, for without Máyá individuality does not come into being. The absence of motivity means the absence of creation. Had there been no Máyá, the potentiality of the individuality would have ever remained in Shiva or Cosmic Consciousness. Máyá is the causal matrix of the creation of this disparate, illusory world. Everything of this evolved world is the manifestation of her heterogeneous forms, her playful diversion.

Sarvarupamayii devii sarvaḿ deviimayaḿ jagat
Tato’ham vishvarupáḿ táḿ namámi parameshvariim.

–Márkańd́eya Puráńa

Máyá is of multifarious forms and all things of the entire world are nothing but Máyá. I bow to this Cosmos Mahámáyá.

Previously I told you that there existed a great Máyá-ic obscurity in between Cosmic Consciousness and unit consciousness, between the Cosmic individuality and unit individuality. It is due to this obscurity that there exists between them a sense of detachment; it is due to this obscurity that there results in the individuality of the unit such weaknesses as sense of despair, loss of confidence, etc., because whichever way the people turn, a perennial, cimmerian darkness stares them in the face and impairs their clear vision. As a result their eyes fail to grasp the real picture of things. They merely grope to become acquainted with them. To attain the valid cognition of reality and true vision we have to find out the means of escape from this Máyá. Does Máyá vanish of her own accord out of fear of human beings, or have we to develop some way to get rid of her?

Daevii hyeśá guńamayii mama Máyá duratyayá;
Mámeva ye prapadyante Máyámetáḿ taranti te.⁽¹⁾

–Shrii Krśńa

The one whose life’s goal is Brahma, the guiding-star in one’s path of progress, alone is capable of surmounting Máyá. That is why, one’s life should be based on Brahma – should be inclined to Brahma. A sádhaka’s sádhaná means struggle with Máyá (Creative Principle), and salvation means the subjugation of Máyá, in that event one will become the Lord of Máyá. In common parlance it is the unit entity which is under the influence of Máyá and Brahma alone who has sovereignty over her. When people attain supremacy over Máyá through their sádhaná, the veil of darkness moves aside from their minds and then there remains no difference between their own self-effulgence and the Brahmic effulgence – both are fused into one.

Sádhaná is a battle – a battle with Máyá, for the attainment of one’s objective. The object of this fight is somehow to thwart the force of Máyá. This battle can be fought in three ways.

Suppose you are walking alone through a vast forest with darkness all around you, and you see a dim light far away. Now, if you march on and on, treading through this darkness with your eyes fixed on that light, what will you finally see? As you proceed nearer and nearer towards the light, the density of darkness will become thinner and thinner, and when you reach very close to the light, you will find no darkness around you at all. Similarly, with Brahma as the goal, this proceeding forward, rending the darkness of Avidyá (the Extroversive Force), is one of the fights against Avidyá. It is called Madhyamácára or the Middle Course. Ananda Marga prefers this middle course, because without a goal how long can you go on fighting with the darkness? Is it safe to grope your way through darkness? Are not time and labour wasted for lack of a goal? Is it not fraught with an impending danger? The other two methods of the battle of Sádhaná are Dakśińácára and Vámácára.

Now, who will fight this battle against Máyá – Iishvara (Consciousness qualified by the Static principle) or Prájiṋa (the spiritually dormant microcosm)? When the Macrocosmic Consciousness witnesses the Static principle as His object, He is called Iishvara or the Lord of the Universe; and when the microcosmic or unit consciousness is the witnessing counterpart of the static principle, he is called Prájiṋa. This spiritual dormancy is the state of maximum crudeness and negativity, which the Prájiṋabháva alone has to fight against. Iishvarabháva, being the counterpart of the integral Puruśottamabháva or Nuclear Consciousness, does not have any particular necessity for sádhaná.

Tathá hi prájine saesavidyá jagat survamátamá paramátmáeva
Svaprakásho pyavisayajiṋátvájjánaneve hyatra na vijánati.

Being under the influence of the Static force of Prakrti, Avidyá, the spiritually dormant person (Prájiṋa) is incapable of deriving happiness from mundane objects. Here you must remember that the word, Prájiṋa, is not used in the sense of physical dormancy. The word here implies the Jiivátmá or the sentient soul which is asleep or quiescent spiritually. Such persons are concerned with heterogeneous entities, yet, in spite of their highly discerning refined discernment, they are unable to understand their true perspective – due to the spell of darkness of Avidyá. Nevertheless they abide in this very darkness with all their knowledge of the differences. The very fight against these disintegrating tendencies is their Sádhaná. In other words, Prájiṋa or the spiritually dormant persons will have to fight to rescue their Prajiṋá or discriminating intellectual self from the hands of the Static principle. In this fight, when the Prájiṋa comes out victorious, they will identify themselves with the Supreme Consciousness, for they are then no more under the bondage of Prakrti. I have said it before and I say it again, that Sádhaná means fight against Avidyá. This fight is internal, not external. External or ostentatious fight will achieve nothing. In such a fight one’s entire capability culminates in the acrobatics of dressing and decorating of one’s exterior with málá (a rosary or string of beads for saying prayers), tilaka (a conspicuous mark between the eyebrows with sandalwood-paste or vermilion, jholá (a little sack for the rosary) and candan-chápa (or the mark of sandalwood paste on the forehead, arms and chest). Instead, spiritual aspirants have to fight against their inner, base propensities, and when they will wear the crown of victory, they will then realize that there is absolutely no difference between them and Brahma – they have become Brahma Himself.

Now the question arises: when human beings are part and parcel of the omniscient Cosmic Consciousness, why don’t we then see the manifestation of perfect knowledge in them during their static bondage? Had there been perfect or complete knowledge in the unit beings, there would not have been any necessity for Sádhaná.

Actually the jiivabháva or the individuality of the unit imbibes quite a lot of knowledge in the basic condition. It also has the potentiality for infinite knowledge, but that knowledge is unobjective. Suppose you are sitting alone in darkness and around you there is the variegated discriminative world and within yourself you also have the power to observe this discriminative world. Yet you cannot see anything due to the darkness. All the entities have mingled and identified themselves with the darkness. The sight of the seer is intact, but the vision has become one with the all-devouring darkness. So in such a condition the knowledge of the seer is unobjective. Similar is the condition of the individuality of the unit entities. It cannot understand the real form of any entity due to Avidyá, so it goes on groping and forming its own arbitrary conclusions about things. That is why, I told you that it is incorrect to say that the Prájiṋa or the spiritually dormant human being has no capacity of knowing; in fact he or she does have a limitless capacity to know. The seed of knowledge is certainly present with its limitless potentiality. Only the knowingness is lacking substantiation due to the darkness. Hence the spiritually dormant person will have to do Sádhaná to drive away the darkness. With the disappearance of obscurity, all the things perceived during the spell of darkness and their cause will merge in the Prájiṋa itself, that is to say, their whole existence will vanish. So with the merger of the Prájiṋa-Sádhaka in Brahma this discriminative world also merges in the homogeneous Cause.

In the human mind Avidyámáyá (Extroversive Force) manifests herself in two ways: Vikśepátmaka (extroversive or centrifugal) and Ávaranátmaka (obstructive). Philosophically we call them Vikśepa Force and Ávarańii (covering) Force, respectively. Due to the remoteness of the original object to be known, a lack of valid knowledge results, that is, due to the remoteness of Brahmabháva, a lack of spiritual knowledge results, and with the increase of remoteness even the semblance of knowledge gradually vanishes. These are all the actions of this Vikśepa or Centrifugal Force. And in spite of the opposite condition, proximity, the lack of valid knowledge that occurs due to the darkness of ignorance is the act of the Ávarańii or the Obstructive Force. The reason why I call this an Ávarańii Force is that it works as a cover or lid over the original object.

In this heterogeneous world the sense of existence and acquaintance are the combined action of Vikśepa and Ávarańii forces of Avidyámáyá. Just as the real picture of a thing is not discernible in the darkness – appearing as a strange shadowy entity in this heterogeneous creation, too is similarly observed on the Cosmic Body due to the influence of Avidyámáyá. In other words, during the process of Saiṋcara (Extroversion) the Vikśepa and Ávarańii forces dominate due to the predominance of Avidyá in the macrocosmic thought-projection, and during Pratisaiṋcara (Introversion), they gradually dwindle into nothingness. In order to realize their own characteristic seity or self-hood, Sádhakas must try to establish themselves in the introversive state (Pratisaiṋcara) by banishing darkness of Avidyá which created this heterogeneous world – this is their Sádhaná. When the Sádhaná is introversive, it has to be assumed that the preponderance of Vidyámáyá or introversive principle is there. The two anti-Avidyá forces that exist in the Vidyámáyá are Samvit or the Introspective Force and Hládinii or the Sublimative Force. The force that awakens the consciousness of one’s present condition in a Sádhaka – the awareness that I am the highest evolved creature, a human being, and I have to cast away the darkness of the obstructive force of Ávarańii, I have to worship the nearest Entity by conquering the distance or chasm created by the centrifugal force of Vikśepa – such an introversive sense of realization that wakes up in the human mind is called Samvit. The meaning of Samvit, you all know, is sudden realization of the state of things. I call it the Samvit Force, for it awakens the sádhaka to reality.

And the propelling force, whereby sádhakas carry themselves to the Supreme Entity, fighting their way through the vikśepa or the centrifugal force, lifting themselves above all trifles and surging in the thought-waves of the Great, is called hládinii. I call it hládinii Force, for it escorts the Sádhakas through the path of ahlád or ánanda or divine ecstasy and establishes them in Absolute Bliss. This is the much-coveted Hládinii of the unit being – the Shrii Rádhá (the staunch devotee of Lord Krśńa, the personified Love Sublime) of the Vaeśńavas.

Where the two forces, Vidyá and Avidyá, are in equilibrium, none of the satellite forces like vikśepa, samvit, ávarańii or hládinii, are in evidence. In such a balanced state the microcosm undergoes neither regeneration nor degeneration. Such a condition is indeed rare. Yet in common terms I can say that such a condition does exist in most of the jiivas or units. The equilibrium of forces that causes this non-progressive and non-regressive condition is called tatastha shakti or the coastal Force. A man who is not depraved and abides by normal laws, and yet does not do Brahma-Sádhaná, is virtually within the realm of this coastal force. Right from the first stage of sádhaná, a sádhaka begins his journey from the borderline of a coast towards the victorious, all-pervasive, Macrocosm with the aid of the Sublimative Force (Hládinii). I call it Tatastha, because Tata means the shore where the water of a river or lake touches the bank. What is the state of the people who are Tatastha, right on the borderline of the Tata or shore? If they descend just a step down they fall into the river, and if they ascend a step up they stand on dry solid ground; so the first step of Sádhaná is situated on the borderline of the shore. Now in such a condition you may either cut adrift from your Brahmic sentiment, aided by the extroversive force of Vikśepa, and be swept away by the current of the river, or you may establish yourself squarely on the solid ground Brahma.

In spite of the cognitive potentiality in the Prájiṋa, such a person is deprived of the proper knowledge of objects during the darkness, which is sensed by him alone, very well. For instance, in the absence of objective knowledge of reality during sleep, there is in human beings a particular sensation, which is quite different from their feelings while awake. That sensation is the lack of the sense of reality. After waking up, when one recollects that preceding feeling of vacuity, then alone one realizes, “Oh, I was sleeping”.

Abhávapratyáyalambaniivrttirnidrá.

That is, sleep is the cognitive mental process of the experience of vacuity.

During sleep, in spite of the spiritual potentiality in fullest measure, it is the sense of darkness, that practically exists because in that state the cruder sheaths of the body and mind become inert due to the influence of the static force. As a result it is not only impossible for such a person to perceive or sense anything of the external world through the media of sensory or motor organs, but even [[ saḿskáramúlaka [reactive] or pratyayamúlaka [original] ]] dreaming becomes an impossibility. This is why, although physiologically there is a difference between sleep and unconsciousness, psychologically there is none.

Anubhútermáyá ca tamorúpánubhútesttade’tajjádaḿ mohátmakamanantaḿ tucchamidaḿ rúpamasya asya vyainjiká nityanivrttápi múd́haerátmaeva drśt́á.

Sleep is the condition of highest passivity. After this condition when dream comes, the sense of inertness diminishes. In this case the Manomaya Kośa or the subtle mind becomes active and only the Kámamaya Kośa or the crude mind remains inactive. In the wakeful state the sense of inertness is even less and so in this state the crude mind also is awakened. This awakened state is also under the sway of Prakrti or Máyá. The effort to reach the spiritual or supreme state of consciousness from this so-called awakened mental state, is called Sádhaná. The indication of this condition will come through the fight with Avidyá. After defeating Avidyá and finally giving up Vidyá too, you will have to establish yourselves in the Supreme state. There are two more methods of fighting against Avidyá, those of Vámácára and Dakśińácára.

What is Vámácára? It is the reason[[ing]] that “Target or no target I shall go on fighting against the darkness of Máyá and after her defeat She will help realize my cherished desire”. Such a sádhaka is called vámácárii. In such type of Sádhaná there is tremendous possibility of danger or downfall. In the majority of cases vámácáriis, before realizing their cherished desire, often abuse their power which was gained through their fight with Avidyá. As a result he falls an unwary victim to more darkness and more inertness until he is gradually reduced to the level of bestiality. Thus, it is meaningless to try to attain victory over Prakrti without a specific goal. What progress can one expect in individual or social life through such an aimless pursuit?

And what is Dakśinácárii: A Dakśinácárii wants to win over Prakrti through entreaties and importunities. He or she begs, “O Prakrti! Remove Thy darkness and make way for me.”

Tvaḿ vaeśńavii shaktiranantaviiryá
Vishvasya biijaḿ paramási Máyá
Sammohitaḿ devii samstametad tvaḿ vae
Prasanná bhuvi mukti hetuh.

“O Máyá! Thou art the power of Lord Viśńu – the all-pervading Power. Thou art the prime cause of the whole universe. This heterogeneous world is evolved by the Static Force. So thou art the seed of the world, the Supreme Force. Every entity of the world is hypnotized. May you be propitiated and become the cause of my emancipation (Mukti).”

You all know, that Sádhaná for emancipation means a struggle for freedom; it means the establishment of Svarája (one’s own kingdom) after rescuing ourselves from the onslaughts of Avidyá.

The true kingdom abides [[in]] the Soul Supreme
The urge for freedom is sought within
Nor pen nor sword nor brawn can dream of
The bliss of freedom ever so green.

Can this emancipation be attained through flattery? Certainly not. Flattery is the antic of cowards. A mighty personage, moved by flattery, may give the flatterers some concession, or may shower upon them perhaps a few grains of kindness as well: but they will certainly not be granted full freedom or even if he does orally with his tongue in his cheek, the cowards would decline to accept it.

This world is the creation of Máyá, the Creative Principle: its very existence is illusory. What significance can there be of this illusory form or this Máyá-ic entity? The Vedas have said, “This illusive entity – this relative truth is a trifling phenomenon, and so this illusory world must also indeed, be insignificant. Great is that Prájiṋa, who abides as the observer of this illusion (Máyá).” Puruśa is supreme, but His objects are of little value. Puruśa is an aseity, a birthless entity and His objects are the rhythmic heterogeneity of the birthless Prakrti, the plastic performer of the inconceivable. That is why they are not eternal but transitory. This rhythmic extravaganza is leading human beings forward every moment through the heteromorphic phenomena, none of which has any lasting permanence. The person who is a boy, becomes a youth after a few years, and the same person becomes old again after some time. After the death of the illusive forms of boyhood and youth, comes old age, and after the death of the illusive form of old age there occurs the worldly death. That is why, the form of Máyá is unimportant – so insignificant. It dies every moment.

This Máyá-ic manifestation is also perpetually being destroyed every moment. How could you account for the form of a five-year-old child after it has been transformed into a youth of twenty-five through the influence of time? Does not the gap between five and twenty-five wholly pertain to time? Between the two stands a piece of time, which we call twenty years. Within these twenty years at every fraction of a moment, or at some sort of a still shorter time, say, a micro-second, for example – one form of this child died and another form was created and each of those dead forms merged in the Puruśa and identified itself with the Supreme Knower. Suppose you are proceeding form Patna to Arrah. On your way you are thinking only about Arrah; that is your citta or mind is taking the form of Arrah. On reaching Arrah you start thinking about Mogal-Sarai. Again your citta takes the form of Mogal-Sarai. Now at this stage, where did the form of Arrah go, which had been previously created by your mind? That form has merged in you. Similarly this illusory world is also created by the Brahmic thought-projection, wherein the disappearance of one form is followed by the creation of another. This thought-process is evolved by the influence of Máyá, and it is through the help of this Máyá that we realize the self-manifested form of Puruśa. Saguńa Puruśa (the subjectivated and objectivated Puruśa) and Prakrti are like fire and ghee (clarified butter). To see the dazzling form of fire we have to pour ghee in it, similarly, to see Puruśa manifested in form, the presence of the active force of Máyá is unavoidable. This Máyá-influenced Puruśa is the Saguńa Puruśa, or else like the ghee-less fire He is “extinguished” for without the association of Máyá Saguńa Puruśa perishes – there remains only the Nirguńa or unattributed, unmanifested, Transcendental Entity. But there is one important thing to note here. By the influence of ghee the existence of fire is indeed realized but what is the result? To keep the fire burning, the ghee consumes itself. Likewise, in order to maintain the evolution of this created world, of Saguńa Brahma, she gradually gets merged in Puruśa. In other words, Saguńa attains salvation by degrees. You must have thoroughly understood now how Saḿskáras (past momenta) are being destroyed through Karmabhoga (suffering and enjoyment).

When sádhakas stand before the darkness of Prakrti they think that Prakrti is constant. A boy of five one day becomes a young man of twenty-five by undergoing a continued process of metamorphoses every day, every month, every year – in fact, every infinitesimal fraction of time – but those continuously changing forms of Prakrti can usually not be perceived. A person who always sees a child of five can neither discern nor understand Prakrti’s perpetually changing forms. One could only understand, seeing the young man of twenty-five, that gradual changes must have taken place during those twenty years.

Those who do not want to recognize this perpetually changing form of Prakrti, who think her to be unchanging, are devoid of intellect and judgment. Those who are convinced of the ever-changing character of Prakrti, cease to be under her domination. Until the conception of Puruśa-hood is roused - until the intuitional consciousness is awakened fully, it is not possible to properly understand Prakrti. It is for the awakening of this intuitional consciousness that sádhaná or spiritual practice is necessary.

The experience of the static force (Tamah) in life is a constant affair. To remove this darkness the light of your own soul will have to be lit, and by the splendour of that light all kinds of diversities will have to be wiped out. Until this is done, people will surely pursue the variety show of this heterogeneous world and enjoy or endure weal or woe but they will remain far from Ánanda or Bliss. They will become scapegoats at the hands of Prakrti, for they will be guided solely by the momentum of Avidyámáyá or the extroversive principle. But once they realize the true nature of Máyá and attain the state of Shiva Shakti or Cosmic Potence, they will finally be able to ensconce in their own blissful entities.

What fault abideth in this hapless mind of mine, -
O Shyámá, Thou, Daughter of the Magic-Mine!
That but danceth to the tune of Thine.

–Rámaprasáda

Individuality thrives on Avidyá and of Avidyá it is born. With the removal of Avidyá, the diversified world also disappears. In such an event no difference exists between microcosm and the macrocosm or the unit consciousness and the Cosmic Consciousness. Both fuse into one – there occurs a great reunion of Jiivátmá and Shivátmá or Seity and Aseity. As long as Prakrti exists, no perfect realization is possible. All experiences are gradually immersed in inertness under her influence. The Sádhakas feel that spiritual realization is tantalizingly elusive – playing hide and seek within himself. They thus find themselves in a quandary.

Asya sattvamasattvaiṋca darshayatisiddhatvá siddhatvábhyaḿ svatantrá svatantratvena saeśá bataviija-sámányavadanekabatashaktirekaeva.

It is due to Prakrti that the sense of “I am”, “you are” and the so-called hills, rivers, etc., are awakened and it’s due to her centrifugal (Vikśepa) and obstructive (Ávarańii) forces that the sense of heterogeneous creation and their diverse distinctions is awakened. Behind this sense of ego, “I am”, is what we call Puruśa or Átman (Soul)[[, “I know I am”;]] and the sense of “I am” which we call Buddhitattva or Mahattattva (the fundamental intellect), which is the object of Puruśa, is the trick played on Puruśa by Prakrti herself. As long as the “I” exists in conjunction with the sense of ego or the fundamental intellect, events like “I see”, “I hear”, etc., take place; and as a consequence of these actions the discriminative world also exists. But where “I’s” sense of ego does not exist, how can any action or object have a chance to exist? In other words, the heterogeneous world exists, as long as the Avidyá-created sense of ego exists. So when the influence of Prakrti passes away, the objective Buddhitattva also loses its independent existence. Then it merges in the Átman.

That is why, I say, when the Consciousness is achieved, the distinction between Sat (undergoing no metamorphosis) and Asat (undergoing metamorphosis) dissolves into air. The truth that Asat is not an eternal entity becomes crystal-clear in such a condition.

The greatest difference between individuality (jiivabháva) and transcendentality (Brahmabháva) is that jiivabháva is governed by Prakrti and Brahmabháva is the governor of Prakrti. So the Sádhaná of the Sádhakas is to triumph over their individuality, to get themselves established in Brahmabháva by defeating Avidyá. After being so established, the Sádhakas see with their second sight that the very same subjugated Máyá is the progenitress or the causal matrix of billions of organisms in the world. She is going on reflecting the many on the same single Entity of Puruśabháva – as though many mirrors have been dexterously placed before a single flower. As the mirrors are being added, the numerical strength of the flower increases also, but the original flower remains essentially one. Similarly behind the plethora of mundane diversities thrives only one Eternal Entity; all the rest are but the reflections on His mental plate. Just as without the Máyá-like mirror or its reflecting power, one flower remains single and does not have a chance to become multiplied into many – similarly, had there been no Máyá, there would have remained only one unmanifested Brahma – none of His attributive manifestations would have been there. The individuality of the unit is the reflection or simulacrum of the Brahmic Semblance. For the preservation of His own existence He has to accept the predominance of the mirrors. That is why in the Shástras or Scriptures Prakrti is called Pradhána or the chief operative principle. Yet the eternal Macrocosmic Entity does not find Himself obliged to accept His subjection to Prakrti at any stage. Rather Prakrti herself has to remain in His subjection, for in the absence of Puruśa her activities will come to a standstill; they will not come to fruition without the husbandship of Puruśa.

The objective of Sádhaná is to realize that very flower, the main object of the mirror – to know that Parama Puruśa or Supreme Consciousness.

So now you understand that the sense of I-feeling of the unit is but the simulacrum or the shadowy prototype of that Cosmic “I”, captured on the mirror of Prakrti and reflected by her reflecting power.

Just as a tiny banian seed inherits the potentials of a banian tree, whereby innumerable banian trees can come into being, similarly one Máyá, on account of her endless reflective capacity, creates innumerable lives on the one Puruśa. In other words Saguńa Brahma by the influence of the operative answer of Prakrti creates innumerable lives on His mental plate through His thought-projection, His imaginative power. The fight against this very Máyá that has created these countless individualities, these multiform cosmic manifestations, is what the sages call Sádhaná.

Tádyathá bat́abiija sámányamekamaneká Svávyatiriktán bat́án svabiijánutpádya tatra tatra ca sampúrńaḿ santiśt́hati evamevaeśá Máyá svávyatiriktáni paripúrnáńi kśetráńi darshayitvá jiiveshávábhásena karoti Máyá cávidyá ca svayameva bhavati.

In spite of there being countless numbers of banian trees, growing out of one banian seed, each of them is called by the name of banian tree, for characteristically out of the banian seed must come a banian tree. Just as at the pre-seed stage there was a banian tree and the result of the post-seed stage is also a banian tree, similarly we get innumerable semblances of Puruśa or individualities from His reflections. Prakrti, with the help of the Puruśa-like original cause, creates Puruśa-like objects. Now the question arises: Does the work of Prakrti end with the creation of Macrocosmic reflections[[, that is,]] microcosms? No, certainly not. Prakrti herself with the help of her own crudifying power does the work of demarcating both the flower and its reflected state, or she herself takes such forms. Suppose there is a reflection of a flower. Here the reflecting power belongs to Prakrti, the reflecting plate is also hers and the outline of the reflected object is also that of the crudifying Prakrti.

Is this protean master-artist, Prakrti, absolutely insignificant? An entity that takes the colours and forms of all things or has the capacity to do so, cannot be just dismissed as worthless. Prakrti is like a motion-picture, which can neither be held in hand as something tangible and existent, nor can it be dismissed as something non-existent. Prakrti is a passing show, a moving phenomenon, a changing reality. Although she is moving, there is enough firmness in her linear forms, and that is why people are so attracted to her, just as parents are attracted to the transient form of their child of five, in spite of their being aware of the changing nature of her forms and features. And then again, when that very form reaches its twentieth year through physiognomical changes, they are equally fond of that twenty-year-old form. Hence every momentary bit of the fragmentary forms of the quick-changing Prakrti is an object or cause of the unit’s great fascination. The cimmerian Prakrti with her darkening magic wand keeps humanity in darkness. This sombre Prakrti has to be removed at any cost from before our eyes. She will not go voluntarily. You will have to get rid of her influence through the Sádhaná of Puruśa or the Cosmic Consciousness. She will put countless obstacles and hindrances before you and yet you will have to fight against them and triumph over them. Wallowing in materialism one cannot reach the stage of supernaturalism. Living in the midst of Bhoga (sufferings and enjoyments) and indulging in and zealously practicing, Bhoga Sádhaná for enyoyment’s sake, one cannot give up bhoga or materialistic bent. For the sake of one’s profession or for any other reason, one who has to tell lies continually, will eventually turn a naturalized liar, if one does not take a vow of truthfulness. Many teachers of the old school, when they do not have canes in their hands, vent their habit of caning by brandishing their pencils. Grimacing in a paroxysm of rage or clenching their fists as if they were holding on tightly to the branches out of fear – these two apish characteristics – [[we human beings]] have not yet been able to relinquish. So if you exist [[in]] Bhoga (material enjoyments or sufferings), no harm; if [[you]] do the Sádhaná of Bhoga, no harm there either; but there should certainly not [[be]] bhoga for bhoga’s sake. Strange indeed is the ever-changing Prakrti!

Saeśá citrá sudrd́há bahvaunkurá svayaḿ guńábhinnáuṋkureśvapi guńábhinna sarvatra Brahmáviśńushivarúpińo caetanyadiiptá.

All the entities of Máyá are strange and variegated. No two entities are alike. Each one of them has its own specialties. There is nothing “identical” in this world. At most we can say that things are “similar”, for every one of them is the magic play of that multimorphic Prakrti. But Puruśa is one, not multiform. Multiformity is an attributed manifestation, such as thick, thin, long, short, etc. Puruśa is absolute – free from any quality or attribute and so there is no variety in Him.

If the Puruśa of the unit is the reflection of the Cosmic Consciousness, then seeing the reflection is as good as seeing the Original Puruśa. Yes, this observation is correct but it can only be correct if the mirror be perfect – if the reflector, Buddhitattva or Mahattattva (the fundamental I-feeling of the unit) is perfectly clear and free from all impurities. The persistent effort to rid Buddhitattva of all impurities is what is called Sádhaná. It is the Original Puruśa that is to be realized and to realize Him, Sádhaná is the only way.

Átmajiṋánaḿ vidurjiṋánaḿ jiṋánányanyáni yánitu;
Táni jiṋánávabhásáni sárasyanaeva bodhanát.

“Self-knowledge, that is the knowledge of Puruśa or intuitional knowledge, is the only real knowledge, all the rest are but its shadows or pretensions – the shadow of the flower, not the original one.” It is not always possible to know the essence of an object from its shadow or reflection. Due to the imperfections of the reflector even the reflection of a beautiful object may appear to be horrible and ugly. Sádhakas must bear in mind that their progress – their desired goal – does not lie in the direction of Prakrti’s mock show. All knowledge concerning things born of the principle of causality, is but a pretension or semblance of knowledge. Such knowledge is a relative truth, not an absolute one. It is, however, necessary for the preservation of existence. It is also true that during the progressive period of Sádhaná one has to progress keeping pace with it, but I cannot call it the supreme path. The spiritual Sádhakas shall accept that Eternal Entity as the sole Lord of their lives. They may make use of these semblances and reflections only according to necessity only. The investigation into the characteristics and transformations of these reflected things according to the principle of causality is what we call scientific research. The Saḿskrta equivalent of the English word Science, should be Sthúla Vijiṋána or Bhúta Vijiṋána (Physical Science).

I have already said that it will not do to resort to shadows and reflections, for although seeing reflections clearly in a clean, clear mirror is tantamount to seeing the original object it does not mean the attainment of the original object. Remember, you have no right to enjoy any of the things of this shadowy world. No matter how assiduously you try, you can never bring into your grasp any shadowy object. Your hands will rebound from the hard surface of the mirror. Yet still you rejoice at that reflection. Do you know why you get this joy or Ánanda? Because that is the reflection of that Super-exultation, that Brahma – the semblance of that Cosmic Flow.

Na vá are patyuh kámáya pati priyo bhavati átmanastu kámáya pati priyo bhavati. Na vá are puttrasyakámáya puttro priyo bhavati átmanastu kámáya puttro priyo bhavati. Na vá are sarvasya kámáya sarvaḿ priyaḿ bhavati átmanastu kámáya sarvaḿ priyaḿ bhavati.

One’s husband is not dear for the husband’s sake: the husband is dear because the attainment of a husband thrills the heart with an avalanche of joy. The son is not dear for the son’s sake: the possession of a son tingles the heart with a joyous exuberance. A profligate son does not arouse felicity in his parents’ hearts, and that is why they do not even hesitate to disinherit him. All things are not dear for their sake alone; their possession is dear and pleasing only when they fill the heart with a jubilant vibration.

I have already said that in spite of the Prakrti-evolved world being mutable and fickle, her delineation of forms and figures lacks no soundness and that is why even a learned person may be attracted to a particular short-lived form. This infatuation gradually becomes hardened and goes on increasing, for Prakrti is multi-formed. An oat sprouts but one germ, but from Prakrti emanates a countless number of germs. By creating thought-waves in one Cosmic Body, Prakrti takes on countless forms simultaneously and she goes on evolving germs in every unit-mind at every moment. The number of unit entities is also countless: from this point of view also Prakrti is multiparous.

By duplicating one original Entity into limitless numbers of replicas with her dexterous hands, Prakrti ensconces It in limitlessness. That is why the uniparous unit-mind, after coming in contact with the multiparous outer world, does not get an opportunity to turn any of its germs into one whole tree single-mindedly. Every moment it views the disintegration of its own thought-process.

Prakrti is the combination of three guńas or constituent principles and so she remains even when she is in a causal stage. Truly speaking, in such a causal state the potentiality of expression remains dormant. As long as there is no expression, we cannot call Prakrti omniparous, for in spite of the existence of attributes in her, she remains unexpressed.

Because of the disparity among the three attributes of the active Prakrti, the same Puruśa is known as Brahmá, Viśńu and Maheshvara. It must, however, be borne in mind that in all these three conditions, the three gunas or attributes are there; the potencies may be dominant in one, middling in another and ordinary in the other. Out of the Sentient Force (Sattvaguńa) of the active Prakrti emanates creation. The same Puruśa, as the subjective counterpart of this Sentient Force, comes to be known as Brahmá. The work of preservation is carried out through the Mutative Force (Rajoguńa) of Prakrti. Here the same Puruśa, as the subjective counterpart of this Mutative Force, is known as Viśńu. The third attribute, the Static Force (Tamoguńa) of Prakrti becomes the cause of destruction. Here the same Puruśa, as the subjective counterpart of the Static Force, is called Iishvara or Maheshvara. Now you very well understand that Brahmá, Viśńu and Maheshvara exist only so long as Prakrti is active or omniparous. Their existence is neither an absolute truth nor a spiritual truth, because during the unmanifested stage of Prakrti they are devoured by “Iishvaragrása”, the Objectless Nirguńa Brahma.

It is the Saguńa Brahma who has been carrying on the work of creation, preservation and destruction under the three names of Brahmá, Viśńu and Maheshvara (Shiva). That is why the world is called Hari-Harátmaka, that is, identified with Viśńu and Shiva in their combined state. In every created object the Divine game of Hari and Hara, Viśńu and Shiva goes on. In the balanced state no action results. Action finds expressions only in the unbalanced state, when the equipoise is lost. Similar is our life, which is a constant effort to restore an unstable equilibrium[[. That is why in our lives]] the battle between Hari and Hara goes on unabated. So long as Hari wins, the heart is astir with excitement – all life-activities find avenues of expression. The moment Hara starts winning, the rhythm of life [[gets]] dimmed. With the establishment of Hara all briskness, knowledge, intelligence, name, fame, pride of lineage and family – all fevers and frets – come to a stop, frozen in the chill of death.

Prakrti is spiritually refulgent in the triunity of Brahmá, Viśńu and Maheshvara. The Consciousness in which she is aglow is indeed the prime principle of all effulgences, the Transcendental Puruśa. Prakrti is going on imposing the state of multitudinousness – the bondage of demarcative distinctions. If the earth is Puruśa, the nomenclature of a pot is Prakrti, as also the creative force by which the pot is made. The Puruśa-earth remains in its own element, it does not care a hoot for the terminological bondage. No matter what name we call it by, it remains just what it always was. The forms created by Prakrti are verily the housewife’s gold ornaments – her necklaces, bangles, earrings. Taken them to any goldsmith and he will start appraising them and ascertaining how much gold there is in them. Discounting the dross or impurities he will make sure of the quantity of the gold content in the ornaments, weighing them on his sensitive scales, and then fix their value. He will not concern himself with the details of the ornaments, or which one is somebody’s sentimental momento. Puruśa is such gold, which we are putting out to market as guineas and mohars,⁽²⁾ stamped with a seal. “Rank is but the guinea’s stamp.”

Tasmádátmána eva traevidhyaḿ sarvatra yonitvamapyabhimantá jiivo niyanteshvarah sarváhammánii hirańyagarbhastrirúpa iishvaravat vyaktacaetanyáh sarvago hyeśa iishvarah kriyájiṋánátmá.

Brahmá, Viśńu and Mahesh are three manifestations of Puruśa contrived by Prakrti. It is because of His being the witness of the particularized, attributional manifestations of Prakrti that Puruśa is given such kinds of epithets. When the Cosmic Consciousness is the witness of Prakrti’s dominant Sentient Principle (Sattva), He is known as the Supreme Spirit, Brahmá. When He is the witness of her dominant Mutative Principle (Rajah), we call Him Hirańyagarbha or Viśńu, and when He is the witness of her Static Principle (Tamah), He is known as Iishvara or Shiva. It must be borne in mind that Brahmá, Viśńu and Shiva are not three different entities. They are the three circumstantial manifestations of the One Cosmic Entity. In all the three circumstances there is but one witness. It is according to the differences in objects or aspects that we have given different epithets to the objectivated Puruśa. Does the sense of ego in Jitendra Narayana change when his son calls him by the name of “father”, or [[when his father calls him by the name of “Jitu”, or]] when his student calls him by the name of “Sir”? No, certainly not. Whatever difference is there, is due to the angle of vision and the way of application. One’s unchanged sense of ego remains as a witness in every case. When in Sádhaná the Sádhakas are established in Cosmic Consciousness, they feel themselves to be Brahmá, Viśńu and Maheshvara (Shiva) simultaneously. All the three states are immanent in the one and the same Saguńa Brahma, are vibrated in the one and the same oṋḿkára.

Prakrti is spiritually refulgent in the Brahmic Consciousness and Brahmá, Viśńu and Maheshvara only represent particular aspects of that Consciousness. But is not the individuality of the unit sentient also, since it is the reflection of Cosmic Consciousness Itself? When the individuality is the reflection of Consciousness and if the mirror reflects everything whether crude, subtle or causal, then the individuality has to be spiritually refulgent as well. (In order to help make people to understand this philosophical principle easily, sometimes the Buddhitattva or the unit-intellect, and sometimes Puruśa, have been compared to mirrors, but this does not mean that Buddhitattva or Puruśa has any material relation with any earthly mirror).

The individuality also is not asleep or quiescent. Now the question arises, if the individuality is the reflection of the Cosmic Consciousness and if the former is also as much conscious, then who is lacking? Why can’t we realize it in its Cosmic maturity, as the full-fledged Brahma Himself? Why isn’t the reflection of omneity, evident in it in the fullest measure?

Sarvaḿsarvamayaḿ sarve jiiváh sarvamayáh Sarvávasthásu tathápyalpáh sa vá esá bhútániindriyáni virájaḿ devatáh kośáḿshca srśt́vá pravishyámúdho múd́ha iva vyavaharannáste máyayaeva.

Truly speaking, the individuality of the unit is as omni-present, omnifarious and all-pervading as the Cosmic Consciousness, because if the reflection is clear, we can know the original very well, because the reflection retains the full impress of the original. The Buddhitattva-like (Intellect-like) mirror also is capable of reflecting all the three states, crude, subtle and causal. But then I do not find any inconsistency in the fact of the individuality of the unit.

Practically the individuality is always its own characteristic self and it is certainly characteristically free Ciaráa Sahábe Mukal (that is, characteristically the microcosm is an emancipated entity). But we cannot catch the full reflection of Brahma on the unit-Mahattattva (I-feeling). For this Cosmic Consciousness is not at fault, the fault lies with the plate of our unit-Mahattattva. If the reflection of just a foot of an elephant is caught in a small mirror instead of its full figure, it will look like a pillar in that mirror. Now which of the two is to blame for this wrong impression of the elephant in the mirror – the elephant or the smallness of the mirror? So Sádhakas have to increase the dimension of the plates of their Mahattattva, and also they will also have to make it scrupulously clean, so that they may reflect the entire universe in themselves. Partial reflection makes the world appear to be disjointed and heterogeneous. But when you will be able to see this heterogeneous world fully on your mental plate the world will not any more appear to you as the world, but only as the product of your imagination. Then, possessed with such a vast mind, you will further realize that you are not “you” any more - your “you”-hood is being absorbed in the speckless, super-white effulgence of that Empyrean Splendour.

The receptacles of the individuality of the unit are the Paiṋcabhaotika or quinquelemental body and the organs. The Paiṋcabhútas or the five fundamental factors are wholly the products of the thought-process of the Supreme Spirit – the Cosmic Ego. The unit-body is made of these five ingredients and it is related with the Universe through its ten organs. Saguńa Brahma or the Subjectivated Transcendentality has evolved thirty-three kinds of primary manifestations (Devatá) in this universe with the help of Prakrti, and the individuality of the unit has evolved five Kośas (sheaths or receptacles of the mind) after imposing upon its sense of ego the crudifications of the five elements and the ten sensory and motor organs. But due to its smallness this five-sheathed and ten-organed body is unable to realize the Cosmic Consciousness. Its materialistic mental plate is totally unfit to grasp that Infinite Consciousness. So listen, O Sádhakas! You shall have to magnify the area of your subtle mind or Manomaya Kośa so that you may appropriate the Cosmic Consciousness in the fullest measure. The smaller the object of your mind, the smaller shall become your mental body in proportion. The greater the object of your mind, the greater and still greater your mental plate will become until finally you will be able to install yourself in the Supreme Cosmic Entity. That is why, no one of wisdom will ever take any limited crude object as the pabulum of their minds and thus lead themselves to animality. Those who do that are fools, they want to remain in the smug ignorance of their characteristic selves.

The difference between Aseity and Seity – Cosmism and individuality – is in name only. One is the subject of one’s Great Mind and the other of one’s small mind. It is due to such cognominal difference that Dasharatha Siḿha and Dasharatha Thákur are two different entities. But if we remove their surnames, the two are Dasharatha. This is as true of a metaphysical name as it is of a secular one. In the titleless condition both the transcendent unit and Brahma entities are identical. If Brahma is not the Witnessing Entity of His Cosmic Mind and if the unit also is not the subjective counterpart of his small mind, the two become one due to their objectlessness. Such a state is called Nirvikalpa Samádhi or the state of total absorption of the unit-mind in the Supreme Spirit.

So it is clear that due to its being a reflection of Consciousness, the individuality of the unit, too is omnipresent, omni-inherent and omniscient; but this individuality with its limitless cognitive potentials is unable to comprehend the state of Superperfection or Omneity due to its being the limited intellectual manifestation of the Máyáic mirror. With the disappearance of the influence of this Máyáic mirror, its reflected existence also disappears and it is then that it merges itself in the Original Entity – it regains its own characteristic self, its own homogeneous status.

In Nirvikalpa Samádhi or the stance of indeterminate contemplative contemplation, the causal mind is suspended due to the transcendency of Avidyá or Máyá and that is why that state is supersensible, beyond the comprehension of the senses. Following that state, after the break of that Samádhi or total mental suspension, when the faculty of senses and understanding returns, then alone one realizes that some unknown current of exhilaration from some unknown region has flooded one’s whole entity – is drifting it away to some ultra-sensual, pulsating realm of celestial bliss. Hence it is said that in a state of Nirvikalpa Samádhi the Sádhakas cannot understand whether they are in Nirvikalpa Samádhi nor can they say afterwards that they felt any such thing, for that state was a super-sensual ego-less one.

Tasya sthiti amánasikeśu

–Ánanda Sútram

After the break of that self-lost, ego-less abstraction, when the Sádhakas feel the return of their hazy egos drifting away in the current of exuberant joy, they then realize that their preceding state must have been a state of the loftiest ecstasy which is called Nirvikalpa Samádhi. The post-Samádhi condition is reminiscent of the state following a deep slumber. In a state of slumber people do not feel that they are sleeping. After waking up, when their Kámamaya Kośa or crude mind becomes active, they realize, as they think of their preceding state of void or insensibility, “I was so long asleep”. As much as the Sádhakas are able to establish their heroism after escaping from the Serpent-noose of Avidyá, the Extroversive Force, so much Ánandasvarúpa or Supreme Exultation they experience; they then become Ánandasvarúpa Himself, the Ánandamúrti or the very image of Ánanda or Bliss.

O how long doth my ego await Thy grace
To merge in Thy likeness without a trace?
When will Thy name so glorious divine
Bid warmest tear in these eyes of mine
And my body and soul with vibration reel
In joyous rhythm of blissful thrill?

Savikalpa Samádhi or the determinate suspension comprises the fullness of Vidyá Prakrti (Introversive Force); that is, the full establishment of the introversive momentum in the Sádhakas’ austere spiritual life – the absence of any Extroversive Force (Avidyá), and total cessation of their extroversive momentum. So in such a state the ego not only exists, it exists in its total fullness and completeness. This very ego in its Brahmá-ic mood evolves the universe, in its Viśńu-ic mood it preserves the universe and in its Shiva-ic mood it destroys the universe. In the three manifestations of this very ego lies the anchor of this universe – in this short-long-slow rhythm of creation-preservation-destruction lies the tether of space, time, and person.

Who is the causal factor of creation, preservation and destruction – Puruśa or Prakrti? Actually in the varied expressions of creation, preservation and destruction the all-knowing Consciousness remains unaffected and undistorted. All these expressions are but the dance of Prakrti herself in her own receptacle, the Cosmic Body – the scintillating sports of Energy on the bosom of Shiva or Puruśa. The immutability (aparińámitva) of the Puruśa entity never was, never is and never will be affected[[, for the word]] “immutable” (aparińámii) means to be beyond the purview of space, time and person. The waves created on the bosom of Shiva by the dance of Prakrti, have not changed and cannot change His true characteristic Self. The flower with its red colour is coming close to the mirror and going far from it. Such a sight makes one think that the mirror itself has become red and is moving forwards and backwards. But what is the reality? The mirror remains as motionless as it always was, does it not? Satya, Sat and immutability are indeed synonymous. He alone is the sympathetic reciprocator of all entities. In this reciprocation alone the relative existence of the entities is recognized. That is why He is the witnessing Consciousness of all the entities. Happiness or sorrow abides in the unit entities, the reciprocator only creates the suitable reflections. Hence He is beyond the compass of happiness and sorrow – He is the Bliss Absolute. So I say that the sweet, colourful, multi-expressive dance of Prakrti, on the bosom of Shiva, cannot influence Him at all. Shiva or Cosmic Consciousness is immutable: He is the witnessing entity. He is beyond the pale of pleasure and pain. Shiva is Sat (unchangeable), Cit (Consciousness), and Ánanda (Divine Bliss) – He is Saccidánanda.

Peace be with you.

Footnotes

(1) [[Mohar: A gold coin that was usually equivalent to about fifteen silver rupees. –Trans.]]