Guńa here [in spiritual philosophy] means “binding principle,” not “quality” as it commonly implies. Puruśa is pure consciousness; it cannot be activated without a second principle. Prakrti [Operative Principle], with Her inherent binding principles, binds Puruśa, of course with the due permission of Puruśa, and as a result the Cosmic Mahat [“I exist”], Aham [“I do”] and citta [done “I”] come into being.

Even after the formation of the Cosmic Mind, the process of saiṋcara⁽¹⁾ continues under the gradually-increasing domination of static Prakrti, and, as per degrees of crudification, the ethereal, aerial, luminous, liquid and solid factors come into being. The stronger the bondage upon anything, the cruder the thing becomes.

On account of the firmness of bondage, the inter-atomic and inter-molecular distances go on decreasing, as the result of which the internal frictions in the material body go on increasing. The external pressure of attributional bondage and the internal frictions compel greater and greater attributional expressions in the bodies of objects.

Here one should bear in mind that “attributional expression” does not mean the [amount] of attributional capabilities, but the [variety] of the attributional manifestations as well as the attributional diversities. The ákáshatattva [ethereal factor] has the sound-carrying attribute. If, suppose, we fix its measure at one hundred, in that case, when the ákáshatattva gets metamorphosed into the váyutattva [aerial factor], on account of greater static bondage, the attribute of touch is also expressed therein along with the sound-carrying attribute. [I.e., as a result of further crudification of ether into air, it has both the attribute of carrying sound and that of carrying touch. A new attribute is expressed.] But the [total] attributional capacity remains what it is – unenhanced. The sound-carrying attribute wanes in the váyutattva as compared to the ákáshatattva, but, all the same, the combined measure of the sonic and the tactual attributes still remains at one hundred.⁽²⁾

In exactly the same way, when the aerial factor becomes metamorphosed into the luminous factor as a result of greater static bondage, there emerges a third attribute of form in addition to the former two attributes of sound and touch. Degrees of the aforesaid two attributes wane in correlation with ákáshatattva [ethereal factor] and váyutattva [aerial factor]. Likewise, due to more and more crudification, along with the emergence of apatattva [liquid factor] and kśititattva [solid factor], the two more attributes of taste and smell occur, and to that extent, the degrees of the former attributes of sound, touch and form decrease as compared to the other factors. And the total capacity still remains unenhanced.

Thus we find that the stronger the bondage, the cruder the thing becomes with the origination of more attributes. Due to external static pressure, the number of attributional peculiarities increases, but not the attributional capability.

Jad́asphot́a

Jad́asphot́a means “material explosion” of any physical body. In the process of centrifugal movement in saiṋcara, the material body composed of five fundamental factors comes into being. But even after that stage, the static Prakrti exerts her crudifying force. This external pressure from static Prakrti is known as bala.

As a result of this bala, two opposing forces develop, one centrifugal and the other centripetal in character. The centre-seeking or interial [centripetal] force tries to maintain the structural solidarity of the object; while the centrifugal one has a fissiparous tendency, that is, it tries to split up the object into thousands.

When the structural solidarity of anything is maintained, it means that in that particular unit structure, all the component five factors are in requisite proportion,

and on the mutual cohesion amongst these factors depends the resultant interial, or the práńáh.⁽³⁾

But if the exterial forces win, the resultant exterial cannot form any nucleus within that physical structure. The resultant interial force, therefore, is the only factor that can create a nucleus within a solid body and thereby maintain its structural solidarity. Even if the structural solidarity of the unit be maintained, there can be spaces or portions within the unit structure where the exterial forces dominate over the reacting materials.

In such a portion dissociation occurs and the portions under the influences of a resultant exterial force get detached from the parent body. This is wear and tear experienced in our unit structure. The physical deficiency caused by this wear and tear is compensated by the práńa [energy, vital energy] we acquire from food, light, air, water, etc. …

The wear and tear within a physical structure results in the deficiency of some factor or other and may also tell upon the resultant activity controlling the subjective nucleus and maintaining structural solidarity. Now if the deficiency caused thereby is not adequately compensated, and if the requisite proportion of any factor or factors is not met, the resultant interial will begin varying in intensity; and the unit structure may lose its solidarity.…

Even if the resultant interial be the winning factor in práńa, the physical structure will split up into innumerable subtler particles if the atmospherical condition be not congenial to the expression of the vital energy. In the absence of a proper environment life does not get an expression; but static Prakrti continues exerting external pressure or bala on the unit structure. Consequently a stage will come when there will be little interatomic space within the solid body. Now if static Prakrti exerts more pressure, [the equipoise of the component elements gets lost and] there will be a tremendous reaction within the physical body (affecting both the interial and exterial forces) resulting in structural dissociation. This is called jad́asphot́a.

Jad́asphot́a occurs only in dead or dying celestial bodies. In a living celestial body, the existing congenial environment will be the cause of transformation of práńa into práńáh. This eliminates the chance of jad́asphot́a.

These jad́asphot́as can be instantaneous or gradual. Conditions for its instantaneous occurrence have been described above. But if, due to exterial forces of práńa, dissociation occurs gradually in some portions of the structure, the phenomenon of bursting up becomes gradual.

Due to jad́asphot́a… the component factors of the physical structure get dissociated into the five fundamental factors.

(Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti, “Saiṋcara and Práńáh” in Idea and Ideology, 1993)

The ethereal element of the Cosmic Mind gets gradually cruder and cruder as per degrees of the ever-increasing flow of the guńas.… The more the progress of these metamorphoses, the more varied the attributional peculiarities noticeable in the material bodies, and their dimensions also get shrunk and diminished. The dimensional contraction means the increase of internal frictions, and this happens due to the excess or magnitude of the external attributional flow. Due to these excessive internal frictions, explosions take place in the material bodies and they get pulverized into subtler elements. (Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti, Chapter 1 of Ánanda Sútram, 1995)

Footnotes

(1) In the Cosmic Cycle, the step-by-step extroversion and crudification of consciousness from Nucleus Consciousness to the state of solid matter. –Eds.

(2) Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti, Chapter 1 of Ánanda Sútram, 1995.
When this discourse was originally published in “Notes on Spiritual Philosophy” around 1969, since certain portions of the discourse closely followed portions of Idea and Ideology, the text was excerpted from Idea and Ideology rather than relying on handwritten notes. At that time, of course, an early edition of Idea and Ideology was followed. For the present book the seventh, 1993, edition has been followed. (Only minor grammatical corrections had been made in the interval).
The editorial notes in square brackets above are as in “Notes on Spiritual Philosophy”, c. 1969. –Eds.

(3) Vital energy, life. See previous chapter of this book, and Idea and Ideology, 1995. –Eds.