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The Cosmic Mind is a combination of Cosmic Mahat, Aham and citta.(1) This Cosmic Mind is created in the extroversial phase of creation. In the beginning there was Cosmic Consciousness, which is a transcendental entity. The flow of Prakrti [Operative Principle] goes on, and gradually the geometrical figures of sentient, mutative and static are formed. According to the law of svarúpa parińáma these multi-conical figures are transformed into a triangle. After that, the resultant form comes out from one vertex of the triangle.
That force is sentient in nature and gives bondage to Puruśa, and Puruśa gets a subjective feeling: “I [exist.]” This is called philosophically Mahattattva.
[The extroversial phase] proceeds on, and the mutative [force] crudifies a part of Mahattattva and gives another feeling to Puruśa – “I do,” or Ahaḿtattva.
Lastly, due to the domination of the static force, Puruśa gets an objective feeling – [done “I”], or citta. The combination of these three counterparts is called the Cosmic Mind.
Sáḿkhya Concept of Evolution
In Sáḿkhya, the whole course of evolution from Prakrti to the gross physical elements is divided into two stages, namely, the psychic and the physical. The first includes the developments of Prakrti as buddhi [or mahat], ahaḿkára [ego] and the eleven [sensory] and motor organs. The second is constituted of the evolution of the five subtle physical essences, the gross elements and their products.
According to Sáḿkhya philosophy, with the contact of Puruśa and Prakrti there is a disturbance of the equilibrium in which the guńas [binding principles] were held before creation. There is a gradual differentiation and integration of the three guńas, and as a result of their combination in different proportions, the various objects of the world originate. The course of evolution is as follows:
The first product of Prakrti is the mahat, or buddhi. The functions of this buddhi are ascertainment and decision. The second product of Prakrti, which directly arises out of the mahat, is the ahaḿtattva, or ego. The function of this ahaḿkára is the feeling “I and mine”. This ahaḿkára is said to be of three kinds, according to the predominance of the guńas. It is called sáttvika [sentient] when the element of sattva predominates, rájasika [mutative] when that of rajah predominates, and támasika [static] when tamah predominates. From the first kind arise the eleven organs, namely the five organs of perception, the five organs of action, and the mind. From the third arise the five subtle [essences and gross] elements [i.e., the tanmátras and the bhútatattvas to which they correspond(2)]. The second is concerned with both the first and the third and supplies the energy needed for the change of sattva and tamas into their products.
Our Concept of Cosmic Mind and Unit Mind
| 1. The Cosmic Mind is uni-purposive and multilateral. | The unit mind is multi-purposive and unilateral. |
| 2. The entire world is internal to the Cosmic Mind. | The world is external to the unit mind. |
| 3. The Cosmic Mind does not require any organ, or indriya. | The unit mind cannot function without organs. |
The Cosmic will guides animals and other objects of the universe. Humans are also guided by Him. But due to the influence of ego, humans are directly controlled by ego and indirectly by the Cosmic Mind. If humans move according to the will of the Cosmic Mind, their speed will be accelerated.
Origin of Life: Mechanism and Vitalism
What is life? Mechanism makes no distinction between organic and inorganic. In explaining life, from the simplest amoeba to the most complex human beings, it assumes no other materials and no other forces than those present in inorganic nature, as for instance in the formation of rock or of chemical compounds. The physical and chemical laws that operate in the inorganic world are regarded as sufficient to explain all forms of life. Ultimately, according to mechanism, living things can be adequately described in terms of just matter and motion. Ultimately living things are all groupings of the same primitive atoms whirling through space.
Mechanism describes the origin of life in this way: Atoms of creation – hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, etc. – moving by the forces pertaining to them, strike against one another and adhere together in clusters and arrange themselves at last into the protoplasmic cell with which life begins. Next, the movements of atoms within the cell draw into it (the cell) more atoms from outside and at last split it up into two cells; and these ultimately split into many thousands. Then follow interactions of the different cells, leading to their differentiation into the tissues and organs having different functions. Finally, the motions of the atoms and interactions of the organs spontaneously adjust themselves in such a way as to reach a state of moving, self-sustaining equilibrium which constitutes the living organism as a whole. So it will be found that life is nothing other than this mechanical resultant of interaction of the molecules constituting the body. If we understand life in this way, as the equilibrium of colliding atoms, we have to admit that living creatures originate from that which is lifeless – the theory of abiogenesis. This is the theory of mechanism in its essence.
It is difficult to explain life by means of matter and motion only. The animal sense acts for its own preservation. When I step on a floating log and find it to be a crocodile, the change in my knowledge is due to the kind of motion in the crocodile which logs do not and cannot present: a flexible action which appears to come from within and to aim at self-preservation. There is something else that is real in a living body besides the material elements and the physical and chemical processes, to account for its characteristic behaviour. Thus we are led to the opposite theory of vitalism.
The vitalist argument may be briefly stated thus: Every living object is an organized whole. Its parts exist and function for the organism’s total well-being. In it the whole exercises control over the parts. And there, in that power, lies the instinctive character of life. Nowhere in the inorganic world can this characteristic be found. The characteristic power of life can be detailed as follows:
None of these powers oriented to the single goal of the whole organism’s well-being fall within the scope of the mechanist explanation. This is why we have to postulate the pressure of something new in the living organism to explain these peculiar functions. And this is entelechy, or the vital principle.
The main objection to the vitalists’ theory of life is that there is an element of mystery about the concept of the vital principle.
Our Concept Of Life
If the resultant force, the force that comes into being as a result of both external and internal frictions in the object-body, “happens to be interial in character, a nucleus is formed within the solid factor” in some part of that body, and the powers or energies active in that body are collectively called práńáh, or vital energy. In Sanskrit the word práńáh “is always used in the plural number, because it is a collection of ten váyus, or ten important forces working within… the physical structure.”(3)
How It Originates
The external pressure of the static principle on the… five factors is known as bala. As a result of this bala, two opposing forces develop.… The centre-seeking or interial 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. The collective name of these exterial and interial forces is práńa, or “energy”. Every solid factor therefore possesses práńa. Práńa is the eternal game between the Cosmic cause and its crudest effect. In práńa there exists an internal clash in which either of the aforesaid active forces may win. If the interial forces win, that is, if the resultant force created happens to be interial in character, a nucleus is formed within the solid factor. Under such circumstances a solid structure is created and maintenance of its physical solidarity depends upon the bala or external pressure.…
Let us see how life gets expression within the physical unit structure. These physical structures are composed of five fundamental factors – ethereal, aerial, luminous, liquid, and solid – and so, for their own existence as unit structures, they must have the controlling nuclei of the respective factors within their composite body. All these factors should remain in requisite proportion, and on the mutual cohesion amongst these factors depends the resultant interial, or the práńáh. The controlling nucleus of all these fundamental physical nuclei is the controlling point of the collective práńa. This collection of práńa is called práńáh, or “vital energy”.…
The manifestation of práńáh depends on two essential conditions. First, the resultant of práńáh must be an interial force, and secondly, there must be a congenial environment. For want of a congenial condition in the present-day world, a number of giant animals of the remote past have either been transformed into smaller species or have vanished altogether.
(Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti, “Saiṋcara and Práńáh” in Idea and Ideology, 1993)
How Life Is Created
In the uterus the basic physical structure is first formed. This structure has potential energy and emanates a wavelength. It receives the potentiality from the momentum of the spermatozoa. Spermatozoa get their motion from the vital potentiality of the male body, and that is why the living being is said to reside first in the seminal fluid of the male and then in the mother’s womb; after which the bosom of Mother Earth receives it.
Since the physical structure starts from spermatozoa which have a positive motion, and, therefore, a wavelength, the physical structure thus formed must have a wavelength accordingly. We have already seen that the dissociated mind also has a wavelength (in a potential form) and a momentum which has to be expressed. The dissociated mind needs physical parallelism for proper expression, and therefore the Cosmic mutative force causes the dissociated mind from eternal space to enter the adjustable physical structure, assuming a form in the mother’s womb.
This is how life comes into physical creation.
(Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti, “Life, Death and Saḿskára” in Idea and Ideology, 1993)
Our Concept of Creation and Evolution of Unit Mind
Development of the organism is a phenomenon of the progressive manifestation of dormant consciousness. The first and primary streak of awakened consciousness finds its way through the crudest portion of the mind-entity. With simple cellular structures, the mind is confined to a few expressed elements of the body, its pleasure and protection. Whatever propensity exists is only for protecting the entity against environmental pressures and for increasing the number of similar creatures. That is why uni-cellular organisms are equipped with intense sexual power. Both male and female capacities are combined in the one body.
The plant world that precedes the cellular animal organisms also has the privilege of the manifestation of mind.
In the cellular animal organisms, however, the expressions of propensities are very distinct. Though the initial tendencies remain confined to the preservation of material existence, with a gradual instinctive clash in progress, new propensities find their way, making the manifestation of the dormant consciousness still more distinct as the older structures are evolved into the forms of new species.
The organs themselves are shaped and their relative strength is determined according to the needs of the mind for preserving the body against environmental conditions. Thus the physical structure goes on developing and getting complex with the development of the mind. The dimension of the psychic plate increases with the increase in the number of propensities.
The power of self-expression remains confined to the instinctive desires of self-preservation and procreation in the most underdeveloped organisms. But with the widening of the psychic horizon, this power goes on increasing and finally finds the highest expression in the form of human beings. Lower organisms are slaves to matter – they can make adjustments in the environment but cannot mould it. According to the degree of freedom, their existential consciousness has formed the body-feeling; their power of doership increases; and accordingly they become competent to turn the environment to their advantage. An ape can throw a rock or a branch of a tree in self-preservation, but a serpent has to rely on its poisonous gland. Nature has provided the lower organisms with sufficient weapons of protection in their own bodies.
With the increase in psychic power, fierce physical potentialities go on waning, and at the stage of human beings the power of protection lies more with the mind than with the body. Though the acquired tendencies of the animal play no mean role in the life of human beings, the developed ego-consciousness or intellectual faculty finds adequate expression in their behaviour. It is they alone who have the power to introspect within the real nature of their existence and find its final abode, or generative place. Animal consciousness identifies body-consciousness with the existential consciousness, but human consciousness tries to investigate on the synthetic plane.
Though the potentiality of the highest consciousness is always latent even in the lowest organisms, its coruscation becomes clearer with the increased circumference of the mind. This presupposes the adequate and consummate unfolding or awakening of the working and intuitive intellects. It is on the pure existential intellect that the reflection of the Cognitive Entity or Knower-Progenitor finds clearest expression. As the lower rungs of psychic consciousness are merged in the intuitive intellect through the sublimation of propensities, the feeling of body and environment merges in the surging flows of Cognitive Force and the unit loses its individuality for the time. If the cerebral nerves stop functioning and all the psychic momenta of the past are exhausted, the unit existential intellect loses its entity permanently in the ocean of blissful Consciousness. This is the end of the journey of the microcosm.
Footnotes
(1) “I exist,” “I do,” and done “I”. –Eds.
(2) The five bhútatattvas are the five fundamental, or rudimental, factors of matter (ethereal, aerial, luminous, liquid, solid). Tanmátra literally means “minutest fraction” of any given rudimental factor. It is also translated “inferential wave”. These inferences radiate from material objects and are received by the sensory organs, resulting in perceptions of sound, touch, form (vision) taste and smell. –Eds.
(3) Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti, “Saiṋcara and Práńáh” in Idea and Ideology, 1993.
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).
–Eds.