Saiṋcara and Práńáh
27 May 1959, Jamalpur

The centrifugal activity of the Macrocosmic Nucleus is known as saiṋcara. Hence this Nucleus or Puruśottama is the witnessing counterpart of the objective Macrocosm. Puruśa or Citishakti is pure consciousness; hence its activation without the presence of a second principle is impossible. Action results only when Prakrti, the inherent tendency of the transcendental Puruśa, gets scope of expression.

The two factors, Puruśa and Prakrti, though dual in theory, are singular in spirit. Their collective body is just like that of fire. One cannot think of fire without its special thermal value; in the same way one cannot think of Puruśa without Prakrti in the collective body of Brahma. Prakrti may be defined as an attribute of Puruśa. Where there is no expressed activity of Prakrti, that is, where activity appears to be in a dormant stage, Puruśa remains objectless or nirguńa.

This Prakrti is also a collection of three immanent principles – the sentient or sattva, the mutative or rajah, the static or tamah. The sentient principle is the cause of pure “I” feeling; the mutative activates this “I” and transforms it into the Doer “I”; and the static causes the mutative ego to imbibe the results of actions of the Doer “I”, that is, by creating the done “I” out of the Doer “I”. Prakrti is the collective name of these three principles.

In Nirguńa Brahma the activity of Prakrti is in a dormant stage. She cannot manifest Herself, though the eternal flow exists. Thus the flow of Prakrti means the flow of three belligerent forces – the sentient, the mutative and the static. Mathematically speaking, this fight results in a triangle of forces. Puruśa or Shiva at this stage gets encircled by Shivánii (here Prakrti is called Shivánii) in the form of a triangle of forces.

The resultant of the internal clash and cohesion of the three immanent principles of Prakrti comes out from a point in any one of the vertices of the triangle of forces; the Puruśa or consciousness at the vertex wherefrom the resultant came out is known as Shambhú; and the central point of such a triangle of forces is known as Puruśottama, that is, Puruśottama is the subjectivated Shiva. This Puruśottama is the nucleus of all the creative principles. Movement which starts from Puruśottama as the centre is an exterial one, essentially centrifugal in character, and undergoes a change from the subtle to the crude. Saiṋcara is the name given to this particular movement in the spiritual philosophy of Ananda Marga. It comes out from Shambhú as a never-ending process.

The vertices of the triangle of forces are points having certain positions but no absolute movement. It is a stage of stagnancy and hence dominated by the static principle. The static force is a crudifying factor. That which overcomes the static force and causes a stir of expression on the static seed must be logically and scientifically not only unfathomable in gravity but also sentient in tendency. Therefore Prakrti, expressing Herself in the form of the resultant force due to which saiṋcara starts, is sentient, though rudimentally static, and inculcates in Puruśa the “I” feeling. It is a pure “I” feeling because sentient Prakrti cannot go any further. In philosophy this stage is known as Mahattattva. In Cosmic life this Mahattattva is nothing but the Cosmic “I”. This is the first bondage of Puruśa by His innate sentient Prakrti.

This bondage, though located in a microscopic fraction of His universal body, is not felt as a bondage because of its looseness in character. Hence it may be defined as merely theoretical. The Puruśa in Mahattattva undergoes only the slightest metamorphosis. As the movement of saiṋcara proceeds further, sentient Prakrti is gradually transformed into the mutative principle owing to internal clash. This mutation causes the feeling of second subjectivity and so the Cosmic “I” gets metamorphosed into the Cosmic Doer “I” under the influence of this mutative principle of Prakrti. This Cosmic Doer “I” is known as Ahaḿtattva. Here the bondage of Prakrti on Puruśa is more prominent than that in Mahattattva. But it still is subjective (second subjective) in character, because Puruśa, even under such a condition, gets no objectivity. This bondage of Mahattattva is therefore more or less a theoretical concept.

Ahaḿtattva, from a psychological point of view, is the activated counterpart of the subjective “I”, the act of subjectivation being brought about by mutative Prakrti. The metamorphosis of Puruśa in the Ahaḿtattva is still highly subtle, because even at this stage no objective entity is created. Ahaḿtattva exists only in subjective strata.

As the static principle starts its domination, Ahaḿtattva gets objectivated, and this cruder stage in the process of saiṋcara is known as citta. Objectivation takes place because the static principle, influencing Ahaḿtattva, forces it to assume the form of the result of the final activation. It is the Cosmic Subjective “I” which, after being partially transformed into the Cosmic Doer “I”, is finally forced to convert a portion of it into the Cosmic objective “I”. Here Puruśa undergoes an objective change, and so the metamorphosed stage is an objectivated form of the subjectivated “I”, and also of Supreme Consciousness. It is not only that the Cosmic Doer “I” has performed a psychic function under the influence of mutative Prakrti, but a portion of the Doer “I” or Ahaḿtattva has imbibed the result of its own action and thus gets objectivated under the influence of static Prakrti. Here Puruśa feels the bondage as an objective reality and this Doer Puruśabháva [coming under] the influence of the static principle is the Cosmic citta. This citta is an objective reality, its immediate mental subjectivity being the Ahaḿtattva and supreme mental subjectivity the Mahattattva. Mind is the collective name of Mahattattva, Ahaḿtattva and citta, its subjective counterpart being the Cosmic Puruśa.

The process of saiṋcara still continues under the gradually increasing domination of static Prakrti, exactly as Puruśottama was metamorphosed into Mahattattva, Mahattattva into Ahaḿtattva and Ahaḿtattva into citta owing to the influence of one or the other aspect of Prakrti. Citta under the influence of static Prakrti gets cruder and at a later stage is transformed into the ethereal entity. The pressure and domination of the static principle continue increasingly, and as a result of this increasing external pressure the external space within that structural scope goes on decreasing gradually. There is also simultaneous increase in chemical affinity. The gradual crudification results in four specific factors other than the ethereal one. They are the aerial, luminous, liquid and solid. The solid factor is the crudest manifestation of the Cosmic citta; and here the pressure of the static Prakrti on the Cosmic citta reaches the zenith of its capacity.

The external pressure of the static principle on the aforesaid five factors 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 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 a circumstance a solid structure is created and maintenance of its physical solidarity depends upon the bala or external pressure.

But if the exterial forces win, the resultant exterial cannot form any nucleus within that physical structure. The resultant interial force is, therefore, 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 predominate over the reacting interials. In such a portion dissociation occurs and the portions under the influence 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 we acquire from food, light, air, water, etc. The solidarity of our composite structure remains unchanged in spite of this wear and tear as long as the nucleus remains under the influence of the resultant interial force.

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 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. Logically, therefore, it may be concluded that for the physical unit structure an environment is essentially required where all these five fundamental factors are available in requisite quantity. Life can get expression only under such a condition. For the manifestation of life, therefore, a congenial atmosphere is a fundamental necessity. Hence it may be concluded that the resultant interial force expressing itself into life under a congenial environment is what is known as práńáh or vital energy. In Sanskrit this term is always used in the plural number, because it is a collection of ten váyus, or ten important forces, working within or without the physical structure.

The manifestation of práńáh depends on two essential conditions. First, the resultant of práńa 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 vanished altogether.

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, there will be a tremendous reaction within the physical body (affecting both the interial and the 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 cause 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 phenomena of bursting up become gradual.

Due to jad́asphot́a, gradual or instantaneous, the component factors of the physical structure get dissociated into the five fundamental factors. This phenomenon of retracing back in saiṋcara is known as “negative saiṋcara”. In the process of negative saiṋcara the component factors cannot dissociate into factors subtler than the ethereal, as that would mean the Ahaḿtattva withdrawing its eternally active thought-projection; and this withdrawal by the Cosmic “I” would mean suspension of the Cosmic Mind or cessation of Macrocosmic activity or the end of creation, as creation itself is only a thought-projection of the Macrocosm. Bursting up is not a phenomenon of withdrawal, but a stirring up of the thought-waves due to excessive pressure of static Prakrti. And the factor or factors resulting from the dissociation find their identity in the five fundamental factors – solid, liquid, luminous, aerial and ethereal.

In this way the journey of evolution continues eternally according to the divine urge of the Macrocosm. And there is no chance of the so-called thermal death of the universe.

27 May 1959, Jamalpur
Published in:
Ananda Marga Philosophy in a Nutshell Part 1 [a compilation]
Idea and Ideology
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