The Cosmic Operative Principle, or Cosmic Creative Principle, or Causal Matrix, is sheltered in the Transcendental Entity, the Supreme Cognition.

Nára has three imports. One meaning of nára is niira, that is, water. Another meaning of nára is “devotion”. The sage whose only duty was to preach the gospels of devotion was called “Nárada”. Da means “donor”, “giver”, and nára means “devotion”. And the third meaning of Nára is the Supreme Operative Principle.

And because the Supreme Operative Principle, or Nára, has been sheltered in the Transcendental Entity, the Supreme Cognition, the Supreme Cognition is called Náráyańa. Nára + ayana [shelter] = Náráyańa.

Now, the Supreme Cognition is a non-attributed entity, and the faculty of attribution lies with the Operative Principle. Theoretically, when there was no expression, no manifestation, there were innumerable flows of different waves of this Supreme Operative Principle, but they could not create any geometrical figure. And when the first geometrical figure was created, in that first geometrical figure, in that Causal Matrix, there were so many waves.

But all those waves can be brought under three main categories according to wavelength. Where the waves are subtlest, that is, moving almost in the form of straight lines, that particular variety [of wave] is called the sentient principle. [And another variety of wave] comes within the scope of the mutative principle. And the crudest one, the static principle. So in that first figure, in that first geometrical figure, at the dawn of creation, there may be more than one line, but there were only three principles. And finally, as a result of their mutual inter-transmutation, there remained only three lines, that is, there remained only one triangle. And this is what is called the triangle of forces. Even within that triangle of forces there were inter-transmutations – sentient being converted into mutative, mutative into static, static into sentient… This process of inter-transmutation is called svarúpa parińáma in the shástras.

First you should know what shástra is. Shásanát tárayet yastu sah shástrah parikiirtitah [“That which liberates through discipline is called shástra, or scripture”]. Shásana means [“control”]. That which controls your activities just to help you in your march towards the Supreme Entity is shástra. Tra means “liberator”. Shás means “to control”. So in the shástras, this inter-transmutation is called svarúpa parińáma. This first triangle of creation is, however, a theoretical creation. Here the Operative Principle does not create anything concrete. It was in the seed form of creation, and in that Operative Principle, the Cognitive Principle was also there. But It, the Cognitive Faculty, was not in an expressed form. In that triangle of forces, the Operative Principle is called Prakrti and not Máyá, because in that stage She was not able to create anything concrete. The Operative Principle in the triangle of forces is called Kaośikii Shakti or Shivánii Shakti, and Its witnessing counterpart, the Cognition, is called Shiva.

Now in the next phase, as a result of constant inter-transmutation, force was released from one of the vertices of the triangle, and when it came out, that starting point was the first point of creation. There Prakrti became fully attributed, and Puruśa is also attributed because of Its witnessing something attributed. You know, when energy is all of a sudden released, its movement is just like a straight line, and after that it acquires curvature due to clash and cohesion. So that released force moving just like a straight line is something attributed.

Prakrti in the triangular form is called the Basic Principle. Then in this second form, moving in a straight line, [She may be termed Bhavánii shakti,] and in Bhavánii shakti the [succeeding] curvature always tries to follow the [preceding] curvature; that is, the succeeding curvature is just like, though not exactly the same as, the preceding curvature. Suppose one man is A. His son is B. B is just like A – B is also a man, not a goat. Then his son, C. C is just like B – he is also a man, not a dog. That is, the following curvature is to some extent like the preceding curvature.

This process of following the preceding curvature is called sadrsha parińáma in the shástras. Sadrsha means “similar”. You will see there is hardly any difference between B and C; C is following B. But there is a gulf of difference between A and Z. Suppose A was an australopithecine of the Pliocene Age, and Z is a man of this Cenozoic Age. This change is going on in the realm of the vibrational principle. In our philosophy, Bhaeravii shakti is called the primordial principle, and Bhavánii shakti is called the vibrational principle. Now, here we are in the realm of the vibrational principle.

What is the role of the Cosmic Cognition? The Cosmic Cognition is beyond the scope of time, space and person, because these three fundamental relative factors are the creation of the Operative Principle, and the Operative Principle is sheltered by the Cognition. So the Cosmic Cognition is beyond the realm of the Operative Principle, and so beyond the realm of time, space and person. It is simply the witnessing factor. Whatever is being done in the arena of the Operational Principle is being witnessed by the Cognition. That is why the Cognition is called jiṋána svarúpa [“of the nature of knowledge”] in the shástras.

Now, what is human existence? This quinquelemental universe has been created in the extroversial phase within the realm of the vibrational principle. Wherever, in this quinquelemental universe, there is an adjustment of the five fundamental factors, there we find life. Life is a creation of proper balance or proper adjustment, proper equipoise, of the five fundamental factors. And when life is created, life, or the vital principle, the vital force, as the propelling energy, converts some portion of those quinquelemental factors into a subtler object. That subtler object is the ectoplasm.

The human mind is a creation of physical factors. Ectoplasm is a creation of physical factors. The human mind is a creation of the human body. The quinquelemental universe is a creation of the Cosmic Mind, of the Macrocosm, but the microcosm, the unit mind, is a creation of the quinquelemental factors. The human mind did not come directly from the Macrocosm; it came from matter. And matter is a creation of the Macrocosm. Do you follow?

Now, after the creation of the ectoplasmic structure in living beings, the introversial phase starts. In this introversial phase, we get ego, we get intellect, we get intuition. And the best intuitional faculty, the best creation of intuitional stamina, is the process of cogitation. The cogitative mind tries to express all its experiences, but it fails to express its experiences properly.

You came in contact with fire. You said, “Oof.” This “oof” does not represent properly the feeling that you experienced when you came in contact with fire, but you tried to express your tactual experience by uttering the word “oof”. Do you follow? When you feel pleasure, you try to express your sensory feeling by uttering the word “ah!” But the “ah!” cannot fathom the depth of your pleasure. Similarly, “oof” cannot fathom the depth of your predicament. But it is the human wont to try to express one’s sensory or psychic feelings. There lies the speciality of the microcosm. And there starts the intuitional practice of the microcosm; there starts sádhaná.

The Supreme Cognition, being beyond the arena of personal, temporal or spatial factors, does not come within the periphery of any acoustic expression. Even then, humans try to express It. The Supreme Cognition, Parama Puruśa, cannot be expressed, cannot have any acoustic expression. Even then, humans try to express It, just to satisfy themselves. Paramátmá kabhii ucchiśt́ nahiin hue haen. [“Paramátmá can never be brought within the scope of the mind”]. The Vedic rśi [sage] says regarding that Parama Puruśa, that Supreme Cognition:

Eko Devah sarvabhúteśu gúd́hah sarvavyápii sarvabhútántarátmá;
Karmádhyakśa sarvabhútádhivásah sákśiicet kevalo nirguńashca.⁽¹⁾

[That Supreme Singular Entity lies hidden in the innermost recesses of all created beings. He pervades everything; He is the innermost self of all beings. He presides over all actions and is the final shelter of all beings. He alone is Cognition in the form of Witnessing Entity, beyond all guńas, or attributes.]

Eko Devah [“That Supreme Singular Entity”]. Eka means “one”.⁽²⁾ When you say “one”, it is a particular psychic projection, is it not? When you say eka, it is a particular psychic projection, and when the word eka is used for a particular object, that object comes within the periphery of your psychic body. But He is beyond the scope of time, space and person. How can you use the word eka for Him? You cannot. Nor can you use the word aneka [“not one”, “many”] for Him, because aneka is another psychic projection. But even then the rśi says eka. Because when the mind becomes eka, one comes in contact with Him. Do you follow?

You know, in the human mind there are so many propensities. In the human [body] there are fifty main glands and sub-glands. Now the hormone created, secreted, by each and every gland or main sub-gland controls a particular propensity of the human mind. These hormones are called granthisudhá or granthirasa in Sanskrit. In the human mind there are fifty expressions, depending on the secretion of hormones from the fifty main glands and sub-glands. And you know, each and every propensity, when expressed, moves in a particular line with a particular wavelength. The wavelength of ghrńá [hatred] is quite different from that of lajjá [shame] or bhaya [fear].

Each and every propensity has got its peculiar wavelength, and wherever there is any vibrational expression there is sound and colour. So the fifty propensities are called fifty colours (“colour” is varńa in Sanskrit). So these are fifty varńas, and each and every propensity, each and every expression, has its sound also – acoustic expression also – so there are fifty sounds. Those fifty sounds, those fifty colours, are a, á, i, ii, u, uu, and because they have their peculiar colours, they are called varńamálá, “a collection of colours”.⁽³⁾

In the Tantric varńamálá, the first letter is a. A represents the propensity of creation. Whenever you are going to create something, a particular wave is radiated from your mind, is emanated from your mind, and that emanated wave has a particular colour and a particular sound. The sound of the faculty of creation is a-a-a-a-a. First creation, then other things. Hence, a is the first letter of the Tantric varńamálá. What is the first letter of the Gujarati varńamálá? A. Very good. Have you understood why a comes first and not á?

When these propensities are moving towards so many mundane and supramundane objects, your mind gets divided and subdivided due to your internal fissiparous tendencies. So what is your sádhaná? You are to withdraw those expressions, those fifty expressions, and bring them to a particular point, and guide that singular flow unto the Supreme Self. You can come in contact with Him only when these fifty expressions become one. Hence the rśi says, Eko Devah. Hence the word eka has been used, and not aneka. Do you follow? Very good.

You see, human cogitation tries to explain Him. But human language fails to express Him properly. It is just like mysticism. You know what mysticism is; mysticism is a never-ending endeavour to find a link between the finite and the infinite. It is a never-ending process. Similar is the case with these things.

Then the rśi says Deva. What is deva? The Supreme Cognition is the hub of this Cosmological order. In the case of an atom, there is a particular nucleus. That nucleus is the hub of that atom, in that smallest atomic system. Then again, in this ethereal system, the earth is the hub, the earth is the nave, and the moon is moving around the earth. It is the ethereal system. Then we come to a still bigger system – the solar system. Here the sun is the nave, and so many planets are moving around it. And then the biggest system, Brahma Cakra, the Cosmological order, the Cosmological system; there Parama Puruśa is the nucleus, the hub, the nave, and so many jiivas [unit beings] are moving around Him with their respective saḿskáras, their respective reactive momenta. Do you follow? Very good. The entire expressed universe, as I just said, is a mesh of vibrations of different wavelengths, and these vibrational expressions came out emanated from the Supreme Hub, Parama Puruśa. Each and every expression emanating from the Supreme Hub is certainly a divine expression, and each and every divine expression is called a deva. So these fifty letters are all devas. They are of divine expression, and that’s why they are called mátrka varńa, that is, “causal matrix”: colour serving as the causal matrix, the mátrka varńa (“mother of this universe”) – these letters are mothers of this universe.

Deva. He is the supreme Deva – Eko Devah. He is the Deva of all devas, He is the Father of all fathers. He is not pitá [father], He is Parama Pitá [Supreme Father]. Just like the moon. The moon is the mámá [maternal uncle] of everybody. Your mámá, your father’s mámá, your father’s father’s mámá; Chandamámá [Uncle Moon] is the mámá for all. He is your mámá and your maternal uncle’s mámá also. Because he is your maternal uncle’s mámá, he is not your maternal grandfather. He is also your maternal uncle. Do you follow?

So, Eko Devah – “He is the Supreme Deva.” That is, He is Mahádeva, the Deva of all devas, the multiple of all the multiplicities of the universe.

Sarvabhúteśu gúd́hah [“hidden in the innermost recesses of all created beings”]. Sarvabhúta: Bhúta means “created beings”. Bhúta means “past”, that is, “created”. And sarvabhúta. What is sarva? What is the meaning of sarva in the Gujarati language? “Everything”. Yes, yes. But why “everything”? You should know. Just now I have said that wherever there is an expression, there is a colour, there is sound. That colour may or may not be visible. That sound may or may not be audible. For very long or very small wavelengths it is not audible. For very long or very short wavelengths it is not visible. Only from a particular wavelength to a particular wavelength does it come within the scope of audibility or visibility. So sarva means “everything”, and sarvabhúta means “each and every created being”.

But why does the word sarva mean “everything”? In sarva there are three words, sa, ra and va. Sa means dantya sa [dental “s”]. Just now I said, for each and every entity there is a particular sound, a particular colour. Now the acoustic root, the sound, of the sentient principle, the first principle of creation, the first principle of the Operative Principle,⁽⁴⁾ the first phase of the Operative Principle, is dantya sa. Dantya sa sattvaguń ká biija mantra haen [“Dantya sa is the biija mantra, the acoustic root, of sattvaguńa”]. So when the sprout of creation came out from one of the vertices of that Shivánii Shakti, the triangle of forces, that starting point, the vertex, was in close contact with Parama Puruśa. Hence it was sentient by nature. So everything comes out from that particular point, from that fundamental positivity of creation, from that fundamental positivity of the universe. So the starting point for each and every object is sa. The sentient principle is the starting point, the fundamental positivity.

Then the letter ra. Ya,⁽⁵⁾ ra. Ra is the acoustic root of energy. When force functions within the scope of matter, that force is called energy. And the acoustic root of energy, that is, the sound wave, the sound of the wave, is ra. “Created by the sentient sa, maintained by the energy ra.” Everything is maintained by energy, the energy ra.

And the third letter is va. Va represents the wont of a particular object, the characteristic of a particular object. Each and every object in this universe has its own peculiar characteristics. Fire burns, water drenches. This drenching or this burning are the particular characteristics of those items. Now the acoustic root of wont, acoustic root of property, acoustic root of characteristic, is va. Ya, ra, la, va.

So “created by the sentient sa, maintained by the energy ra, and also having its own peculiar property va”: sa, ra, va. Now each and every object of this universe is controlled by these three letters, sa, ra and va. Hence Sa ra va sarva ucyate [“Sa, ra, and va are called sarva, everything”]. Because of the influence of these three letters, “everything” is sarva. Do you follow? Sarva means “everything”.

So sarvabhúteśu gúd́hah – “that Supreme Cognition lies covert in each and every created being.” Eko Devah – “Human cogitation is trying to express Him.”

Sarvavyápii sarvabhútántarátmá [“He pervades everything; He is the innermost self of all beings”]. Sarvavyápii: sarva you know; vyápii means “pervasive”. That Supreme Entity is not only a covert entity, not only lies covert within each and every entity, but is all-pervasive. Each and every entity has got its individual cognition. There may or may not be any psychic expression, there may or may not be any mental expression, but there is átman [soul] in each and every entity.

Now, whatever is being done or has been done or was done by your physical body is known to your mental body; in that case, your mental body is the knowing counterpart of your physical actions. And similarly, what is known by your mind is witnessed by your átman; in that case, where the mental function is to know, there the witnessing counterpart is the átman. To know is the faculty of the mind. To witness is the faculty of the átman. Clear? The mind knows, and the átman witnesses that the mind has known. The mind is knowing. Do you follow? Suppose your son has passed his MA. He has learnt much. But you know about it. Know what? That “my son has passed the MA examination”. This witnessing is the faculty of the átman, and knowing is the faculty of the mind.

And whatever is witnessed by your individual átman, individual cognition, is also witnessed by the Supreme Cognition. So when your átman is the individual átman or jiivátmá for you, then the Átman of Parama Puruśa is the Antarátman for you, inner Átman for you. Sometimes we use the word “inner voice”. The inner voice [is] Paramátman [the Supreme Soul], or the Antarátmá. (This Antarátmá is also called Pratyagátmá in Sanskrit. Pratiipa means opposite. Pratiipaḿ vipariitaḿ aiṋcati vijánáti iti pratyak [“That which takes a stance opposite to a thing and witnesses it is pratyak”].) So He is the Sarvabhútántarátmá.

That is why it is said that you have got two “I’s”. Not these [physical] eyes, “I”. One “I” is your small “I” – “I am going,” “I am doing,” “I am the owner.” This “I” is your small “I”. And another “I” is your big “I”. Paramátman is your big “I”. Smaller “I”, bigger “I”. You know, so many entities have so many “I”s and so many “my”s. But that bigger “I” is a singular entity. All these persons, that is, all the expressed entities of this entire universe, have got only one “I”, one big “I” and that big “I” is Paramátman. He is the “I” of all “I”s. You love your small “I” very much, and unknowingly you love that Paramátmá more than you do yourself. Clear? You have nourished an unknown love for Paramátman and a known love for the small “I”s. That love for Paramátman is unknown. And when one gets diikśá [initiation] and does sádhaná, that unknown love becomes known.

Karmádhyakśa sarvabhútádhivásah [“He presides over all actions and is the final shelter of all beings”]: Karmádhyakśa [“He presides over all actions”]. You do so many things, and you think that you have done them. “I have donated so much. I have done this. I have done that.” You say this. But wherefrom doth that energy come? It is not your individual energy. If you are not given food or water for a few days, what will happen? You will not have any energy. You cannot create any energy. Through food, physical energy is transmuted into your individual vital energy.

You do something with the help of your intellect. But wherefrom doth the intellect come? From Him. He is the perennial source of all energies – physical or intellectual or spiritual. You are not the owner of any energy or any force or any other mundane or supramundane object. You are simply to serve with His energy, with His intellect, with His spirit.

So karmádhyakśa. He is the lord of all karma, not you. You are simply a machine. You must not forget this fact, that you are simply a machine. You are not the machine-man. You should not have this sort of vanity. You should not say that you are the machine-man, that you have done this or you have done that. You should think that He has done His work, and He used this physical structure as His machine, as His medium. “I am fortunate because He used my structure as His machine. He used my structure as His medium.” So He is the karmádhyakśa. He is the adhyakśa of karma.

Sarvabhútádhivásah [“He is the final shelter of all beings”]. He is the adhivása of sarvabhúta. He is not only the Witnessing Entity, not only the karmádhyakśa, not only the Antarátmá. He is not only the All-Pervading Entity, Viśńu. (“All-Pervading Entity” in Sanskrit is Viśńu; viśńu means “all-pervasive”.) Viśńu Sarvabhútádhivásah – “He is the adhivása of sarvabhúta.”

Footnotes

(1) Shvetáshvataropaniśad. –Trans.

(2) A question here, probably an aside to the audience, was inaudible on the tape. –Eds.

(3) Varńamálá, literally “a collection of colours”, has the derived meaning of “alphabet”. A, á, i, ii, u, uu are the first letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. –Eds.

(4) Another in this series of appositive phrases, here, was inaudible on the tape. –Eds.

(5) The author’s pronunciation here was i-a. Ya, ra, la, va are a sequence of letters in the Sanskrit alphabet known as semi-vowels. Ya, for instance, is between the vowel sound i-a and a consonant sound. –Eds.