XVI - The Creation Myth
The stuff of the world is mind-stuff.
Prof. Eddington
The human mind, delving deeper into itself, has at one level fabricated the Creation Myth, endeavouring to express the inexpressibae that lies still deeper in the profundity. All the individual mind can conceive is "That Thou Art!", but even this is not possible for all, or all at once. To the majority it is incomprehensible philosophy.
Reality must be proved from everybody's point of view, for only then can it be established, and everybody enabled to rise to the plane of the Absolute which is the fundamental aim of all philosophy.
Stepping down from the pedestal of the Absolute, we accept that there has been some form of creation real or illusory. In a questionable way, it is possible to speak of or describe the creation (origin), preservation and destruction (end) of the mirage in the desert, which springs from the desert, exists in it and disappears into it. All the time there was nothing but the desert. To satisfy the foolish curiosity of intellectual babies, scientists invent theories about this optical illusion - and assert that the "illusion" exists, though no one has as yet quenched his thirst in the mirage.
Trading on immature credulity, several institutions have sprung up to sing the glories of this illusion. To such - as to a trickster who makes a living by sleight of hand - an intelligent or rational analysis of this "'creation" and pursuit of Truth, is disastrous and suicidal. Hence, all cults and institutions - social, political or religious - which flourish on this illusion, rebel against any enquiry into Truth.
Science weaves web after web of "scientific" theories, discoveries, inventions and terminologies, but only to hide the chasm of ignorance over which its edifice is built.
Even philosophers shy away from the sacred project, which would naturally silence them for ever! The sages of India have, however, boldly faced the Truth, even if thereby they had (1) to forfeit the privilege of weaving a colourful fabric of philosophy with the thread of illusion, and (2) to confess their inability to "describe" the Ultimate Reality, or the why and wherefore of this diversity which, in the words of Gaudapada, "is incapable of comprehension, because it does not have a cause-and-effect relationship".
The Reality is beyond comprehension, yet the curious mind clamours far an explanation! The sages, like the scientists, paint a picture, rational, logical, appealing and often romantic; here perhaps Srimad Bhagavatharn is unsurpassable. You cannot study it without being struck by the sagacity of the author. You have inspiring, amusing and entertaining stories - and suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, descends tough philosophy, which, however, is immediately followed by another titillating story! Here there is a vivid description of Creation - not even the slightest detail is omitted. It ends with the declaration that all this is perceived only by the ignorant, caught in the deluding power of God (Maya)! Markandeya's experience of the Lord's Maya, in which he lived through the dissolution of the world, etc., is revealing. All took place in the sage's mind and appeared to cover aeons - but it was all delusion! Nothing but God exists.
The scripture helps baby-souls. In order to help man rise to the Absolute plane, we are given another set of imagery or symbols. Lord Vishnu (don't forget that the word means "all-pervading spirit"!) is portrayed as a blue-bodied person. The blue-colour is used to remind us that it is like the blueness of the sky, a painting of the Infinite. To the earnest spiritual aspirant, who has tried to meditate on the forms of the gods painted blue, the magic of this blue is revealed. As he meditates on the blue-coloured God, gradually the outline of the Form disappears, leaving a radiant, luminous blueness - a foretaste of the Infinite! Vishnu is conceived of as a blue-bodied person. A Person! The root word is "persona", which means a mask. We fix our mind upon this mask, and eventually the fire of meditation removes it, revealing the Hidden Truth. To conceive of him, we must have the form or Persona of God like us - and yet not like us, so we give him a few more hands, making him a little different from us, and the esoteric significance of the number of hands and the objects they hold serve as a notebook to remind us of His qualities. If the deities were visualised as entirely different to us, we would not want to go to them. A wrist watch visualised as the ultimate Reality or God would be meaningless!
Vishnu is asleep on an ocean of milk! If you find this absurd, think of our galaxy, named even by the scientist "the Milky Way". Even he says our solar system is part of this ocean of milk. In Sanskrit Scriptures you have the same concept, the iKsheera-Sagara, the Ocean of Milk, and the stars and planets are said to be the various parts of the body of a Cosmic Person.
This image of the Cosmic Person in liquid occurs in the Bible, "In the beginning, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters". Again, in Egyptian mythology, "before Creation there lived in Nun, the Ocean, a spirit called Atum, who bore within him the sum of all existence". The Bible concept, the Egyptian myth and Indian thought are one.
One step further in this imagery which marks out our way. Vishnu is resting on a serpent couch. The cobra is a dreaded poisonous snake, sometimes portrayed with five hoods, sometimes with a thousand. The "hoods" are the five elements - space, air, fire, water and earth. A "thousand" is a manner of saying "infinite". The snake, representing evil in his poison, is also the only creature whose motion of gliding is continuous and uninterrupted. Time has this quality of motion, and therefore in Indian and Biblical mythology, the serpent often represents Time. Time is also poisonous or evil, for its motion "kills" us in its every fleeting moment. "We die a thousand deaths."
Bhagavatham (XII-II/13) says that the serpent represents the Unmanifested or Root-matter. Taking the hoods as representing the root elements (unmanifested), infinite potentiality for manifestation in infinite diversity, is clearly also represented by the serpent. The scriptures, however, boldly and often identify the Lord and his serpent couch. Balarama is said to be the Incarnation of the serpent, and Krishna of the Lord, but often they are glorified as One. Thus it follows that Krishna or the Lord Himself is described as the Time-Spirit.
The picture is of God (or Chit-Shakti) resting on Time (or root-matter). Then He opens his eyes. Thus Vishnu awakes and Creation begins. Vishnu is conceived as male, the Supreme Consciousness. Shakti, the power of his consciousness, as female, yet part of him. Neither of itself creates, but together they are Brahma, the creator. This Brahma is said to spring from Vishnu's navel, a poetic concept which may dimly refer to the explosion in the centre of the Super-Atom of scientific theory. A father has never given birth to a child since the differentiation of sex, but in primitive forms of life (nearer the Creator!) there is parturition by partition. So the point of final separation from the parent is still the navel! Thus we have the vision of the umbilical cord from Vishnu's body going up, holding Brahma on a full-blown lotus. The full blown lotus represents unfoldment, or manifestation, "the expanding universe".
Brahma as the cosmic creator, has four heads, representing the four quarters or directions of the universe. Brahma meditates upon the Lord Who bestows upon Him memory of the previous creation, and it then becomes easy for Brahma to recreate the whole universe, with the help of Time, the elements, the gunas, and the Chit-Shakti (which infills every being as the living soul), through the process known as quintuplication (Pancheekarana).
Water or liquid seems to have been a fixation with all people who have brought forth theories of creation. In Assyrio-Babylonian myth, it is said that there lived in the ocean before creation a being called Atham (compare with Atma and Atun). There were two types of oceans, a calm ocean and a turbulent ocean (consciousness and power, Siva and Shakti respectively). When they collided, creation took place. Indian mythology believes that the ocean was churned - a nice way of colliding, perhaps. First Lakhmu and Lakhamu were born (compare with Lakshmi of Indian mythology, who rose from the ocean when it was churned).
This cosmic "ocean" is literally true in a very subtle but real sense. For, even now we are swimming in an atmosphere of moisture, not dense enough to drown us, but enough to keep us from being burnt to death. No wonder our ancients used it as a symbol of a cosmic storehouse of hidden matter and life, as they had seen that the calm surface of the ocean hid beneath it countless living beings.
Nearer still, even in our body! This is how the scientist describes the structure of our body: "The fluid that bathes each cell, the liquid part of blood and lymph, is mildly salty, reminiscent of the sea water that nourished the sea-going creatures from which man evolved." Life. 11th February 1963.
In other words - the body itself is a miniature sea in which millions of cells are swimming. Or, the "I" is swimming in an ocean even now!
Philosophically, water symbolises "mind", the Cosmic Mind. The symbolism is effective. Beings can exist in it at all levels (conscious and unconscious). Beings can live and yet be submerged. All these we find in the universe.
Chit-Shakti has always existed. Cosmic Consciousness with the manifestation-potential, life-potential, power-potential (whether this is latent or patent) is the Reality. This is viewed and expressed variously. "The manifested and the manifold universe is the effervescence of the inherent bliss of the Absolute", says His Highness the Maharajah of Mysore; and the idea of "effervescence" seems to be a poetic expression of the scientific postulate of an "expanding universe" symbolised in the full-blown lotus.
Even the Biblical declaration that God created the heaven and the earth, if it is read with faith in His omnipresence, points to the same conclusion that this "creation" is, unlike the potter creating, a pot (outside himself) with the help of mud (again, outside himself), a manifestation of Something which existed and exists within Him.
Put as a simple question no one can convincingly answer. How does a mustard seed differ from barley? How are the characteristics of the huge banyan tree hidden in the minute seed, yet capable of preventing it from growing into some other tree? Is it not the only answer (on the analogy of a microfilm and the huge picture projected on the cinema screen) that the whole tree is in the little seed already? The tree in the seed is an idea.
The world in God is an idea! The entire universe is nothing but the crystalisation of the inherent Power (call it Life) of the Cosmic Consciousness; God's Thought (call it Word) made Form by the Energy or Life, which is His own outer nature (described as the Para or Superior and the Apara or the Inferior Nature, in the Gita).
God Himself is not limited by the creation nor has He undergone the least diminution in consequence. In dream, the dream-objects are in your own mind - created out of your mind-stuff; and creation does not take something away from you. Even when the dream-objects are destroyed, you lose nothing, either. You create the dream within yourself, and while playing a part in it, stand apart from it as a witness, too! That is precisely the relation of God and the World. The creation is in Him, of Him, non-different from Him, yet unreal, dreamish, an illusion of which He is the witness. It is in this dream that diversity "exists". Diversity is an illusion caused by a power whose nature we do not grasp, and which, in the words of the scientists quoted above, it is impossible to understand.
From the point of the Absolute or God, there is, therefore, no evolution, creation or anything, except That. Vasishtha compares perception of the universe of diversity to the blue dome that covers this earth. We know that it is not a blue dome, yet our eyes see it as such. It is not even an "illusion" (like the mirage) which will disappear. It is the sky and not the dome. It only demands proper understanding. What exists is God or Brahman and not diversity. That is all - and here there is no appearance nor disappearance.
Vasishtha and Gaudapada (the grand-Guru of Sri Sankara) assert that the Brahman alone is real and refuse to think of the world - for thinking can only be of the "dome"!
Sankara, however, provides a threshold to this mansion of Truth, in his Mayavada or the theory of illusion or relative reality of the world. Creation is like a long dream - unreal, yet temporarily and in the dream-state, real enough! Srimad Bhagavatham (X. 86/44.45) adds the details to this theory, by saying that just as a man creates in his own mind the dream-objects and "enters" into those objects, giving them "life", He has projected this world in Himself, as His dream, and has entered it as the soul of each dream-object. We should regard the names and forms in the universe as such - as dream-objects - and, absorbing our whole being in God, we should forget this illusion. The only difference between the Ajatavada (nocreation theory) of Gaudapada and Vasishtha, and the Mayavada (illusion theory) of Sri Sankara is this: the latter says that the illusion will disappear on the dawn of Jnana, whereas the former says that we are forever in the midday of self-luminous Brahman, and that there is nothing else to disappear.
To regard the visible as illusory hurts our intellect! Yet wisdom lies that way. You know how some people struggle to prove that a bygone civilisation did actually flourish once? Even so, a few thousand years hence, people will be questioning the veracity of present-day occurences. A nuclear war or a natural cataclysm (like an earthquake) might wipe out the museums and monuments that we erect to let posterity know what we have done! The truth about these can never be conclusively established, because they exist only in time, a mode the mind, and not in Eternity.
The truth about the past can only be conjectured now - a process which is no better than the play of the mind, the mind playing in supposition, dreamlike, over the few "facts". Thus, everything that takes place in time (subject to birth and death, creation and destruction, appearance and disappearance) is non-truth. It is, therefore, better to ignore it, rather than break our heads establishing or refuting it. Hence, Krishna says: "He (the Sanyasi or seeker after God) should not regard this visible world as real, because it is perishable - think no more about it." (Bhagavatham XI-18/26-27).
You will agree that it is a wise way of disposing of a big problem (head-ache!) Better utilise the time and energy in re-discovering Reality. The theory of "no-creation" seems to be shocking to the modern realist, who is tempted to stamp as a fool he who declares the world to be an illusion. But, among its adherents are some of the noblest of men! They did not plunder, kill, burn, hoard or wage wars, because the world did not exist for them - who would want to assassinate a shadow? On the other hand, it is not difficult to see that he who affirms the reality of the world, becomes worldly - soon the toil for the bread occupies all his time, and attention - money, the ruling power in this reality, becomes the object of his quest, acquisition and accumulation - he recognises the Kingdom of God as a political empire and wages wars to establish it and expand it - he evaluates the strength of his religion on the basis of the objects of this world (his reality), such as men, money and monuments; after thus travelling far out into the desert, he suddenly recollects that roaming in company with the real world, he has left God far behind. Adopting the "illusion" theory compels man to face God all the time and live in His Light.
Some fear that this might lead to a lop-sided development of personality. A Muslim-brother once told me that meat-eating was encouraged by them because they want both the divine (Satvic and the aggressive (Rajasic) aspects of man's personality to be developed - the meat providing the food for the latter. This view ignores the highly significant and pertinent truth that the aggressive (Rajasic) nature in us needs no food at all, for it is overwhelmingly powerful - a power brought forward from previous animal incarnations. The sincere seeker's struggle all the time to keep it in check and to promote the Satvic aspect of his personality. Even so, this "life-and-world-denial" will not lead to stagnation in personality-development or social progress; the power of Maya, latent in all, the "life" invested in the dream-objects by the dreamer, the Shakti of the Chit will ensure that. The powerful delusive potency of this Maya, when countered by an almost equally powerful "life-and-world-denial", will eventually find the correct balance, which will invest life and society with wisdom and the correct perspective of life and the saner sense of values.
XVII - The Creation Mystery
My womb is the great Brahma; in that I place the germ; thence, is the birth of all beings.
Gita.
The Upanishads are terse philosophical revelations. They state that in the beginning one Consciousness, and only that one existed. "He" willed: "I am One, may I become many". This thought or vibration arose in that Consciousness and that thought-vibration or sound was Om ("the Word" of the Bible). Any sound without distinction is Om. This vibration which arose in Consciousness is "heard" as the mystic monosyllable Om by Yogis in Samadhi. Vishnu Siva, Rama, etc., are functional or qualitative attributes of God, but Om is the true "name" of God.
When that vibration, the expression of cosmic energy, took place, creation-projection occurred, neither exhausting nor even subtracting from Its own fullness. So, God has not become the world in all His totality. Rather He pervades the whole universe with some small part of His Being. Scientific assessment also proclaims this truth, for scientists aver that the heavenly bodies occupy an unimaginably small portion of this infinite space. The Gita says "I exist, supporting this whole universe by one part of Myself". The Bible states that after creating the universe in six days, God rested on the seventh. He rested in His own Infinitude.
This theory of creation is more picturesquely described in the Bhagavatam in the following words: "The macrocosm in the form of art egg lay on the causal waters. With the help of Time as well as of the destiny and innate disposition of the individual souls, however, at the end of a thousand years, the Lord infused life into this egg. Bursting open that egg, issued therefrom the same Supreme Person with thousands of thighs, feet, arms and eyes and thousands of faces and heads, too."
The Indian has always regarded the macrocosm as the Brahma-anda (the Creator's egg). It is interesting how this philosophical theory finds its echo in modern science.
Says Gamow: "All the matter now within the reach of our largest telescope must at one time have been compressed into a single gigantic sphere about thirty times as large as the sun. At this stage no elements existed - the primeval matter consisted of nothing but protons, electrons and neutrons indiscriminately mixed together." The word 'indiscriminately' should be taken to mean indistinguishably; according to Vedanta the three modes of Nature were in a state of equilibrium, and if they had been indiscriminately mixed together, there would be disorder. "This began to expand." How and why, we do not know, compare with the theory of Maya. "It became cooler and less dense. The neutrons, protons and electrons started to aggregate together, and in this way the elements as we know them today were formed. The hot material continued to expand and its temperature fell from many millions of degrees to only a few thousand degrees. This gas was basically a cloud of hydrogen and helium, in which floated the more complex elements in the form of a fine dust. Later the mutual attraction exercised by gravitation acted to form vast condensation of matter which broke up into large individual with empty space between. When it was hot, it shone with unimaginable brilliance," This was Arjuna's view of the Cosmic Vision of Krishna as described in Chapter X1 of the Gita. "and when it cooled, it was all dark. When the clouds broke away and condensed into stars, compression raised their temperature and there was light again."
This theory has history behind it! Says Mr. Z. Litynski in "Science Digest" (January 1962): "Professor Ryle of Cambridge, England, has spent the last few years studying the farthest galaxies ... His patient studies reveal that several billion years ago the distribution of galaxies in our universe was three times more dense than it is today. And, if several billion years ago the galaxies were three times closer together than they are now, simple arithmetic shows that in an even more distant past all the matter of the universe must have been concentrated in one giant star or one giant superatom which, for some unknown reason exploded, sending the debris in all directions. The sensational character of Ryle's discovery stems from the fact that the theory of the origin of our universe in the explosion of a giant star or a giant superatom was postulated nearly 40 years ago by the then Belgian priest-mathematician Abbe Georges Lemaitre".
The theory of the expanding universe has been picturesquely described in Indian scriptures: "During the churning of the ocean, the Lord took the form of a Tortoise to support the churning rod on His back. At one stage, He was tired and heaved a sigh. This set the ocean-waves rolling, in concentric circles - and they have not ceased till this day". Since the ocean referred to was the cosmic ocean, the waves might well signify the expanding universe.
The Ryle-Gamow theory agrees with the theories of creation in Hinduism and the Bible. Potential power latent in the Supreme Being manifests as the cosmos.
We saw how an impulse from God broke the mighty superatom, billions of years ago, and gave birth to the cosmos. That impulse was of the nature of a vibration; and, say the Upanishads, the vibration sound was "Om". Ether (or time-space continuum) was the first product of this vibration. The sound vibrating in ether caused the manifestation of the world. Even as life-giving elements in the air sustain living beings.
Movement in space gave birth to air. Hindu scriptures therefore say that air was born of ether. Air currents criss-crossing produced friction, and this friction generated heat-fire. Scientists tell us that when oxygen and hydrogen are combined, there is an explosion, fire and then water. Fire gives birth to water. Water eventually condenses into the earth. This is a simple picture of the creation of the elements given in our scriptures, though some of them give highly detailed and technical descriptions of this process.
In an article entitled "Wonders under Pressure", published in the Readers-Digest, July, 1965, George Boehm says: "Under the influence hitch pressure gases are compressed into liquids. Hot liquids freeze solid. Rocks behave like metals.
In short, high pressure is a modern alchemy that creates a whole new catalogue of exotic materials.
The most intense pressure ... can be produced for an instant in shock waves from high explosives." This supports the above theory of creation and evolution of the elements.
There may be different permutation and combinations. But basically there are the same elements throughout the universe. Hence it is the Uni-verse and not Multi-verse! Hector Mc Pherson said, at a lecture at Oxford, as early as 1924, "Modern astronomy has demonstrated the oneness of the universe. The dark lines in the solar spectrum tell unmistakably of the existence in the solar atmosphere, in gaseous form, of the very elements, with which we are familiar here upon earth. These elements exist in different proportions and under varied conditions of temperature and pressure. Matter, then, is subject to the same laws in the most distant parts of the universe as here on earth. The new physics (astrophysics) does not speak of gravitation as a force, but as a property of space, but whatever gravitation may be on the ultimate analysis, it is cosmos-wide in its scope. What we look out on from our vantage-point on earth is a unified universe - one in law, one in substance, one in process."
What happens in the cosmos happens in each individual atom. As Sir Oliver Lodge pointed out in 1908, we get in an atom a sort of solar system, and it has been suggested that solar systems may be atoms of a still larger universe!
In the West, Anaxagoras was the first to suggest that the heavenly bodies were made of the same material as the earth. The source-books of Indian philosophy (the Upanishads) are unequivocal on this point.
That facilitates our analysis. By examining the microcosm, we can know what the nature of the macrocosm is. To borrow an expression from Dr. Macleod, the knowledge obtained by "looking up through a telescope" is also obtained by "looking down through a microscope".
Science has arrived at something smaller than the molecule which is the atom, the treasure-chest of energy. Einstein proclaims that inert mass can be converted into energy by increasing its velocity. Great power is hidden in all matter. Matter in Indian philosophy is referred to as "Pradhana" or "Prakriti". The Hindu mystic therefore began to analyse himself and the matter that surrounded him, in the firm conviction that whatever knowledge he arrived at that way, would apply to the whole universe.
The atom consists of the electron, the proton and the neutron. These three hold within themselves enormous nuclear power, but as I have already pointed out, this power never gets accidentally released, because even though the atom is so minute, a mysterious intelligence-force, not electric and outside and contrary to all the known laws of physics, binds together several protons of the same electric charge.
It is this mysterious intelligence which holds that power in check. These five, the electron, proton and neutron, the power within them, and the intelligence controlling that power, are the basic categories in Indian philosophy! The Intelligence in the atom is the Indwelling Presence, or God, which "pervades everything". The nuclear power in the atom is also of God's Nature or Cosmic Power of Shakti or Maya.
The concept of creation as "Nature" (Prakriti) is rather amusing. That is perhaps the only way in which it is possible to reconcile the Omnipresence of Infinite Being or God, and the manifestation of material creation. For there cannot obviously be creation outside God, if God is omnipresent and infinite. Hence, it is said that this cosmos is God's Nature. This Nature is eternally present in God, as potential nature or manifest nature. It is not apart from God, but is God's own Nature, even as your nature is an inextricable part of you.
Here again the individual, analysing his own state of being, the microcosm, is able to conceive the macrocosm.
Lord Krishna speaks in one Gita of Para Prakriti and Apara Prakriti - superior nature and inferior nature. Assuming that the whole of creation or the universe to be the Body of God, then we equate the diversity with the diversity, we experience in our own body, without "losing sight of the integral unity of our being. We have the different organs endowed with different faculties. Some of them are even nearly inert, e.g.. the hair and the nails. Others are extremely sensitive. We have the subtle life-force and the still more subtle mind. The macrocosmic counterparts of these are termed Inferior Nature (of God) by Sri Krishna, being the five elements, mind, intellect and ego sense. All these are molecular or atomic in nature.
What is superior nature then? Even a child today knows that the atom contains great power, and if, as in the case of Uranium, the nucleus is split, tremendous energy is released by chain reaction. However, this is possible only by bombarding the atom with a neutron and "splitting the nucleus". A scientist confesses: "Although so much is known about the behaviour of nuclei, the theory of the nucleus leaves much to be desired. What holds the neutrons and protons together? Why are some nuclei more stable than others? It is certain that the forces between neutrons and protons in a nucleus are unlike the electrical attractions between the nucleus as a whole and its surrounding electrons".
There is great power within the atom, and this great power is held in restraint by a superior power! That is perhaps what Sri Krishna refers to as "superior nature" which, He says, "holds the worlds together". But for that restraining force, the protons with positive electric charge might fly around bringing about atomic disintegration or disaster every minute.
It is only possible to say that this superior nature is might intelligence - an intelligence or wisdom that is greater than the greatest power on earth. It is the soul of life. We call it Jiva.
How wonderful is this intelligence! During the conversion of food into usable energy, glucose has to be broken up. The superhuman intelligence that controls this process is well described in a brilliant essay in the "Life Magazine" (Volume 34, No. 8) on the Human Body: "Scientists used to wonder why the cell bothers with all these complicated steps. Glucose is a pretty simple molecule, and the cell theoretically could break it up with one enzymatic whack and turn out ATP all at once. Now they know that such a quick turnover would be far too violent. In a laboratory experiment, hydrogen and oxygen can be combined to produce energy and form water - but only with explosive force. In the cell, the intricate step-by-step process makes ATP energy and water without such explosions innumerable times every day."
These two, then, are fundamental factors in creation - Intelligence (Consciousness) and Power (Life). The latter is but the efficient aspect of the former. Yet, philosophers treat Power, Nature or Maya, as though it were independent.
In a previous chapter we have seen that this power potential consists of three strands, and if we equate them to the constituents of the atom we have: Satva - neutron (neutral electric charge). Rajas - proton (positive charge). Tamas - electron (negative charge).
Creation is a play of these Qualities of Nature (Satva, Rajas and Tamas), with the Indwelling Spirit (Chit-Shakti). Thus have all beings an inner core of consciousness, endowed with Power and clothed with Nature, composed of these three Qualities, in their gross and subtle forms - the soul and the various organs of knowledge and action, the life-force and the inner instrument or the mind.
Vedanta has an extremely interesting, through rather complicated, explanation of this process; but it is enough for our purposes here to understand that, when the equilibrium of the power potential is disturbed, it begins to manifest itself, revealing all its characteristics in various degrees, which we call creation.
Exactly why all this took place, no one will ever know - neither philosopher nor scientist - and it is useless enquiry. Even scientific speculations only describe the present cosmos and how it evolved, never "why". If you ask the scientist: "The gigantic sphere burst several billion years ago. How long was it in the state of single superatom? From beginningless time? When did Time start?", no one can answer these questions. Hence the scriptures say that the soul and its potentialities (manifestation) are beginningless.
When Lord Buddha was questioned about God and the world, he remained silent and advised the enquirer: "When your house is on fire, will you be interested to know how it got there? No, you will put it out first. Even so, you know you are unhappy in your present state. Shake it off by attaining Nirvana".
There is another scientific theory about the birth of our earth and planets which, again, is corroborated in Indian mythology. Fred Hoyle says: "Our Sun once belonged to a binary system - two stars rotating round each other. The original companion of the Sun was the type of star known as a supernova, which is liable to explode when it has reached a certain stage of development".
This, according to Hoyle, was what did occur. The supernova exploded, blowing out a great mass of incandescent gas, which the Sun held on to by force of gravity. Hoyle says: "The companion star's final gift to the Sun was a cloud of gas, with just the right kind of composition necessary to account for the constitution of the earth and the planets".
We have a myth connected with Lord Siva and Parvathi dancing together - two stars dancing around each other. At one stage, Shiva looks at Parvati. Nature begins to manifest itself, creation begins. Consciousness (Chit) wills and Power (Shakti) which is thought of as female, manifests as the cosmos.
The process of the One becoming many has been clearly described in Indian Philosophy or Vedanta. When, in that One Infinite Being, the vibration or Om-sound arose, it underwent a process of metamorphosis. What was hidden in It began to manifest itself. As in the human being, the will was first translated into thought. The thought later condensed into form. Let us compare That Being to the clear sky. The water-vapour is hidden in it. A little change in the atmosphere brings out this hidden water-vapour, and we perceive white clouds. This corresponds to the first stage of Creation, where God is known as Iswara. The change proceeds further, and the white cloud condenses still further into black rain-bearing cloud. This corresponds to the second stage of Creation - the Cosmic Mind or Hiranyagarbha - which is Cosmic Life.
The form of the universe has been conceived (garhha) and it only remains to give birth to it. The rain-drops have begun to form, and it only remains for them to fall. The falling rain is comparable to the third stage of creation, where the same God is known as the Virat. The one cloud rains, and the rain falls as distinct drops, entirely separate from one another.
The one - which at first unmanifest, invisible, and transcendental - has become manifest, visible and immanent. This process is inevitably linked to darkness; even as darkness falls on earth before heavy rain. In that darkness of ignorance, the infinite beings which have manifested in that Infinite Being assume independence!
Rainfall, in Bhagavatham (X.40/14) is referred to as "the Lord's semen". The Upanishads declare that the soul descends into this world first through rain, then transmogrifies as plant, which is eaten by man, and so becomes the seed which is transferred to woman. This imagery seems to indicate that the soul is actually embodied long before we realise, and funnily enough, passes through the plant and animal stage every time!
Let us now turn to the Biblical story of creation. God created Adam in His own image. There is no basic difference between Man and God. The image of the Spirit of God (Isvara) in the mirror of his Cosmic Mind-stuff (Hiranyagarbha), but limited to individuality-is Man.
There is not even a phonetic difference between Adam and Atma (and, perhaps, even Atom) - is there? That Atma is like the potential raindrops in the black cloud, which have not yet fallen on the ground. Let us not forget that each drop in the ocean or in a cloud, shares the characteristics of the ocean or the cloud.
This Adam or Atma is God, in Reality. But God had willed Himself into many-ness. His "play" was a desire to live. Living God in man is called Jeeva (also spelt Jiva). Eve is also pronounced Eva, and between Eva and Jeeva there is no essential phonetic difference. Jeeva or Eva is Atma or Adam plus the will to live. The two are not distinct entities. In Hinduism, always pictorially vivid, they are symbolised as the hermaphroditic Ardhanareeswara. The Bible, to emphasise their identity, states that Eve was fashioned out of Adam's rib.
And what of the Biblical paradise? When Adam and Eve are still beyond and untouched by Kala (Time and Death), they exist in the paradise of Cosmic Consciousness. When they fall, they become individuals with human consciousness. Kala (the serpent Time and Death), tempted them with the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, but the very acquisition of knowledge (the eating of the fruit) implies the state of ignorance, so it was no longer possible, having eaten the fruit, for them to stay in the Garden of Eden, which is Cosmic Consciousness, itself beyond the duality of knowledge and ignorance.
The conscious eating of the fruit of knowledge immediately involved the Jeeva in the illusion of duality, so that the false super-imposition of the unreal upon the Real commenced. The unreal, now appearing as the Real, body and mind are mistaken for immortal Atma. The Devil, in the shape of the Serpent Time-Death, falsely suggests that "you will not die", whereas body and mind, caught in the Time-Space continuum, must perish. So Jiva, confused by the fog of duality, in the maze of dark ignorance, stumbles into the wheel of birth and death, action and reaction.
Reaction, according to the Karma theory, is almost always meant to restore balance, penduluming the Jiva back to the position where he can seize the Realisation of the Atma. Weighted against this swing is binding and blinding ignorance, so that the Jiva reacts afresh to the reactions of past action, and finds no release until, the flesh of Jivatma being crucified, the blood of ignorance is drained, and Atma is resurrected. Christ's life was a symbol of this process.
The biggest paradox in all this is the Immortal Soul (Adam) wishing to live (Jiva), so that tempted by Time, the immortal becomes mortal through a wish being created from its very Self. Thus the Self, the Spark of God, which was not subject to the time process, now comes within it, cursed to undergo transmigration, birth and death. The forbidden fruit is the knowledge of the relative world, and of course relative knowledge involves knowing the pairs of opposites, pleasure and pain, good and evil.
Even the statement that, after eating the forbidden fruit Eve realised she was naked, and donned a fig leaf, has a meaning. If Adam and Eve were alone, why should Eve feel ashamed? Once Cosmic Consciousness is lost, and Jiva falls into the trap of Time, Jiva veils itself by ignorance.
This drama is enacted not at just one place, but throughout the universe, in each atom, so to say. That is how we can solve the riddle of Cain going away and finding a wife for himself. Where did she come from? Just as one Adam and Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel, some other Adams and Eve should have given birth to Cain's wife. Creation on the cosmic scale.
About the evolution of life itself, several theories have been advanced. The Upanishads concur with the Biblical story of a complete primary creation. The Puranas give us a picture of continuous evolution - from the fish to the perfect Man. There is a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet which discounts the theory of on the ground that God created the universe in six days, and that therefore there could have been no evolution!
We labour under a false notion that there is a contradiction when we talk of creation and evolution. Quite likely the Biblical six days stretched not over millions of terrestrial years. Again, we do that say that all life was fish in the beginning and that everything began to evolve from the fish. Then the scriptures say that God created man too, in the very beginning. We admit that Man can rise or fall as he battles to transcend Karma, but all other creatures must also evolve to become one with God. From the mineral to the most highly developed creature of creation (man), all must progress to realise God.
Here is the Hindu theory. In the Puranas we have a description of the incarnations of God. The first few of them were animal. We stick human heads on animal forms! This series traces the evolution of life on earth. The first Avatara was a "dolphin". The unicellular organism swam in water - till it reached the stage of the dolphin. Then we have the tortoise, which is amphibian and a little higher than fish in evolution. Thirdly, the boar (some think it is a rhinocerous). God dwells in all, and although the boar is regarded by civilised man as being very low, at least here in evolution it has come on, to solid earth.
Next is the Narasimha, a half man and half lion. The animal has grown to the human level, yet the discriminative faculty has not been fully developed. This stage shares the characteristics of both the kingdoms, but the animal rules the human - hence the lion-head. If we contemplate this, we shall begin to feel that the vast majority of humans are still at this stage!
Fifthly, there is the dwarf. The dwarf begs. If you hold out your hand to beg, you shrink in a size. A beggar does not rise to the full stature of man, and is not fully evolved.
The sixth is Parasurama, who is the impulsive human being who is full of temper and ready to kill, acting against his Brahmanic nature. A Brahman by birth, he was prepared to kill his own mother, when his father asked him to do so. However, when his father asked him what he wanted as a reward, he replied that he wanted his mother whom he had slain!
We then have Rama who was bound by a very strict code of morality. He was an example of righteousness in all aspects.
The story of Rama is given in elaborate detail in the Indian epic called Ramayana, which most scholars accept as historical.
Balarama and Krishna, a joint incarnation, was perfect in all aspects - scholar, statesman, child, lover, etc. Krishna's story is derived mainly from two books, viz., Mahabharata, which is regarded as an epic and historical, and (Srimad) Bhagavatham, which is considered a legend or Purana.
In these legends concerning the incarnations of Lord Vishnu, it is possible that among other truths, the evolution of life on earth was also suggested, and the existence of God in and as all was also emphasised.
The only difference between this process of evolution and Darwin's theory is that, whereas Darwin says my grandfather was an ape, we say I was an ape, in a previous birth. We were not born of apes, but we ourselves were apes.
Even this is not a serious difference. There is in South Indian homes a traditional belief that the dead grandfather or great grandfather takes birth in the same family, i.e., the same soul returns to the family. Therefore, if the grandfather was an ape, it was I who was the grandfather - the two statements refer to the same individual!
Enough of all this speculation about creation and evolution. Let us look at the universe we live in and our own self!
XVIII - The Philosopher's Tools
The wise who have realised the Truth will instruct thee in that knowledge.
Gita
The Yoga Vasishtha gives an astounding description of the Universe. Here is revealed the significant truth that perhaps in the very room in which we may be sitting, mysterious subtle planes of being exist, as wonderful in form as our solar system. Our senses function on a very small range of the whole gamut of awareness, so that we are not even aware of all that is going on, even in the little room in which we are. The Indian philosopher has indeed built up both a deep rooted and towering edifice of concept, so complicated and so many-faceted that we may well ask with which brick he began! Though his mind can project itself to "the very verge of infinity", he perceives the futility of searching limitless outer space, and turns its beam upon that microcosm which lies so close at hand, himself in the form of his own physical being and its immediate surroundings. Analyse that, he thinks, and you analyse the universe.
He has a few simple rules to govern his research work. He has six criteria for proving what is real, of which four are important:
(a) Direct Perception (Prakyaksha). Prakyaksha is empirical experience or sense-experience, whatever we see before us. We perceive this universe. It is absurd to say, "Nothing exists". What does that mean? What did you see which made you say that nothing existed? Nagarjuna (one of the greatest philosophers) twisted Buddha's teachings, and convincingly proved that nothing exists! Philosophers can make us doubt our own existence by their logic! Well, we do not subscribe to the theory that nothing exists. Since all these things which constitute the world are apprehended by the senses, even if their appearance is unreal, there must be a substratum, real and undeniable, for this empirical universe.
(b) Inference (Anumana). Take the oft quoted illustration: "Where there is smoke, there is fire". This world, this universe, of tremendous and delicate proportion and balance, exists; we can see it. It is unthinkable, knowing even the little we do of it, that no intelligent power governs it. I see rain, sunshine, and wind. Nature seems to work automatically; heat and rain follow each other as though there is a switch somewhere ''governed" automatically - even as there is an automatic switch in the refrigerator which keeps the temperature within it neither too cold nor warm, and which connects the refrigerator to the electric mains the moment the desired cooling has been reached. It seems to have intelligence of its own, but remember that this governing switch has your (the inventor's or the manufacturer's) intelligence behind it. When the robot changes from red to green automatically, it seems a wonder; but you invented it, and you have timed its switch.
Similarly there must be a mighty intelligence behind these phenomena governing the universe, creating and maintaining conditions suitable for the purpose He has in view. Even as the inert refrigerator (working with such breath taking intelligence!) does not possess that intelligence, the forces of nature do not possess the intelligence that they manifest in their functioning, but are themselves governed by some mighty intelligence, the Supreme Co-ordinator. Who is that? Who, by ordaining the forces of gravity and electromagnetism, keeps the heavenly bodies in their orbits? This can be no other than the work of intelligent Power. Though apparently it is the work of the muscles concerned, actuated by the brain when I raise my hand, who actuates the brain? By the great wonders and the small I must infer the existence of God-Intelligence in Nature, and God-Soul-Intelligence in man. Applied to the state of deep sleep we formulate the statement thus: "I slept; waking, I felt happy, feeling the happiness was drawn from that state of deep sleep. So I infer that I was happy during sleep".
(c) Simile (Upamana). One phenomenon is used to explain another. If there is only one Supreme Consciousness, how is it possible for me to see another? Even if, as is hinted in our scriptures, it is possible for me to see all phenomena. as a homogeneous unit, how can I assert that I am one with all, or that One alone exists? Is there not at least a duality - I and the all? Even in Samadhi, what is it that experiences the Bliss of the Self? So, I am experiencing that; there is duality again. Yet, logic and intuitive realisation point to absolute Unity or Oneness or non-duality (Adwaita). How can we solve this riddle? Take a simile or illustration. I am dreaming. I am there and all my friends too, and I am enjoying a party - that was the dream. Where was all this? In me. I created it. My own mind created this inner world, and I myself am in it, watching it. Was that possible? Yes. In dream, I (one person) perceive myself and so many others created by my own mind as distinct and separate; even so, the whole universe has been created by us in our own consciousness, and we perceive that world as though we are now different from it. We (the subtle and physical aspects) are also the creation of that one common consciousness. One alone exists, and in that, many appear! In the dream, I am mauled by a tiger and suffer pain. The tiger and the pain too are my own creation; and I seem to experience it - and the duality too is the creation of ignorance. In the same way, in Samadhi there seems to be a duality of experience (of Bliss) and experiencer (I) - though both are within the One Self.
Again, we are told that the Self is unborn - and yet, there is birth, growth and death here in this world, which is subject to creation, preservation and dissolution. The sage gives an example. The reflection of the sun in water shakes, though the sun is stable, on account of the fact that the medium through which it is reflected is disturbed. The Atman is unborn, eternal. But on account of the wind of ignorance, when the medium (Antahkarana or the intellect) through which it is reflected is disturbed, the Atman appears to come and go, as the Jiva.
This Anyonya-Adhyasa (mutual superimposition) can also be illustrated by the common phenomenon - to a person travelling in a railway train, the objects outside seem to be moving (this can be quite confusing in a railway station, where often even grown-ups are not sure whether their train or the train on the next line is moving!) while the moving train seems to be stationary - the attributes of movement and stationariness are exchanged.
The "disturbance" (movement, birth, death, etc.) do not belong to the world or the Atman, but, to the mind.
Again, we noticed that the ultimate Reality is Chit-Shakti (ConsciousnessPower), and that the Power has three Qualities - Satva, Rajas and Tamas. How can we believe that the unimaginable diversity is the result of these factors? Fake, for instance, the case of a man standing in the centre of a room with three big mirrors around him. He is one and the mirrors are three. But look, there are thousands of persons and mirrors in the mirrors! Man is made in the image of God; this image is multiplied ad infinitum in the mirror of His Power or deluding potency called Maya.
Again, we are told that objects perceived with the help of the senses are false, because our senses are limited and perverted, but that there is the Reality behind this appearance. How? Take two examples. The mirage. We know that there is no water in the desert, and yet even the person who knows that mirage may exist in the desert experiences the feeling that there is water there. Even after discovering the truth, the illusory perception persists. Senses can deceive us.
In the same way, the appearance of the blue sky is a perversion of the sense of sight. Where we should see nothing, we see blueness and a dome! It is an optical illusion. But the Reality behind these appearances is true; in the case of the mirage, the reality is the substratum, which is the rays of the sun, and in the case of the sky, the reality is the substratum of space. So space and the rays of the sun are the reality.
Thus great philosophical truths, when naked, easily slip through the grasp of our mind, but can be more easily caught and held if clothed in similes. Hang on to the clothes and you feel the shape of the body underneath.
Yet all these three proofs are like double-edged swords, and may be used by men of perverted intelligence to disprove the existence of God or the Reality! Hence, the fourth important proof is said to be:
(d) The testimony of sages who have had direct experience (Aptavakya). There have always been philosophers, sages, Yogis, Rishis, Maharishis, who have experienced the Reality. For them the Reality is more real than you are to me. They affirm that nothing else is real!
They assure us that it is possible for us, too, to realise this. Swimming cannot be explained or proved in the drawing room - and yet, the swimmer assures us that our solid physical body can move on top of liquid water! He knows, and we should accept his word as truth, and, if we wish to swim, we should do as he tells us to do and learn the art! The same it is with Reality. If we accept the words of the sages and follow them, we are sure to arrive at the experience ourselves.
Aldous Huxley, that world-renowned, philosopher, says: "The self-validating certainty of direct awareness cannot in the very nature of things be achieved except by those equipped with the moral astrolabe of God's mysteries." But: "It is a fact, confirmed and re-confirmed during two or three thousand years of religious history, that the ultimate Reality is not clearly and immediately apprehended, except by those who have made themselves loving, pure in heart and poor in spirit."
Hence, Huxley recommends: "If one is not oneself a sage or saint, the best thing one can do, in the field of metaphysics, is to study the works of those who were, and who, because they had modified their merely human mode of being, were capable of a more than merely human kind and amount of knowledge".
This is Aptavakya, the irrefutable direct experience. All the other proofs must be guardedly applied not to contradict this.
In philosophy, Reality has a special meaning. It is not correct to say, "This is a shawl". As has already been pointed out, Reality should be uncontradicted by any other state of experience. You call it a shawl, but it is also a bundle of yarn. You can call it also a piece of material made of thread - and in a stricter analysis, it is basic material in the form of cotton.
What is such an ultimate principle in this universe? What is such an ultimate principle in me? Who am I? Perhaps I am the body, or perhaps I am a living body. What is the difference? Sometimes we see a dead body and there the "I" is gone - there is nobody to say "I am the body". Ah, then, perhaps I am a person, and I have a body of which I am independent. I can think, I can see, hear, etc., but the "I" is the very thinker of thought, not limited by it in any way. The things perceived are only an appearance, limited by the limitations of the senses and the mind.
Pratyaksha or empirical knowledge cannot reveal the Ultimate Reality. The intellect itself is incapable of realising the illimitable because it is conditioned. Anumana (inference) and Upamana (simile) may be used to affirm or to deny, and can at best only point to a Reality unconditioned and untainted by limitations. We, therefore, take refuge in the utterances of the sages - Aptavakya or scriptural declaration. Out conclusions should not go against them. Their authors have had direct perception of the Reality.
I feel that in this category we can even include the findings of the pure scientists. They, too, have sought the Reality in their own way, and their testimony, too, should be accepted (though not solely) and efforts should be made to correlate and synthesise it with the testimony of the scriptures - a synthesis of physics and metaphysics.
The two other proofs are of a rather academic character:
(e) Anupalabdhi: Trying to establish a fact from "the impossibility of perceiving the non-perception of it". In other words, though we can logically disprove the existence of this physical world, I cannot disprove the existence of "something" which must be the substratum of all this. I can't visualise that "nothing exists"!
(f) Arthapatti: "An inference by which the quality of one object is attributed to another because of their snaring some other quality in common". This is used in comparisons between Jiva and Brahman; both are of the essential nature of Satchidananda, because they share the same characteristics - one arrives at the conclusion that what is in the microcosm must be in the macrocosm too.
XIX - Know Thy Self
This Self is Brahman, the Absolute.
Mandukya Upanishad.
The eternal world ultimately depends upon the Perceiver. "The beauty" (or even more explicitly the Reality) of the object "is in the eye of the beholder".
Who or what am I? That is the next fundamental question in philosophy, more profound than the one concerning the world outside. I may be able to defy and ignore the world, but I simply cannot ignore myself. I exist. I existed, and in all probability I will continue to exist. In the child body, in the youthful body, in the height of maturity, and in the senile decaying physical frame, I exist. During the waking state, the dream state and in deep sleep, I exist. The "experiencer" of one state seems to be different from the "experiencer" of another state, yet the continuity of consciousness proves the identity of these two and all others.
In the waking state, I am the experiencer of a world outside myself. In the dream state, however, I experience a world within myself. The dreamer seems to be somebody different from the person in the waking state. The laws that govern their functions each seem to be different! In the deep sleep state, I wipe out even this inner world, forgetting everything, and enjoy peaceful and blissful sleep. I am, but I do not know that I am during the period of sleep. This experience contradicts the experiences of both the waking and dream states. In the latter two there is consciousness of diversity and plurality, but in the deep sleep state there is homogeneity.
Again in deep sleep there is total absence of all knowledge. Even the awareness of having slept soundly, and enjoyed peace and happiness, is carried over to and revealed only subsequently in the waking state. This aspect of deep sleep is contradicted by the other states, where there is awareness. Hence, none of these three can be accepted as the Reality, for, in philosophy that alone is accepted as Reality which is continuously real and is thus uncontradicted.
Reality is somewhere between these three - if we have a state of consciousness where there is homogeneity and there is awareness too, that will be Reality. This experience is had in the fourth state, Turiya or Samadhi, in which the "I" exists as a homogeneous being without being subject to the diversified experience, but without ignorance either. That is the Reality, and is the common factor of all the other three states. Turiya or the transcendental state is a state which transcends but includes all these three states and is the fourth state of consciousness. Hence, it may not be correct to call it a state; it is the one which is inclusive of the three and not just another state. The "I shines in its own light, in the supreme awareness of "I am that I am".
I exist as a homogeneous being in a state, where there is no diversity. It is existence absolute. This cannot be contradicted by anything or anybody or any school of philosophy at any time. Existence is the Ultimate Reality. Here the Indian philosopher is invincible. Nobody can say, "Prove to me that the Reality (God) exists", because the Indian philosopher will ask, "Do you exist? Find out who it is that says, 'I exist'. That existence is Reality - God". Let us listen to this dialogue between the student and the philosopher:
Q. What is God?
A. Who is asking this question?
Q. It is I.
A. No, it is "you!"
Q. So - what?
A. "I" for you. "You" for me. In other words, I and you are the same. Even so, to a third person, you are "he". Therefore, I = You = He. That which is able to feel this unity and say I, I, I, everywhere, in all beings - that is God, Reality, Existence Absolute.
This Existence Absolute, in other words, is not the existence (of diversity denoted by the three persons, I, you and he) that we experience, but homogeneous existence.
Secondly, I know that I exist. "I think; therefore I am", and "I am; therefore I think" - are two views of the same panorama. The word "therefore", which implies a cause-and-effect relationship, is unfortunate. Knowledge and existence are two sides of the same coin.
In the waking state, this knowledge is associated with physical world; in the dream-state, with the subtle, inner, mental world; and in the deep sleep state, paradoxically this knowledge is associated with ignorance, so that there is no immediate knowledge (even if there is, it is veiled by ignorance), but it is expressed in the subsequent waking state, as "I slept peacefully". In the transcendental state or Samadhi, this awareness exists as itself, independent of subject-object (knower-known) relationship. Knowledge (which is the common factor in all these four states) Absolute is my essential nature - not the knowledge of the diversity here in the waking state, not the knowledge of the dream world which is contradicted by the deep sleep state, but Knowledge Absolute - immediate intuitional knowledge of "I am", independent of the false identification with objects.
Here again we have homogeneity or oneness as the basic common factor, even as in the case of Existence Absolute. Even this Existence and Knowledge are not two independent categories, but it is Existence - Knowledge Absolute - Existence which is awareness, or Knowledge of Self-existence.
Thirdly, during the deep sleep state we derive great peace and happiness (or at least, know no pain at all) because there is no diversity or duality. Where there is homogeneity, there is also Bliss. Hence, in the "Fourth" state of Existence-Knowledge-Absolute or Unity, there is Bliss - not as an objective, experience which would then involve duality, but as Knowledge of ever-existent Bliss itself!
Hence, who am I? "Existence-Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute - Sat-Chit-Ananda". That is the nature of the Self, the substratum for the "I", realisable when the individual "I merges in the Cosmic "I" which is the common substratum for I, you and he.
The sages of India are emphatic that this is the psychological basis for the urges, ambitions, and desires that power man's thoughts, words and deeds. Ignorance transfers these three attributes of the Self to the not-Self, viz., body and mind; and man seeks to experience and express them in the body and mind, in the shape of physical health (it should ever exist!), a thirst and a curiosity for knowledge, and a desire to be ever happy. This quest has a right basis but a wrong approach. It is pursued by the wrong agent (body, mind and ego) in wrong quarters (the finite, changing world of objects) and hence proves unfruitful. Existence-Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute is the Self itself, and can be had only in It.
The Upanishads are loud and insistent on the glory of the realisation of this Absolute. In fact, that is pointed out as the true goal of life, and the Upanishads are emphatic that we cannot achieve real and lasting happiness which we constantly seek here, unless and until we reach that goal. During the waking state, our consciousness is centred around what can be perceived by our senses, whose powers are very limited. We have five senses of knowledge, with the mind as the sixth, that mind being their common and unifying base. During the waking state, our knowledge is provided by them, and is limited to the gross physical world - the range of their activity, even here being extremely narrow.
During the dream state, even though this limitation does not operate externally, still it is there and it operates in a subtle sphere internally. During deep sleep, there is the over-all limitation of ignorance. In all these three states, because of these limitations, there is an absence of direct experience of bliss which is our essential nature and which is not far from us.
The Upanishad declares: "The unconditional Infinite (Bhuma) alone is Bliss; there is no happiness at all in the conditioned state or existence".
We can never experience supreme undiluted happiness, except in a state where there is no limitation. We should break down all barriers of limitation, and then realise the Self, as homogeneous, all-pervading, one Existence-Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute. Until then we are in a dreamland or a fool's paradise.
The Upanishads point out that I, you and he (in other words, the world) are all-One; we are One homogeneous Being. This realisation liberates us from all evils at once.
This then is the essential basis of Indian philosophy. All schools agree that God or the Supreme Being exists, and that It is the substratum for "I" and the "world". "I" is the subjective irreducible, and Prakriti or Nature is the objective irreducible. Subject and object themselves being the two ends of one stick.
God is the Cosmic Consciousness - Existence-Consciousness-Bliss Absolute.
As to the purpose of creation, it is generally agreed that the world has been willed by God so that each individual may strive to get back to the realisation of that Reality. As we have seen, the nature of the Ultimate Reality is Satchitananda. Of course, this is a provisional definition of the Reality, which is undefinable (as Eckhart says: "Why doest thou prate of God? Whatever thou sayest of Him is untrue.")
Existence-Knowledge-Bliss is the nearest possible definition. "I know that I am Bliss". How blissful am I? I can lick my hand, but I can't lick my tongue. We cannot taste our own tongue. We are told by people who revel in, and reveal the Truth through mythology, that when the Supreme Being wanted to taste Its own Bliss, It willed this universe and tasted the bliss of Its own essential nature. To illustrate this, they have painted the picture of Baby Narayana, lying in a leaf sucking His own big toe!
That is the meaning and purpose of creation. That is why we are constantly running after pleasure and happiness. The goal of life is to get back to that realisation or direct experience of the Supreme Bliss. All schools of philosophy are agreed upon this.
It is the work of religion to supplement philosophy by showing a path to recapture that supreme unalloyed Bliss.
Religion, broadly speaking, should be a practical technique to realise the tenets of philosophy.
XX - Salvation Unlimited
Even if the most sinful worships Me ... soon he becomes righteous and attains to eternal peace.
Gita.
There are two glories of Indian philosophic thought, the one arising from the other. We have faith in the Omnipresence of God, nothing exists either in Reality or Illusion (Maya) that is not God. There is nothing else but God. From this massive foundation-altar of conviction springs the purest flame of compassion. Whatever is a creature (a creation), however simple its form, stone, mineral, dust itself, the unicellular organism, no less than the intricate being of Man, must ultimately realise the Truth, evolving into Godhead. In all things there are planes of consciousness waiting to be unveiled, Self-Consciousness, latent cosmic consciousness, latent divinity. Even the naked aboriginal worshipping his stone is on the true path. Even the worm crushed under your unwitting foot will one day be an illumined sage. Such is the vastness of God's compassion.
Eternal damnation seems to have been invented as the big stick of fear to beat up converts. Indian philosophy has never even glanced at it. We speak of the Asuras, those demoniacal beings who are the opposite of the Devas, the divine beings. Though we visualise them as the dwellers in hell or the regions of darkness, even they should one day find God. Though there will always be the three groups, human beings on earth, celestials in heaven and demoniacals in hell, individuals in all three groups are continuously evolving into states on the ladder of consciousness, which will ultimately help them climb to Godhead. A soul of extraordinary merit may, as a Deva, dwell for a long period in heaven, and an extraordinary vicious soul may suffer long ages in hell, but ultimately all have to be redeemed.
Deva means "a being of light", and comes from the Sanskrit root Div which means "to illumine" - the word "day" also springs from the same root, as also the word "divine".
Devas are gods who dwell in heaven - we call them immortals. But that immortality is paradoxically temporary immortality. This immortality is conferred upon the foremost among them for the period of the existence of this solar system (which is not very long!), and when it is resolved back into its source, these so-called immortals are dismissed. In the Gita we are told that they re-enter the mortal world. In the same way as a jailer has a longer term of life in prison than the prisoner, the gods who preside over our destinies have a longer life expectancy. Even so, beings whom we regard as Asuras, dwellers" of the nether world or hell, are not damned forever. If a soul has been so dark that it is not fit to be even a plant on this earth, it will dwell in the nether regions for a considerable period, but never longer than the life of the solar system, and, when the latter is dissolved, it will enter the reconstituted mortal world, to strive for God-realisation.
We shall not forget for a moment that every soul is essentially divine, and all evil is but a shadow. In creation, all are His children, and, however diabolical one is, God cannot banish him - for He is the ruler of the whole cosmos in a sense, and the Sole Reality underlying all phenomena; so even the evil soul (of course, the Soul is never evil!) is part of Himself.
There is really no alternative to redemption, and even hell is but a reformatory school to which He sends the weaker of His beloved children, to learn some important lessons.
That every soul has to achieve Self-realisation gives meaning to all our endeavours. The practice of Yoga involves self-discipline, which is irksome to the pleasure-loving mind. If there were no compensatory promise of Supreme Bliss, no one would be willing to undertake this irksome job. We are assured of Supreme Bliss or Liberation, and warned that we must reach the goal at some time, or other - whether in this birth or in a later one. No shirking will help us, for delay only lengthens the process. So it might as well be now! Inevitability of Self-realisation gives meaning to life, and spurs us on to greater spiritual endeavour.
Bliss is for all. No Hindu scripture ever imposes any restriction. Even when here and there in the Puranas or the utterances of Great Ones, one comes across expressions glorifying birth in India, or as a Brahman, etc., (which may make it appear that such are the chosen people!) they are to be interpreted as "Arthavada", a special literary device whereby while addressing the people of a particular community or school of thought, the teacher glorifies that community or school and exalts it above all others, in order to add fire to their zeal. There are no restrictions on the basis of caste, group, etc. Heaven has no gates, nor has hell. Self-realisation or the Kingdom of God does not even have walls or barricades.
No one can turn us away from the gate of heaven, for there is neither a gate nor walls to narrow the entrance - nor even a gatekeeper to scrutinise us. The will to persevere is our only passport.
Who is eligible to realise God? You! The Bhagavad Gita startles some with its pronouncement that, if he resolves aright, the greatest sinner can instantly transform himself into a saint. The life of sage Valmiki was a manifestation of this truth.
Some think that this instant transformation is ridiculous. How can the mere repetition of a Name, Mantra or formula, wash away our sins? How can a pious resolve, resolutely kept wipe out past karma? How can a confession of faith in the redeeming power of God (as formulated in faith in Jesus having bled on the cross for the sins of humanity) save my soul? Absurd tricks! Fantasies! Tricks! Perhaps they are tricks, but only by such tricks can we get near expressing the inexpressible.
The Great Ones believe that the world and its products, sin, karma, etc., are all unreal, "tricks", the product of psychological perversion. All that is necessary to counteract them is another equally mythical weapon, another strong belief, a faith, a psychological affirmation. No gun is needed to drive a shadow away. Only bring the light in. Faith in God is that light, the dispeller of shadows. So it is that a sinner, as the light falls upon him, becomes a saint.
It must be remembered that even in the broad human plane there are different grades of evolution. Some Indian myths bring even animals close to God, but it is generally agreed that only Man is capable of realising Him.
Each human being has a field of human consciousness, and at one point in that field he is closest to God. Religious leaders make a grave error in ignoring this, and in failing to find out at which point each individual is closest to God. The most vital job of a religious leader is to find that point, and help each individual to find it too within himself. With such wise guidance, even the ignorant man will instantly realise Him.
To proclaim that "ours is the only path", and to demand that all others queue up behind us, leads only to disturbance and "confusion worse confounded".
Think of it geometrically. God is the centre within everyone. The shortest path to the Centre is the radius, that straight line unique to every individual who stands upon that endless, changeless, complete and perfect circle, the Circumference. His straight line is no other's, for only he can occupy the infinitely small portion of Infinity which is the Circumference.
"Come! Travel to the centre on my radius!" - this is proselytisation which is the product of ignorance, even if it is sincere. But it is often much worse, the expression of vested interests, political intrigue, or plain commercial exploitation.
XXI - Death and Rebirth
Just as a man casts off worn out clothes and puts on new ones, so also the embodied self casts off worn out bodies and enters others which are new.
Gita.
Reincarnation is necessitated by immortality ... analogy teaches it ... science upholds it ... nature of the soul needs it ... many strange sensations support it, and ... it alone gradually solves the problems of life.
"Re-incarnation" by E.D. Walker.
Closely related to this theory of evolution, redemption and perfection, is yet another special feature of Indian philosophy - its faith in the evolution of the individual soul. The soul caught in the meshes of ignorance has to evolve into something better until it arrives at the stage of perfection, where it realises its identity with God, or becomes one with Him, in the popular expression - "Devo Bhutva Devam Aradhayet" - "One must become a God to worship God!" - unless we share His own nature, we cannot merge in Him.
Something was asleep in the mineral, awoke in the plant, lived in the animal, became conscious of the self in the human, and must then further evolve in self-knowledge to cosmic consciousness. We little humans, full of imperfections, have got to raise ourselves to the stage where we can fulfil Jesus Christ's commandment - "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect".
Perhaps in this lifetime we may only be able to remove a small fraction of one imperfection, but even that is a step forward.
If we have zeal to work for a greater goal than mere existence, even if we succeed in removing only one small bit of imperfection, if we feel that we have even gained enough strength to reach up, let alone touch, the next rung of ladder, then we are on the right course, our compass is set.
When Jesus said "You must become perfect", His was not a command impossible of fulfillment. Only those who think He referred to one little lifespan of under a century, feel despair at the impossibility of that perfection: "It may take us fifty years to remove only one of our imperfections!" We are dead before we start on another!" Some say, "Surrender to Him and you will become perfect at once". Surrender! The very spirit of self-surrender is one of the most difficult to achieve - it might take you many lives to understand what it means.
On the way to perfection, the soul, during the course of its progressive births, is offered endless chances, infinite opportunities to strive towards its goal of cosmic consciousness.
We may return to the same planet, or go to other planets and assume embodiments suited their climate; but we still have many opportunities, many incarnations.
As far as Indian philosophy is concerned, reincarnation is a fact. The theory of evolution takes care only of material form - the theory of reincarnation goes one step further and links the body with the immortal soul. The soul must ultimately achieve cosmic consciousness.
Even the popular notion of evolution of human society as a whole is not irreconcilable with individual evolution, but is in fact a collective view of an individual process. Whether you say (looking at a marching crowd), that each one of those people is going forward, or you say that the whole crowd is going forward - in effect, it is all the same. As the souls return to the earth, progressively more enlightened, they create a society more enlightened and evolved. In fact, collective human progress, without an acceptance of the theory of in dividual evolution (on the basis of reincarnation) is difficult to accept; for, the characteristics that I inherit from my parents, and acquire in society, would fail to influence me if at the same time I do not have inherent receptivity to them! All these go hand in hand - and do not contradict or cancel one another.
We should not forget, however, that we are talking now from the relative point of view, accepting our existence in a state of ignorance and misery, not from the point of view of the Absolute. It is only the embodied soul that undergoes transmigration; it is only the soul in darkness that seeks light; it is only the soul which ignorantly identifies itself with imperfection that seeks to attain perfection.
Sri Krishna makes this clear in His teaching in the Gita! "Just as the embodied soul undergoes boyhood, youth and old age, in the body, even so he attains to another body." We have this clear statement of this great truth in Srimad Bhagavatham (IV. 20, 12): "Transmigration takes place only of the subtle body - which is made of the five subtle elements, the senses and the deities presiding over the same and a reflection of the Spirit - and which is distinct from the Spirit."
I was surprised to read words attributed to an intellectual giant of the calibre of H.G. Wells, that the belief in reincarnation is childish because one has no memory of pre-natal existence! Disbelief in reincarnation is based on gross ignorance of the truth about the several factors involved, the soul, the body and their connecting links, life and mind.
The soul is eternal and unborn; it is the uncreated unit in God. It cannot die, since it was not even born. The body is an assembled composition of the five elements, which were there before my birth, and will continue to exist after my death when by decomposition the elements of which the body was composed would be returned to their source.
It is really the connecting link that seems to come and go, to take birth and die. The mind is the soul's ignorance of its own Infinite nature; and it is this mind (which we call the personality, the mask of the soul) which links the soul successively to one body after another, until by various experiences and self-expressions, it has perfected itself, shaken off its ignorance, and realised that the egoity that it had engendered was no egoity, at all but truly the Infinite Being.
It is absurd to say that with the death of the body the Indweller disintegrates. The soul is not the body. The old man looks at his own youthful photograph with inexpressible feelings: "Where has the body gone?" Yet, he is the same. Does the 5' 7" "Swami Venkatesananda" become "Swami Venkate" when his legs are amputated? Even if the whole body is taken away, he will still continue to be a distinct personality, disembodied, looking for another (as the legless man would look for artificial limbs) to live in, work and learn.
All that happens at birth is the union of that consciousness with the particular physical mantle. "Birth" is not a new creation. The expression is faulty, even as the expression "I woke up at 5 this morning" is faulty. If someone mildly pinched my foot at 4 am., I would have reacted; I was awake, only my consciousness was not linked to the outside world. This happened at 5 am - "I" was before my "date and hour of birth" - at that hour "I" began to identify myself with this particular body and all that is related to it. Even so, I shall cease to identify myself with this body and move on; and that will be called my death ... of course, wrongly too!
Someone wonders: "If I were here before, why do I not remember?" I have seen a girl who did remember her past birth! I have heard it said by many in regard to persons and places! "I am sure I have seen them before". These could be hallucinations, but they could also be symptoms of the truth. But does it matter if I am forgetful, if all of us are forgetful? I do not remember anything that happened in my early childhood. Does it mean that I never was a child?
The psychologist is clever, and knows what sort of childhood experiences show up in the adult mind, as what sort of manias, phobias and complexes. Commonsense ought to enable us to extend this a bit further, and realise that the distinctive personality with which we were "born" now, is the direct result of the essence of our thoughts, words and deeds in a past birth. These are embedded in us as "impressions" or samskaras, even as the knowledge of the textbooks studied at school survives in our mind as an impression, though the details have been wiped out. That is as it should be! Even the painter adopts this principle and "washes" the canvas during the process of painting, so that the colors may blend properly.
From this point of view, "death" is an essential part of evolution. We have acquired the experiences that a particular incarnation could give us. These have to be assimilated into our inner personality, and the canvas prepared for the new strokes that the next birth would bring. It is at that stage that Yama (the Deity presiding over Death) steps in. The word "Yama" in Sanskrit also means "control, restraint". Of course, Yama is personalised, but obviously the symbolism is this; it is the Power or the Intelligence that determines "that will do for now", and restrains us from wasting our time. Death is the great Regulator.
Man's departure from the world is followed by the Judgement. Hindu mythology tells us that he stands before Yama, the Restrainer, and the latter's officer, Chitragupta, reads out the balance sheet of the mortal's life. Chitra means picture; Gupta means hidden.
Where and how it is preserved is unnecessary for us to know; but it is good to remember that there is a hidden record, perhaps made by our own mind or the Unconscious, of all that we do in this life, and it is that which determines the next life.
Implied in the theory of reincarnation is the law of Karma. Take that away and life loses its meaning, spiritual endeavours their purpose, and God Himself becomes a capricious dictator, a whimsical tyrant. The Law of Karma is itself a witness that He is not.
XXII - As You Sow, so shall It Grow
Both now and in the after-life the evil doer suffers.
Both now and in the after-life the doer of good deeds rejoices.
Lord Buddha.
In the realm of Reality the arguments advanced in the previous chapters have no validity. In It, there are neither individual souls, nor ignorance nor reincarnation. This is boldly proclaimed by Sri Krishna in the Gita. "This Spirit is unborn, eternal, and is not killed when the body is killed". The two statements and states, one relating to the Absolute and the other to the relative, should not be confused; the world of waking experience and the dream-world are entirely different.
In the long dream or deluded state of ignorance which we call "life", we search for happiness. Happiness is within us, in the Self, in God. We have already seen that the sole motive of creation was that the Supreme Bliss could be tasted by Him Who dwells in us. We go on searching for that Supreme Bliss. Ignorant of the Self, and because external objects alone can be grasped by our senses and mind, we seek to taste the Bliss in them. It happens that sometimes, in the shadow of the ignorance of our true Divine nature, we err, and sometimes also in our ignorance, we do that which is righteous, and each action produces its answering reaction.
The Law of Karma - one of the most notable features of Indian philosophy - is the law of the gross physical universe. We go on sowing the seeds of right and wrong, and unless we are able to raise ourselves above this earthly plane, we must feed upon the gathered harvest.
Even the man who "invented" electricity dare not violate the laws which govern it. As we sow, so shall we reap - or rather, so shall it grow. One thing must be borne in mind, the Law of Karma is operative only in the relative plane, and not in the plane of the Absolute Self.
The Self or Atma is atomic in nature - the consciousness that dwells in each atom of our physical being. When the body is reduced to molecules and atoms, the consciousness still remains in each atom that is Atma.
The law of Karma does not touch this Atma.
The law of Karma does not affect the Self, just as the wind cannot waft, water does not wet, nor does a stone injure the rays of the sun, whereas they affect gross physical objects, like a piece of cloth. The Law of Karma operates in the physical world of relativity, and affects only the gross physical portion of our being. In the plane of the Absolute, the Law of Pure Being operates, where there is no cause nor effect, no subject nor object, no birth nor death, no ignorance nor enlightenment.
If we synthesise the concepts of (a) God as the Supreme Bliss, (b) the Self as eternally pure silent witness, (c) inevitability of perfection, and its concomitant, (d) evolution of the soul from a state of nescience to a state of enlightenment, we shall readily see that this Law of Karma is not a member of the Secret Police, but a traffic constable! It guides us to right action. The law cancels the cause by the effect and restores equilibrium to the Self. This appears to take the form of pleasure and pain! An intelligent look at the law of Karma enables us to see that the reaction is really the best antidote to the poison of wrong action done in ignorance. God is not our enemy to visit us with misery, disease, famine and pestilence! He is our fond mother who gives us a sweetmeat when we have done something good (to encourage us to do better) and also a dose of bitter medicine to neutralise the poison we have swallowed (to save our life). Properly understood, the Law of Karma is the manifestation of the supreme mercy of the Lord Who is eagerly waiting for our soul to be purified, so that it may find Him.
Karma means action, and has a twofold effect or reaction:
(a) It becomes a cause that rebounds as an effect, like a bommerang. The action sets up a vibration in the cosmos, and it must come back to its source to form and complete a circle. In these days of radar and radio, such concepts as these, and of mythical weapons such as were used in the Mahabharata war which returned to the sender, should not seem incredible. As long as we remain individuals or Jivas, so long shall we be the target of Karma. When we attain Self-realisation, the individual soul and its physical sheath (which is the target of Karma) do not exist distinct from the cosmic Being, and Karma, too, gets dissolved in the cosmos. "Every action has it's equal and opposite reaction" - is a law of physics. Man wants happiness and therefore indulges in sensual enjoyment. With equal and opposite force it comes back to him as unhappiness. He wants to become rich and so commits robbery. It comes back to him as loss of possessions - poverty.
(b) Action that proceeds from us leaves a mental impression known as Samskara. This is more dangerous than the first effect as far as Yoga or the attainment of cosmic consciousness is concerned! It clamours for repetition, later it becomes a tendency and strengthens the evil shackle of ignorance that binds us to the cycle of birth and death. Why did that man steal? Because of ignorance. He did not know that Supreme Bliss was within him, and could not be obtained by wrong means. But the action left in him an impression which demands repetition-acting as an inherent, self-renewing and self-sparking stimulus, not requiring the aid of an object of enjoyment. Terrible evidence of this is the tendency in a wrong-doer to commit similar crimes over and over again, in spite of being caught and punished. Even in the absence of an external provoking cause or agent, this impression stimulates him to repeat the wrong action, through memory of past experience. When this action is repeated, it tends to darken ignorance which was its own prompter and parent. This is a ghastly vicious circle. It forges one more link of bondage and ignorance.
These Samskaras or impressions can be wiped out only by the practice of Yoga - which will be dealt with in the last chapter. Let us look at the law of cause and effect. As we go on doing actions, these are recorded as impulses in the ether, in what Theosophists call the Akashic record. There is consciousness everywhere, and it remembers what we do and what has been done. What is done in this life is remembered in God's mind as a picture, according to the Holy Bible.
It is not, however, correct to say that God is watching us, or that He rewards and punishes us. The Omnipresent is not - need not be - aware of the particulars. He presents the Law, and it is the Law itself which then operates. The King and governors of a nation lay down the law, but they themselves, once it is laid down, are not aware of the particulars of its operation. The computer, set to its pattern by the master mind, operates infallibly without further direct guidance from that mind.
We saw that in Hindu mythology we have a God (Yama) who presides over the last moment of our life. He sends a messenger who takes us to his court. Yama has an accountant (Chitragupta) who has with him a faithful and complete record of all our actions, good and bad. Chitragupta dwells in our shoulders, it has been said, thus closely watching all our actions! The name is significant. The picture of our own Karma is hidden in cosmic intelligence. It germinates and fructifies later.
We go on performing actions and these impulses acccumulate in cosmic intelligence. If we are to be punished for every one of our misdeeds during a single birth, it would be unendurable. God is merciful, as the Holy Quran never fails to repeat. He apportions to each incarnation just so much of happiness and of unhappiness as will enable us to work out our Karma, learn our lessons smoothly, and evolve towards Perfection. He keeps a current account of our Karmas, as it were. This current account of Karma is called Sanchita - a collection of Karmas in all our births.
As we incarnate in this world, a portion of these Karmas is taken out of Sanchita and allotted to this birth, and this portion is called, later, Prarabdha - the seed that has begun to germinate and fructify as sweet and bitter fruits, as pleasure and pain, etc. This Karma affects only the physical (including the subtly physical) body, and, if the mind is attached to it, it is also affected, otherwise it is not.
We are bombarded by the reactions of past actions. We do not accept them placidly, but react to them afresh, so creating more cause for further reaction. This fresh Karma is called Agami. Actions performed now will bear fruit later.
It may be asked: "You say that the world is illusory and there is no creation. There can then be no Karma or reaction. How does this reconcile with the theory of Karma?" The answer may thus be illustrated. When you are asleep and dream that a thief is trying to kill you, you scream and perspire. The thief's action is the cause, and perspiration the result. But all this was in sleep, which is ignorance of the waking world. You wake up, and the cause of your fear, the thief, vanishes. At once you know that he never really existed, yet the effect of your fear of him, perspiration, is still present - the very "real" effect of no cause! You may say that if the cause was illusory, the effect must be illusory, but oddly enough this is not so. The effect is real. In others words, here is no cause-effect relationship, not at least, when you wake up.
Now, in our human life, we are ignorant of Reality. We are as if we were asleep, and it is during this sleep of ignorance that the cause and effect Law of Karma operates. Once we are awake to Cosmic Consciousness, Karma cannot operate, for it is meaningless.
In effect there are two Laws, the Law of the dream state, which is Karma, and the Law of the waking state which is cosmic consciousness. Neither law can operate in the other's state. Think how during your ordinary nightly dreaming you can in five minutes travel round the world without a ticket. Impossible in the waking state. Each of these two states which alternate regularly in the life of every human being has its separate law governing it. Just so when we are "material", we are governed by material or physical laws, and when we are spiritual, this ceases to operate for us.
Here on earth we have night and day, based on whether we face the sun or are turned away from it. But in the sun itself there can be no such distinction or calculation.
Related to this difficulty is another. Granted that this chain of action-and-reaction is real, its very nature indicates a beginning. Initially there was a Man and initially he committed a sin. Why did he sin? And who was he? The answer is clear. He was your own Self in its first embodiment. Take this thought, meditate upon it, realise it. It is a stone dropped into the pool of silence. Meditate upon that silence. If there comes an answer from that pool, you will know, and if no answer comes, you will know that the questions were meaningless. In Zen terminology that is what is called "Satori".
The orthodox philosopher has his reply. "Even as the universe is without beginning, so too is Karma". Such a reply is similar in construction to ones given by Fred Hoyle in his "Frontiers of Astronomy", to which I have already alluded.
The Indian philosopher, however, looks these hard questions more steadily in the eye, affirming that this beginningless cycle is not endless, anyway. Though we do not know the origin of ignorance, we know that it has an end. To end it is the meaning and purpose of life and all spiritual endeavour. Indian philosophy, ever practical, seeks a technique for disentangling, oneself from this cycle of the operation of Karma.
In our present incarnation prayer and right action can do much to overcome the effect of past action, though only to a limited extent. Raised above the Karmic plane there is another, where the Law of Grace operates. Think of the natural heat of summer. You want te be cool, and by equipping yourself with an air conditioner, you can partly nullify the heat. Prayer, charity and right action are your air conditioner. Use these to counteract the effects of the heat of Karma and earn the coolth of Divine Grace.
A plane even above this Plane of Grace is the plane where the Law of Being operates, the plane of Self-realisation. One who rises to this, sheds all trammels of the Law of Karma, for he has shed ignorance, and therefore is no more an individual identifying his Self with the body and finite mind. He lives in Cosmic Consciousness. Though the momentum of past Karma seems to keep him in the body with apparent individuality, his consciousness has risen out of this grossness. He lives and works by the Divine Will, that dynamic aspect of Cosmic Consciousness, no longer spurred by selfish motives.
Such actions he now performs can leave no impression upon his egotism, for that no longer exists. The reservoir of past Karma, no longer fed through the channel of the ego, has dried up. The wise say that prarabdha (Karma which has begun to fructify, the arrow that has already left the bow), has to be worked out, even by the sage. One thing alone saves him. On account of past habit, his body and mind loosely cling to the Self, but as he no longer identifies his Self with them, their fate has no effect on him! So, it is true to say that he does not reap past Karma. He does not have to.
As you sow, so does it grow - if you sow a mango seed, a mango plant grows out of it, but you do not have to pick the mango fruit, you are not compelled to reap it.
Only if you desire it do you reap it. But when you sowed the seed, you had a desire, and there was attachment to the action, and the eventual reward. Attachment and desire almost compel you to reap the harvest. The Bhagavad Gita admonishes you to cut down attachment; in which case you need not reap the harvest.
Lord Buddha reminds us that Desire is alone the cause of this cause-and-effect chain, and Desire itself is born of Ignorance. Since ignorance is the root-cause of this formidable series of ever-recurring stumblings along the road of Life, knowledge will put an end to it. Ignorance is the darkness of the dream, Knowledge is the brightness of awakeness. The terror and pain inflicted by the thief-in-the-dream vanishes on our waking up.
Can we prove the Law of Karma? No one can. In metaphysics there is a delicate game! Can you prove anything absolutely? No. Take for instance the proposition: rain falls and therefore plants grow. But, why connect the two events? Well, you say, rain does not fall, and the plant dies! So what? Why must you ascribe a causal relationship? Again you say, it always happens that way! Even that is not a valid argument. A thousand people may march through a desert every day for a thousand years and see a lake there. But still it is only a mirage. However, you can go to the scene and prove that it is a mirage. In the rain-plant analogy, and in life, you cannot go into the life and prove or disprove the causal relationship. You can only observe. The observation is always relative - the relative is within the field of logic and rationalisation.
Whether the Law of Karma can be satisfactorily proved or not, it confers this incalculable threefold benefit on man:
(a) First and foremost, when in pain, suffering or distress, or when subjected to dishonour, failure or calamity, man calmly resigns himself to Karma and accepts the reaction. This, however, should not be confused with fatalism. He does not become inert or inanimate! He puts forth fresh, positive, constructive and righteous efforts to improve his lot. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna assures us that we have a right to work, only we don't have a right to the fruits thereof which are determined by Him on the basis of past action.
This right will not be surrendered to Karma by the wise man. There should be no confusion in our minds in regard to Prarabdha (destiny) and Purushartha (self-effort). The first governs what we are to get in this life. The second governs what we do in this life, how we now react to what Prarabdha brings us.
Prarabdha is like the road laid for motor racing. Of course, you cannot cut across or take a short-cut. But within the allotted course, one has total freedom of action. The man who understands this secret wins the race. He does not brood or bother himself over the impossible. He does not knock his head against a granite wall, but accepting the inevitable with calmness, he seeks and finds the open door where he can exercise his freewill and work for his betterment.
The acceptance of the reward of past action frees us from fruitless rebellion against it, which results in the lives of many people in a total waste of human energy. The man who accepts the Law of Karma uses this energy in the right direction which he sees on account of his mental equipoise.
Far from causing dejection or fatalism, the Karma theory helps us face the reality, look forward with cheer and optimism to a glorious future for which we work now, without grumbling and grousing and bemoaning of our fate.
(b) Secondly, we do not bear the least ill-will towards those who may harm us in any way. We realise that they are but instruments of our own past Karma. The Bhagavatham puts these words into the mouth of Sunithi, addressed to her son Dhruva who had been insulted by his stepmother, "Entertain no evil thought about others, dear child. For a man reaps the very suffering he has inflicted on others." We radiate love towards all; and thus we evolve towards God-head.
(c) Thirdly, knowing that all our sufferings in this life have been brought on by our own evil actions in past ones, we desist from them now. It may be argued that since we do not know what suffering has been caused by what sin in the past, this punishment cannot be effective. I feel that the effectiveness lies in this ignorance. A young man gaoled for theft comes out, and instead of turning away from thieving, tries to be more clever so that the next time the policeman does not catch him. Whereas when we do not know the cause of our suffering, we try to be good in all respects and try to avoid all sorts of unrighteous actions. The theory of Karma promotes righteousness here, and this in turn promotes the welfare of the whole community and leads the individuals closer to God.
XXIII - The Four Ideals to Work for - Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha
The chief aim of man in life should be to acquire that exalted state of mind which is imperturble, ever peaceful, free from grief and the pairs of opposites, acquiring which man becomes an instrument of God and divine energy pours forth through him. This is called liberation, or perfect freedom. Knowledge, unselfish action, service to others and one pointed devotion to God, are the means whereby this liberation is obtained.
"Teachings from the Bhagavad Gita" - Hari Prasad Shastri.
If a man says, "The sun rises in the West", well, perhaps his vocabulary is confused, and he identifies East with "West", and points Eastward calling it "West". If a man says, "The sun rains light", you still understand him, and appreciate his poetic vision. But if a man tells you that you can cool yourself near the furnace of a steel plant, in mid-summer, it is right to point out gently that such exposure can only have the opposite effect.
Sin cannot lead us to happiness. Vice cannot be transformed into virtue on the basis of the principle of majority, "everyone does so!" Vox populi, vox dei - does not apply here. It is often the single Voice that represents Truth, even so was the case with the mission of Lord Jesus, and of Mahatma Gandhi in our own times. When the majority go wrong, a single divinely inspired individual is able to resist them all, single-handed, and floodlight the path of righteousness. Righteousness alone can lead to happiness, to common-weal and to world-peace.
To evolve into cosmic consciousness, we must busy ourselves with righteous actions. Sinful action binds, because it invariably springs from spiritual darkness. Because it is born of light and divinity, goodness leads us back to the Source of Light, God.
Though the comprehensive Hindu word "dharma" is often translated as "righteousness", its meaning is far wider than that. In one sense it is both conduct and the action resulting from conduct in obedience to God's law of creation - so dharma is also harmony in one's own plane.
A great Seer (Rishi), Kanada, defines Dharma as that which leads to the attainment of Abhyudaya (prosperity in this world) and Nihsreyasa (total cessation of pain and attainment of eternal, divine bliss). This prosperity is not secured at the expense of another; it is not exploitation. For we should not forget that the word Dharma is derived from a root which means "to hold together" - "to uphold and prevent us from falling", that which holds the world together. Incidentally, it is highly interesting to note that the ancient Hindu was not narrow-minded and did not limit his aspiration to prosperity of himself or his clan or nation, but extended it to all the in habitants of the world. It becomes Dharma only if it achieves that.
The Hindus called even their religion the "Sanatana Dharma", the Eternal Dharma. It is eternally true. These are the immutable laws on which the universe has been "built up", like the First Principles or Axioms of the scientist. They promise prosperity and cessation from all pain to those who adhere to them. No one is exempt from their operation. Even as electricity obeys certain laws, and will allow anyone who operates in obedience to these laws to derive benefit from its power, anyone (even if he is the discoverer of the electric power) who transgresses those laws receives an electric shock. To know, to understand, and to live up to these Eternal Laws of Righteousness, is the First Ideal of the Hindu. These Ideals (called Purusharthas) are Four, viz., Dharma, Artha, Lama and Moksha.
Sage Vyasa, the celebrated author of the Mahabharata, exclaims, "I declare with upraised arms: both wealth and happiness accrue from righteousness, why then, does not man walk the path of righteousness?"
Liberation (Moksha) is the ultimate goal. The moment "liberation" is mentioned, people ask, "Are these Indians not interested in life at all?"
Mr. Anderson in his book called "The Secret of Secrets", says that the doctrine of reincarnation makes the Indian anxious to suffer in this generation so that he can go quickly on into the other world. What a sad misinterpretation of our view of life! We are asked to bear with fortitude the suffering that normally falls to our lot, knowing that it is the working out of our own Karma. At a later stage of our evolution, when worldly pleasure ceases to tempt us, and we seek the austere, simple life, we seem to suffer, in the eyes of the ignorant, worldly man, who cannot conceive that we are happier than he is.
His simple life, apparently his ceaseless suffering and trial, awakens in the spiritual seeker as in the lover of God, silently, miraculously, an awareness of the great Truth. Such a man is happy even in what others regard as poverty and misfortune, a quality of happiness quite unlike that "happiness" given by all the wealth in the world. Anderson's view of the Indian "anxious to suffer" might mean Prayaschitia or atonement for sins - this is self-imposed corrective action, like Tapas (mortification), to save us from greater misery hereafter. This is common law, common sense! The wise man acts as his own prosecutor, judge and gaoler! In this spirit did Lord Jesus speak in the Sermon on the Mount.
We are not only interested in Cosmic Consciousness. We are equally interested in living. None of our scriptures turns a blind eye on life, nothing in life is ignored. We state emphatically that God-realisation is the ultimate goal of life, and then declare how best to live that life. By living it in all the depth of our awareness, we march steadfastly on the path to that goal.
Without even trying to understand, ignorant people often condemn Hindu religion and philosophy as "other-worldly", as pessimistic, and characterise it as "world-and-life-negation". How far from the truth! The Hindu has (or should have, if he lives up to his own religious teaching) a correct sense of proportion, and does not clothe the "things of the moment" with "the mantle of Eternity". In the wonderful words of Lord Jesus, he renders unto Caesar what belongs to him, and unto God what belongs to Him.
Far from asking (or even allowing, except in exceptional cases) man to renounce the world, the sage commands him to engage himself in righteous activities. There is a definite injunction to this effect in the Taittiriya Upanishad, during the course of what my Master has described as the ancient sage's "Convocation Address". The student, on completion of his education, is commanded by the Teacher - "Do not discontinue the family thread".
In the Scripture for the Modern Age - the Bhagavad Gita - we are given a clearer insight into the place that wealth and worldly pleasures ought to occupy in man's life. Lord Krishna again and again warns man against the idle, false renunciation of the world, and exalts "dynamism with detachment" - which is the most remarkable and unique doctrine of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna even commands man - even the wisest of men - to engage himself in activities with the same zeal displayed by the worldly man, but without attachment.
Nevertheless, our scriptures do warn us over and over again of the transitory nature of life and the inevitability of death. This is not pessimism, this is facing facts, a signpost to warn us not to cling to this world as a permanent factor and thereby lose sight of the reality, a formula to help us, cultivate a healthy acceptance of the facts of life and death. Death is not exalted for suicide is a grave sin. The word death must be accepted as a punctuation in the song of immortality.
Artha (acquisition of wealth) is the second ideal of human life, though one should never forget that here, as in every other aspect of an ideal life, the means are as important as the end, and the mode of earning that wealth, the way it is preserved and the manner in which it is spent, are all important and should be righteous all through. Amassing wealth by unrighteous means is condemned by Krishna as diabolical.
Similar is the case with Kama (worldly enjoyment ). Hindu Dharma (Sanatana Dharma) is not suicide. It does not make you (nor even allow you to become) a kill joy. On the contrary, by leading man along the path of righteous enjoyment which necessarily involves moderation, it gives him freer, fuller and richer scope for enjoyment. In fact, in the Gita, Lord Krishna describes Kama (desire for worldly enjoyment) as His own manifestation, with this very important proviso: "I am Kala in those beings who are not unrighteous". Lord Buddha points out that the evil man's heart is restless, whereas the man who does good is ever at peace within himself. The righteous man, therefore, lives in a state which enables him to derive maximum joy out of the righteous, pleasures of life.
Granted these three - Dharma, Artha and Kama - the Hindu never forgets that there is a Fourth Ideal - Moksha or Liberation - which is the end and aim of the first three, of life itself. Constant remembrance of this prevents him from getting lost in material possessions or pleasures. It does not drive him away from tahem, but it prevents him from getting drowned in them. Neither one who keeps out of the sea nor one who gets drowned in it, but he who swims in it, gets the maximum delight and benefit. That is precisely what Sanatana Dharma wants us to do with life.
The pattern of life is quite clear now. Note the order in which these four ideals of life are presented. Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha, Wealth and enjoyment are flanked by Dharma and Moksha on both sides. There is great meaning in this. Wealth and pleasure, which are the pursuits of all beings, are like the waters of a river. Dharma (Righteousness) and Moksha (Liberation) are like the two banks. If the river flows within these banks, then it can irrigate the fields, promote prosperity, cool and refresh man. It is a boon.
But the moment the river breaches the banks, the very waters which brought prosperity and happiness, spell death and ruin. They can wipe out villages, kill human beings and cattle and destroy crops. This is a good lesson to bear in mind.
XXIV - The Four Sections Of Life and the Four Limbs of Society
The fourfold caste has been created by Me according to the differentiation of Guna and Karma; though I am the author thereof, know Me as the non-doer and immutable.
Gita.
A special feature of Indian religion is its meticulous analysis, always with a practical end in view. The laws of righteousness are constituted in detail. A righteous life is divided into four periods or stages:
(1) Brahmacharya - studentship; involving discipline, particularly continence.
(2) Grihastha - household life.
(3) Vanaprastha - a retired recluse.
(4) Sanyasa - wandering monk.
A boy of seven is invested with the holy thread, and sent to the house of an Acharya or Guru (a teacher). He lives there a disciplined life and learns the scriptures. He lives with the Guru until he is able to absorb as much philosophy and knowledge of the secular arts and sciences as possible. On completion of this period of studentship, the pupil offers to the Master whatever he can by the way of love-offering and returns home.
Teaching in those days was not a business nor a profession. The teacher felt, "It is my duty to propagate this knowledge. As the Veda says: we must not neglect our duty of acquiring and disseminating knowledge".
Around this vital task, the Indian often wove a superstition: "If you die without imparting to someone else the knowledge you possess, you will roam restlessly as an evil spirit". If the student had no money or if he did not want to marry, he would choose to serve the Guru, offering himself as the Dakshina (love-offering). He was, however, encouraged to lead a righteous household life (Grihastha). When his soil was old enough to take over the responsibilities of the household, he and his wife would take up their abode outside the village in a small dwelling. They snapped the ties binding them to the household. This is Vanaprastha, a life of seclusion, devoted to the study of scriptures. This is the training ground for Sanyasa (the fourth or the last stage of life). A Sanyasi is a monk and leads a life of total renunciation. The seeds of righteousness were sown in him when he entered the house of the teacher. They germinated and grew when he led the life of a householder, earning wealth and enjoying the pleasures of life righteously. They blossomed when he led the life of a recluse, and eventually when he renounced the world and became a monk, they bore for him the abundant fruits of Self knowledge.
We shall discuss this in greater detail in the next chapter.
This world is not our permanent abode. We are here only as pilgrims. We have colonised this earth, where we can earn a wealth of merit (Dharma) and then we will pass on. The world is a colony, not a permanent abode. Our destination is the attainment of God-realisation, and only God is our Permanent Abode. Righteousness leads us closer to Him and the knowledge of the Reality. We must, therefore, acquire more and more knowledge to remove the veil of ignorance. Only knowledge can liberate us.
Individual and collective righteousness must be preserved. Knowledge must be acquired, preserved and propagated. We must take note of the existence of the world and the existence of people with different temperaments and potentialities on different levels of evolution.
In order to preserve harmony, to conduct the affairs of the world efficiently with the minimum expenditure of human physical and mental energy, leaving the rest for the attainment of higher spiritual goals, and in order to channelise everyone's temperament and aptitude in the right direction, the ancients divided the community into four castes - Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra.
(a) Brahmana: His main duty was to study the scriptures and teach. He was devoted to God, and was himself the abode of virtues.
(b) Kshatriya: His duty was to preserve law and order, administer the affairs of the nation and defend it from enemies.
(c) Vaisya: His field was commerce, industry and agriculture.
(d) Sudra: His speciality was service of all.
If all became Brahmanas, who would give us our food? Brahmanas concentrating on dissemination of knowledge and recital of the Mantras, will not be able to produce food, nor will they be able to safeguard themselves from evildoers. The Vaisya produced and shared wealth. The Kshatriya ruled the nation, and the Sudra served them all.
By doing their own duties, they attained Knowledge - theoretically from the Brahmana who shared it with them, in return for their services to him, and practically by living a life of selflessness.
The duties of each did not overlap. Nowadays there is too much overlapping of duties. Everyone wants to become a pundit and politician, industrialist and civil servant - with the result that there is no time nor the requisite energy or state of mind to do anything properly. We all tend to become "Jack of all trades, but master of none".
Aldous Huxley says in "The Perennial Philosophy":
"Any confusion of castes, any assumption by one man of another's vocation and duties of state is always, say the Hindus, a moral evil and a menace to social stability. Thus, it is the business of the Brahmans to fit themselves to be seers, so that they may be able to explain to their fellowmen the nature of the universe, of man's last end and of the way to liberation.
When soldiers or administrators, or usurers or manufacturers or workers usurp the functions of the Brahmans and formulate a philosophy of life in accordance with their variously distorted notions of the universe, then society is thrown into confusion.
Similarly, confusion reigns when the Brahman, the man of non-coercive spiritual authority, assumes the coercive power of the Kshatriya or when the Kshatriya's job of ruling is usurped by bankers and stockjobbers, or finally when the warrior caste's dharma of fighting is imposed, by conscription, on Brahman, Vaisya and Sudra alike.
The history of Europe during the middle age and renaissance is largely a history of the social confusions that arise when large numbers of those who should be seers abandon spiritual authority in favour of money and political power. And contemporary history is the hideous record of what happens when political bosses, business men or class-conscious proletarians assume the Brahman's function of formulating a philosophy of life, when usurers dictate policy and debate the issue of war and peace, and when the warrior's caste duty is imposed on all and sundry, regardless of psycho-physical make-up and vocation".
The caste system was originally meant for administrative convenience. It utilised each individual's talents for the benefit of all, and each evolved in his own way.
Each one's temperament and Karma decided the caste. The man who was soft-hearted and would not hurt a fly was a Brahmana. A virile man was a Kshatriya. The man with the calculating brain was a Vaisya. One who did not have any specific characteristic, but possessed the spirit of service, was a Sudra. No one was considered superior or inferior. Here and there in our scriptures we see that the Brahmana was exalted above all, for the very simple reason that he was the repository of Vedic knowledge, he knew the scriptures and, above all, he was the abode of virtues. Such a Brahmana ought to be adored - and people will do so even without being told to. But the same Brahmana, by virtue of his humility, will not wish to be adored, nor will he take undue advantage of his position in society. This again is the law of nature - the humble man is glorified and the arrogant man who seeks that glory is trampled under foot!
The four castes were really regarded as different parts of the body of God. The Purusha Sukta of the Veda gives a beautiful description of this, with the people of different castes forming the different parts. All of them constituted one whole. Each part is as essential and vital as the others. Our feet are as important as our head. Water-tight compartmentalisation, superiority and inferiority complexes, are the creations of the diseased human brain and the glorious caste system itself is not to blame for these.
Viewed in its right perspective, it is the product of the highest intelligence and wisdom (and hence we assign the authorship to God Himself) and is one of the wonderful features of Indian philosophy and religion. But we should always bear in mind the wise words of Sri Ramanuja Acharya, "If caste becomes the mother of conceit, then there could be no more formidable a foe. But if it saves you from evil, you cannot find a better friend".
Srimad Bhagavatham equates these four castes with the fourfold goal of life, in the reverse order thus. The Brahmana "looked after" Moksha - not only his own, but others', as his was the task of holding the torch of righteousness and knowledge aloft. The Kshatriya was given to Kama - enjoyment of the pleasures of the world, righteously. In the same way, the Vaisya was devoted to Artha, righteous earning and production of wealth. And the Sudra it was who worked for Dharma! He served all and made it possible for them to preserve Dharma.
And, Bhagavatham specifically says. "From the Lord's feet was evolved the calling of service, which is essential for the discharge of all sacred duties, and for carrying on this pursuit was produced of yore the Sudra, whose very occupation secures the pleasure of the Lord".
The same scripture further declares, "If what has been declared to be a characteristic of the grade in society of a man is perceived in another, the latter should be distinctively called by that very denomination (caste)."
It is the nature or characteristic that decided the caste. The latter quotation also reveals that one could change his "caste of birth".
The cry to abolish the caste system is obviously communistic in origin - the eagerness to create a classless (and therefore casteless) society. Has this been possible even in communistic countries? Do they not approve of differences based on talents and aptitudes? Do they not select their astronauts - all cannot qualify for this! However, it is true that hereditary privileges create vested interests which can and do create injustice and disorder.
Lord Krishna declares that guna (quality, nature, aptitude, talent) and karma (actual performance or action) determine the caste. To some extent this runs in the family, and can therefore be inherited - a businessman's son will any day excel me in business even if I take a diploma in business management, for he has been brought up in a business atmosphere, and as we commonly say, "Business runs in his veins". But this is not always the case, and one should consciously strive to live up to the standards of one's caste. No businessman would lend a man money, or give him his daughter in marriage, merely because the latter's ancestors were rich, if he himself is a bankrupt, with no business acumen.
Yudhisthira emphasised that a person should not be considered a Brahmin just because he was born in a Brahmin family, nor need he be a Sudra even though his parents were Sudras (Mahabharata, Vana Parva, 180).
Ultimately all are one, that is the ideal which should not be lost sight of. But it is the Indian genius far from the baseless charge to the contrary which takes note of the realities of life and organises life and society.
Buddhism revolted against the caste system (no doubt degenerate even at that time) and tried to abolish it; but it had to invent its own, as is shown in the following extract from an interesting article "Married Mahayana Monks" by Khantipalo Bhikku in "The Maha Bodhi" (September 1962), "Nepal: One finds among the Newars, a mainly Buddhist people, the contradiction of the caste system which has been imposed on them by centuries of Hindu influence and domination. The highest castes are the Vajracharyas who are the descendants of Tantric teachers and Bhikshus of eminence ... they perform the ceremonies and minister in religious matters to the other Buddhists and have been described to me as 'Buddhist Brahmans' or 'priests' who worship the 'gods' (Buddhas and Bodhisattvas). What sad degeneration is here!"
Is all this due to Hindu influence? The author himself provides the answer a little later in the same article, though he does not realise it!
"In Tibet, the study of Sutras is mostly done by Bhikshus - they alone have time to properly absorb the intricacies of, say, the Prajnaparamita doctrine".
That is the truth. These people automatically become the Brahmins, or the custodians of the scriptural knowledge, who are venerated by the people for that reason. It is true however, that this position of vantage and the power that goes with it corrupt the Brahmin class.
Many of the Brahmins in ancient India indulged in trade, yet they did to some extent live up to their ideals. Even as late as the thirteenth century, the Italian traveller Marco Polo paid them a glowing tribute in these words, "I assure you that these Brahmins are among the best traders in the world and the most reliable. They would not tell a lie for anything in the world and do not utter a word that is not true ... They eat no meat and drink no wine. They live very virtuous lives according to their usage. They have no sexual intercourse except with their own wives. They take nothing that belongs to another. They would never kill a living creature or do any act that they believe to be sinful". ("The Travels of Marco Polo").
I visualise the process of degeneration as follows: the first generation of Brahmins was pure and noble (Satvic). They had knowledge and they led an austere and, simple life. They learnt and taught scriptures and received charity which they spent in charity.
The second generation saw the external actions of the first. Inner wisdom was ignored, but the external learning and forms were acquired. Wealth grew in importance on account of the lack of Jnana or wisdom.
The third generation mistook this to mean that learning was the profession (trade) of the second generation - means to an end, viz., wealth. Wealth was to be acquired for its own sake. Since the third had inherited, he accumulated wealth of the first two, it felt even learning was unnecessary. We therefore had a generation of Brahmins who were landlords and traders. There was hardly an incentive or a need to alter this course of degeneracy.
But it is very bad policy to pull down the roof because there is a small leak in it. We should take steps to repair it. A close study of our own scriptures will reveal that this spring-cleaning has effectively been carried out by the Lord Himself. Whenever a particular community or caste deviated from the path of virtue, He has descended as an Avatara to restore Dharma. That is what is urgently necessary today.
The five fingers of the hand are different in size, shape and utility. We do not have to alter this circumstance. But it is enough if we bear in mind that they all belong to one person, to whom they are all equal in value. People of different castes, occupation and trades are children of one Father, to whom all are equal.
This was emphasised and ensured by the division of the life of all into the four stages mentioned earlier. As students they were all brought together and even as Vanaprasthas (recluses) and Sanyasis (renunciates) they mingled freely as one. These two, viz., the caste system and the stages of life served as the warp and woof of the fabric of life.
Hence this aspect of Indian religion was always referred to as Varna-ashrama Dharma (ethics of caste and stage of life). The breakdown of the latter is truly responsible for the chaos that now prevails.
We cannot abolish the principle on which the caste system is based; any attempt to do so will only create the same caste system in another form-remedy worse than disease!
XXV - Life - Its Stages and Goal
Not by work, not by offspring, or wealth; only by renunciation does one reach life eternal.
Kaivalya Upanishad
With their genius for analysis, Indians have divided life into four stages, as I pointed out in the previous chapter, viz., studentship or brahmacharya, the life of the householder or grihastha, the life of a recluse or vanaprastha, and the life of a renunciate monk or sanyasa. If the ultimate goal of life is moksha or liberation, this is the process best designed to achieve it.
In ancient practice a young boy was taken from his home and sent to a Guru, by whom the foundation for his life was laid. The tree must grow from the healthy seedling. He must early learn to withstand such passing phenomena, as pleasure without losing his head, and pain without losing hope. If the tree is allowed to harden before it is trained, no training is possible.
In modern times, children are being used as guinea pigs. Discipline is regarded as a hindrance to the child expressing itself! A good dictionary defines education as the systematic training of moral and intellectual faculties. This will not suppress a child's personality but rather guide it developing its character as a foundation for the spiritual and intellectual faculties which lie within it. To stuff a young brain with knowledge that is mostly useless, is too often the aim of modern education. The tradition that once prevailed in India was the antithesis of this. Though given an important place, text book learning was secondary to character building.
If we rightly understood the implications of modern research into the development of the human body and faculties from birth to death, which implies that foundation of character is laid down by the age of five, and developed by the age of ten, we should start by character moulding during all those earlier years, and only go on to book learning in the teens, when the brain is fully grown and able to assimilate facts quickly and efficiently.
This in fact was the pattern of education in ancient India. At the age of seven or eight, a boy was invested with the holy thread and handed over to the archarya or teacher. His father, however highly qualified, was never his teacher, for it was considered that the son would have neither sufficient respect nor the necessary receptivity and that the father's affection would interfere with the strict discipline inherent in effective training.
This story is significant. A young boy was a resident scholar, and the teacher's wife acted as his foster mother. She nurtured him well, without forgetting that he was there for discipline and moral development. Self-control was best taught at that early age. As soon as the boy entered the gurukula - the school, the extremely bitter though healthy oil of neem-seed was added to his food, instead of the ghee used in his home. Absorbed wholly in his studies, the boy was not conscious of what he was eating. Though mainly scriptural, secular learning was not neglected. He studied the texts of arthashastra - economic, ayurveda - medicine,
dhanurveda - warfare, jyothisha - astronomy, geography and mathematics. After years of study, when he was no longer a boy but ayoung man, he suddenly became conscious of the bitter taste of his food. He pointed this out to his foster mother, who immediately told his teacher. At once, the teacher lovingly advised the boy to leave the gurukula, for his senses were awakened and sought pleasure. This was the signal for the end of his studentship. Brahmacharya in a narrow sense means celibacy. Its wider meaning is 'moving in God and being in control of the senses'.
The acharya then showered his pupil with blessings, and encouraged him to go home and get married, to protect dharma and lead a righteous life.
The cultivation of good habits in his teacher's house now stood the young man in good stead. He knew what was right and wrong behaviour, and could enter a profession with a steady mind. A bad habit laid down in youth is almost impossible to eradicate. I know of a great yogi, an avadhuta, a monk, leading a very holy life, completely naked, having no possessions - except his snuff box! He could renounce home, wife and wealth, but not the snuffing habit he had contracted in his youth.
There was no hint of 'sinfulness' in leading a householder's life - on the contrary, it was held in high esteem. A student could not earn, so had to depend on the householder. The recluse as also the renunciate, the sanyasi, had also to depend on the family man. He was the pivot of the whole social structure. His duty and privilege was to uphold dharma, fulfilling the scriptural injunctions, and begetting progeny so that his children in their turn could uphold dharma.
A firm Hindu belief is that everyone is born with three debts to discharge: (1) study and teaching of the scriptures discharges the debt to the sages, (2) begetting children discharges the debt to the manes and ancestors, (3) worship and sacrifice, also in the form of charity and selfless service to mankind, discharges the debt to the gods.
The Manusmriti, formulated by Manu and an ancient Hindu code reminiscent of the Mosaic Law, insists that one who neglects these debts will fall in the scale of spiritual evolution. If these facts are understood, the charge that Indians were other-worldly is seen to be absurd.
The third stage in Hindu life was when a man's sons were ready to take over the reins of the household. Then he and his wife retired to a secluded spot, supported now by his sons who also nurtured their mother if she did not want to accompany her husband. In seclusion, the scriptures were studied from a new spiritual and esoteric angle. Here memories could be refreshed and life devoted to meditation and godly living. The duties of the householder had been fulfilled, but even this spell of recluse life - vanaprastha - was only a probation for the final stage of renunciation or sanyasa. As a renunciate monkn the man became homeless, never staying in one place, always contemplating the Self, but illuminating the hearts of all.
Allied with these four stages is the division of the Vedas into four sections: mantras - samhita, brahmana, aranyaka, and the upanishad:
(1) Mantras - it was the student who learned them.
(2) Brahmana - when he married, he put what he learnt into practice, engaging himself in rituals which are described in this part of the Vedas.
(3) Aranyaka - in the new light dawning from experience, the recluse studied the hidden truths, clothed in ritual of the first two sections.
(4) Upanishad - renouncing all these former studies, he wandered about as a monk, meditating on the highest wisdom as contained in the Upanishads.
Up to this point, there was rigid uniformity; everyone followed this strict pattern of life in its outward details. Wholly different was the attitude towards the goal to which all these practices led. The only unity was in regarding moksha as the goal, but as to its attainment and the definition of liberation, there were numerous views.
Hinduism is a parliament of religions, not one set of dogmas. Anyone is a Hindu who, in any concept of the ultimate truth in any state or form believes in the Ultimate Reality. Hence, in a manner of speaking, every man is a Hindu, whether he adores God, Atman, Christ, Allah, Krishna or Buddha. Because of temperamental differences between man and man, each lives on a separate plane. Even the temperaments of identical twins differ, if nothing else differs in them.
The great ones declare that the each individual's equipment forces him to approach that single goal - the recognition of the Ultimate Reality from the angle equivalent to his powers.
Convenience allows us to refer to these as various schools of thought, but within each school there are many divisions and subdivisions, many facets, many sects. The same condition has arisen in other religions attempting total uniformity of detail. Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, all started as homogeneous movements, often as reaction against heterogeneity in older faiths. But, as time passed, the inevitably process of division ans subdivision was also evident in them. The process continues even in our materialistic age when religion religion takes second place in our lives. The truth is that each and every man who has sought and found the Ultimate Truth has his own school - perhaps, he is his own school!
One reason why the Indian is ready to accepts immigrant faith is that in his view there are as many religions as seekers after the truth. This sharpens his understanding, for he realises that though there are many and often conflicting schools of thought, each, if it survives, is conveying part of the truth. Attemps to analyse and express the Ultimate Truth must be relative, and therefore partial - but never totally false. Indian philosophers recognise that all such genuin attempts to express truth are valid.
Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti - Truth is one, Sages speak of it variously. Perhaps our best approach to the diversity of God's creation is diversity in our approach to Him. Through His own illusory power, He creates this world of diversity, and the human intellect, one of the evolutes, in its turn conceives diversity in its own Mother! Viewed from such an angle, every such concept is Truth.
The popular story of the blind men and the elephant illustrates the falsehood of finite concept of the Infinite, but misses a vital truth. Each blind man caught hold of a part - the ear, the tail, the trunk, etc., and described the beast as a fan, broom, a pillar, etc. Each touched the elephant and described it differently, because of the point of contact. The statement of each was true, and yet it was false, because none had conceived of the whole animal. But, one vital truth has been ignored. Pinch the elephant's ear and the whole elephant will react! Feed a coconut into his mouth and the whole elephant will be pleased! In other words, the part and the whole are One, or at least united in Reality.
Disregarding the superficial differences, the grain of Truth hidden in each philosophical concept is valuable. No school of thought leads us into the Ultimate Goal, they only lead us up their avenue to it. Before the door we all stand, awaiting the helping hand of God's Grace to open it. There are five main highways, all fed by numerous byways to the central goal - hatha yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga, and jnana yoga.
XXVI - Yoga
Fix thy mind on Me, be devoted to Me, work for My sake, bow down to Me. Thou shalt come even to Me; truly do I promise unto thee.
Gita.
(1) Hatha Yoga
The embodied and body-conscious being (not a disparaging statement, but one which covers 99.9 recurring per cent of humanity) is:
(a) reluctant to concede that the world is a non-existent dream, or illusory appearance of an existent Reality, and
(b) unready and unable to ignore the aches and pains of his physical, vital and mental cloaks.
With the rarest exceptions, all people are body bound and conditioned to the confusion of identification between the body and the soul!
While this has its value, and therefore use, what we are looking for is an actual transcendence, not merely wishful thinking. One of the methods advocated is "Hatha Yoga". The uniqueness of Hatha Yoga consists in its recognition of the physical body itself as the crystallisation of the psyche and therefore the proper vehicle of the soul. Its philosophy appeals to man since it stoops to conquer him, and does not demand that he pulls himself up by his socks.
Dismissing the macrocosmic as the infinite magnification of the microcosmic, Hatha Yoga busies itself with the definition of the latter. Up in the head of Man is the seat of Consciousness. It is not the dead matter of brain cells, but what is in them, what works through them, that of which the cells are but the abode. Throughout this discussion of Hatha Yoga this fact must be borne in mind; the Yogi does not concede that he is working with the physical, but is convinced that the physical activity is only the means or an excuse for dealing with the psychic.
Consciousness itself is Power, Life, Energy - all the time. Consciousness and Power differ only in their polarity. This Consciousness, when It willed to see, developed eyesight and physical eyes. Similarly Its will developed other faculties and vital organs. Having brought these faculties into being, It identified Itself with them and developed individuation. This individual had to live; that meant eating, drinking, digesting, assimilation and elimination of waste products.
Consciousness, now as positive Power (Prana) extended Itself further down and became the negative Power (Apana) with the functions just mentioned. The urge to Immortality, when it was clouded by the veil of ignorance and perception of the death of the physical being, resulted in procreation as a convenient substitute ! Consciousness projecting Itself as Life now became blindly involved in ignorant activity and endless, helpless automation.
The escape from this self-willed prison lies in arresting this downward motion of Consciousness. This was referred to by my Master Sri Swami Sivananda as "turning the river back to its own source". The Hatha Yogi's method here is simple, direct and credible. The process of polarisation should be reversed; Life, Power or Energy should be re-converted into Consciousness. Energy in the human being has a tendency to "leak", and this dissipates what is in fact Consciqusness that has been converted into energy. This "leakage" weakens the vision of Truth, and enfeebles the enjoyment of Peace and Bliss. This "leakage" must be arrested.
How is this done? By the practice of Hatha Yoga.
"Ha" is the Sanskrit root-syllable for the solar or positive energy (Prana). "Tha" (pronounced as in tennis) is the Sanskrit monosyllable for the lunar negative energy (Apana). Because this process involves their fusion, it is called Hatha Yoga. Their union is the essential preliminary to the arrestation of the diffusion of Life, which in turn leads on to the experience of that undifferentiated Consciousness which does not flow down to the lower centres as Power.
The first union of the Prana and the Apana is effected in the solar plexus. This process can be compared to the New Moon phenomenon when the sun shines on its own, without sharing its lustre (so to say) with even the moon. In this as well as in the process of withdrawing the energy from the various centres, the Yogi needs to exercise strict control of his psycho-physical being in its most vital aspects.
This control is acquired by the various Yoga Postures (Yoga Asanas) which in the popular mind assume the status of Hatha Yoga itself, though they are really just the preliminary lessons. Only when the life-currents flow through nadis (astral channels for the flow of Prana - which vaguely correspond to the nerves and/or blood vessels), can Prana discharge its function of preserving health and be withdrawn from the organs it activates. It is like the gears of a motor car. Only when the power is connected to the wheels can the latter be controlled, moved forward or stopped.
In the normal man, the Prana flows haphazard without proper control or direction, as a motor car careering down hill in neutral gear. If everything seems to go right, it is only because the free ride has not yet been challenged by a turn, bump or obstruction! The Yogi cannot afford to leave this vital process to chance. Each Asana or posture ensures that certain nadis or channels are cleared and certain centres are vivified.
Coupled with Pranayama or exercise or control of the life-force (Prana) with the help of the breath, these Yoga Asanas can do ensure our physical health and mental poise, easing our tensions and filling us with peace. But that is just a byproduct however desirable, and should not usurp the place of the main objective, which is clearing the nadis as a prelude to effective control of Prana.
The Yogi makes much use of Pranayama. He has at his disposal a number of variations of it which exert the influence most desired at each stage, as he works towards the final fusion of the Prana and the Apana at the solar plexus. The positive and the negative coming together there spark off great power at the solar plexus. Maybe it is to this the physiologist alludes when he describes the action of the suprarenal glands in times of emergency and extraordinary stress.
Here again the Yogi does not let the control even over this psychic "heat" or energy get out of hand. Using definite techniques, he directs it to the base of the spinal cord where, the polarised Consciousness as energy lies coiled up, after having spent a little part of itself in vitalising the various centres along the spinal cord.
The orthodox Yogi will be annoyed at this physiological equation. From his point of view it is our profanity that deludes us into equating these psychic nadis and centres to the spinal cord and the plexuses of nerves related to it. Nadi literally means a flow, flowing vibrations of energy. The Yogi had forestalled Einstein's "wave-theory" of light or energy.
Between the base of the spine and the centre of the forehead the psychic "tube" that serves as the channel of polarity has six chakras (circles or wheels) which are also described as lotus. The spokes of the wheel or the petals of the lotus are visualised to have very definite correspondence with distinct nerve-trunks branching off each plexus. But the Yogi ascribes more to them than mere nerve-function. He connects them with the basic five elements - the sixth with the subtlest, which is the mind.
The first (Muladhara) is at the astral centre corresponding with the perineum. It represents the earth element, has four "petals" and the sound symbol that is associated with the earth element is 'lum'. The Yogi believes that that is the vibratory note produced by the element itself! By intoning it, therefore, he can tune-in to it. It is surprising that we should call the earth "land" in English! Perhaps it is true that the mystics of the East and the West did hear the vibratory note of the earth element as 'lum'.
Once the Yogi learns the art of grasping the polarised consciousness (known as the Kundalini Shakti) with the help of the psychic heat, then he can deliberately guide its ascension from centre to centre. From the Muladhara where the Power lies dormant, he takes it to the next - Svadhisthana at the tip of the spinal cord, the Centre that represents Water (with 'vum' as its codename - vum and water are phonetically similar). The association with water is obvious. Vum is also the mystic syllable for "nectar of immortality", a truth which we shall appreciate if we remember that this Centre is physically associated with the reproductive organs.
The Shakti then proceeds to the next Centre, Manipura, behind the navel. The element here is fire, and the code-syllable 'rum' (ra for the Egyptian Sun God! red for fire!). The situation is that of the gastric fire.
The next Centre is Anahata, behind the heart. The mystic letter is 'yum' (for air, the element of this Centre - naturally because the lungs and the heart lie closely to it).
From there on to the Vishuddha Centre at the throat. Ether or space is the element here, and 'hum' is the Mantra. When you hum the sound 'hum', the space in the throat expands!
The last in the series is the Ajna Centre between the eyebrows. It is the "seat" of the mind, as it were, and the Mantra is the holy monosyllable 'om'. It is known as Ajna, because it is through this (the occult associate it with the Third Eye) that the Yogi receives Divine Command and Divine Grace.
Ascent beyond to the seat of consciousness is effected by Divine Grace. The Yogi then brings the Power down again through the successive chakras, to enable him to live and function in a Divine way.
The student of Yoga practises what is known as Hatha Yoga, Laya Yoga, Kundalini Yoga or Kriya Yoga daily. Daily he visualises the whole process actually taking place. Nothing may actually take place for a long time - not till his heart is purified, his mind steadied, and the power then awakened. Yet, the very visualisation helps him, for the concentrated mind directs the Prana to those centres, corrects any defects there may be in the flow of Prana, promotes health and brings near the day on which the visualisation might become actualised.
By the Grace of God, the Yogi might ultimately take the Power up to the Eyebrow Centre. There he waits for Divine Grace to lift him up at last to the "thousand-petalled Lotus" the seat of Consciousness. But the ego has "no admission" here!
Though the whole process seems to be confined to the physical and in any case to the individual being, the Yogis assure us that at each stage, the practitioner tunes in to the corresponding cosmic forces. Exactly in the same way a radio receiving set is tuned in to the broadcasting stations of the world. When the Kundalini Shakti reaches the thousand-petalled lotus of Consciousness at the crown of the head, not only Self-Consciousness, but Cosmic Consciousness is attained, for there is really no difference between the two.
(2) Karma Yoga
Twice in the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna emphasises an undisputed fact - "No one can remain inactive even for a moment", and again, "No embodied being can give up activity completely".
The same activity that greases and fuels the wheel of Karma or the Law of Causation, the very same activity that keeps man in bondage when performed in ignorance, can also help liberate him when done in the light of knowledge. In fact, Krishna makes a point of insisting that even the man of Enlightenment should (not merely will) be active. Though he will not necessarily wear an external mark of enlightenment, he will reveal it in the spirit of detachment that characterises his attitude towards the world and its work.
The Bhagavad Gita itself is a tiny part of a voluminous epic, the Mahabharata. The latter, considered historical by the Indians, is of the same pattern as most world legends; it portrays the conflict between the forces of Light and those of darkness, the near-collapse of righteousness, divine intervention and the ultimate triumph of the forces of Light after being subjected to in-humanities by the forces of darkness. This conflict is truly subjective, though circumstances do play their part; and that is why the art of dealing with it is so important and so difficult. It rears its head in the life of man every day and in the life of the watchful one even oftener. To do or not to do, says Krishna, puzzles even the wise.
What is truth, ask the self-satisfied and stay not for an answer. The contentment of the complacent is deceptive and symptomatic of his spiritual slumber. An awakening soul stirs, so that within the heart of an awakening man stir many conflicting thoughts and emotions. They are not "obstacles" but strengtheners and stabilisers. They infuse inner spiritual strength and, by enabling Man to resolve the conflict once for all, lead him to permanent satisfaction in the Self.
The Mahabharata's forces of Light are the Pandavas and its forces of darkness are the Kauravas - yet the two groups are cousins! The latter strive to eliminate the former by every means possible. The Pandavas had, as a last resort, to take up arms. But on the field of battle when everybody is getting ready to strike, Arjuna, the pride of the Pandavas, refuses to fight. The "conflict of duty" reaches its climax and trigers off the revelation of the Gita by Krishna. Arjuna's confusion vanishes and the Pandavas win.
Krishna's way is "to do, feeling I do not do; to be ever active, but never lose sight of the Cosmic Divine Ground; to do one's duty, without attachment, egoism or selfish desire". Like the Hatha Yogi, the Karma Yogi, too, recognises the existence of the world, but not as a playground or pleasure-resort of Man. It is the Nature of God made manifest; it is the Body of God. The human soul exists as an almost independent being, with a freedom of choice and freedom to act; though in reality it is a "cell" in the Body of God. Its independence, though not absolutely real, is real for the time being. The paradoxical situation is created by a mysterious power of illusion which is also Divine! Like smoke born of fire veils the fire itself, illusion born of God veils Him. Krishna unambiguously states that there is nothing outside God, and that both intelligence and illusion originate in Him, as light and smoke (darkness) are produced by fire. The soul under subjection to this illusion desires and hates and thus willfully forgets the Divine Ground.
Karma Yoga cuts the diamond with a diamond. Krishna, the incarnate God who, in His Bhagavad Gita, enunciated the principles of Karma Yoga, analyses the problem clearly and holds up as the foes of Man, "lust and anger", or "love and hatred". Even these two could be reduced to the single factor, Desire, which has anger or hatred as its natural counterpart. Lord Buddha was specific about this basic (or perhaps only) enemy of man. Man is impelled to act, by desire. Desire is for pleasure, profit or power. Krishna keeps the action (which is inevitable for such is the Divine Will), but warns against the threefold desire. Desire disturbs the equilibrium of the mind. Hence the Yoga of Krishna is characterised by equilibrium. Loss of balance of mind leads to inefficiency. Selfishness and profit-motive in work spread disharmony, each man trying to grab as much as possible, without realising that he is but inspiring his neighbour to follow his example and thus defeat his own purpose! The resultant disharmony in society is evident in the modern world where peace decreases as wealth increases. With the profit-motive out of the way, everyone learns to promote others' welfare, thus ensuring his own and everybody else's prosperity.
In common with Hatha Yoga, Karma Yoga offers specific psychomental exercises to develop the consciousness that it holds up to man as the ideal. One cannot get rid of evil and leave an inner vacuum. "Nature abhors a vacuum", and when one evil leaves, usually another, a subtler and more powerful one, takes over. Wisdom lies in filling our consciousness with noble ideas and ideals, so that the baser ones are effortlessly ousted.
Krishna's is integral Yoga, though he calls it Buddhi Yoga. Buddhi is wisdom, intelligence, discrimination. Neither work, nor workship, nor practices as those described in the first section (which are also hinted at in the Bhagavad Gita), are of value unless they spring from and are guided and directed by wisdom. This wisdom should recognise the truth that (a) God pervades the whole universe within and without, i.e. He is Omnipresent, He is One, He alone exists; (b) The universe of apparent matter is His Nature or Body; (c) The soul with its seeming independence is also part of His Nature, a cell in His Body; and (d) The perception of distinction is caused by an inscrutable Illusory Power which is His, too, but from whose operation He can liberate us.
This wisdom, if it is valid, will surely act. God's Omnipresence should be meditated upon. The soul's identity with Him should be actively recognized by the humble surrender of selfish interests and by total freedom from fear, lust and anger, anxiety, tension and spiritual weakness. Weakness is the negation of God and is, therefore, the worst of all blasphemies. The universe as the Body of God should compel Man to worship His Omnipresence by serving all beings. Having done all this, the Yogi should await the descent of Divine Grace which alone can bestow Cosmic Consciousness on him and liberate him from spiritual ignorance. He will then know that God, and God alone from within him works for and serves God and God alone in every being on earth; for God and God alone exists.
(3) Bhakti Yoga
The spirit of worshipfulness being the pivot around which Karma Yoga revolves, it is necessary to sample the act of worship and gradually cultivate a worshipful spirit. Moreover, it will not do to get fixed to the idea that the world and the individual are real. They are temporarily real, but when that phase is transcended, what then? In order to perceive the face behind the veil, the Yogi should acquire a new faculty. Human relationships evoke such spontaneous emotional concepts that it is harder to see God in the gambler than in a block of stone!
The sages who have given us the the love-approach to God, were men of highest wisdom who had perceived: (a) that love that exists in and flows from the heart of Man is but an indication of the nature of God that dwells in it ("God is Love" in the words of St. John); (b) that this Love strays towards forms instead of flowing towards the Spirit, on account of the darkness of nonunderstanding that surrounds the soul; and (c) that by systematic training of human emotions, their way-wardness could be controlled and Love that is God could once again identify itself.
Cosmic Consciousness which is the Consciousness of Cosmic Being or Existence or Oneness expresses itself as love. In reality Love is not two becoming one, but one regaining its wholeness. Man is made in the image of God, yet, mysteriously, he assumes an independent status. The resolute denial of this unreal assumption forms the first part of Bhakti Yoga. Here the devotee feels that he is nothing and God and God alone is the Perfect Saviour. He bursts forth into hymns of self-pity and self-condemnation and calls upon God to redeem him. World devotional literature is full of expressions that shock the sensibilities of the intellectual who psychoanalyses those expressions and sees in them the phantoms of his own ignorance. When the devotee condemns himself, he is not injuring the Reality in him, but silencing the delirious chatter of the unreal.
At this stage of the devotee's life, the world with its many "temptations" appears to him to be a big snare, a colourful death-trap that he should flee from. He shuns company and comforts, not because he suffers from the martyr complex, but he earnestly wants to get behind the veil of ignorance and break the mirror that brought the illusory individuality into being. This veil, this mirror, is responsible (so he feels) for the pleasure sense; hence by resisting the latter the former will be provoked to come into view. Company involves recognition of "others" and others exist only in the ignorance of the One Reality.
God is Real. The devotee feels it, though he is not established in the Reality. The world and the soul cannot also be real; and if they appear to be so, they must be phantoms fit only to be resisted and denied. Whereas the Karma Yogi begins by recognising the existence of the world, and of pain and suffering in it, which he endeavours to alleviate before raising his Consciousness to World-as-Body-of-God, the devotee avoids it in the beginning because it interferes with his love of God.
The soul is real, however, but its reality is dependent on God. It belongs to Him and therefore, its only business is to serve Him, love Him, depend on Him and surrender to Him. He is still not perceived as the Omni-indwelling Presence, for fear lest the Form should waylay the soul in quest of the Spirit.
Yet primarily to help the devotee focus his God-love, and also to enable him eventually to acquire the power to pierce the mask, the devotee is given "objects" of worship. These are the idols and images of God which are the externalised Indweller, as it were. They are never to be regarded as inert substances; and to ensure that the devotee recognises His Living Presence in them, devotional literature provides legends to clothe them with Life and History. These are the Puranas (literally "ancient literature"), comparable in worth and truth to Greek and Roman mythology. Bhagavatham to which I have often referred earlier is a Purana. Whether the legends themselves are historically true or not is beside the point, their morals and philosophy are. In their light the images come to life.
The legends portray the incarnations of God (the devotee who is convinced of His Omnipotence has no difficulty in believing that He can so incarnate Himself) and the different attitudes in which people approached Him and attained Him. From these stories emerged techniques of God-love which in essence amounted to the transference of all earthly love to Him by regarding Him as child, Master, friend and lover. From these legends also emerged techniques of worship, the elaborate ritual which underlines the devotee's perception and recognition of the Living Presence in the image.
Love and concentration of mind gradually pierce the veil of matter that shrouds the omnipresent spirit and, whether we look upon it as a purely psychological phenomenon or as a revelation of the Truth, the devotee actually "sees" the Living God manifest in the image he is worshipping. The veil thus rent asunder disappears from other objects as well - men and women, animals and even plants appear to him as God-in disguise. His former dread of the world disappears, for the world itself has vanished from his sight! He loves all, but not the many; it is the "all" that is God. This love is not a circumscribed personal emotional relationship that implies hatred, dislike or even indifference towards "others", but it is radiance of One-ness. Love is to Unity (in God) what light is to the lamp or the sun.
This goal is not reached in a day. External worship goes on for a long time. Then the ritual is kept but the altar is changed. The devotee is asked to build a temple in his heart, enshrine the Lord there and conduct the entire ritual within himself. This holds his attention and help him cross the chasm of ignorance. At the last stage, the devotee is asked to look upon the whole world as a small part of God and treat his whole life as Yoga. All the time he is reminded that he is only a humble servant of God and that his blessedness lay in completely surrendering himself to God and not even demanding liberation! In that surrender is the ego transcended, and the immature anxiety to attain liberation is detected as the work of the ego.
Scriptures remind the devotee again and again that God-realisation is the gift of God at His own will and pleasure. Scriptures also point out that God can truly be worshipped only if the devotee is godly, completely free from all impurities. God is not a whimsical being who loves some and hates others, but the devotee has to respond to that Love radiating incessantly from the centre. But let the devotee never forget that only when the iron is free from rust does the magnet attract it.
(4) Raja Yoga
To the author of the Sutras that form the basis of this holy science, it is just Yoga. The adjective "Raja" (royal) was obviously added on to it by others. Bhakti and Raja Yoga have both got their own text-books, or rather handbooks which sum up the teachings in the form of laconic Sutras.
The Sutras are unique in their conception and construction. They are more like "aid to memory" hints that students take during the course of a class lecture. Except with the help of a commentary, they are too brief to make much sense in themselves to any but the initiate. Most of the schools of philosophical thought have their own Sutras (literally threads connecting pearls of thought).
Raja Yoga Sutras are attributed to Patanjali Maharshi who uses the philosophical basis of another system of Indian philosophy called the Sankhya (there were six of these systems). The latter laid great emphasis on knowledge of categories (Sankhya literally means number, or counting). The basic idea was that while the elements that constituted the world are real, relationships are unreal. While events take place in this world, their interpretation as pleasure and pain is false. A careful analysis of any object or experience will leave us without a category which we could call pleasure or pain.
Patanjali goes one step further and provides a ladder to enable every man to reach a super conscious state where this realisation of the soul's eternal independence is possible. There are eight limbs, and hence the science is also called Ashtanga Yoga.
As the Kathopanishad declares, neither vice nor virtue has anything to do with the Ultimate Reality or the Self. Yet vice is a denser form of ignorance and is capable of shutting the Self out of our view. Virtue, on the other hand, is transparent, though still a veil. These four letters - l e v i - hold the secret. Lift the veil, turn away from evil, thus will you live.
Evil, according to Yoga, is not dropped as an empty bottle is dropped from the hand. Evil is the inner psychic force wrongly directed; the force itself cannot be dropped. The right direction of this force is virtue. When virtue is cultivated, evil cannot even exist. Persecuting evil itself will only compel it to change its mask. Hence Patanjali advocates the deliberate cultivation of positive virtues. Even when there is need to eradicate evils, the method should be to "practise the opposite-virtue".
Five cardinal virtues are specifically mentioned: (a) Non-harming. (b) Truthfulness. (c) Non-stealing. (d) Continence or control of the mind and senses so that they move in God. (e) Non-desiring of what belongs to others.
Five other disciplines are included in the second limb: (a) Purity or cleanliness. (b) Contentment. (c) Austerity. (d) Study of the scriptures, and (e) Worship of and surrender to God.
These two - the first is Yama, and the second Niyama - help the seeker in arresting the flow of psychic power in the wrong direction.
Body and mind are closely related to each other, and measures of control directed to one will act on the other. To a great extent a relaxed and still body will promote stillness and relaxation of the mind. This is the third limb-Asana or physical posture. Not the complicated Asanas or postures mentioned in Hatha Yoga, but the simple one of sitting comfortably and steadily for a considerable time.
Combined with this is the regulation of breath, Pranayama (literally "exercise of the lifeforce"). Prana is the life-force which activates the physical body at one end and the mind at the other. It is the link between body and mind. Its regulation and exercise, therefore, promote physical health and mental equilibrium.
Only when the body is controlled (and forgotten!) and when the mind is in a state of equilibrium can the scattered rays of the mind be gathered together and focussed within to dispel the darkness of illusory entanglement of the soul in matter. Pratyahara or withdrawal of the senses and mind from flowing towards external objects and forging relationships with them is the next limb. Patanjali is certain that the previous limb (Pranayama) itself is capable of achieving this introversion.
It is then only a matter of persistent practice. The withdrawn rays of the mind are focussed on itself in order that its reality or the reality of the Spirit that is its substratum may be realised. Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (superconscious vision) flow smoothly into one another and are in fact three phases of one event.
The process is complete.
In the state of Samadhi the soul realises its eternal independence and unaffectedness by matter.
It is here that the Yogi realises that he cannot pull himself up by his own socks. He seeks the aid of Isvara (God). Patanjali's Isvara is or appears to be not the Eternal Infinite Absolute Existence, but an "extraordinary Soul" which is the Guru (literally one who removes the darkness of ignorance) of the seeker and is capable of enabling the seeker to take the last leap into Self-realisation. Om, the mystic syllable of the Yogi, is used to invoke the Presence and assistance of Isvara.
The Yogi, thus liberated from self-imposed bondage, does not lead a life of isolation, but joyously plays his part in the world-drama, without getting attached to anything, nor desiring anything, nor even desiring to be spared the luxury of not taking part in the world's activities. Such a desire would amount to the wrong identification, on his part, of the Witness Consciousness that his spirit is, with the body and mind which alone act in accordance with His Will or past momentum or karma.
(5) Jnana Yoga
I would have loved to say, "And, finally we come to Jnana Yoga or the Path of Wisdom or the Path of Self-realisation". But that would be wrong. Lord Krishna emphasises again and again in the Bhagavad Gita that action or devotion not based on wisdom is but labour or emotion (respectively). The mystic sitting in meditation must know what to except and what to accept. Hence, Krishna styles the Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita as the Buddhi (Intelligent, Wise) Yoga.
Jnana is of course slightly different. It is not activity of the intellect. Though we do not wish to be dogmatic about the impotence of the intellect and, as the agnostics might, sweep away all questions as irrelevant (though on the contrary we do not pretend that the intellect can and should be, made to solve the ultimate puzzle), we do feel that we should use the intellect correctly as far as we can go and then surrender it to intuition. Otherwise the surrender might be immature and barren. Again, if we persist in our dependence on the intellect, we might stop far short of the goal and accept the shadow for the substance.
This Jnana is often classified into Paroksha Jnana (indirect, others'-eye wisdom), and Aparoksha Jnana (direct, immediate, not-others'eye wisdom). The former is acquired through books and teachers who are necessary, extremely essential and indispensable, but who can only lead us "thus far and no further", who can only place the manna of wisdom on the table. We should consume it, digest it and assimilate it. Then it becomes Aparoksha Jnana. In this world, to give a rather gross and crude illustration, the knowledge that Mr. So-and-so is a man is indirect knowledge, and the knowledge "I am a man" is direct knowledge. Indirect knowledge is knowledge-by-acquaintance, but direct knowledge is knowledge-by-identity.
In the Inner World of the Spirit, the Guru is extremely essential, in fact indispensable. He is the remover of spiritual darkness. He is the Light of God; hence regarded by the disciple as God Himself. The seeker approaches the Guru in all humility; that is the only attitude in which reception of the spiritual truth is at all possible. He receives the spiritual truth as imparted to him by the teacher. If he rejects it off hand, the loss is his, and he might as well have not gone to the teacher at all.
The first step is Sravana (listening).
It is not acceptance yet. It is like the lunch laid out on the table, not yet served. It will not appease anyone's hunger. Listening is different from mechanical hearing. Hence, one should be careful to see that the listening is not done by one's own prejudices, looking for confirmation.
The second step is Manana (reflection).
Here the teaching is chewed and digested. The disciple has to do this, either alone by himself or in company with other seekers. Reflection needs a calm and silent mind whose surface is clear and on which what is heard is clearly reflected, without blur or distortion.
The third step is Nidhidhyasana (contemplation).
Here the teaching is assimilated. It is equal to the Samadhi of Raja Yoga. There is enlightenment. The lunch is no longer food on the table, nor chyme in the stomach but the flesh of your flesh, the bone of your bone - no longer food but part of you! That is what we are aiming at here, and that is why intellectual understanding of spiritual truths is so barren and useless.
It is the ruggedness of this path that prompted the sages who designated it to lay down the qualifications of the seekers who could pursue it. They are four: (a) Viveka or discrimination between the Real and the unreal; which should not only be a profession, but must be practised as (b) Dispassion, being a total absence of longing for sensual pleasures, which should blossom as (c) Sixfold virtues, viz.: Sama - control of the mind, Dama - control of the senses, Titiksha - endurance, Uparati - unworldliness, Shraddha - faith in God, Guru and one's own Self, Samadhana - equilibrium of mind. All of which should be based on: (d) Mumukshutwa - keen desire for liberation from ignorance.
The aspirant who is endowed with these qualifications is benefited when he approaches the Master. Enlightenment is dependent entirely on the intensity of the disciple's application.
Further procedure is entirely individualistic. It may take the form of a dialogue or discourse. The Guru may adopt one of many methods of leading the disciple to ultimate Enlightenment. Apart from the Guru-disciple co-operation, it is ultimately the Lord who bestows Enlightenment on the seeker. One of our greatest sages has said so very plainly, "Even the desire to realise the Self arises in a man only on account of the Grace of God".
The self cannot transcend itself. It is the Supreme Being alone that enables the seeker to cross the ocean of ignorance.
When one studies the scriptures dealing with the behaviour of a sage of Self-realisation, one is wonderstruck at the keenness with which each serves humanity. They are not necessarily hewers of wood and drawers of water; they may not bake bread or sell vegetables, though they may engage in such work, but they are constantly engaged in spiritual activities. Sages do what is most natural to them, that for which they are specially qualified - spiritual ministry. What is noteworthy, however, is that they are never idle. The world-unconscious state of a few great ones, described here and there in the scriptures, is intended only to show that they are no longer bound to any ordinary pattern of conduct. That should not confuse us in our recognition of the dynamic sages.
Our own Master, Swami Sivananda, refused to let his worn-out body rest till it was laid to rest, after the breath had stopped. He combined all the Yogic practices in His life and insisted that all seekers should do so. One is puzzled how this could be, for the philosophical bases of one path seem to contradict those of others! This paradox is resolved beautifully by Hanuman, the great Servant of Lord Rama, who addressing the Lord, Says, "Rama, when I am body-conscious I am your servant; when I am conscious of my identity as an individual soul, I am part of you; but when I lose these and realise I am the Self, I am You."
Wisdom lies in combining all the Yogas described here in order that there can be integral perfection and divinisation of the entire being.
The worshipper of God is promised salvation or liberation in course of time after dwelling for a long period in the particular Heaven to which his devotion has qualified him. The good man goes to heaven and returns, but one who has realised the significance of the great Truth "Tat Tvam Asi" (That thou art - you are not the body, mind and senses, but the Immortal, Infinite Absolute Being) is liberated here and now.
Conclusion
The foregoing is but a glimpse at the Ancient Religion. I would prefer to regard its theoretical aspect as Dharma, an enquiry into "that which upholds" and its operative part as Yoga "that which unites the soul with God" and liberates him even from that which holds.
Orthodoxy is often corservative. Vested interests resist any attempt on anyone's part to question orthodoxy. My Master Swami Sivananda was rooted in the Ancient Religion, but grew out of the limitations imposed upon it by orthodoxy. He often commanded us to reinterpret it in the new light of modern science, in modern language, against the backdrop of modern philosophical thinking.
Truth is courage. The Himalayas are not scared of gales! The Ancient Religion is Truth itself. Science is its ally. Logic is its path. Philosophy and psychology are its vehicles. Legends and idols, traditions and superstitions, are its rifles and guns. Yoga is its ammunition. Selfishness, egoism, desire, attachment, hatred, greed and such other animal qualities are its enemies who hide in the fortress of spiritual ignorance. This fortress has to be stormed and the enemies destroyed. That is its goal. Yes, that is the goal of any religion.
That is what Krishna taught. That is what Christ taught. Were they two individuals who entertained identical thoughts? Maybe. Or, were "they" a single person? The conviction is growing upon me that the answer to this is in the affirmative. The similarity of the Names (Krishna and Christ) and the almost identical biographies convince me that the Prophet of Modern Hinduism, Sri Krishna, and the Prophet of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, are not two distinct personalities, but a single individual who spent part of His Life in the Middle East and part of it in India. This Divinity clearly proclaimed that He had come not to destroy but to fulfil, to carry out a spring cleaning, to restore the spirit of true religion to the human heart and to re-establish righteousness, peace on earth and goodwill amongst mankind.
It is a tragedy too deep for tears that having split this Personality into two, mankind divides itself into two camps - the East and the West - pushing each other perilously close to utter destruction. Look at the globe. Take a second look. Turn it on its axis. Where is East and where is West?
Oh no. East is not east, nor is West west! The world is divided as creation has always been into the two camps of "The Forces of Light" and "The Forces of Darkness". The spiritual and the material. Even this Eternal Conflict is essential to the unfoldment of the Divine in Man. The spirit will triumph, whatever be the odds it has to contend with.
The challenge of materialism is understandable and even necessary. But conflict within the ranks of religion is disgraceful; though I am certain that the elements that create and promote this conflict are totally irreligious and are the enemies of religion planted in the religious ranks by "The Forces of Darkness". It is time that the Forces of Light awoke to these fifth column activities and resolutely dismissed these internal enemies.
Religion alone can unite mankind; for that is what it implies. That which separates man from man is irreligion, whatever be its camouflage. Religion leads to understanding. Understanding (standing under) is superior to tolerance and even to love. Tolerance suggests an air of superiority; love, of equality with "the other man". But understanding looks up in profound and genuine admiration, in recognition of the incontrovertible fact that God dwells in all.
"Truth is one. God is one. Religion is one. Mankind is one" - said my Master.
Religion leads us to the goal of direct realisation of this truth. Our ignorance does not cancel the truth! Hence, the Indian is unconcerned with the acceptance or rejection of his viewpoint. There are many who do not accept the theories of Karma and those of reincarnation (set out in Chapters XXI and XXII). Well, never mind; so long as you are good and you do good, and recognise the existence of an Omnipresent God Whom you endeavour to realise, all is well. You may or may not believe in the need for the use of images and idols; but you are free to arrive at the goal in any way you like, suited to your temperament! There is no compulsion in religion; and that is exactly what the Holy Quran demands.
Religion reveals to us an Indwelling Spirit that is distinct from the body, and an Omnipresence of which this world is but a tiny particle. The former generates courage in us and the latter generates compassion. Equipped with these we should eschew selfish desire and serve all mankind with the love of the Omnipresent God.
That is the urgent need of the hour, if humanity is to avoid self-destruction. Mankind is perched precariously on the cliff of nuclear destruction. There is no time to lose. Contemplation of the Omnipresence of God and the realisation that even this material world is but the Body of God in Which all beings are one (which is the common basis of all religions) alone can save mankind. May His Light illumine your heart and soul!
Om Tat Sat.