SYNOPSIS
Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara— Maya, Prakriti, Shakti
- An eternal and infinite and absolute Self is the foundation and the secret support that pervades all things. It reveals itself in three terms, the fundamental aspects of its essential nature. They are Self, Conscious being or Spirit and God or the Divine Being – Brahman (Atman,Self), Purusha, Ishwara.
- Though the Brahman is the Absolute, it is the omnipresent Reality at the same time. It is in Brahman all that is relative exists as its forms or its movements. It is the Transcendent, the Supracosmic Existence. Yet It is the Cosmic Self that upholds all beings & is also the soul or psychic entity which is an eternal portion of the Ishwara.
- Also its power of Consciousness appears to us in three aspects. It is the self-force or Maya of that consciousness that conceptually creates all things. It is Prakriti, Nature or Force which is made dynamically executive. It works out everything under the witnessing eye of the Conscious Being, the Self or Spirit. It is the conscious Power of the Divine Being, Shakti; it is both conceptually creative and dynamically executive.
- Taken as a single whole, the apparent difference and incompatibility of the supracosmic Transcendence, the cosmic universality and the separativeness of our individual existence are reconciled. Taken alone, the Absolute, the Supreme Brahman would be a contradiction to the universe, our individual existence would be incompatible with the sole incommunicable Reality. It is a problem created by the logic of our finite mind which cannot understand the logic of the Infinite.
- The suprarational is the realm of the spirit. In the largeness, subtlety, profundity and complexity of its movement the reason is lost. Here intuition and inner experience are the only guide.
- Though an experience of one part of the Infinite is valid, we cannot conclude that the rest of the Infinite would be in terms of that one aspect.
- If we consider only the aspect of Self we may concentrate on its static silence and miss the dynamic truth of the Infinite. If we see only the Ishwara aspect we may concentrate on the dynamic truth and miss the eternal status and the infinite silence – the pure and static aspect. If we concentrate on Purusha-Prakriti alone we may see only the dichotomy of Soul and Nature, Spirit and Matter and miss their unity. The whole difficulty arises because of the words by which we describe the Reality and the conceptions based on our intellect. These difficulties are not real.
- The Divine, the Absolute is One. But we see that the beings are many and each has a self, a like yet different nature. Spirit and essence of things is one. Therefore, we are obliged to admit that all these Many must be that One. The apparent contradiction between the Absolute Infinite (One) and the relative finite (Many) is the creation of the mind which thinks in terms of the mathematical finite unit. But this is not the mathematical one but an infinite Oneness.
- Silence , stability, immobility is the necessary base on which a force and energy can act. In reality the silence of the Spirit and the action of the Spirit are complementary and inseparable.
- Similarly the Divine Being is at once Form and the Formless. The apparent contradiction between the two aspects is not a real contradiction. The Formless is not a negation of the power of formation. It is rather the condition for the Infinite’s free formation. The forms we see around us are manifestations of the Absolute, the Formless.
- The coexistence of the Infinite and finite is the very nature of universal being. An Infinite one Reality extends indivisibly and uniting all objects so that none is really separate from it or separate from other objects.
- There is an underlying immutability behind all changes we see on the surface. This is because the Self and Spirit in things and beings is one everywhere. Therefore Nature can indulge itself in infinite differentiation. Maya, the creative power of Brahman brings out innumerable mutable forms out of the immutable Being. The underlying immutability of the Spirit in things provides the secure basis for the infinite variations in the manifested things in the universe.
- Maya is the supreme and universal consciousness and force of Brahman. Being illimitable it can put forth many states of consciousness at a time. It is at once transcendental, universal and individual.
- Second possibility of the Infinite Consciousness is its power of self-limitation. There is a secondary self-formation into a subordinate movement within the integral illimitable consciousness and knowledge. Because self-limitation into a form is a necessary consequence of the power of self-determination of the Infinite.
- Third possibility is the power of self-absorption. That is, the Infinite Consciousness plunges into itself. There exists only pure self-awareness and the all would be involved in that self-awareness. The knowledge and the inner consciousness itself would be lost in pure being. This is the state which we call the Superconscience in an absolute sense.
- The Conscious-Power, the shakti that acts and creates is the Maya or all-knowledge of Brahman. It is the power of the Self. Prakriti is the working of the Purusha. It is the Conscious Being active by its own Nature. Therefore, the Soul and World-Energy, silent Self and the creative Power of the Spirit are not dual and separate. It is biune, two-in-one.
- The individual aspect of the Self is the Conscious Being, Purusha. The aspect of the Self is in its essential character, transcendental. At the same time it is involved and identified with its universal and individual becomings. Therefore, the Purusha aspect is characteristically universal-individual. It is intimately connected with Nature even when separated from her.
- The Purusha in us may be passive, allowing Nature to act, accepting all she imposes on him. That is the normal state of our ignorance. If the Purusha becomes aware of itself as Witness and stands back from Nature, that is the first step of soul’s freedom. The Purusha can cease to be subject, anisa. It can become lord of its nature, iswara.
- There is no eternal and fundamental separateness and dualism of Being and its Consciousness-Force, of the Soul and Nature. This apparent duality between the Conscious Being and its Nature is created so that Nature can have a free action with the support of the Conscious Being and again the Spirit can be free and be the master of Nature.
- Ishwara aspect becomes the most comprehensive of the aspects of the Divine Reality. Because Ishwara is supracosmic as well as intracosmic (beyond cosmos as well as within cosmos). He is that which exceeds and inhabits and supports all individuality. He is the supreme and universal Brahman, the Absolute, the supreme Self, the supreme Purusha. But this is not the personal God of popular religions; such personal gods are only limited representations or divine personalities of the one Ishwara.
- We can take account of both the impersonal and personal truth of things as one truth instead of opposing truths. By that, we see the light of personality in impersonality.
- Then in the Person Aspect a dual Person emerges, Ishwara-Shakti, the Divine Self and Creator and the Divine Mother and Creatrix of the universe. She as Maya, Para-Prakriti, Chit-Shakti manifests the cosmic Self and Ishwara and her own self-power as a dual principle (Ishwara-Shakti). It is through her that the Being, the Self, the Ishwara acts.
- Thus we see that there is no contradiction or incompatibility between these three aspects of Existence. One Being, one Reality as Self bases, supports, gives an essential quality. One Reality as Purusha or Conscious Being experiences. One Reality as Ishwara wills, governs and possesses its world of manifestation; a world created and kept in motion and action by its own Consciousness-Force or Self-Power, – Maya, Prakriti, Shakti.
- As regards the problem of relation of Time (the manifested world in Time) to the Timeless (Non-Manifest) Spirit, we have already assumed that what is in unmanifest state in the Timeless Eternal is manifested in Time-Eternity.
- If the Timeless Eternal expressess in Time, then however different may be the conditions, however partial the expression, what is fundamentally expressed in Time must be the same as what existed before in Timeless Eternal i.e.in Transcendence. Eternity is the common term between Time and the Timeless Spirit.
- Space and Time are the names given by us for this self-extension of the one Reality. We see Space as a static extension. We see Time as a mobile extension which is measured by movement and event.
- Space would then be Brahman in self-extended status. Time would be Brahman in self-extended movement. Rather, Space in this material world could be a fundamental self-extension of material Energy. Time could be a dimension of Space necessary for the complete action of the Energy.
- In its fundamental truth the original status of Time behind all its variations is nothing else than the eternity of the Eternal Divine Reality. Likewise the fundamental truth of Space, the original sense of its reality is the infinity of the Infinite Divine Reality.
- The Being can have three different states of consciousness with regard to its own eternity. In the first state of consciousness there is the immobile status of the Self in its essential existence. It is self-absorbed or self-conscious. In either case it exists without development of consciousness in movement or happening.
- In the second status, the Being has the whole-consciousness of the successive relations of all things. In this status of whole-consciousness what we call past, present and future stand together. Here all the three time states are seen together as if in a map or settled design.
- The third state of consciousness of Being is characterised by a processive movement of Consciousness-Force and its successive working out of what has been seen by it in the static vision of the Eternal (in the second status). This is the Time movement.
- In that case it is quite possible that a Timeless Eternal and a Time Eternity can coexist. It would be the same Eternity viewed by a dual self-awareness (Timeless and Time) without any opposition between them.