Practical Vedanta

Practical Vedantanames, Prakriti, which is very much the same as the word nature, and the morescientific name, Avyakta, undifferentiated, from which everything proceeds, suchas atoms, molecules, and forces, mind, thought, and intelligence. It is startling tofind that the philosophers and metaphysicians of India stated ages ago that mind ismaterial. What are our present materialists trying to do, but to show that mind is asmuch a product of nature as the body? And so is thought, and, we shall find byand by, intelligence also: all issue from that nature which is called Avyakta, theundifferentiated. The Sankhyas define it as the equilibrium of three forces, one ofwhich is called Sattva, another Rajas, and the third Tamas. Tamas, the lowestforce, is that of attraction; a little higher is Rajas, that of repulsion; and the highestis the balance of these two, Sattva; so that when these two forces, attraction andrepulsion, are held in perfect control by the Sattva there is no creation, nomovement in the world. As soon as this equilibrium is lost, the balance isdisturbed, and one of these forces gets stronger than the other, motion sets in, andcreation begins. This state of things goes on cyclically, periodically. That is to say,there is a period of disturbance of the balance, when forces begin to combine andrecombine, and things project outwards. At the same time, everything has atendency to go back to the primal state of equilibrium, and the time comes whenthat total annihilation of all manifestation is reached. Again, after a period, thewhole thing is disturbed, projected outwards, and again it slowly goes down —like waves. All motion, everything in this universe, can be likened to wavesundergoing successive rise and fall. Some of these philosophers hold that thewhole universe quiets down for a period. Others hold that this quieting downapplies only to systems; that is to say, that while our system here, this solarsystem, will quiet down and go back into the undifferentiated state, millions ofother systems will go the other way, and will project outwards. I should ratherfavour the second opinion, that this quieting down is not simultaneous over thewhole of the universe, and that in different parts different things go on. But theprinciple remains the same, that all we see — that is, nature herself — isprogressing in successive rises and falls. The one stage, falling down, going backto balance, the perfect equilibrium, is called Pralaya, the end of a cycle. Theprojection and the Pralaya of the universe have been compared by theisticalwriters in India to the outbreathing and inbreathing of God; God, as it were,breathes out the universe, and it comes into Him again. When it quiets down, whatbecomes of the universe? It exists, only in finer forms, in the form of cause, as it iscalled in the Sankhya philosophy. It does not get rid of causation, time, and space;they are there, only it comes to very fine and minute forms. Supposing that thiswhole universe begins to shrink, till every one of us becomes just a little molecule,we should not feel the change at all, because everything relating to us would beshrinking at the same time. The whole thing goes down, and again projects out,the cause brings out the effect, and so it goes on.What we call matter in modern times was called by; the ancient psychologistsBhutas, the external elements. There is one element which, according to them, isfile:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Chitra%20Selva...oksBySwami/PracticalVedanta/PracticalVedantaPDF.html (84 of 113)2/26/2007 12:24:34 AM