Practical Vedanta

Practical Vedantaeternal ; every other element is produced out of this one. It is called Âkâsha. It issomewhat similar to the idea of ether of the moderns, though not exactly similar.Along with this element, there is the primal energy called Prâna. Prana andAkasha combine and recombine and form the elements out of them. Then at theend of the Kalpa; everything subsides, and goes back to Akasha and Prana. Thereis in the Rig-Veda, the oldest human writing in existence, a beautiful passagedescribing creation, and it is most poetical — "When there was neither aught nornaught, when darkness was rolling over darkness, what existed?" and the answeris given, "It then existed without vibration". This Prana existed then, but there wasno motion in it; Ânidavâtam means "existed without vibration". Vibration hadstopped. Then when the Kalpa begins, after an immense interval, the Anidavatam(unvibrating atom) commences to vibrate, and blow after blow is given by Pranato Akasha. The atoms become condensed, and as they are condensed differentelements are formed. We generally find these things very curiously translated;people do not go to the philosophers or the commentators for their translation, andhave not the brains to understand them themselves. A silly man reads three lettersof Sanskrit and translates a whole book. They translate the, elements as air, fire,and so on; if they would go to the commentators, they would find they do notmean air or anything of the sort.The Akasha, acted upon by the repeated blows of Prana, produces Vâyu orvibrations. This Vayu vibrates, and the vibrations growing more and more rapidresult in friction giving rise to heat, Tejas. Then this heat ends in liquefaction,Âpah. Then that liquid becomes solid. We had ether, and motion, then came heat,then it became liquefied, and then it condensed into gross matter; and it goes backin exactly the reverse way. The solid will be liquefied and will then be convertedinto a mass of heat, and that will slowly get back into motion; that motion willstop, and this Kalpa will be destroyed. Then, again it will come back and againdissolve into ether. Prana cannot work alone without the help of Akasha. All thatwe know in the form of motion, vibration, or thought is a modification of thePrana, and everything that we know in the shape of matter, either as form or asresistance, is a modification of the Akasha. The Prana cannot live alone, or actwithout a medium; when it is pure Prana, it has the Akasha itself to live in, andwhen it changes into forces of nature, say gravitation, or centrifugal force, it musthave matter. You have never seen force without matter or matter without force;what we call force and matter are simply the gross manifestations of these samethings, which, when superfine, are called Prana and Akasha. Prana you can call inEnglish life, the vital force; but you must not restrict it to the life of man; at thesame time you must not identify it with Spirit, Atman. So this goes on. Creationcannot have either a beginning or an end; it is an eternal on-going.We shall state another position of these old psychologists, which is that all grossthings are the results of fine ones. Everything that is gross is composed of finethings, which they call the Tanmâtras, the fine particles. I smell a flower. Tosmell, something must come in contact with my nose; the flower is there, but I dofile:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Chitra%20Selva...oksBySwami/PracticalVedanta/PracticalVedantaPDF.html (85 of 113)2/26/2007 12:24:34 AM