seeking their fulfilment. Desire is actually a function of the mind that continually produces for the experiencer all sense-objects without exception whether they are perceived as gross or fine. Even though Desire impels and directs all actions, gives those actions purpose and meaning and helps find sought after results it does so only to delude the Jiva, the embodied soul. Therefore, we, the deluded embodied souls to whom differences of things are quite obvious while seeking worldly comforts through fulfilment of our individual desires have time and again deliberately invoked destiny believing it to be the main stay that shapes our lives.
Yaskacharya has explained that our existence which is phenomenal and therefore, temporal, comprises of six stages or modifications that include growth, transformation and decay. We now know that growth and transformation are a part of continuance and that decay merely proclaims dissolution which is not really the end of our existence. Because all our attempts directed towards seeking the right answers to the aforecited four queries have tended to throw up very many probabilities and far more challenges than anticipated, the knowledge of the state of our origin has remained vague and elusive. It has been so more on account of our inability to break free from the web of ignorance cast by our own seemingly unreconciliable subjective awareness and our objective awareness operating side by side; we have repeatedly failed to distinguish the truth from the untruth, the truth that is covered by unreality. The unintentional mixing-up of reality with unreality because of ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion and clinging to life, these five major pain-bearing affections virtually blinding the all-important inner-eye and blunting our intuition has caused this incorrect identification and as it is the various stages of transition from mere consciousness to absolute consciousness still remain largely ununderstood. Therefore, the four questions posed at the beginning of the Svetasvatra Upanishad are relevant even to-day and the nature of the Source continues to be inquired into by us with care and devotion.
The Nasadiya Sukta of the Rig Veda states that in the very beginning nothing else existed not even space but an ocean of Absolute Darkness and Nothingness, which particular concept we are taught is the natural, logical and obvious starting point for all kinds of speculative thinking. It is so because origination assumes spontaneity, thereby meaning that origination is a sudden and an abrupt occurrence or awakening seemingly without any obvious reason. Yet, another text, Manu Smriti, explains that before creation this universe was indeed unrecognisable, unintelligible, unidentifiable, illogical and unknowing, it was sunk as if in deep slumber; in other words, this universe to begin with existed in a state of Unmanifest Infinity. How and when that sleep did eventually break is not exactly known but the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad tells us that in the beginning of all things Nothing was existent and from that Nothing were born the waters, here waters are meant to indicate the finest essences that make up all elements. On the other hand, because of the fact that origination cannot be without a cause Chandogya Upanishad tells us that this Universe before its creation was but Existence itself, and that Existence it was that manifested name and forms. We are thus taught that a state of non-existence did not precede existence, and that there was indeed a cause, and therefore, this universe existed even before its present creation and was never absolutely non-existent. The same Upanishad boldly speaks of the embodied soul, a reflection of Brahman, as the real living being on account of the soul sustaining life. Chandogya Upanishad concludes that creation had no beginning, that this process had always been there, that there have been numerous cycles of creation in the past and will also be there in future. This is one of the many salient aspects of Truth. All created things transform.
But then, Truth is very difficult to apprehend. Before coming face to face with Truth which is present everywhere equally we are asked to give up righteousness and unrighteousness, we are asked to discard what we think is real and that we think is unreal, and we are also asked to discard that by which these two are meant to be discarded. This is a very difficult exercise that is based on a reason which is equally difficult to comprehend and because our behaviour with regard to the means and objects of knowledge is basically similar to that of animals who without discrimination between the body and the soul that sustains life use their means of perception via senses that cannot function without a body. Our ancient seers who had known about That which is required to be known speak about the beginninglessness of creation and term it as a continuance of the transformation of the Unmanifest to the Manifest and then to the Unmanifest from which the Manifest will rise again though the true form of the Unmanifest as well as that of the Manifest cannot be perceived nor its end; we are told that the reason and the process of its serial appearance and disappearance also cannot be exactly known. This being the case they concluded that there is an indefinable eternal entity which is Existence itself, which is not limited by Time and Space, which is all-powerful and all-pervading, and is possessed of organs etc.; that are its limiting adjuncts. Having concluded that origination is a conscious and a deliberate act of the Creator, the Supreme Being, they believed that the ten forms of elements, the five basic elements and their respective qualities, and the ten forms of sensations, the five senseorgans and their respective sensations, cannot merge in anything but in that very entity which is without a form and is infinite, which is eternal and which is consciousness, existence and bliss, for that which is finite can be perceived, it has an age, it is impermanent and it eventually meets with its own destruction in order to become one with its primordial state.
It has long been argued that if a conscious entity alone can be the creator of the universe then it must have had some motive for creation simply because no action is ever initiated unless there is some pre-determined purpose. In this context it is said that creation was a deliberate act of that Supreme Being or Source for whom it was but a mere pastime, a playful antic. As regards that very Supreme Being or Source, it is further said that the same is not an object of perception it is devoid of form, action, etc.; and therefore, not subject to inference it being devoid of all grounds of inference. A sage of the Rig Veda tells us that there is none who directly knew the thing from which this diverse creation originated, no one has ever spoken of such an experience, since even the gods were later than this creation no one can know that from which creation originated. Therefore, that Supreme Being or Source considered to be the material cause as well as the efficient cause, is unmanifested unthinkable and unchangeable. Consequently it is accepted that this universe which is the effect has existence only in identity with its material cause having existence in this way even before creation. Sankara in the context of appearance of things made or born possessing qualities explains that since in this world a thing is said to exist when it manifests itself through name and form therefore as a concession to common sense the universe is said to be non-existent before being evolved through name and form. Earlier, Gaudapada had concluded that since origination is not a well-established fact everything is birthless and there is no origination in any manner whatsoever of any non-existing form from an existing one, and that instructions about creation have been imparted by the wise only for the sake of those who from the facts of experience and adequate behaviour vouch for the existence of substantiality. This aside even though we already know how matter can be converted into sheer energy we do not exactly know how energy converts itself into matter; we know almost nothing about the process of transformation of spirit into matter. No doubt the influence of an unseen force has not been denied and it has also not been denied that there is always a provision upon which an obligation depends but through such like explanations we are made to realise the truth that it is the sum total of the gross, the subtle and the causal worlds that has made the existence of this vast universe possible.
Physics has been defined as the science of laws and principles of matter, in other words it is the study of how matter and energy move and change in space and in time. This means, there are two distinct entities, namely, the Space and Time continuum and Matter and Energy. The former is defined as a continuous arena within which all events occur but by itself has no definable limits or boundaries nor does it distinguish absolute distances or times. On the other hand, matter and energy are discrete, well-quantified material which can neither be created nor destroyed and which being basically the same thing can be converted from one into the other, which means matter has a double entity, that it can behave both as a particle and a wave.
The behaviour of matter, however, depends upon the nature and distribution of its surrounding matter i.e. upon the influence exerted through force-fields that matter is itself capable of generating, radiating and also preserving. The strongest force-field is the one which holds the nuclei of atoms together, and the most common is the electro-magnetic field which holds atoms and molecules together and is important in all chemical and biological reactions. Then, there is the gravitational force-field which though weak at very short distances is the most dominant force on macroscopic levels because its range is infinite and its effect additive, it is the most ancient force that is believed to have existed even before the creation of this vast vibrant Universe that was formed defying all known laws of Physics. Gravity’s immediate relationship with mass, spin and momentum is known to us as also the fact that at macro-level it is the strongest force of attraction but what we still do not know is the true nature of the existent strong repelling force counter-acting the force of gravity. It is this fifth fundamental force of nature called the Hyper-charge that has not allowed the universe to collapse; at the outer fringes of the universe this particular force is believed to power the galaxies falling outwards towards the borders of the finite universe. It is now known that the simplest kinds of matter known to science are not composed of more basic particles but are packets of energy characterised by certain fundamental properties such as mass, spin, charge and magnetic momentum, that all fundamental particles at high energy levels are not stable on long time-scales. Therefore, each mass of matter be it a gas, a liquid or a solid, composed of molecules, molecules whether simple, compound or complex composed of atoms and atoms on their part composed of various sub-atomic particles, follows set rules and principles, it is governed by natural laws. Under ordinary conditions no mass of matter is an absolute solid because between the molecules, between the atoms and within the atoms between their components there are in existence vast expanses of space supercharged with energy and the ever active fundamental forces. It is owing to the nuclear energy and the electro-magnetic force-fields counteracted by degeneracy pressure of the electrons that the various constituents of matter do not fall apart and the whole remains held together in a definite recognisable pattern and form. There is also the fourth state of matter called the Plasma when negatively charged electrons and positively charged ions are in a flux when there exist no binding forces and the material is very hot. We now know that in the very beginning all matter that now exists existed in the formless and dimensionless Plasma state.
About six thousand light years distance from the Earth, in the Taurus constellation, there is seen the Crab Nebula, a super-nova remnant, which has a pulsating neutron star that spins thirty three times a second acting as a dynamo whipping positrons, electrons and other elementary particles through an intense magnetic field at velocities approaching the speed of light in a ring sparkling with ten quadrillion volts of electricity. This rhythmic pulsation, spinning and whipping of particles is indicative of the transfer of raw power to the surrounding material and in the process the creation of various energy levels as exist in the super-excited particle-accelerators. This is the stage when a star gradually and systematically destroys itself finally by smashing all atoms comprising it. We now know that after a giant star burns away its nuclear fuel it collapses into an object so dense that its gravity allows no light to escape, it renders itself invisible and becomes a Black Hole. The existence of Black Holes cannot be visibly proved because they consist of no matter, no space and no dimensions, exceedingly dense they continuously emit radiation from either of their poles recycling matter into energy. Black Holes are a common phenomenon. As it is, very near the heart of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, there is a strong radiosource called Sagittarius A which is one thousand times brighter than our own Sun. Actually this radio-source is a massive Black Hole whose active effects cover a region of space one hundred times larger than our entire Solar System. More than half of the energy of the Universe is said to come from such black holes stationed at the centre of galaxies. Our own galaxy also has a huge electromagnetic filament at its centre that is one hundred fifty light years long and about three light years wide instrumental in the creating of opposing molecular forces which in turn create a churning effect and generate a high-power grid of electro-magnetic energy, the energy that is found dispersed far and wide.
The sages of the Rig Veda tell us that it is indeed through the Heat energy granted by the Almighty Creator that Existence has come to be, that this Universe is the cause of Time and that this Universe has existed in several former cycles. Without doubt Heat is the most basic form of energy, and is associated with the random motion of the atoms and molecules in a body, and with life itself. Heat energy excites the electrons in the atoms at a more energetic state and when the electrons return to a lower state they emit a photon thus giving rise to luminosity. A body commonly suffers heat-loss through radiation. Light, which is a continuous train of transverse waves or vibrations, is electro-magnetic energy travelling at a very high speed and capable of interacting with matter. Light has a spectrum governed by the temperature, density, chemical composition and distant location of the radiating mass of matter. All particles interact via exchange of energy. The interaction between electric-charges proceeds by the exchange of photons which are the force-carrying particles having no mass. Graviton is the forcecarrying particle between particles of matter. Short-range forces are, however, carried through particles that have a finite mass. Therefore, it is a complex energy-field that sustains matter and also its perpetual activity, for nothing in this universe is inert. It is a dynamic universe that exists as an active manifestation of matter which matter is by itself a manifestation of energy.
All elements are assembled inside the stars which are huge nuclear-reactors and all those elements are dispersed in space by super-nova explosions during which moment too conditions are right for nucleo-synthesis to occur. Therefore, the elements that go into the making of all non-living and living bodies on Earth were actually assembled long before our Sun and the planets were formed. Our Solar System is not a unique system in the universe; it is a very small and insignificant part of the universe which is a product of its own past having had a finite past when all matter existed compressed in a state of Cosmic Singularity. Nothing is as yet known with certainty about the very beginning of the formation of the universe but what is certainly known is the fact that immediately after that beginning all matter was in an highly ionized state and it was only after all matter had become neutral that the process of galaxy formation commenced. However, the most basic fact remains that our universe is not perfectly symmetrical which fact has led us to believe that energy converted itself into matter and anti-matter simultaneously and a stage was reached when anti-matter was overwhelmed by the matter that is now found spread everywhere in space. The presence of black holes does not permit an easy detection of all matter that surrounds us. Already there is certainty being expressed with regard to the existence of Dark Energy and therefore, of Dark Matter, that has not allowed the universe to dissipate.
It is believed that the origin of Life is hidden in space and time. Its complexity is not yet properly understood even though a fair amount of success has been achieved in cracking the genetic code and in understanding molecular biology to advance biotechnology. A living form or system comprises of matter organised in a very complex manner and is a creation of its own environment on which it also depends. On our Earth life originated and evolved as a result of chemical reactions involving carbon-based chemistry. We now know that amino-acids join up to form polymers and proteins. They are the fundamental constituents of the living cells and possess the inclination and the capacity to re-arrange automatically into macro-molecules. It is through the process of continual building that proteins to start with formed the various components of a living cell which did not possess an organised nucleus. The evolution of an organised nucleus opened the gateway for multi-cellular organisms to develop and evolve.
The process of the evolution of life has covered a vast span of time. Life on Earth has indeed evolved by a process of growth, modification and selection which process after all requires a certain level of intelligence and free-will i.e. consciousness and action. Intelligence is awareness of one’s own existence in phenomenal terms; it is also the awareness of one’s own environment and one’s own ability to make a productive use of that environment. The will to act in an organised and knowing manner depends on selection which requires understanding, inspection, retrospection, logic, reasoning justification and eagerness which are some of the marks of inhering intelligence that creates the will to act to preserve and improvise. Ordinary life-forms depend on the immediate, intuitive and first-hand experience the knowledge of which experience or learning they readily exchange via their peculiar modes of communication. Such life-forms are largely repetitive in behaviour; they are instinct-oriented and governed by hunger and thirst. But man by rising above these basic dictates has availed the fruits of his intellectual efforts and recorded them, created cultures and languages so as to establish social bonds. His efforts have made him more adaptive and also creative which gains have allowed him to distinguish between an opinion and a truth based on his factual observation and reasoning. Additionally it is his capacity for weaving an abstract thought that has made man utilise the hidden capabilities of his brain to probe and analyse his various findings. In his case the increase in the size of the brain in proportion to the body-size has been greater which increase is a fair indication of the increase in his intellectual exercises and pursuits. But the increase in the size of the brain of a particular species cannot go on for ever simply because the evolution of the brain on account of necessity, environment and circumstances has its own limits, it has to stop increasing, it has to give way to a new species or form of life to develop and evolve. Man is not instinctively drawn towards Fate even though he is more aware of death. Yet, being more concerned with meeting his daily needs he could not have avoided noticing the mysteries of his daily life and of Nature that made him aware of his own inevitable end. Naturally this knowledge made him think otherwise, look for omens and seek guidance for shaping a better future. He began to understand measure and value Time. He did not miss the fact that the concept of Time carries with it the fearsome element of Uncertainty which is generally seen as a deep void demanding to be filled with events and actions as also by the anticipation of the outcome of actions. Needless to state Uncertainty erodes confidence, it breaks down one’s resolve and it leads to the development of Fear. Man having learnt to live with uncertainty and its consequents became innovative and in the process has dissected, broken apart and re-shaped his specific surroundings, he has given meanings to objects and found ways and means to understand the Known and the Unknown. He has managed to unravel the secrets of Nature and his keen eyes and mind have explored the farthest reaches of Space. He has realised that from the far away brightly burning Sun he draws in his life-force. He is what he is because of the Sun. When man watched the stars not changing their positions, when he discovered the planets and the Moon moving across the Zodiac of the stars and when he found a persistent regularity in their movement he knew that this observed regularity did have a relationship with his own being. He found that from birth till death the planets and the stars continued to exert their influence and that the repetitive occurrence of the results of their influence could be anticipated and foretold. Aided by this knowledge he knew that he could see and plan his future. Therefore, man has evolved a method for forecasting events based on the stars and the planets. More than five thousand years ago Parasara had said - Lord Vishnu assuming the form of planets bestows the fruits of actions to all individuals. In other words, by treating these celestial bodies to be divine man has worshipped them being aware that they do influence but certainly do not cause or dictate the course of events. What then indeed determines Fate? No one really seems to know.
There are the stars and of course there are the numerous galaxies active and radiating enormous amount of energy from whose influence no part of the vast, wide and open universe is actually free. It is a dynamic universe we live in. The Sun, the Moon and the planets seem to either obstruct or modulate the free-flow of the Cosmic radiation or activate an yet unknown latent force which causes specific and significant impacts on all that which exists, on all matter and including on the life-patterns of all living beings on Earth by offering themselves as points of concentration and by reorienting their own contribution to the highly active energy-flux. Verily the roles played by the planets and the stars in the life of man were revealed by Divine Sight. The mechanics of that revelation cannot be explained even if the scientists of to-day have re-discovered that the human body emits an aura which changes according to the health and the mood of an individual though long ago it was said that the complexion of an individual becomes modified by the colour corresponding to the element assigned to the planet ruling the current dasa or period. Therefore, even if we are able to extract scientific explanation for such kinds of change and even if we succeed in formulating the principles governing those changes we are unlikely to class Jyotisa or Astrology as an empirical science. Our ancients who had propounded the principles of prediction were conversant with the science of astrophysics and possessed a high level of inferential ability. They may not have owned the vast array of instruments since developed and now in use but they were able to draw inferences with astounding results from what they observed in the ordinary course. The brain which is the seat of the mind is indeed our most active and refined laboratory ever built or created and we know that the brain is still evolving. Our ancient seers had gained super-consciousness by awakening their innereye rooted in the mind. And, as it really is, the mind that knows no barriers harbours thoughts, the very thoughts which gradually grow and mature on account of added knowledge providing to it all essential know-hows. But knowledge as we generally know is not inborn, it is required to be gained which gain does not come about easily though more one gains knowledge the more perfect one becomes. It is those striving for this gain and perfection who find individual life-spans to be too brief, they are the ones who justifiably pray for grant of longer terms of life.
It has been rightly said that revelation requires a human agency for its own manifestation. This is so because human beings alone are capable of co-ordinate thinking, expression, and communication and wilful re-call of memory that cannot be possible without prior effortful and dedicated learning and because revelations are meant for human beings. Therefore, our ancients were careful to learn i.e. gain knowledge and wisdom, for fear when those teachers who were eager to impart knowledge had departed there would be nobody living who would tell them what could not be otherwise heard what could not be otherwise thought and what could not be otherwise known. It has also been rightly said that an edifice is built brick by brick no matter how, when and who lays them, and that a highly trained intellect alone recognises the fact that knowledge can be more dangerous than ignorance. It is at this stage of knowing and understanding that the distinction between higher knowledge and lower knowledge becomes revealed and relevant based on the knowledge and understanding of the distinction between the way of life and the way of realisation for gaining which knowledge and understanding our ancients in their pursuit of Truth having found the cosmological and the theological approaches unworkable took recourse to the psychological approach and concluded that Reality possessed of attributes and Reality without attributes could both be perceived but conditionally. They had therefore, once remarked that Truth is known to him to whom it is unknown, he does not know to whom it is known. Indeed, the cloak of mystery donned by Reality has made our life ever so very exciting, challenging and adventurous by filling it with actions and events both bitter and sweet that hardly give us any space to relax. These actions and events also stoked by our insatiable thirst to know more and more have made us realise that the process of learning cannot unfold within the confined spaces of the mind stifled by ignorance, delusion and greed. Our experiences in order to enable us to reach the regions that lie beyond all phenomenal manifestations and speculations have also made us learn how to cross all such holding barriers erected by the mind. We are now aware of the chariot pulled by the seven-named swift horse that provides power to its seven sections and drives that chariot through Space, through Time, and through Causality. We are aware that the gross and the subtle objects that cross our path are merely phenomenal appearances and therefore perishable in nature, what does not perish is the undecaying essence of things which is supersensuous and unmanifest. We are aware that in addition to the outer-world there is also the inner-world, the world of the mind, of that mind which is the internal instrument that differentiates and has Ego as one of its parts. And, importantly, we are also aware that the Light spread beyond the heavens, beyond the whole creation, beyond everything in the highest worlds that are unsurpassingly good is certainly the light that burns ever so brightly within us all. Our efforts to understand Time have continued without any break. Our understanding of Time has gradually made us aware of our designated role in the broad scheme of things. Therefore, we are no longer mere spectators but a band of excited and enthusiastic visionaries capable of anticipating events and prepared to deal with their consequences. We now know that space does not only exist between objects it also exists between two letters and two words as also between two intervals of time. Having learnt about the unconditional relation between how and why of the observed occurrences we have fearlessly dared to venture beyond all spatio-temporal bounds of Causality. We have dared to go beyond the limits of ordinary consciousness to firstly reach the state of extraordinary consciousness and then to the most refined state of super-consciousness. We are no longer afraid to seat ourselves as a radiant Sun face to face with all glowing Suns that keep all worlds in the universe ever-lit by day-light. We have since realised that all existence is consciousness alone and the origin of Existence cannot be conceived for, as Sankara explains, whatever is understood to be the primary cause will itself be Brahman, the pure Existence. All that surrounds us is Brahman. We are that Brahman.