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saidevo
16 April 2008, 09:35 AM
Negation as Condition of Interplay between the Self and the Not-Self

IN the last chapter we dealt with the affirmative aspect of Negation; as the Energy which links together, in an endless chain of Causality, the factors of the succession of the World-Process; as the necessity of the Whole which appears as the Cause of each part; as the Relation of cause-and-effect between all the parts.



Seeing such relation (L. ratio, ratus, to think, to reason) is reasoning, ratio-cination, re-lat-ion-ing (L. re, back, latus, to carry, to bear, to bear or carry one to another, and back, to and fro. in mind).

There is a deep reason why the words 'cause' and 'reason' should be equivalent and often synonymous and interchangeable; it is the fact, already mentioned, that the Universal Mind or 'Pure' Reason, Cosmic Ideation of the Whole, (bearing or carrying all parts, at once, within itself, in re-lation or ratio to each other), is the cause of the appearance of each portion, in succession, i.e., is the cause of each event. The Samskrt words kAraNa and hetu are similarly allied: kAraNa is active cause, hetu is passive condition, reason, motivating end or propose.


We turn now to the negative aspect, of Negation, wherein it appears as the Condition or conditions, of the Interplay between Self and Not-Self; the conditions in which the succession of the factors of the World-Process appears and takes place.



In the technical phraseology of the Nyaya, that which is called cause here would be, generally, kAraNa; while condition would be sAdhAraNa-nimitta, or hetu.


A little reflection will show that cause and condition are only the positive and negative aspects of the same thing. A cause may be said to be a positive condition, and a condition a negative cause.

Let not the objection be taken here that we are transporting, by an anachronism, the notions of our life at the present day, to a primal stage wherein pure ultimates or penultimates and subtle undeveloped essentials only, of the universe, should be discussed. It has been pointed out, over and over again, that there is no gradation, no development in time, from the abstract to the concrete. The two underlie and overlie and inextricably interpenetrate one another and are coexistent.



To philosophy, the whole of all history is, as it were, ever present; all change is always within the Changeless. All the states that appear as successive stages in the life, or history, of any 'individual' organism, species, genus, kingdom, planet, solar system, in any given place, are to be found existing simultaneously in different individuals in different places.

God has not disappeared and become absent after a single act of creation, The forces and factors of the World-Process, working at any past or future time, and near or distant place, are all working now and here, overtly or covertly, whenever and wherever we may think of them.


And, even were it otherwise, that which appears in development must have been in the seed all along. The World-Process is in and is the Absolute. Metaphysic only endeavours to trace each abstract and concrete fact of our life, taking it, as it stands before us, back into its proper place in the Absolute, in the Changeless Whole, and so to free us from the nightmare of overpowering, irresistible, uncontrolable Change. Therefore, taking the words 'cause' and 'condition' in the sense in which we find them used to-day, we may legitimately try to show that these senses correspond to aspects of the ultimates.

Many Kinds and Names

Other ways of looking at them are to regard causes as successive and passing conditions, and conditions as persisting and coexisting causes; that is, that causes are conditions which cease to 'exist' when the effect begins to 'exist', and that conditions are causes which persist throughout the existence of the effect as well as before and after; and so on.

Looked at from the standpoint of the Absolute, inasmuch as everything is necessarily connected with everything else, and the Whole only is the source of each part, all these various ways of describing cause and condition resolve themselves into merely various ways of describing the different relations, all equally necessary, of facts, or parts, to each other.

Out of these various ways we have the many distinctions between final cause, efficient cause, material cause, formal cause, instrumental cause, movement or action, motive, etc., in western philosophy: and between nimitta, samavAyi, upAdAna, a-samvAyi, saha-kAri, sAdhAraNa-nimitta or mukhya, asAdhAraNa-nimitta or amukya, uddeshya, karttA, kriyA, kArya, prayojana, hetu, kAraka etc., all different kinds of kAraNa, 'causes', with their divisions and sub-divisions, in the eastern systems.



निमित्त, समवायि, उपादान, अ-सम्वायि, सह-कारि, साधारण-निमित्त,
मुख्य, असाधारण-निमित्त, अमुक्य, उद्देश्य, कर्त्ता, क्रिया, कार्य,
प्रयोजन, हेतु, कारक

Gita, xviii.13-15, speaks of five kinds of kAraNAni or hetavaH. All such are classifiable under our 'Cause' and 'Condition'.

Each system of philosophy has its own classifications and technical names. Buddhist systems have yet others; thus:

"six kinds of causes and five of effects are kAraNa-hetu and adhipati-phalam; saha-bhU-hetu and purusha-kAra-phalam; sampr&yukta-hetu and vipAka-phalam; vipAka-hetu and vi-sam-yoga-phalam; and sarvatra-ga-hetu.

Or, (according to another system), four pratyayas (causes or conditions), viz., adhipati, Alambana, sam-an-antara, and hetu, (i.e., additional cause, objective canse of mental process, immediate cause, and direct cause)".
--Systems of Buddhistic Thought, by Yaamakaami Sogen, pp.309-315 (pub. 1912, University of Calcutta).


Positive and Negative Aspects

The one common characteristic of cause, running throughout all these, is that which is given by the old Nayyaayikas: "which being, the effect becomes, and, which not being, the effect does not become" (Bhimacharya, Nyaaya-kosha, p. 197, article kAranam, cause), the principle of concomitant variations, in short, as it is called in western logic.

• The first half represents the positive aspect, the one true universal 'cause', corresponding to the Self, the affirmation, the Shakti element of the Negation;

• and the second half, the negative aspect, the one true universal 'condition', corresponding to the Not-Self, the denial, the negative element of the Negation;

whereas all other so-called particular causes or conditions are in reality only so many effects, which have taken on a false appearance of cause or condition by reflection--in the succession of the World-Process--of the true universal Necessity which makes each particular a necessary fact, and so a cause and a condition, with reference to all other particulars; that is to say, makes each particular appear as the necessary effect of preceding, and the necessary cause of succeeding, particulars, in an endless and unbreakable chain, the whole of which chain, however, is only One Effect which is identical with its One Cause, the necessity of the Absolute.

saidevo
17 April 2008, 06:23 AM
One Cause, One Effect

We thus see that, in empirical detail, Self or Spirit and Not-Self or Matter are, neither of them, either cause or effect; but that the changes of cognition, desire, and action, and of qualities, substance, and movement, of which they are the form or substratum, are causes or conditions, and effects or results, of one another in turn; and that the transcendental totality of these changes, being regarded as one effect and result, has for one cause, the Shakti-Energy, and for one condition the Negation, embodied in the third factor of the Absolute.

Triad of Conditions

This Shakti-Energy, we have seen, has three aspects: attraction, repulsion, and rhythmic alternation or revolution; or creation, destruction, and preservation.

Negation proper has also three aspects: desha, space, kAla, time, and kriyA or ayana, motion.



deshakAlakriyA Ashrayam occurs in Bhagavata. IV.xxix.67; in the Yoga-bhashya by Vyasa, desha-kAla-avasthAbhedena 'by difference of time, place, and circumstance', is an expression of frequent occurrence in Samskrt literature.

The Biography of Man, the whole History of all things, individuals, groups, institutions, nations, races, kingdoms (of Nature, mineral, vegetable, etc.), orbs, worlds, systems, is all comprised in the six forms or ways of existence, bhAva-vikArAh, viz.,

• is born i.e., appears or comes into manifest existence, grows, stays, changes, decays, and dies or disappears;

• jShaD bhAvavikArAH, jAyate, vardhate, tiShThate, vi-pari-Namate, hIyate, mriyate;

• षड् भावविकाराः, जायते, वर्धते, तिष्ठते, वि-परि-णमते, हीयते, म्रियते

The yet higher categories under which these six are comprised, are, and asti and na-asti, 'is' and 'is not'.


These are the triple guNas, or aspects, of Negation, in the same way as sat-chid-Ananda and sattva-rajas-tamas are the guNas of pratyag-AtmA and mula-prakrti respectively.

• Negation, with respect to the One limitless Self, in whose consciousness the negated Not-Self, the countless Many, are co-existent, is negation Everywhere, in Simultaneity, is the utter blankness of pesudo-infinite and kutastha-seeming Space.

• Negation, with respect to Not-Self, the pseudo-infinite Many, which find themselves posited and denied in that consciousness turn by turn, is negation Everywhen, in Succession, is pseudo-infinite and everflowing Time.

• Negation with respect to Negation, is the endeavour to affirm, to justify, the consciousness of the inseparable connection between Self and the repudiated Not-Self everywhere, everywhen, everyway; this can be done only in and by means of un-end-ing Motion, which is the one way to encompass all space and time.

Motion, in and by which only, Space and Time are joined together and realised, even as Self and Not-Self are realised in and by the Negation.

Space-Time-Motion

Let us dwell for a moment on the fact that Space, Time, and Motion are the guNas, qualities, of Negation.

We see readily, on even slight reflection, that Space and Time are mere emptinesses, vacua, which may appropriately be regarded as phases of Na, Not, the Naught. Motion presents a little more difficulty. We seem to feel that it is something positive. Yet this is due only to the fact that we are thinking more of the moving thing than of its motion.

Let us try to (seem to) think of motion as separate from the moving thing, even as we (seem to, but cannot really) think of space and time as (quite) separate from extended or enduring things; and we shall see at once that it is as much an emptiness as the latter; indeed is nothing else than an emptiness which combines in itselt the emptinesses of the other two, since we know Space and Time only by Motion; in slumber, all three disappear together.

It is thus doubly empty. Space seems, Time seems, to leave a trace behind. More, we feel as if Space is, there, always, before us; we feel that even Time is, there, always. We speak of even the past and the future as if they were something positive, something recoverable, something contained, locked away, in the present which we hold in our hands. But Motion? it is gone and has left no trace; lines traced on running water, birds' flights in the air. Of course the moving or the moved thing may remain, but that is not motion, any more than it is space or time. Motion, then, is verily the most negative of negations.

शकुन्तानां इव आकाशो, जले वारिचरस्य च,
यथा न लक्ष्यते पन्थाः, तद्वत् ज्ञानवतां गतिः ।

shakuntAnAM iva AkAsho, jale vAricharasya cha,
yathA na lakShyate panthAH, tadvat j~jAnavatAM gatiH |

"As the path cannot be traced, of fish in water, or bird in air; so cannot be traced the passage of the knowers, in the ocean of Omniscience, from the Limited to the Limitless."

Views Change with Standpoints

Another point. Space, Time, and Motion have been shown here as broadly corresponding to Self, Not-Self, and Negation respectively. But too much stress should not be laid on, nor too much precision expected in, these correspondences.

Where everything is connected with everything, the distinguishing of such correspondences can only mean that certain facts, as viewed from a certain standpoint, are seen to be more specially connected with each other than with others. Change the standpoint slightly, and new connections are thrown Into relief and old ones retire into the shade. This is seen to be the case, more and more, as we proceed from the simple to the complex.

In the very instance now before us, for example, with reference to the fact that Negation is the nexus between Self and Not-Self, Motion may be said to correspond to Negation, as also being a nexus between Space and Time.

But take another triplet into consideration: jnAna-ichChA-kriyA. Here, while it may be said that the condition of chit or jnAna is Space, implied in the 'co-existence' of subject and object, knower and known, it does not seem quite fitting to say that the condition corresponding to sat or kriyA is time, and to Ananda or ichChA is motion.

Of course it would not be altogether incorrect to say even this; yet it seems more obvious to say that, kriyA corresponds to motion, and ichChA to time, which, in terms of consciousness, is memory of past pleasure and pain, and present wish, and expectation in the future, to secure the one and avoid the other again.



Eros as Memory

One name for kAma-Eros, a form of desire, is smara, which means memory. Incidentally, it may be noted that Space-Time-Motion are the 'empty' essentials of the Great Illusion, Life, in everyway. Life is pleasurable and healthy, when it is 'spacioas-leisurely-easygoing'; it is unpleasant and unhealthy, when 'cramped-hurried-driven'. To do fixed work, in fixed place, at fixed time, is to be 'orderly'; to do otherwise, is to be 'disorderly', unorganised, inefficient and ineffectual and unhealthy.


On the other hand, we may not unjustifiably say that Motion corresponds to ichChA, because ichChA implies a movement from the past through the present towards the future; and that the succession involved in kriyA is Time.

Or, again, we may consider the matter without inaccuracy in this manner: Space seems something overt, almost visible, one may say; Motion also seems overt, something visible; but Time is hidden, it is a matter for the inner consciousness only, (except on the face of the clock, where kriyA, active movement, is patent), as ichChA is the hidden desire between an overt cognition and an overt action; therefore, while Space and Motion may correspond with overt Self and Not-Self, Time should correspond with covert Negation.

Arguing from the mere words also, one may say that Self and Not meet in Not-Self; therefore Space and Time, meeting in Motion, should be assigned to Self and Negation, respectively; while Motion should be assigned to Not-Self.

Yet again, we may correctly say that Time is realised only by change, i.e., Motion, and Motion is possible only in Space, therefore Space is the meeting-point of the two, and so should correspond to the nexus, i.e., Negation. And so on.

We see thus that, from different points of view, one and the same thing appears in different aspects. For the present, seeing that Motion has almost unanimously been regarded, in East and West, as incorporating both Space and Time, we may accept the correspondence noted first, viz., that of Space, Time, and Motion, to Self, Not-Self, and Negation, respectively, as the most prominent. Let us now take up each of these three separately.

saidevo
18 April 2008, 12:43 AM
(A) SPACE
Space is Co-Existence

Space is the Co-existence, saha-astittA, together-being, saha-bhAva, together-moving, saha-chAra, paired-ness or simultaniety, yaugapadya, of the Many. [सह-अस्तित्ता, सह-भाव, सह-चार, यौगपद्य]

It is the possibility of the coexistence of the many, and the actuality of their non-existence.



In actuality, space is limited, and so come to be the possibility of the co-existence of a few, and impossibility of more; thus, when fresh passengers try to enter a crowded railway carriage, the occupants cry out. "There is no space here: please go to another carriage where there is, i.e. where there are no occupants."


The Self is one and opposed to the many at once and eternally; hence the coexistence of the countless not-selves as well as their endless succession. The form and result of their coexistence is mutual exclusion, which produces the duality of 'side by side', 'one beside another', with the intervening space 'between', as the completing third which connects the two, one on each side. This triplicity of 'side, beside, and between', pArshva or pakSha, apara-pArshva or apara-pakSha, and antara, appears in Space as viewed from the standpoint of Not-Self. This triad may also be expressed as atra, here, tatra, there, and madhya, the middle space, the 'in between'. [पार्श्व, पक्ष, अपरपार्श्व, अपरपक्ष, अंतर; अत्र, तत्र, मध्य ]

Triads of Space

Viewed from the standpoint of Self, Space may also be said to be the coexistence of Self and Not-Self. But the coexistenee of these two is scarcely a co-existence. Such co-existence can properly be ascribed only to things of the same kind and nature, on the same level, and side by side with each other; while Self and Not-Self are opposed in nature; the one is Being, the other is Non-Being. Their coexistence is only through and in the way of the third factor, Negation; i.e., Not-Self does not exactly co-exist with Self; it rather exists in it, in its consciousness, and exists only to be denied.

Hence we have another form, though not essentially different in nature, of spatial relations, than that described above as 'side, beside, and between'. This other form is that of 'in and out', antah, and bahih, 'internal and external', 'core and sheath', both held together in the 'through and through', sarvatah, the 'whole', the 'pervading', vyApta. [अन्तः, बहिः, सर्वतः, व्याप्त]

Thus we have another triplicity in Space with special reference to Self. In this, again, from the standpoint of the universal Self, that Self is the enveloping Space, pure, colourless, abstract, in which the etats, the this's, live and move; and so It may be said to be the outer, and Not-Self the inner. It is this aspect of Self, Pratyag-AtmA, which has probably given to Param-AtmA its best-known name, Brahma, Boundless Immensity, from the root bRuh, to grow, to expand, to be vast. [khaM brahma, Chhandogya and Brhad-aranyaka bRuh, bRuMha, barhati, bRuMhati, increases, expands; also bRuhati, works, labours incessantly.]

But from the standpoint of the individual, an 'aham' limited by an 'etat', Self is the inner core and Not-Self the outer sheath.

Point, Line, Space

We may distinguish another form of the triplicity of Space, with reference to Negation, viz., 'point, radii, sphere', bindu, jIvA or trijyA or vyAs-Ardha, and gola. [another triad, included in this would be be centre--diameter (or line)--circumference, kendra--vyAsa--vRutta]

The other triplets of words, too, express nothing else than emptiness and negation, but this mathematical triplet seems to be even more abstract, more empty of content, if possible; hence the propriety of regarding it as arising from a view of Space with special reference to Negation.

Other ways of expressing the triplicity involved in Space may be said to be 'behind, here, before', and 'length, breadth, and depth', which last is the best known and most commonly mentioned form of the dimensions of space.

As the mathematical kinds of Motion are pseudo-infinite, as the standards and measures of Time are pseudo-infinite, so the degrees and measures of Space or extension are also pseudo-infinite. There are always, and ad infinitum, 'etats' 'this-es', objects, minuter than the minutest and vaster than the vastest. As minute vibrations of motion permeate grosser sweeps, as subtler standards of time permeate larger measures, so smaller sizes and dimensions permeate and pervade larger sizes and dimensions.

Only Three Dimensions Possible

In this sense, as with motion and time so with space, there are not only a certain number, but necessarily a pseudo-infinite number, of dimensions. Otherwise, the triplicity described above, in various triplets of words, represents the three dimensions proper of space, (time and motion also having their three dimensions proper, each, to be mentioned presently); all other dimensions, subtler or grosser, being but permutations and combinations of these three; and the three themselves being essentially ways of looking at the one fact of co-existence.



The fourth and higher and even infinite dimensions of space form the subject of mathematical speculations now, frequently; but it is difficult to understand them in any other sense than as above. It is said that the point 'produced' gives the line, making the first dimension; the line 'produced' sidewise, the surface, the second; the surface similarly, the solid, the third; so the solid 'produced' will give the fourth, and so on.

But let us trace the process backwards; what will the point, 're-duced' yield? And could that again be 're-duced' further ad infinitum? H.P.Blavatsky, in The Secret Doctrine[/i], (I,295,296) expressly repudiates, the notion of fourth, etc., dimensions in any other sense than that of "permeability", substances being able to penetrate grosser ones.

As a fact, a cube 'produced' yields an ordinary three-dimensioned but elongated solid. Also, as a fact, the point, the line, the surface, are mere abstractions, as of back and front, which are distinguishable, but never separable from the solid, in nature.

The Mahatma Letters, p.404, also say that "Humanity belongs to the three-dimensional condition of matter; and there is no reason why in (Deva-SthAna, abode of gods, heaven, [b]svarga), the ego should be varying its dimensions."

The purport of the whole context seems to be that "Space is infinity itself" and as such, has no dimensions, but only finite matter has dimensions, and these are only three, and always must be only three and no more. The notion, that, with the eye, we see only two dimensions, length and breadth is fallacious. In every exercise of every sense, we sense, co-existence,--the presence of subject and object, in the first place, and of many objects in the second. And this co-existence is always three-dimensional. Careful consideration of the ways and movements of even the eyeless animals or animal-cubs even, of the ocean-depths, seems to show their sensing of three dimensions, before, behind, and round and round.


The meaning of this will appear further in connection with the pseudo-infinite lokAh, i.e., planes, grades, kinds or regions of matter, each made and marked by a differently vibrating and differently sized atom. Each supports, serves as AdhAra, substratum, of the next so-called lower and grosser; and each is supported in turn by the preceding so-called subtler and finer. Each behaves in an apparently mysterious, superphysical, and space-transcending way, because of the subtler and penetrative, permeative, pervasive, nature of its vibrations, from the standpoint of the lower; but becomes a part of, one step of, the ordinary, familiar and 'well-understood' scale of matter, including the lower planes from the standpoint of the higher.

एवं परस्परोत्पन्नाः धार्यन्ते च परस्परं;
आधार आधेय भावेन, विकारास्ते अविकारिणः ।

evaM parasparotpannAH dhAryante cha parasparaM;
AdhAra Adheya bhAvena, vikArAste avikAriNaH |
--Vayu Purana, PurvArdha, ch.49. Devi Bhagavata also has a verse to the same effect.

Symbology

In the language of symbology, which yet seems intended to describe literal facts of subtler planes of matter also, this Space may be regarded as meant by the garland of human heads, individual-points of consciousness and atom-points of matter, that Shiva, embodiment of 'negative' ichChA, ever bears upon his breast; each head separate from the other, each side by side with another, yet all united together by the strong single thread of the desire-consciousness of mutual interlinking and inseparability. It may also be symbolised by the dark and giant mammoth-skin that is the outer envelope of that inner God, for ichChA cannot manifest except in Space.

saidevo
20 April 2008, 09:10 AM
(A) TIME

As movement between Self and Not-Self is the basic principle of all motion, so succession, krama, of this movement, of affirmation and then negation, is the basic principle of, indeed is, Time.

Time is nothing else than succession of events. It may also be described as the possibility of the succession of events, i.e., changes in the conditions of objects, and the actuality of their non-cession, non-procession, non-duration, the everstanding witness of their non-permanence, their nonexistence.

• That is to say, as Space is emptiness which is the possibility of the co-existence of objects; which, regarded in itself, and as differing from these objects, is only defined and thrown into relief by them, and is not them; which, indeed, looked at thus, is their absence and their opposite;

• so Time is an emptiness, which is the possibility of the succession of events: is only defined and thrown into relief by those events; and is not them, but their absence and their opposite.

As this succession of events, i.e., experiences, identifications and separations, slackens or quickens or ceases (comparatively and apparently), so the standard of Time changes; it appears to be long or short, or even disappears altogether as in the case of sound slumber, before mentioned, to the individual and limited consciousness.



A person falling sound asleep on a train while it is standing at a station, and waking up again hours later at another station some hundreds of miles distant, is unable to say whether the train has been moving at all, or how far, or how long. For an excellent collection of concrete illustrations of the illusions of space, time, and motion, see S.T.Klein's Science and the Infinite, ch. i, and Mystic Experiences, or Tales from Yoga Vasishtha.


This is verifiable by anyone in the experience of dreams, reveries, and other extraordinary or abnormal psychic conditions, as in hypnotism and trance. The same is the case with the standard of time with reference to waking consciousness; quick steps make short distances, slow paces make long ones; sorrow lengthens, joy shortens time; i.e., the quick or the slow passing of time is something subjective, and the real significance of the length or shortness of time is also subjective, being only the feel of such length or shortness.

In view of the increasing rapidity of means of transit, people now, often, speak of distances in terms of time--'it is so many hours' to a place--rather than in terms of space, so many hundred miles (compare the use of the expression "light years").

Triads of Time

With reference to Self, Time may be said to present the triplicity of 'beginning', end, and middle; beginning, AdI or Arambha, i.e., the affirmation of the 'etat' or its origin; 'end', anta or avasAna, its negation; and the 'middle', madhya, which holds together both.

The inevitable perpetual appearance and disappearance, and disappearance and reappearance, of each 'etat' 'this', due to the double necessity of being limited on the one hand, and yet being also, on the other hand, in the indissoluble relation of contact with the eternal Self, forces upon it a pseudo-eternal succession of its own, apart, as it were, from its identifications and disjunctions with the Self, and gives us another aspect of the same thing. This is that most current form of the trinity inherent in Time, viz., 'past, present, and future', bhUta, bhavat or varttamAna, and bhaviShya, or 'before, now, and after', as viewed from the standpoint of the Not-Self.'

Meaning of Immortality

In this second aspect is contained the secret of personal immortality in brief.



To remember, to know, to realise, that 'I am Immortal', is to become Immortal, is to attain, to achieve, Immortality. Sanat-sujaja Gita (included in Mbh.) records a dialogue between King DhRta-rAshtra and the great Rshi.

सनत्सुजात! यद् इदं शृणोमि, 'न अस्ति इति मृत्युर्' इति ते प्रवादः,
देवासुराः हि आचरन् ब्रह्मचर्यं अमृत्येव, तत् कतरन् नु सत्यं?
अमृत्युं कर्मणा केचित्, मृत्युर् न अस्ति इति च उपरे ।
उभे सत्ये, क्षत्रिय!, अद्य प्रकृते; मोहो मृत्युः संमतोऽयं कवीनां;
प्रमादं मृत्युं अहं ब्रवीमि, तथा अप्रमादं अमृतत्वं ब्रवीमि ।

sanatsujAta! yad idaM shRuNomi, 'na asti iti mRutyur' iti te pravAdaH,
devAsurAH hi Acharan brahmacharyaM amRutyeva, tat kataran nu satyaM?
amRutyuM karmaNA kechit, mRutyur na asti iti cha upare |
ubhe satye, kShatriya!, adya prakRute; moho mRutyuH saMmato&yaM kavInAM;
pramAdaM mRutyuM ahaM bravImi, tathA apramAdaM amRutatvaM bravImi |

"Sanat-sujata! Reverend Sir! I hear thy teaching is: There is no Death. I also hear that gods and titans practised Brahma-charya for long periods, to secure Deathlessness. Which of the two is true? Please instruct me".

"Kshattriya, both are true. Some say Immortality is won by effort and right action; others says that Death-(is) Is-Not. Both views are current in the world to-day, and both are true. The Great Wise Poets hold that Infatuated Forgetfulness alone (of the fact that I is-am Immortal) is Death; and, following them, I say that Infatuated Error (i.e., the Error, a-vidyA of believing that 'I is-am something perishable, fleeting') is Death, and alert Aware-ness (that I-am-I eternally, and the True Knowledge, vidyA, that Death-Is-Not, Death is Naught, is Immortality.

But to this should be added the further consideration that 'All is I, Yea, All is I', and that this is the true Personal as well as Impersonal Immortality. Each 'you', each momentary 'you' is also (potentially) immortal, because touched by the 'All-You-He-She-lt-I', All-Consciousness; because kept in Its Memory by the Universal Mind 'In God's Memory is all being bound'; in that samaShTi-j~jAna (samashti-jnana), (P.-A. ilw-i-ijmA'lI, aql-i-kul), is everything recorded and preserved for ever and ever.

Philosophy, the Search for Truth, [i]begins in an acute desire for Personal Immortality, for redress of all wrongs, for abolition of all pain and all evil. It ends in, is accomplished, achieved, fulfilled, completed, in the disappearance of that desire, and its replacement by the assurance, the realisation, of Universal, Impersonal, All-Personal, Immortality, and Self-identification-dissociation with all good-as-well-as-evil, all happiness-as-well-as-misery.

As Kabir says : pag pag par paigambar jADe, 'a prophet lies buried in earth beneath your feet, at every step you take'; and Hamlet cries: "Imperious Caesar dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away'.

Atoms are incessantly changing from the sheath of one jiva to that of another. The atom-portion is in-destructible, in its own way; the jiva-portion is also such, in its Personality.

"I am separate from all other I's", is also a feeling, an aMtah-karaNa-vRutti, (antah-karana-vytti), a 'mood of mind', which arises in a conjunction of (an) aham-I with (an) etat-this. Analysed, it vanishes.

"You want to be immortal; but which You? Yesterday's, to-day's, or tomorrow's?" Each is different, more or less; less, as the time-interval is less; more, as more. To be 'all-Persons' is the true 'Personal as well as Impersonal Immortality.'


Appearance, Dis-appearance and Re-apperance

Every etat, 'this', being once in touch with the Eternal, must be marked with that eternity for ever. There is no succession of once, twice, thrice, etc., in the Eternal; but every separate etat is under the sway of such succession, and there is a contradiction, an impossibility indeed, involved in the juxtaposition, the coming together and the uniting, of the successionless and the successive. But the two are in contact, there, before us, all around us, irresistibly bound together by and in the Nature of the Absolute.

This 'antinomy of the reason' is soluble only by imposing, on the successive, the false and illusive appearance of the successionless, the eternal, which simultaneously includes all moments of time, once, twice, thrice, first, second, third, etc., by making every 'this' pseudo-eternal, forever-eternal, ever-lasting, in short.

Therefore, every 'this' appears and vanishes and reappears throughout all time (i.e., in the endless consciousness of the Jiva), again and again, as a firefly in the black darkness of a cloud-shut night of the rain-time in the tropics.

Hence, while, in one sense, mukti is eternal, or timeless, having no beginning and no end, as viewed from the standpoint of Pratyag-AtmA or Param-AtmA; in another sense, it is always beginning and always ending, from the standpoint of Mula-prakrti.

In other words, the individual Jiva, viewed as identical with Pratyag-AtmA, and so with ParamAtmA, is never bound and never freed. As such, it can scarcely be said ever to become mukta. It is above and beyond both bandhana, bondage, and moksha, liberation; indeed both are in it always, rather than it in them ever.



बंदन्, मोक्ष । न पापं, न च वा पुष्यं, न बंधो, नापि मोक्षनम्;
न सुखं, नापि वा दुःखं; इत्येषा परमार्थता ।

baMdan, mokSha | na pApaM, na cha vA puShyaM, na baMdho, nApi mokShanam;
na sukhaM, nApi vA duHkhaM; ityeShA paramArthatA |

"Not sin, nor merit; not bondage, nor liberation, not joy, nor sorrow; this is the Final and Supreme Attainment."


But viewed as identical with a piece of Mula-prakrti, an 'etat', a 'this', it is always, in literally endless repetition, falling into bondage, i.e., into identification with, and voluntary imprisonment in, a body, and getting out of that bondage again into liberation, i.e., separation from, and out of, that prison-house.

This is why we read in Puranas that the highest gods and rshis, although all muktas, 'free', 'emancipated', still, without exception, return again and again, cycle after cycle, kalpa after kalpa, passing and repassing endlessly through the spirals, retaining, every one of them, like all other Jlvas, their centres of individuality through pralayas as through ordinary nights, despite apparent loss (from the standpoint of lower planes of matter) of their defining and demarcating circumferences.

But immense complications are introduced into this incessant evolution and involution, by the ever-mutable and everchanging nature of every 'etat', 'this', 'object'. These complications are pseudo-infinite and therefore utterly unresolvable and incomprehensible in their entirety by any individual within limited time and space.

saidevo
22 April 2008, 08:38 AM
Reflection and Re-Reflection

To illustrate the reflection and re-reflection of the triplicity of the Absolute everywhere, as of a light between two mirrors, and also the changes, in correspondence with changes in points of view; we may say that in this triplet of 'past, present, and future', yielded to us by looking at Time with reference to Not-Self; the present is the nexus, or Na, Not, between the past as jnAna and the future as kriyA; or, again, the future may be regarded as the nexus which will connect together and reproduce both past and present; or, the past may be thought of as having contained both the present and the future. The three make a circle, and we may start at any point in it.

Finally, Time, viewed with reference to Negation, may be said to yield the mathematical triplet of 'moment, period, and cycle', kShaNa, samaya, and yuga, or kShaNa, yuga, and kAla-chakra.

Cycles within the Endless Spiral

In symbology, time is kAla, the 'dark', the 'mover', and the 'destroyer, death', all three in one. It is pictured as the vast-sweeping Garuda that conveys, from place to place as need for giving help arises, the god of jnAna, Vishnu; Garuda, the eagle with the two all-covering wings of the past and future, whose sole food and means of sustenance are the small cycle-serpents (that, though belonging to the family of the 'end less' an anta, form part of the retinue of Shiva, the god of ichChA), one of which he eats up every day of his life by ordinance of the Creator.

It may also be the vanamAlA, 'wreath of forest-flowers', that Vishnu wears, representing the endless chain of life-moments strung together by the thread of cognitive consciousness.

It is also the Sudarshana-Chakra the blazing 'sight-pleasing, beautiful-appearing, Discus-Wheel', which overpowers all, which nothing can withstand. It is the Wheel of Life, which Tribetan Lamaism has adopted as the chief symbol of the World-Process.

Yet again, it is the thousand-hooded serpent-king, ananta, 'without end', shesha, 'the ever-remaining', who on his countless heads and coils supports with ease the divine frame of Vishnu as well as the globes of the heavens, one of whose visible forms is the Milky Way, and whom alone, of all the snakes, the eagle Garuda is powerless to touch.



Chamdomayena garuDena samuhyamAnaH --Bhagavata

"Vishnu, god of knowledge, is borne along by Garuda, who is composed, of the songs of the Veda", 'the music of the Spheres'. Elsewhere, the picturing is in terms of yaj~ja varAha, 'the sacrificial Boar'.

Vishnu-Bhagavata, XII.xi, gives other explanations of these symbols, and PraNava-vAda still others; all different ways of looking at the same thing, not inconsistent with each other. kAla or mahA-kAla is one of the names of Shiva, i.e., Brahma, even as kham or Space is. kAlaH kalayatAm aham--Gita, 'Of movers, moving forces, I am (or is) the greatest, kAla, Time'. Compare the English expressions, 'his day is over', 'his time has come', 'your time is up', 'time cures'. Time as cause is the spirit, the genius, of the time; as result, it is the era or epoch, as Maha-bharata says.


Symbology

It may be noted here that the Puranic story assigns Garuda, here regarded as corresponding to Time and Not-Self, as vehicle to Vishnu, the god of sattva, jnAna, cognition, corresponding to Self.

It similarly assigns the 'rosary of human heads', here said to correspond to Space and Self, to Shiva, the god of ichChA, desire corresponding to Negation.

Even more perplexing than these, it assigns Lakshml-Shakti, the goddess of all wealth, splendour, glory, and activity, as consort, to Vishnu, and SarasvatI-Shakti, the goddess of jnAna, knowledge, to Brahma, the god of action.

The Shakti of Gaurl-KAlI (white-black, life-death, affirmation-negation), the goddess of ichChA, is of course assigned to Shiva, the god of destruction, and also of all 'auspiciousness' and blessings.

In Rahasya-traya (Ch.i. See also Nila-kantha's commentary on Devi-Bhagavata, III.1.85.) SarasvatI is said to be the sister of Vishnu; and LakshmI the sister of Brahma; and Vishnu takes Lakshmi in marriage and SarasvatI is given to Brahma. (Devl-Bhagavata, Ill.vi.)

All these and similar other apparent inconsistencies may be reconciled by this consideration, viz., one factor of any trinity is predominant no doubt, in any one individual, and is regarded as essential to that individual's being, as constituting his peculiar nature; still the other two factors are also necessarily present in or about him; otherwise his peculiar nature too could not manifest and would not be; and then they are symbolised as his shaktis, 'powers', vehicles, apparel, ornaments, etc. Right knowledge should result in right action and lead to wealth and splendour; so Vishnu marries Lakshml. Action should be guided by knowledge; so Brahma marries Sarnsvati. And so on.



No doubt, in every national or racial mythology, found at present, there are many simple Nature-myths, in which the 'children of Nature', primitive humans, have simple-mindedly (yet often with profoundly wise poetical instinct) anthropo-morphised Nature-phenomena, facts and forces, in terms of their daily experience. At the same time, there are to be found, in many mythologies, deliberately constructed symbolical myths. This is especially true of Puranic Mythology, almost the whole of which (and it is very large and complex) has an elaborately artificial character, stamping it as symbolical and allegorical.


(This completes the discussion of Time, with that on Motion to follow.)

saidevo
24 April 2008, 02:51 AM
(C) MOTION

We have seen above how the eternal Negation of Not-Self by Self appears as a movement, chalana, gamana, ayana, of mergence and e-mergence, ni-majjana and un-majjana, between the two, because of the limitation of the 'this'. The third, which completes and binds together this duality of 'mergence and e-mergence', may be regarded as the 'continual recurrence' of the process, as continual juxtaposition, sam-majjana, permeation, pervasion.



chalana, gamana, ayana |
moving, going, coming

ni-majjana, un-majjana, saM-majjana |[/b]
sunk, emerge, sink down

Other aspects would be expressed by
saMkochana--vikAsana--spandana
contract--develop--throb

nishvasana--utshva(chCh)sana--shvasana,
in-breath-ing--out-breathing--breathing

layana--sarnaja--saMsaraNa,
disappearing re-appearing procession

nivRutti--pravRutti--anuvRutti
retiring-advancing-circling

and so on.


This movement, considered metaphysically, in the abstract, is the primary and essential principle which underlies and determines all the motion that appears in the World-Process; and it gives us the triplicity inherent in Motion as appearing from the standpoint of Self.

Consequences

From the standpoint of Not-Self we derive another aspect of Motion. It is embodied in, and issues from, the fact that each 'this', besides the movement into and out of Self, which it is continuously subject to, in consequence of the whole-law of the logion, has also a special motion of its own, in consequence of the part-law of that logion.

'This' is the opposite of 'I' in every respect, and the eternal completeness and fulness, the freedom from change and motion, of 'I', is necessarily matched by the limitation and therefore imperfection of each separate 'this'; and the motion of each separate 'this' is the necessary expression of its endless want and changefulness.

If the 'etats', 'this-es', could be really steady and unmoving points in endless space, not feeling any want, and therefore not moving, then the contradiction would arise that the Whole and each part were equal, being both perfect. Hence the Whole, i.e., absolute Brahma, Param-AtmA, and, as identical with it, Pratyag-AtmA also, is often described as a centre without a circumference, or conversely, a circle without a centre, or as that which is all centres only, or is everywhere a centre and nowhere a circumference, or everywhere a circumference and nowhere a centre, and so on.

This is verifiable practically by everyone without much difficulty. Sitting in a quiet place, shutting in the senses, fixing the consciousness upon itself, i.e., Pratyag-AtmA, the universal inward Self, and regarding and denying the whole mass of practiculars summed up as a single Not-Self, the meditator loses all sense of Time and Space and Motion, and the whole of the universe, Not-Self and himself, seems shut up into a single moveless point of consciousness.

Space and Time would not exist if such Motion, as between a particular etat and another particular etat, and, indeed, between all possible etats, did not exist. In other words, this second motion is necessarily due to the fact that each etat, 'this', being opposed to the omnipresent, infinite and eternal, unlimited, 'I', has to oppose it at every point of the whole of its endless being; and thus reproduces and reflects in itself a pseudo-omnipresence.

This pseudo-omnipresence of the limited etat, en-souled by and en-form-ing a self, takes shape as, becomes, is, endless and perpetual Motion everywhere, from moment to moment or period to period of Time, and from place to place, from point to point, of Space. It cannot accomplish the law and achieve, manifest, fulfil, its nature in any other way.

Similarly to be interpreted are the psuedo-omniscience and the pseudo-omnipotence, in potentiality, of each Jiva; each self, as identical with Self, must know and deny, must identify itself with and repel, every etat; and yet it cannot do so, as regards all etats, at once; hence, always a greater and greater compassing, and letting go, and beginning afresh.

Other Triads of Motion

Other ways of describing the fact are these: Motion is the perpetual endeavour of the limited to become unlimited; of the successive to achieve simultaneity; of the finite to secure infinity; it is the constant struggle of Space, or extension, and Time, or intension, to coincide, and to collapse into the perfect Rest, the single point, the rockboundness of Absolute-Consciousness.

This second view of motion, with reference to Not-Self, gives us the triplet of 'approach, recess, and revolution', or 'centripetal, centrifugal, and orbital motion', upa-sarpaNa, apa-sarpaNa, and pra-sarpaNa or pari-bhramaNa.

Some physicists regard vibratory or oscillatory motion as a third primary form of motion, side by side with the translatory or free-path or linear, and the rotary or circular. (Vide Dolbear, Ether, Matter, and Motion, iii.) But it will probably be found on analysis, that vibratory, undulatory, and all other forms of motion are compounded out of elements of the primary kinds suggested in this and the preceding paragraph.

Finally, with reference to Negation, we have the mathematical triplet, in Motion, of 'linear, rotatory and spiral', rju-bhramaNa, chakra-bhramaNa, and Avarta-bhramaNa, corresponding to Self, Not-Self, and Negation.

These three motions sum up in themselves all the possible motions of samsAra, as may be pictured by the diagram on p.432, vol.iii, of The Secret Doctrine (Adyar edn.), if the spines shown therein along the outer side of the single line, whose convolutions make up the whole diagram, were also made parts of, and continuous with, that same single line, and the line were shown as constantly coiling and turning round and round upon itself, like a spiral wire-spring, and all this line and process of coiling were produced and carried round and round pseudo-infinitely.

Symbology

This Motion, the first factor of the second trinity, seems to be figured in the Puranas

• as the hamsa, the 'swan'-vehicle of Brahma, the lord of Action, which hamsa (under another interpretation of the Upanishat-text quoted before) circles with double beat of wing incessantly in the great wheel or cycle of Brahma.

• It may also be the mAlA, rosary of crystal beads, that Brahma ever turns around and tells in his right hand, in constant movement, weaving all single vibrations into one, on the thread of the action-consciousness.

• It may, yet again, be the ever twisting, turning, rolling stream of holy Ganga stored within the same god's 'bowl' of sacred waters, the kamaNdalu.



The statements made in this work as to symbology, it should be borne in mind, are only suggestive. They have no immediate importance here with reference to the general principles underlying the constitution of the kosmos, which are attempted to be outlined in this work, primarily. That they are made at all is only in the hope that the suggestions may be of use and possibly give some clue to students who may take an interest in working out, with the help of puranic legends, the details which issue out of the general principles described here.


The Why of Perpetual Motion

Before passing on to our next subject of discussion, the individual self, or jIva, we may note that although Space and Time and Motion have, like Pratyag-AtmA, Mula-prakrti, and Negation, been treated of in successive order, this is only because of the limitations of speech, which, as has been said, can proceed only is succession.

It must not be imagined, any more as regards the former trinity than as regards the latter, that there is any precedence or succedence amongst the three. They are perfectly synchronous, utterly inseparable, all equally important, and all equally dependent with and on each other, and also with and on the primal trinity, of Self, Not-Self, and Negation.

And all these trinities, again, co-inhere in and are inseparable from jlv-AtmA, Jiva-atom, Jiva-unit, which combines and manifests in itself all of them, and therefore is 'the immortal beyond doubt and fear', if it will only so recognise itself.

He who grasps this secret of the heart of Motion, Time, and Space, will understand Vasishtha's riddle that 'all is everywhere and always'.



And also, incidentally, that orderliness or disorderliness in the conduct of the affairs of this 'mAyA-illusion' of samsAra, the perpetually moving world, depends entirely upon the right or wrong use of these three 'emptinesses', viz., space, time, and motion. To make a proper division of these three, to perform fixed actions at fixed times in fixed places, is to be orderly; to do otherwise is to be disorderly.

But it has to be borne in mind that both order and disorder are relative, and both, ultimately, wholly subjective. To prove to itself that it is not the slave of any particular order, the Self indulges in all kinds of 'dreams'.


The Great Play

For jIva is the tireless weaver that, on the warp and woof of Time and Space, with the shuttle of Motion, weaves eternally the countless-coloured tapestry of all this multifarious illusion-world, carrying the whole plan thereof incessantly within itself, and so carrying 'all', 'always' and 'everywhere' in one. If we turn our eyes to the warp and the woof and the shuttle, we see but the endless tapestry of Penelope that never progresses and never regresses, though worked incessantly.

Law requires more law, and that again more still; to fulfil and justify the opposed necessities, to reconcile the contradictions of the constitution of the Absolute, one process is invented; that shows defect, another is invented; that breeds only new grievances, they are amended; ten more start up, new laws appear to cover them! A laughable yet very serious, a fearful yet all-beautiful, an exceeding simple yet most awesome and stupendous lIlA, pastime and child's-play.

An untold and untellable, a veritably exhaustless, richness of variety, which is yet but the thinnest Maya and pretence to hide the unruffled calm and sameness of the Self. A heart of utter peace within mock-features of infinite unrest and toil and turmoil.

Thus ever goes on this endless, countless, strictly and truly pseudo-infinite complication, this repetition over repetition, reproduction of reproduction, and reflection within reflection.

Yet is it ever reducible at any moment of Space and Time and Motion, as soon as the Jiva really chooses to reduce it so, by simply turning round its gaze upon itself into the eternal peace of the simple formula of the logion: aham etat na, 'I (am)-this-Not'.

This is so, because the complications are not outside of the Jiva, but, as soon as it realises its identity with the universal Self, within it. Forgetting, as it were, its own true nature, it creates them in and by the very act of running after them till it becomes giddy, ready to fall down in depair with its own whirlings, all in vain, like a snake chasing its own tail, which it would find and seize more surely as part of its own self if it but gave up its mad gyrations, and turned back upon it quietly and peacefully and rested still.

"The Self-born pierced the senses outwards, hence the Jiva seeth the outer world, and not the inner AtmA. A wise one here and there turneth back his gaze, from outward to inward, desirous of immortality, and beholdeth the inward Self.'

Countless Paintings on Empty Space

परांचि खानि व्यतृणत् स्वयंभूः,
तस्मात् परांङ् पश्यति, न अंतरात्मन्;
कश्चिद् धीरः प्रत्यागात्मानम् ऐक्षद्,
आवृत्तचक्षुः, अमृतत्वम् इच्छन् ।
केशव!, कहि न जाइ, का कहियै!
अति विचित्र रचन विचारि, तव,
समुझि, मनहि मन, रहिये,
सून् भीति पर, विविध रंग् के,
तनु बिनु लिख्यो चितेरा!
(चित्र अनन्त, बनत अरु बिगरत,
कबहुं न होत निबेरा!)

parAMchi khAni vyatRuNat svayaMbhUH,
tasmAt parAM~g pashyati, na aMtarAtman;
kashchid dhIraH pratyAgAtmAnam aikShad,
AvRuttachakShuH, amRutatvam ichChan |
keshava!, kahi na jAi, kA kahiyai!
ati vichitra rachana vichAri, tava,
samujhi, manahi mana, rahiye,
sUn bhIti para, vividha raMg ke,
tanu binu likhyo chiterA!
(chitra ananta, banata aru bigarata,
kabahuM na hota niberA!)

(O silent Sleeper in this seething Sea !
Plain we behold, and yet speech may not be.
We wander, wonder, search, and then we find,
But find it in the silence of the mind.
Who will believe the marvel, if we say,
Though it be plain, plain as the light of day,
That on the boundless wall of Nothingness,
A Painter full of skill but bodiless,
Limns phantom figures that will never fade,
Though to efface them time has e'er essayed,
Limns forms of countless colours ceaselessly,
O serene Sleeper of this stormy Sea!)

Tulasi Das, Vinaya Patrika, Hymn No.112, to 'Ke-shava', i.e., Vishnu 'sleeping in the waters'.

saidevo
26 April 2008, 11:33 PM
Drama Needs Tragedy-Comedy
NOTE I.

The word 'pastime' may perhaps be thought objectionable, as likely to jar the feelings of least some earnest-minded thinkers who are holders of serious views as to the destinies of man, his relation to God, and the general purpose of creation or evolution.

Readers, who, not content with the solutions now extant of the problems of life, find it worth while to read to the end of this book systematically, will, it is earnestly believed, find that the view of life advocated herein, is not inconsistent with, or exclusive of, any. They will see that it rather includes all the deepest views of, and the highest-reaching wishes for, the future of man, that have been entertained by the most honoured thinkers and well-wishers of their fellow men, so far as such may be ascertained from published writings.

An endless progressiveness, an infinite perfectibility, an ever closer approach to the ever-expanding Divine, are hoped for here also for the human race, most sincerely and strongly. Only, in this work, this view is regarded as constituting not the whole, but only half the truth; as being that aspect of the Truth which is visible from the standpoint of the individual Jiva pursuing the philosophy of Change and its corresponding worship. The other and supplementary half is that, from the standpoint of the universal Self, there is no progress and no regress, No change of any kind, so that if that condition may be described at all in terms of the Changing, then the only words to use are 'Pastime', 'Play', 'unfettered Will', 'uncontrolled outgoing of Life', 'unresisted and irresistible manifestation of the inner Nature', 'the unquestionable Will of God', 'Thy will be done', 'Who shall question Him?', 'My will and Pleasure', 'the Pleasure of the Univeral Self', etc.

Are the free rompings of the child, and the vigorous games of youth, and the vast industries of peace (and un-happily also war) of a nation's matured manhood, that are but as means to the child's rompings and the youth's games--are these such a slur upon life that the word 'Pastime' should jar upon the serious-minded?

Are not, rather, happy homes the very essence of a nation's life, and the child's and the mother's bright smile and laugh and play the very essence of the 'home'?

Play is a thing as serious at least as work, in the well-balanced life. And, while this idea is yielding up to him its full significance, let the reader bear in mind that, as shown by the above inadequate translation from Tulasi Das, a devotee of devotees, whose book, the Ramayana, has been the Bible of hundreds of millions of Hindus, for the last three hundred years--this idea, that the world is the Pastime of the Self has been entertained with loving fervour by at least some of the most earnest-minded of men.

Vyasa himself, in his Brahma-sutra (II.i.33), expressly uses this very word 'lIlA as the final explanation, together with 'kaivalyam', of the appearance and the disappearance of the manifested world: "Play, and Retirement into Sleep and Solitude, as of the ordinary human being."

This book will indeed have failed in its purpose if it leaves behind the impression that devotion to individual Ishvaras, embodying, in greater or lesser degree, the universal and impersonal ideal, has been scoffed at and belittled herein, rather than made infinitely stronger and deeper and more unshakable by being placed on the firm foundations of reason.

Also, indeed, the dire tragedies that are enacted in the world, every moment, would harrow up sensitive souls irredeemably, overwhelming all sense of the equal number of comedies that also are enacted at the same time necessarily, (for the pain of one is the pleasure of another and vice versa), and destroying all faith in the mercy, justice, goodness of God, were it not possible to assure them that all these awful heart-crushing agonies, (as also the dance and laughter), are, verily, as unreal to the Univeral Self, as theatre-plays are to the human spectator.

"God felt defect", "He took no Joy in His Sole-ness, Soli-tude", "He willed: May I be Many", "He Want-ed to love and be loved", "He willed the creation, that His Glory may be known and praised"--such are the causes assigned for the creation of the world by a Personal Creator, even by devout minds. They all, on the least analysis, come only to lIlA, Play, in order to Pass-Time, and En-com-Pass-Space, and sur-Pass-Motion.

Periodic Waking-Sleeping
NOTE II.

The last four lines, in bold type, of p.314, (post #4) may seem to need further explication. How to be all persons? How be personal as well as all-personal, Im-personal or Nonpersonal? How be mortal and also Immortal?

• The subject will probably become clear if the reader will endeavour to understand thoroughly, the nature of (a) Param-AtmA, Pratyag-AtmA, MUla-prakrti, (b) jIv-AtmA, (c) the connection between them all, as expounded in the preceding pages.

• He may also read carefully what is said in this book, in several places, supra as well as infra, on the subject of 'individuality' and 'individuals within individuals'.

• Finally and this may perhaps help him most he should consider the case of the novelist or dramatist-actor who, while always conscious 'at the back of his mind', that he is not identical with any of the hundreds, or thousands, of characters and parts which he creates, yet identifies himself, for the time being, with each of these characters or parts; and, in fact, the more thorough such identification, the more realistic and successful his portraiture or acting.

• Any reader also, of a really fine novel or drama or even history (if it is properly written), may enter so thoroughly into the spirit of each character, that he may (as it were) forget 'his own proper self' for the time, and feel as if he was that character, present in those surroundings, and undergoing those experiences.

• Many dreams are so vivid that when we recall them a {sufficiently long time afterwards1 we begin to doubt and wonder if we did not actually and really pass through that experience while awake.

• Children on the one hand, and, on the other, very old men, are especially liable to such 'illusions'. In 'reveries', which are 'waking dreams', we lose ourselves entirely in and into 'other worlds'.

All Jivas Equal, Infinite; All Experiences Come to Each by Turns

Also, all Jivas have to pass through all experiences, turn by turn.

एते सर्वे एव समाः, सर्वे एव अनन्ताः ।

ete sarve eva samAH, sarve eva anantAH |--Brhad.Up., 1.5.13

"All these are equal; all are infinite".

न ज्येष्टासः न कनिष्टासः एते ।

na jyeShTAsaH na kaniShTAsaH ete |--ShatapaTha Brahmana

"Among these, none is greater, none smaller".

नहि गतिः अधिकाऽस्ति कस्याचित्, सकृद् उपदर्शयति इह तुल्यतां;
न भवति विदुषां महद् भयं यद् अविदुषां समुहद् भयं भवेत् ।

nahi gatiH adhikA&sti kasyAchit, sakRud upadarshayati iha tulyatAM;
na bhavati viduShAM mahad bhayaM yad aviduShAM samuhad bhayaM bhavet |
--Mahabharata, Shanti, ch.291.

"None is ultimately higher, none is ultimately lower; none has, in the nett result, on the whole, a farther, higher, finer reach than any other. Knowing this, that (temporary) misfortune which may cause serious fear and distress to the unwise person who does not know the Truth, leaves the wise one, who knows the Truth, unshaken."

सुखं च, दुःखं च, भवऽभवौ च, लाभऽलाभौ, मरणं जीवितं च,
पर्यायतः सर्वे एव आप्त्वंति; तस्मात्, न मुह्मेन्, न च संप्रहृष्येत् ।

sukhaM cha, duHkhaM cha, bhava&bhavau cha, lAbha&lAbhau, maraNaM jIvitaM cha,
paryAyataH sarve eva AptvaMti; tasmAt, na muhmen, na cha saMprahRuShyet |
--Mahabharata, Shanti, ch.25.

"Joy and sorrow, growth and decay, gain and loss, life and death, come to each and all, turn by turn. Therefore, let none be depressed, none be elated; let all always maintain an equable mind."

क्रमऽन्यत्वं परिणामऽन्यत्वे हेतुः ।

krama&nyatvaM pariNAma&nyatve hetuH |
--Yoga Sutra, 3.15.

"Differences in the order of succession of (the very same) experiences are the cause of those differences of personality or individuality which are marked by or accompany special births in special types of bodies."

"To realise the bliss in Devachan, or the woes in Avitchi, you have to assimilate them--as we do." The Mahatma Letters, p.194. 'We' here means the Masters, Adepts, Rshis.

See also the illustrations, by various examples, of what makes the illusion of difference between persons, individuals, or individualities, given on pp.59-60 and 173-174 of The Science of the Self; pp.62-63 and 411-413 of World War and Its Only Cure--World Order and World Religion; and, in The Essential Unity of All Religions, the sections, in Chap.III, on 'The Mutual Balancing of Pleasures and Pains' and 'Personal and Impersonal Devotion'.

(This completes Chapter XII.--sd)