The Macrocosm

[Guest guest]

There is one fact more to learn about this rising and falling. The

seed comes out of the tree; it does not immediately become a tree but

has a period of inactivity, or rather, a period of very fine

unmanifested action. The seed has to work for some time beneath the

soil. It breaks into pieces, degenerates as it were, and regeneration

comes out of that degeneration. In the beginning, the whole of this

universe has to work likewise for a period in that minute form,

unseen and unmanifested, which is called chaos, and out of that comes

a new projection. The whole period of one manifestation of the

universe--its going down into the finer form, remaining there for

some time, and coming out again--is, in Sanskrit, called a Kalpa or

Cycle. Next comes a very important question especially for modern

times. We see that the finer forms develop slowly and slowly, and

gradually becomes grosser and grosser. We have seen that the cause is

the same as the effect, and the effect is only the cause in another

form. Therefore this whole universe cannot be produced out of

nothing. Nothing comes without a cause, and the cause is the effect

in another form.

 

Out of what has this universe been produced then? From a preceding

fine universe. Out of what has man been produced? The preceding fine

form. Out of what has the tree been produced? Out of the seed; the

whole of the tree was there in the seed. It comes out and becomes

manifest. So, the whole of this universe has been created out of this

very universe existing in a minute form. It has been made manifest

now. It will go back to that minute form, and again will be made

manifest. Now we find that the fine forms slowly come out and become

grosser and grosser until they reach their limit, and when they reach

their limit they go back further and further, becoming finer and

finer again. This coming out of the fine and becoming gross, simply

changing the arrangements of its parts, as it were, is what in modern

times called evolution. This is very true, perfectly true; we see it

in our lives. No rational man can possibly quarrel with these

evolutionists. But we have to learn one thing more. We have to go one

step further, and what is that? That every evolution is preceded by

an involution. The seed is the father of the tree, but another tree

was itself the father of the seed. The seed is the fine form out of

which the big tree comes, and another big tree was the form which is

involved in that seed. The whole of this universe was present in the

cosmic fine universe. The little cell, which becomes afterwards the

man, was simply the involved man and becomes evolved as a man. If

this is clear, we have no quarrel with the evolutionists, for we see

that if they admit this step, instead of their destroying religion,

they will be the greatest supporters of it.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued