Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 72)

September 17, 2001

Parts 1 to 71 were posted earlier. This is part 72. Your comments are welcome... Vivekananda Centre London

Earlier postings can be seen at http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 72

3. The Projection of the Universe Proceeds from the Finer to the Grosser

In the Samhita, old and ancient as it is... we meet with the ...idea of force..... All the forces, whether you call them gravitation or attraction or repulsion, whether expressing themselves as heat or electricity or magnetism, are nothing but the variations of... unit energy. Whether they express themselves as thought reflected from the antahkarana, the inner organs of humanity, or as actions from an external organ, the unit from which they spring is what is called prana. Again, what is prana? Prana is spandana or vibration. (41)

The akasha, acted upon by repeated blows of prana, produces vayu or vibrations. This vayu vibrates; and the vibrations growing more and more rapid, result in friction, giving rise to heat, tejas. Then this heat ends in liquefaction, apah. Then that liquid becomes solid. We had ether [akasha] and motion [prana]; then came heat, then it became liquefied and then it condensed into gross matter. (42)

We see that the whole thing has been resolved into two, but there is not yet a final unity. There is the unity of force, prana; and there is the unity of matter, called akasha. (43)

This body is made of particles which we call matter, and it is dull and insentient. So is what the Vedantists call the fine body. The fine body, according to them, is a material, but transparent body, made of very fine particles, so fine that no microscope can see them. What is the use of that? It is the receptacle of the fine forces. Just as this gross body is the receptacle of the gross forces, so the fine body is the receptacle of the fine forces which we call thought in its various modifications. First is the body, which is gross matter with gross force. Force cannot exist without matter. It requires some matter to exist; so the gross forces work in the body, and those very forces become finer; the very force which is working in a gross form works in a fine form and becomes thought. There is no distinction between them; simply, one is the gross and the other the fine manifestation of the same thing. Neither is there any distinction between this fine body and the gross body. The fine body is also material, only very fine matter; and, just as this gross body is the instrument that works the gross forces, so the fine body is the instrument that works the fine forces.

From where do all these forces come? According to Vedanta philosophy, there are two things in nature, one of which they call akasha, which is the substance, infinitely fine; and the other they call prana, which is the force. Whatever you see or feel or hear, such as air, earth, or anything - is material, the product of akasha. It goes on and becomes finer and finer, or grosser and grosser, changing under the action of prana. Like akasha, prana is omnipresent and interpenetrating everything. Akasha is like water, and everything else in the universe is like blocks of ice made out of that water and floating in the water; and prana is the power that changes this akasha into all these various forms. The gross body is the instrument made out of akasha for the manifestation of prana in gross forms such as muscular motion, or walking, sitting, talking, and so forth. That fine body is also made out of akasha, a very fine form of akasha, for the manifestation of the same prana in the finer form of thought. So, first there is this gross body. Beyond that is this fine body, and beyond that there is the jiva, the real Person. Just as the nails can be pared off many times and yet are still part of our bodies, not different, so is our gross body related to the fine. It is not that human beings have a fine and also a gross body; it is one body only; the part which endures longer is the fine body and that which dissolves sooner is the gross. Just as I can cut this nail any number of times, so, millions of times I can shed this gross body, but the fine body will remain. (44)

Something cannot be made out of nothing. Nor can something be made to go back to nothing. It may become finer and finer and then again grosser and grosser. The raindrop is drawn from the ocean in the form of vapor and drifts away through the air to the mountains; there it changes back again into water and flows back through hundreds of miles down to the mother ocean. The seed produces the tree. The tree dies, leaving only the seed. Again it comes up as another tree, which again ends in the seed, and so on. Look at a bird, how from the egg it springs, becomes a beautiful bird, lives its life and then dies, leaving only other eggs containing germs of future birds. So with the animals, so with human beings. Everything begins, as it were, from certain seeds, certain rudiments, certain fine forms, and becomes grosser and grosser as it develops; and then again it goes back to that fine form and subsides. The whole universe is going on in this way. There comes a time when the whole universe melts down and becomes finer and at last disappears entirely, as it were; but remains as superfine matter. We know through modern science and astronomy that this earth is cooling down and in course of time it will become very cold; and then it will break to pieces and become finer and finer until it becomes ether once more. Yet the particles will all remain to form the material out of which another earth will be projected. Again that will disappear and another will come out. So this universe will go back to its causes; and again its materials will come together and take form, like the wave that goes down, rises again, and takes shape. The acts of going back to causes and coming out again are called in Sanskrit sankocha and vikasha, which mean shrinking and expanding. To use the more accepted words of modern science, they are involved and evolved. You hear about evolution, how all forms grow from lower ones, slowly growing up and up. This is very true; but each evolution presupposes an involution. We know that the sum total of energy that is displayed in the universe is the same at all times and that matter is indestructible. By no means can you take away one particle of matter. You cannot take away a foot-pound of energy or add one. The sum total is always the same. Only the manifestation varies, being involved and evolved. So, this cycle is the evolution out of the involution of the previous cycle, and this cycle will again be involved, getting finer and finer; and out of that will come the next cycle. The whole universe is going on in this fashion. (45)

[God's] knowledge comes out at the beginning of a cycle and manifests itself; and when the cycle ends, it goes down into minute form. When the cycle is projected again, that knowledge is projected again with it. (46)

Rig Veda, 10.129

Brih. Up., 2.4.10

Ka. Up., 2.3.2