Principle of Life

The Principle of Life - .................................................Shrikant Soman

Isha Upanishad Second Stream V 4-5 Part IV Shrikant Soman
Verse 4
One unmoving that is swifter than Mind; That the Gods reach not, for It progresses ever in front. That, standing, passes beyond others as they run. In That the Master of Life establishes the Waters.

Verse 5
That moves and That moves not; That is far and the same is near; That is within all this and That also is outside all this.
….. repeated and continued from Part I, II and III


Let us now consider the objective of this interplay of Being and Becoming, One and Many, Immutable and World of Changing Forms, Infinite Eternal Brahman and the World limited by Space and Time.

Let us look at this from a different perspective. This Movement of this manifested world is a Rhythm. It is a Harmony expressed by the Supreme Reality in the form of Universal Life. This Harmony and Rhythm is created in the Conscious Being through the multitudinous Forms which are nothing but the representative symbols of Itself. It is a formula for ‘knowing’ the Reality which is by itself Unknowable. This expression of Reality in our consciousness goes much beyond what is actually expressed by it. Its depth is much deeper than what is perceived. It is a play of the divine Consciousness – a Leela. This play is for its own Joy. However, we should also note that in this process of creation it does not actually add anything to That which is already complete. It exists in our conscious being. It gets justified by its own existence – and not by any other purpose. There is no purpose of its existence other than the very fact of its existence.

Let us understand that this idea of an objective, goal, purpose etc is a product of gradual self-unfolding by the world of its own true nature. This unfolding is perceived by the individual Souls residing in the forms of creation. The Being progressively reveals itself within its own becoming. This process of the unfolding from Being to Becoming is gradual and progressive. When the Being is self-revealed in the multiple becoming, we get the understanding of Unity in the midst of multiplicity. The whole meaning of the diversity of forms gets radically changed when we perceive this Unity secretly residing in the inner chamber of all the manifested forms.

Though this self-unfolding appears to be natural, there is a governing principle behind it. Its cosmic action has a complexity of consciousness which determines the process of unfolding. The consciousness is not a ‘single’ homogenous principle. It is not as simple as that. Out consciousness has seven levels of existence or grades of conscious activity. At its apex level is Pure Being. At its lowest level is our physical world. The interplay of these various levels of our consciousness creates the worlds. It is the origin of all our activities. It is the constituent of our manifested world. The Master of all these interplay is Brahman. He self-extends himself within the parameters of Space and Time. This is the birth of the Universe.

First, the Earth Principle is the Mother of all material projection of Brahman. He represents himself as formative Nature – Prakriti. Its first appearance is in the form of matter. It is called prithvi or the Earth Principle.

Second, we have Prana which is Life Power. This is called Matarishwan in the Upanishad. It is a dynamic energy of Life. It is also Brahman representing itself in this manifested world. It is in charge of the function of all arrangement and formation of this world.

The Universal Life gets involved in the Matter. It thus establishes the seven levels of consciousness. The interaction of Prana which is a dynamic energy of creation with the material world creates a Matrix of things. This is the origin of the creation of manifold forms and beings. It is the basis of evolution or the gradual unfolding of the Brahman in this manifested world.

Running of the Gods

Running of the Gods - Shrikant Vasudeo
Isha Upanishad Second Stream V 4-5 Part III Shrikant Soman
Verse 4
One unmoving that is swifter than Mind; That the Gods reach not, for It progresses ever in front. That, standing, passes beyond others as they run. In That the Master of Life establishes the Waters.

Verse 5
That moves and That moves not; That is far and the same is near; That is within all this and That also is outside all this.
….. repeated and continued from Part I & II



As the Truth is included in this manifested world of limitations, it is also beyond this world. Similarly, When we dwell in Vidya, that is the knowledge of the One as the Supreme Reality, we are arriving at only one aspect of The Truth. This is because even in understanding of the One, we are taking help of our discriminative mental faculty. Here again, we need to understand that the Brahman is absolute, infinite and beyond discriminations and therefore beyond the grasp of our mental faculty – even if we are here trying to seize the Truth as the One Reality and not its multitude manifestations. Our consciousness can understand One as a ‘representative’ of the REAL ONE BRAHMAN. We can understand One as a ‘contrast with the multiplicity’. Both Vidya and Avidya are the eternal powers of the Supreme Consciousness – ‘Chit’. Any one of the these powers in isolation represents only one aspects of the Truth. This is the common error in popular perception of the Brahman and it needs to be rectified.

Having said so, between the One and the Multitude, between Vidya and Avidya, the One is at the foundation of the Reality. It is more near to the Reality than the Many manifestations. Being is more fundamental than the Becoming. Being is the basis of Becoming and not vice versa. This leads us to the premise that the oneness is our self and the essential nature of our Being. On the other hand, the multiplicity is only a representation of Self. It is becoming of the Supreme Being. Brahman is One Self of All. The manifested world, which is Maya is the becoming of the One Being. However, both the Being and the Becoming or Maya are Brahman. We can not include one of these to the exclusion of the other in our concept of the Brahman. Both the Being as well as the Becoming or Maya are REAL. The Maya is as much Real as the One. To say that the illusion (Maya) is Real appears to be the contradiction in terms. It is not. The apparent contradiction goes to the root of the development of our thought system and the consequent language. If we reject Maya as unreal, then we land up rejecting the Brahman as well. Maya is a Power of Brahman and is very much part of the Supreme Reality. The One is the basis. The multiplicity is the ‘flowering’ of this base reality.

The Running of the gods
Life in this manifested world is an interplay of the two principles of Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha is Sat, the Stable, Immutable principle of Brahman. He is God, Spirit. When Purusha by the power of Chit – the active consciousness, projects itself as Motional phenomena, it becomes Prakriti – Nature. It becomes Force – Shakti. It becomes World-Principle – Maya. All are the manifestations of the One Stable, Immutable Purusha. Prakriti is the executive power. Purusha is the Soul governing, but not itself involved in the action. It takes the cognizance of the action of the Prakriti. It enjoys the works of Prakriti. This duel principle is also represented as the duel play of Ishwara and Shakti. She is the self-cognitive, self-existent and self-effective Power of the Lord. Shakti is the expressive faculty of the Shakta - Ishwara. In the original meaning contained in Veda, Maya is comprehensive and creative Wisdom. The meaning of illusion was attached to Maya at a later development of the philosophy. In the Upanishad, the meaning of the word Maya is as per the original thought contained in Veda – that is comprehensive and creative Wisdom. If we take Maya in the sense of illusion, then we relegate its position to the lower Nature (apara Prakriti). In this lower Nature, it seemed to have forgotten its Divine Wisdom and is absorbed in the experience caused by the separative Ego. This is NOT the sense in which it is used here in the Upanishad. Here what we mean by Maya is the Supreme Nature, which is a creative Wisdom.

We have now to understand as to who are the gods and what is their role in the cosmic scheme of things. Gods are the cosmic Personalities of the One Brahman. They are the various representations of the Brahman – who is also called the Supreme Godhead. These gods are the various play of the principles of Nature. In other words, they are part of the World of Maya. They are placed at the apex position in this Maya World – Prakriti – Nature. All other beings are referred to as the Brahman representing in the separative consciousness of the Many (sarvani bhutani). It should be noted that even the gods are tied to the Wheel of Nature in this manifested world. All this manifested world, including gods and many beings, are making an evolutionary steady and slow progress towards the ultimate Goal of reaching the Brahman. This Goal is working at the background of our consciousness. At the front of our consciousness is our various temporal goals driving us towards their attainment. Brahman is the beginning as well as the ultimate Goal. It is the Cause as well as the Result of the Movement.

Now here comes the twist. Having said these things about the Final Goal of Brahman, we are now giving some clarifications, which may appear to be the change in our position, thought in actuality it is not. This very idea of the final Goal of Nature is itself an illusion – Maya. Brahman is Absolute, Infinite. It is BEYOND THE ATTAINMENT OF GOAL. This lands us in a rather piquant situation of a Mirage in the desert. As we think that we have reached the location of water as indicated by the Mirage, we find that the location of water has further moved forward. This is a continuous process – the water ever keeps on moving forward – ever beyond our reach – though appearing to be an attainable goal. As the gods labour to reach the Goal of Brahman and as they attain their immediate next goal on the way, they find that the Brahman is further moving forward – like our example of the mirage of water in the desert land. This is because we live in our consciousness which is relative and not absolute. Our consciousness can take into cognizance only symbolic representation of the Brahman – which is Unknowable. In other words, we are trying to know something which by very definition is unknowable. We are trying to reach to Brahman when in reality he is beyond our reach – Infinite. If we reach the Goal of Brahman, then he becomes Finite – he loses his essential characteristics of Infinity.

Again a twist in the story. We are not saying that the Brahman is un realisable by the Gods and by us. Brahman is very much realisable. Actually, there is nothing to realise. All things are already realised in Brahman. This manifested world does not lose Brahman in the process of its manifestation. It is only working out by the principle of Causality, in the parameters of Time and Space, through the instrumentation of Prakriti, something which the Brahman already possess. The idea of the Goal is itself illusory. There is nothing to attain when the thing to be attained is already included in the person who is trying to attain it.

Brahman exceeds the Movement. He is beyond Time. He includes in itself, all the three aspects of Time – namely past, present and future. He includes them ‘simultaneously’ so to say. Actually it does not make any sense because on the one hand we take time as ‘linear’ and make the distinction of past, present and future. And on the other hand we use the word ‘simultaneous’ demolishing the very essence of the Time – its linear-ability. This non-sense happens because we are ourselves ‘trapped’ in the function of the ‘linear’ time and trying to comprehend something which is beyond Time. Therefore, the concept of ‘moving’ forward, which implies the functionality of time, is non-applicable. Rather than considering it as ‘illusory’, we better understand the term by referring to it as ‘non-applicable’.

As with Time, so with Space. The Brahman contains in itself all the Formation of this World integrally. It does not have to move forward, as there is no forward for it – all the forward, back-word etc are contained in it at all locations.

Similarly, Brahman exceeds the principle of Causality. Brahman contains in itself all the potentialities and eventualities in a free form. There is no cause and no effect. There is no potentiality trying to realise itself in an eventuality. Both these terms are already included in Brahman at any single event. It contains all these while at the same time is beyond the ‘chain’ of causality. Brahman has already realised everything that is to be realised in his capacity as Lord of the Universe. The apparent process of accomplishment of the individual beings of Personalities of the Brahman is only a secondary aspect of the Reality expressed in Prakriti.

Absolute Brahman and His Manifold Creations

Absolute Brahman and His Manifold Creations - Shrikant Soman

Isha Upanishad Second Stream Verses 4-5 … continued from Part I

Verse 4
One unmoving that is swifter than Mind; That the Gods reach not, for It progresses ever in front. That, standing, passes beyond others as they run. In That the Master of Life establishes the Waters.

Verse 5
That moves and That moves not; That is far and the same is near; That is within all this and That also is outside all this.
….. repeated and continued from Part I

In the manifested world of forms and relations, Brahman takes various forms and it enters into relations with Itself through each human being in a variety of ways. This is the play of divine consciousness. However, in each individual, the Brahman is present in its full entirety and not in pieces. Brahman in its absolute form, can stand back from the multitude of movement and relations. This is his supreme power. However, for the joy of play, he makes the illusion of differentiation between the individual being and the Absolute Brahman. The multitude of relations and forms between different beings in the creation is conceived as distinct from the One unmovable and Supreme Being. This is not out of any compulsion or an error. The Brahman is beyond any ‘necessity’ or the duality of Vidya and Avidya. This differentiation is created solely for the joy of ‘experiencing’ the existence and its play. If this illusion of differentiation between the individual being and other world and the Supreme Being is not created, the world will automatically and naturally get ‘absorbed’ into the Brahman. In other words, this world of forms and relations would cease to exist the moment the illusion or the Maya is removed from the mentality of the creation. All will then become One Brahman. There will be no more any world of creations and relations. This illusion at the universal level is reflected in the individual level of each human being. Therefore, each being considers himself as separate from other human being and also from the Supreme Brahman. The identity with the Supreme Brahman is kept in the background consciousness and the separative Ego come to the front of the consciousness of each human being.

Three possibilities emerge out of this play of separative consciousness and the striving of each individual to get at the ultimate Truth.
1 The individual being may consider himself eternally different from the supreme Brahman.
2 The individual being may realise the oneness of the individual with the Absolute Brahman, while at the same time keep his separative ego and existence.
3 The individual being may completely identify himself with the Supreme Reality.
It should be noted that in the first two possibilities, even if the individual considers himself as ‘different’ from the Supreme Reality, he can not consider himself as ‘independent’ from It. For example, the individual leaves and branches of the trees can consider themselves as different from the main bark. This is also a reality – though only a partial reality. However, these can not consider themselves as ‘independent’ from the main Tree. This understanding has no basis on the physical reality. Similarly, when the individual considers himself as ‘different’ from the Supreme Reality, it is based on the truth contained in the Master Plan of Creation – that is the Drama of the Play of Consciousness being enacted on the World Theatre. Though it is not the ultimate Truth, it is also part of the Truth. However, when the individual considers himself as completely ‘independent’ from the other individuals and also form the Brahman, then it is gross error because it does not have any source in the ultimate scheme of things.

These three different ‘understandings’ of a human being about the Truth are all valid in themselves, though only partially valid. They all represent any one aspect of the same Reality. They are in a sense complete the picture of the whole Reality. They are not therefore to be taken as ‘complementary’ truths and not as ‘independent’ truths. They all are valid simultaneously. They are not mutually exclusive. They are the three sides of the triangle of Reality. Remove any one side, and you have incomplete triangle. This is only an ‘intellectual’ explanation of the Reality. It defies our common logic and understanding. We are able to comprehend any one of this theory at a time. We can not comprehend all the three theories as simultaneous truths and have full picture in our mind. It is something like saying we exist, we exist not and we exist as well as we exist not at the same time and then go on explaining that all these three phenomenon are true and simultaneously valid. Howsoever we stretch our imagination, we will not be able to extend our understanding to envelop the full reality. It is much beyond our ‘intellectual understanding’. The solution is given. The only way to ‘grasp’ this reality in our human instrument is by ‘identity in consciousness with Brahman’. Instead of trying to ‘understand’ the reality, we ‘become’ the reality and ‘experience’ it in our consciousness. We traverse our journey from Becoming to Being. Instead of trying to fully grasp the full terrain of the mountain standing at the bottom of the mountain on one of the side of it, we climb to the peak of the mountain and then have the full view of it.

Even when we reach the peak and get a full view of the mountain, still it is falling short of the complete understanding of the full terrain of the mountain. To do that, we need to ‘become’ the mountain ourselves. This is not possible in our limited consciousness. We can only have the ‘view from the top’ and try to get as near to the full understanding as is ‘humanely’ possible. Our only instrument of understanding is mind. And mind can not ‘understand’ unless it discriminates. And ironically, our quest necessitates us to ‘transcend’ this very ‘discriminative’ faculty of the mind which is its essence. Even when we claim to understand the One Reality as the Truth, we understand it with our mind. The thought of this One-ness is a projection of the mind. However, Brahman is not a creation of thought. In other worlds, we are trying to understand the Absolute Truth by our discriminating mind, while this Truth is Absolute, infinite, eternal and therefore beyond the reach of discriminating faculty.

Our mind can understand anything only when it projects its thought toward something visible or perceptible. It can understand ‘in language’ of words. It can not reach beyond the words. It can only understand symbols and not the truth contained in the symbols. It can understand the truth only through the means of the symbols. We have only a knowledge based on symbols and language of words which is the representative of the Absolute Knowledge. We can not comprehend the Absolute Knowledge directly beyond symbols and words. We can say more definitively what is ‘not’ the Truth. We can understand the Truth by understanding what is NOT the Truth. We can progress by the process of elimination. We thus reach the state of the Void – empty of all that is not the Truth. We thus get nearer to the Truth – as far as it gets and not more. It is certainly better position than being trapped in the illusion of separative identity and multitude of relations with the world and its beings. But we must always keep in mind that the Absolute is not Void or negation. By arriving at the understanding of what is not the Truth, we can not claim to have understood what is The Truth. Truth is certainly included in this manifested world bound by space and time. But it is also beyond the limits of Space and Time.

Identity of God and World

Identity of God and Manifested World Shrikant Vasudeo
IU Second Stream Part I Verses 4-5 Shrikant Soman

Verse 4
One unmoving that is swifter than Mind; That the Gods reach not, for It progresses ever in front. That, standing, passes beyond others as they run. In That the Master of Life establishes the Waters.

Verse 5
That moves and That moves not; That is far and the same is near; That is within all this and That also is outside all this.

The Supreme Creator and his manifested World of Relations do outwardly appear to be separate from each other. However, essentially they are One Brahman.

All the existence as well as non-existence is contained in the Brahman. Therefore, he is the only one stable and eternal Reality. He is beyond the equations of the Space and Time, and therefore, he is beyond the concept of any movement. The concept of movement is based on the two pillars of space and time. Therefore, Brahman is said to be stable and unmoving. Similarly, there is no increase or decrease in the quantity of Brahman because he eternally contains all the manifested and unmanifested world in himself. There is no change in the relations in him because he is beyond causality and relativity.

The essential attribute of this manifested world is the cyclic movement (samsara) of the Divine Consciousness. This is based on the phenomenon of Space and Time. Its whole system as well as its aim is eternal movement forward. Its very existence is based on this movement. When the movement is stopped, the world ceases to exist. However, it should be noted that the foundation of this movement is not material. It is the energy of Active Consciousness. This consciousness appears to be having different applications of his energy in motion and results in multiplication of its forms. However, in essence it is the same Brahman appearing differently in various forms. It creates the impression of opposition of unity and multiplication, divisions of Time and Space, relations and groupings of circumstance and Causality.

All these oppositions are very much real in consciousness. They are NOT illusory. However, beyond the level of our limited consciousness, they are only symbols of the Brhaman, imaginations of the creative Mind. They are true representation of its eternal reality.

We should note that our limited mental consciousness has no power to create this world. This power is vested in something which is far more puissant, swift and unfettered than the mind. And this entity is the pure omnipotent self-awareness of the Absolute. It is unbound by any law of the relativity. Here we should distinguish between gods and the Brahman. The laws of relativity are supported by gods and is a temporary creation. This world appears to be eternal to our limited consciousness but has a limited duration which in itself is immeasurable to us. These laws are valid within the limited context of this manifested world and the gods as well as our human consciousness are part of this world. However, these laws are NOT binding on the Brahman which contains them. The gods are therefore described as ‘continuously running’ in their course. The Brahman is himself stable, eternal and unmoving while containing this world of movement, progression and duration.

The movement of this manifested world has as its basis the quality of eternal stability of the Brahman. In the larger canvas of eternal Immutability, we see the smaller picture of constant shifting of the apparent relations causing the appearance of change. The expression ‘One Unmoving that is swifter than Mind’ has this implied meaning in it. The Upanishad therefore says ‘That which moves and moves not, the one Stable which outstrips in the speed of its effective consciousness the others who run.’

When we say that the eternal reality is Brahman, it does not mean by inference that the multitudinous world of movement is not Brahman and therefore unreal or illusory. On the contrary, this world of forms is very much real. This world is not the figment of the Mind.

The diversity of creations is a play of consciousness of the One which is the eternal truth of things. The sense of Unity is called Vidya – Knowledge of One. The sense of diversity is called Avidya – ignorance of One. Both Vidya and Avidya are real. When Avidya in its inner understanding gets detached from the concept of One as the eternal source of it all, then only it becomes the cause of suffering. Isha Upanishad does not advocate the pure Monism, i.e. the exclusivity of the One as the sole reality. It accepts One as well as the Many as real. It explains the concept of One in his many manifestation. It advocates the duel reality and utility of Vidya and Avidya.
Isha Upanishad says that :
The twin aspects of aim of human life to be the Vidya and Immortality on one hand and
the reality of Life and Birth arising out of Avidya in this manifested world on the other hand,
are both the reality and part of One Brahman. One is not real to the exclusion of other as unreal. Every single atom in this universe is Brahman. Every soul is divine Purusha. It rejects the theory of illusionist or exclusive Monism. It rather takes a synthetic or comprehensive, all inclusive view of the Brahman and the World.

The concept of Brahman being indivisible One is not a mathematical concept. It is an abstract concept. Mathematical Oneness would exclude multiplicity as inconsistent with its theorem. It may on the other hand wrongly accept the Many as its ‘fractional’ parts which combining make it the Whole Number One. The Unity of Brahman is altogether different concept. It is not amenable to decrease, increase or division.

The many movements in the manifested world are given the symbolic representation with the waves of the sea. If by this example is meant that all the waves together constitute the sea, then it is wrong representation of the reality. In reality, each wave is the whole sea itself and not the part of the sea. They only appear to be different from the sea because of their frontal or superficial aspect caused by the motion of the sea. Each single atom in this universe is in reality the whole universe in itself – nothing more, nothing less. It is only the frontal node of manifestation which appears to be separate. Similarly, each individual soul is Brahman – complete and whole. This Brahman regards Itself and the world from a centre of cosmic consciousness.

Every manifestation in this world in its inner reality ‘identical’ with the Brahman and NOT a singular and individual existence separate from the Brahman. It is eternally identical within the limited concept of Time and Space as well as beyond the world of Time and Space.

This duality of existence have their origin in the Chit. Chit is the all creative self awareness of the Brahman. It views itself variously, infinitely, innumerably. It does not stop at that point. It then proceeds to actually formulate what it conceptualises. Chit is power of Vidya as well as of expressive and creative will. At our mundane level of existence, we treat these two concepts as different. However at higher level of reality, they are combined into one – Chit. It is the power of receptive vision as well of formative expression of this vision. These are not two separate powers but one single power of Chit. This is because the original source of Chit is Brahman and not an empty impotent void. It naturally, seamlessly and automatically manifest in reality whatever it inwardly visualises or ‘dreams’. What it visualises beyond the constraints of Space and Time becomes the manifested reality within the limitations of Space and Time.

It needs to be clarified that by creation we do not mean as it is commonly understood in our world of Avidya. In Truth, the creation is not producing something out of nothing or of transforming one or more things or parts thereof into another thing. It is ‘self-projection’ of Brahman in the limiting conditions of Space and Time. In other words Creation is not making but Be-coming. This becoming happens in the conditions and forms of conscious existence.

One Source in All Life

The One Source in all Life Shrikant Vasudeo

Based on Isha Upanishad, Verses 1 – 3 Shrikant Soman


Verse 1
The Supreme Creator is the inhabitant of all the Universe. The individual universe of movement is part of the Universal Motion. By renouncing the concept of the individual universe as separate from the One, man should truly enjoy his life. Keeping this divine principle in mind, he should not crave for the excessive accumulation of wealth for his self alone.

Verse 2
By living life to the full extent in this material world, man should have a very long and healthy life. Renouncing the life is not the way. The action in life does not bind man if it is done in the light of the knowledge of the One as the source of it All.

Verse 3
If one does not live as per this true knowledge of the One and dwells in his egoistic world, then his life is full of darkness. He goes down into a state of blind gloom.

Free Translation

Everything in this Universe is in a flux. There is nothing ‘fixed’. It is the dynamic of motion. Even the objects which appear to be stationery (like stone for example) are inherently in motion only appearing to be fixed to our senses. Ever item in the Universe has the Full Universe contained in it. It is like (actually much more than that) a holographic reality. What we perceive in a material object is only a particular manifested point of the Universe. The microcosm is one with the macrocosm.

A human being who stays in this Universe is subject to its laws. He can not escape them. He is part of the Cosmic Nature. His source of activity is contained in the Universal Activity. It is not separate from it.

Behind this manifested Universe of dynamic motion, is an immutable One Source. This One Source is stable, unmoving, eternal and unaffected by the movement in the Universe of his creation. This varied creations in the Universe with its diverse movements has been created by this One Source to provide for his inhabitation. The Creator who dwells in the multitudinous parts of the Universe is the same – though he appears differently to our perception. This is the play of the cosmic consciousness. In its essence, every human being has a ‘divine spark’ which is the same as the ‘divine spark’ contained in every other human being. He is essentially himself the One Source. Every human being is the One Source. Therefore, it is more proper to call every human being of this Universe as in themselves One Source rather than to call them as ‘brothers and sisters’. Calling brothers and sisters has some element of differentiation even with common parentage. We are not just the children of God, we ARE GOD ! Each one of us. We are essentially free, divine and One.

Inspite of our divine origin, man is engulfed in every kind of sorrow and misery. We see ourselves as separate from every other human being. We are trapped in the vicious circle of Samsara – death, sorrow, ignorance. We do not feel our ‘connection’ with the One Source. We feel ourselves as an independent entity. The essential true and divine objective of our birth is possession and enjoyment of the world. However, we are not able to accomplish this objective. Instead, we are mired in miserable life situations. This is due the Avidya – the ‘memory lapse’ of our origin in One Source and the false feeling of our separativeness from every other object of manifestation. This is the origin of Ego.

Vidya (knowledge of One Source of All) and Avidya (ignorance or forgetfulness of this knowledge) are the twin ‘powers’ of the Creator. They are both essential for the divine play. With these powers, the Creator has the possibility of double existence at the same time. He dwells in the world of multiplicity and relativity with the power of Avidya and at the same time is also in the consciousness of unity and identity of One with the power of Vidya. With the power of Vidya, he is not ‘bound’ by this world of multiplicity. With the power of Avidya, he gets into the play of separative mentality. He identifies himself with the object in movement. He fully ‘absorbs’ himself passionately in this play of Nature. He appears to become ‘forgetful’ of the Vidya – the knowledge of One. And above all, at the background of his mentality, he is having Vidya as his source of activity. This is the double movement of Vidya and Avidya running simultaneously – apparently in the mutually exclusive way, but in reality in a complimentary way.

The Mind in man is the cause of Avidya or shall we say the instrument of Avidya. The action of the mind creates the impression of the visible world as the sole reality with all its limitations. The Lord gets ‘caged’ in our mental definitions and descriptions. It forgets the ultimate reality of the object being the particular ‘front’ of the Whole Universe. Instead, it treats individual object as a distinct and separate sole reality separate from every other object in the Universe. This is the Maya – the illusion – the false appearance – the Mirage. It is created by ‘ahamkara’ the sense of separative ego, the ‘I’ ness of our existence. This ahamkara, though itself of divine origin, creates the illusion of our separative individual existence.

This creates the dichotomy of our existence with the loss of harmony and oneness with the whole of the Universe. This defeats the essential objective of our birth – to possess and to enjoy life. We do take birth anyway, but instead of having ‘possession’ and ‘enjoyment’ we have exactly its opposite effect. We feel the ‘lacking’ and ‘sorrow’ in place of ‘abundance’ and ‘Joy’. However, the basic impulse of our Ego is still to ‘possess’ and to ‘enjoy’. Inwards, this separative is faintly aware of its one origin in Supreme Creator. However because his thinking faculty of mind is obscured by Avidya, he is not able to realise this inner reality in his outward life. It is like loss of transparency of water with the dilution due to impurities being added to it. This is the real cause of our misery. it results in discord with oneself and with others, dissatisfaction with life in general, mental and physical suffering, disease, weakness and inability, sense of obscuration and limitation, lack of power, lack of self confidence. It then results in the wastage of our energy in the false and futile pursuit of passion and craving for self-fulfilment. It leads ultimately to the recoil of energy in itself, fully exhausted and frustrated. The final result is death and disintegration.

The root cause of our suffering is our ‘craving’ towards objects of enjoyment. When one realises his true identity with the Supreme Source of All, he need not crave, because he is already in possession of the Universe, one with it and in full and true enjoyment of all that it contains.

Object of the Divine Life
The essential divine objective of our life is to possess the whole Universe and to Enjoy it. Possession and Enjoyment is NOT contrary to the divine principles. On the contrary, they are the only and main divine principles of our existence. We need to renounce our ‘craving’, which arises our of our separative sense of existence. Then only we will be able to truly and freely enjoy our life.

It should be noted that we are not talking of the moral constraint of self denial. Physical rejection of the world or any of its objects is not demanded. What is desired is the complete liberation of our spirit from any form of craving after the apparent and outward form of things.
What is needed is the liberation from the idea of ego sense. With the liberation from the idea of ego sense, we get the freedom from the craving after material objects. We need to clear ourselves from any of the false sense of the ownership of an object by oneself or by any other person or the sense that any object is absolutely essential for our happiness or the feeling of greediness in our heart. One can have a ‘preference’ or ‘desirableness’ of any object for the purpose of possession and enjoyment. This is in accordance with the divine law. What is to be abandoned is the sense of ‘absolute requirement’, of ‘critical necessity’, of ‘non-violable condition’ of the possession of any particular object. We should not make the mistake of mixing these two separate feelings. One enables us to have full enjoyment, the other leads us towards total misery – though both are essentially derived from the one source.

The cardinal principle behind this rule is the reality of Unity of all existence. The Supreme Creator dwells in each soul. The separative appearance is only an illusion. We need to transcend our Ego and realise the true Self in us. When we do this, we become the Lord of this Universe and have one cosmic consciousness – transcending the limitations of our individual mind. The physical possession of our object of desire becomes a secondary objective. The common man may have the need to prove his ownership of an object, the Emperor has no need to give this proof. He is the owner of his entire empire.

The craving after sense enjoyments also vanishes when we arrive at the stage of infinite delight of existence after we identify with the One Source of All. We possess the cosmic consciousness. We live in this Ananda as our essential principle of existence. We achieve the duel objective of transcendent existence as well as this manifested individualised world of ours. We become inwardly free in our soul while at the same time live in this world of duality with full force.

The freedom of the soul which we are talking here is NOT that of the silent inactive soul. We are dealing with the soul which is fully active and passionately absorbed in this manifested world. This is the most important principle emphasised in these verses. The freedom from the action is NOT to be understood as INACTION. Freedom from action means while doing our action with full force, zeal and passion, inwardly we should be aware of the One Reality of All. Outwardly, we are absorbed in action, while inwardly, we are absorbed in the One Source of All – and therefore liberated from the Karmic effect of our action. Thus it should be noted that the culprit is not the action itself, but our attitude towards it. The Upanishad is absolutely and explicitly clear on this point.

Similarly, the enjoyment of the worldly objects is not by the inactive soul who only ‘witnesses’ the process of enjoyment. The enjoyment is of the active soul who participates in the very process of enjoyment.

On the other hand, it is an absolute condition for the purpose of the completeness and wholeness of our life that we do get fully engaged in this material world by our actions and have a full and joyful acceptance of the terms of the physical life. This world is not to be considered as a necessary evil or a prison of the soul. This world is our opportunity for possession and enjoyment thereby making our life whole and complete. Only then the original Plan of Life by the Supreme Creator gets fulfilled.

The very notion of inaction as a means of keeping oneself free from the entrapment of Karma, by renouncing the world, going in the mountains etc is itself an illusion. This is due to the cosmic principle of vibration. Even our inertia is an action and creates vibration in the cosmic waters. Our inertia itself can create our Karma and bind us down. When we take birth in this body, it is an illusion to even think of escaping from life by any means whatsoever. The very idea which prompts us to refrain from action and find ways and means to escape from life is itself founded from ignorance – Avidya because it treats the manifested universe which itself is a form of Brahman as separate from the Soul. If the manifested Universe and the Brahman are the same, then to escape from this life is like escaping from oneself – which is absurdity. We can not escape life. We have to lovingly and joyfully embrace life.

It is our ill-conceived notion that action is to be abandoned because it is inconsistent with freedom. This notion derives from the understanding that behind every action is desire. It is subjection to the formal energy which drives this action. This makes the soul ‘entangled’ in the action. However, this is not true in the true system of the cosmic law. It is only the superficial understanding of the cosmic principle which falsely makes us believe in this way. Let us see how.

Craving is only a mode of the emotional mind. This mind under the spell of Avidya, falsely believes that the enjoyment is generated by the object of enjoyment. When we live in Vidya, we realise that the enjoyment is generated by the Brahman which resides in the object of the enjoyment. When we crave for Icecream, in ignorance we believe that it is the icecream itself which is the ultimate cause of enjoyment. However when we are enlightened in Vidya, we realise that the real source of our enjoyment is the Brahman dwelling in the icecream. Icecream may be a desirable object for our enjoyment. It is acceptable feeling in our true scheme of cosmic existence. However, craving for icecream as being an absolutely and seriously necessary thing in itself for our enjoyment is contrary to the cosmic principle.

The Energy in Motion is essentially a form of Brahman. He expresses himself through Energy in Motion with perfect freedom. We need to get behind the veil of Nature and arrive at the Lord of Nature. We need to merge our individual into the Cosmic Will. Then we can do all our worldly actions in perfect freedom with divine presence. Our actions are offered to the Lord thereby our personal responsibility for the actions get merged with him and we act in true liberty.

The movement of Nature generate the cycle of Karma and is bound by it. The soul indwelling in us with full awareness of Vidya, the knowledge and identity with One Source of All, is ever free – he is even free from the outward appearance of the binding effect. He is free inside as well as outside in our actions.

To sum up, the true freedom lies not in inaction but in non-identification of self with the movement of Nature and realising our true identity with the Brahman

The event of death does not din-integrate our individual existence. We are still in the wheel of movement. The state of our consciousness is changed to a state other than the physical consciousness. These states are either obscure or illuminated. It may be full of sunlight or ‘sunless’.

When we persistently get absorbed in the gross form of ignorance, crave after material enjoyments in the obscurity of Avidya, get merged in the movement by losing our identity with Brahman, one enters in a state of blind darkness. On the other hand, when we live in the movement with the true knowledge of Brahman as explained above, we enter into the worlds of light, get liberated and have a blissful living after death.