by Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL No. 39
May. 2004

ATTEMPTS TO DESCRIBE BRAMHAN - Part 13

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

So Bramhan again, became these material elements which became the source for this creation. How is it so?

Earlier, while talking in the context of Katha Upanishad and other scriptures, we have understood that Bramhan is chetanaa, or consciousness- the superconsciousness. Consciousness is shakti, the primordial power, the adyaashakti, the basis for all forms of energy. Consciousness is energy. Bramhan is this primordial energy. The mother energy is part of Bramhan inseparable from Him. The mother energy is that aspect of Bramhan which is the eternal source, the mahatyoni from which everything gross and subtle flows out. The source of all the ingredients of this universe is this mother energy.

Even thousands of years back, the vedic knowledge confirmed -what we know now- that energy and matter are inter-convertible. This chetana or energy under specific conditions becomes matter. Matter evolves from energy and returns back to energy. That is the concept when we say that all these what we call creation- yat kincajagat - emanates from Bramhan and eventually returns back to Bramhan.

This is then the 'action' or the ever dynamic aspect of Bramhan. Bramhan is the creation and the creation is Bramhan. This wonderful truth is at the core of our sanatan philosophy.

We shall now return back to the sloka from Mundaka to another important observation which is in the first part of this sloka, where it refers to that subtle entity called praana.

By being the ingredients or the product arising out of these ingredients is not enough. The created product inside this universe, must also serve the purpose for which it gets created. Otherwise what place does it have in the creation? The self functioning of the product in the manner it is created for, is the objective for the ongoing survival of the creation. The potter makes the pot out of the mud. But the pot does not function as a pot on its own motivation.

It is not animated or living on its own. Where as in this creation, amongst the elements of the creation, amongst the created beings in this creation, there lies within, a motive force that animates them, makes them undergo constant change so that the creation moves on. Whether it is man, animal, plant or even the apparently gross objects, or jada vastus, there lies in each of these a motive force that drives them to do or undergo action of some kind and continuously all the time.

That power within everything is prana -or the vital force. Without this vital force there would be no dynamism in the creation. There would be a steady state dead existence. That would be absurd.