by Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL No. 40
June. 2004

ATTEMPTS TO DESCRIBE BRAMHAN - Part 14

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

There is no sanction in this creation for a haphazard chaotic activity. There is precision and planning by which this creation is sustained. Who is that Divinity at the helm of this gigantic, all encompassing activity? this mahaayajna? That is what the seeker asks. Tat vijnaatavyam. That is to be known.

So beyond the question of injecting the life into the things, there is a greater purpose of directing everything to follow a divine pattern, to lead everything towards a much greater goal so that everything does not degenerate into chaotic and purposeless activity.

Our scriptures have clearly dissected these basic elements in almost a very scientific manner in their research for the final answer. The sense organs and the basic elements of which they are made of, are mere material basic tools - the adhibhutas. When enlivened with prana shakti or life force they represent the adhidaivas. That is the concept in sanatan philosophy when every element, the power within them is assigned to a god-head, associating it with divinity. Everything becomes daiva or elevated to divinity, once the praana enters them.

But they receive their final commands from the supreme divine, the adhyaatma or the superior Atma or the purushottama. He is the Supreme and the inter-relationship with Him is the overriding truth. As Sri Aurobindo, following the sanatan philosophy, observes: The Kena Upanishad is not concerned with the elemental, the adhibhuta; it is concerned with the relation between the subtle existence and the spiritual, the adhidaiva and adhyaatma. This is because, as he says "we are conscious of a power behind, which guides, drives, controls, uses it."

Uses for what? - For the ultimate and divine purpose of this creation.

Recall now what we discussed in the very earlier part of this series. With what purpose all these elements, the constituents of this creation, have been created by the Lord? It is by the individual actions, of every single entity in the universe, that this creation is sustained. Without them the creation collapses. The adhibhutas and adhidaivas, the elements, the material objects, plants, animals, human beings are engaged in action and by their action only, the universe acquires its existence as well as its ever dynamic character. Nothing is here, or can even exist here, unless it has a purpose. You, me, and every one else, can continue to exist, only - repeat only- as long as we continue to be part of The Lord's scheme of things. No one is here by chance or by someone's whim. Even The Lord's leela, or play as some put it, is according to a well conceived plan and with precisely defined tasks for every single being. It is faultless and inflexible.

It becomes further clear, when we understand the following from Sri Aurobindo: The Gods (meaning the adhidaivas) combine, each bringing his contribution, the operations of the physical world that we observe as of the mental world that is our means of observation. The whole universal action is one, and not a sum of fortuitous atoms.

It is one, arranged in its parts, combined in its multiple functionings, by virtue of a single conscient existence.