The Essential Questions About His Form and Our Evolution Answered

Seeker: "We have spoken a lot about the coherence of the spiritual knowledge needed for a spiritual life. But can you tell me what subjects are all discussed in this book we talk about? This book is also a form of Him, correct?"

Teacher: "Indeed, in this book in the form of stories and dialogues the Vedic knowledge and wisdom is discussed that constitutes the classical old-Indian fundament of our present world civilization. This knowledge is about finding sustainable inner peace and happiness in uniting one's consciousness. This, so is defended here, is achieved by meditation on the Original Person and by the development of proper behavior and devotional service for the sake of a knowledge based, truthful, nonviolent, non-possessive and faithful harmonious and righteous, servile society. Speaking about the purport of this book I elucidate what the relationship is between this ancient knowledge and the present state of knowledge and civilization of mankind. Therein the next subjects will be discussed: the generation of the universe, how life and our culture came about, what the nature is of the different worlds we inhabit, what the support for the seeker implies, who the ones are who find support, what the meaning is of the different periods of civilization, what the evolution is of the relation between the Person of All Religions and mankind, how one abandons a material life, how one is liberated by devotional service and what the purpose, the ultimate refuge all means. Being wise, reasoning from scriptural evidence and their purports, one may say that the purpose of all the nine characteristics first mentioned is to guarantee a clear and stable notion of the one mentioned last.
The basic elements of matter, the objects they constitute, the senses and the mind constitute the parts of the material world that came about under the rule of time. The interaction of the basic qualities of creation constitutes the reason of the generation of  our lives and cultures. The glory of the Lord of Heaven constitutes the stability of all the worlds and His causeless mercy constitutes  the support of the seeker. The labor motive constitutes the difference for the ones who find support and the different periods of civilization exist because of dharma or because of the respect for and service of the true nature of the self. The evolution of the relation  of man with the Person of All Servitude is reflected in the different stories about His appearances and His believers. One can succeed in taking leave of the material world when one resigns oneself to His reality and forces, and liberation in devotional service is possible when one, having found stability in ones own nature of  delivering service, abandons all other forms of existence. The Person of Liberation constitutes the purpose, the ultimate refuge, because everything emanates from Him and also turns back to Him in the end. Therefore one in that sense also speaks of the Supreme, of God, of the Supersoul and of the Absolute Spirit as the ultimate goal of life."

Seeker: "You already explained about His appearance in the form of the universe and His personal avatāras, but how should one conceive of His original form as the source of our material and spiritual evolution?"

Teacher: "The individual soul subjected to material nature acquires different forms. Thus seen we arrive at three different potencies of the original form of His person: the individual soul, the controlling agents of nature and the forms assumed. This threefoldness is what we keep in mind for conceiving Him as the one source of our evolution in a material and spiritual sense. One cannot conceive of the soul without material nature or without a sensual apparatus in the form of a body. So too nature cannot be conceived without any coherence, nor can there be any coherence without having a form. The three potencies refer to each other, they define each other, they are interdependent. The consciousness of all these three belongs to the integrity of the three of them that is the Original Soul who constitutes the ultimate shelter. The Original Person, the Supersoul, thus constitutes the support of His own refuge, only He is fully independent.
The Original Person by His expansion separated the galaxies that, as a consequence of the universal attraction of gravity, appeared in the cosmic causal ocean as  a kind of universal eggs. The causal waters He created thereby as the purest of transcendence at the moment He, so to say, after appearing from Himself, sought a place to rest. Because He for an innumerable time resided in that water that emanated from the Original Person, He, as the first puruṣa-avatāra, in India is also called Nārāyaṇa, the path of the person, the path of man, the purely transcendent path of the causal water that is the primal ether. Everything manifested - the living beings, their karma and all of matter - owes its existence to Him, the Causal Original Person. That is the reason why we without His personal appearance cannot believe any longer in the person and in ourself, and why we without respecting the universal impersonal operation of His Natural and Causal Time cannot find a stable life.
Alone in His position of rest He calls for the diversity of the phenomena of time. For that purpose the godhead developed, from His material potency, within His universal golden seminal principle the perfection of the said threefoldness of the individual soul, the conditioning agents of nature and the forms of existence. Now let me further dilate on these three potencies of the appearance of the One Person that in Sanskrit respectively are called adhyātma, adhidaiva and adhibhuta. I already explained in inspiration 2.1 about the giant form of the Person of the Universe. How His  bones, hairs and eye etc. correspond with the natural phenomena of the clouds, the trees, the mountains and the sun and such. The integrity of the universe, His living form moved by time, is thus presented by analogy with the human body. Also the coherence of the different worlds and duties of mankind I previously described by analogy with the physical integrity of the human body. So too His integrity in the form of the three potencies as mentioned now, is discussed by analogy with the human form. In this sense one Vedically speaks of the eighteen basic physical elements of the five senses of perception, the five basic organs or senses of action, the five basic elements of nature in association with the mind, the intelligence and false ego - the self identifying with matter. To describe the evolution of this universe and our form - the integration of His material form - the formation of the adhyātmika potency of the true self is described by the evolution of the senses of knowing. The formation of the adhidaivika potency of the natural agents is described by analogy with the development of the functions of action. Thirdly the evolution of the adhibhautika potency of the physical encasement of living beings is described with reference to the evolution of its constituent five elements in combination with the powers of the mind, the intelligence and false ego."



Seeker: "This sounds rather abstract, can you give a more concrete description of this analogus presentation of our evolution from Him?"

Teacher: "As you like. From the ether - the protomaterial substance of space, the fourth dimension - within the body of the Universal Person, the powers of the vital force, the internal coherence and the physical strength of an individual body or the integrity of a single living cell could evolve. Directly thereafter the prāna could be generated, the life force, the active rhythmical principle of the universal organic interaction between any organism and its environment. The life force necessitated an active exchange of fluid and substance and thus a mouth was formed to quench the thirst and satisfy the hunger. In the mouth a palate and a tongue were formed to distinguish between that what should be accepted and should not be accepted. With the need to express signals from the mouth, the capacity for producing oral vibrations was generated, but in the water this capacity for a long time remained latent. Inlets for air, gills, nostrils developed, to be able to breathe whereupon also the sense of smell developed in order to be able to orientate on odors. In the beginning there was darkness in the original self, but with the evolution of His eye, the sun, also the power of sight and the eyes evolved in order to perceive other forms. The Original Personal Self wished to have ears with the power to hear sounds from different directions and thus the different perceivers, the seers, evolved of aurally received knowledge, to fulfill the desire to understand. Surrounded by objects that were perceived within and without, from the skin the sense of touch evolved so that the desire could be satisfied to discriminate between the hardness and softness, between the lightness and weight and between the heat and cold of all things. This is how the adhyātmika potency of the true self evolved in service of need to know.
His Hands manifested in the need to perform different tasks, in particular the tasks of ruling and forceful intervention as one coherent central spiritual authority. With the wish to move about, the legs were manifested so that human beings could perform duties in line with their sense of duty in service of the Person of Sacrifice Himself. For the purpose of engaging in sexual activity for the sake of offspring, the sexual organs evolved that are a desired source of pleasure for both man and woman. In order to defecate, the anus developed together with the excrements, including the control over the both of them. The Original Person moves through different bodies in consecutive births. The navel evolved therewith as the mark and seat of both the personal separateness after being born from a mother and the physical connectedness that binds the soul after having left an old body for acquiring a new body in the womb. In the grand frame of the universal body oceans and rivers evolved just as in the human body intestines and arteries developed for the sake of metabolism and the satisfaction of needs. The living being in the regular engagement with His own material energy therewith developed lungs and a heart to enrich the blood and pump it around in close association with a nervous system and a directing mind that found its order with the regularity of the sun and the moon, an order from which also determination and desires developed. Nails, skin, muscles, blood, fat, marrow and bone are the basic parts of the body built from the known earth elements with their hydrocarbon chemistry while the vital force is a consequence of the ether - or the energetic quality of space - in combination with water and air. This is how the adhidaivika potency of the individual self was developed for the sake of engaging in action in relation to the agents of nature.
The senses of action and perception ruled by the first two potencies of the Supreme Person belong to the material qualities of nature. The qualities of nature thus dominate the body, the mind and all the emotions associated with a body. That is how, in a person subjected to the influence of material nature, the intelligence and the realized knowledge of wisdom evolve. The gross form of the Supreme Person, as I explained to you, constitutes an unlimitedly expanded covering consisting of stars, planets, moons and other material forms that, thus considered, is composed of eight basic components of our manifestation: ether, fire, water, air, earth, mind, intelligence and the identified self, the so-called false ego. The transcendental finest that has no form and is not manifested - that what thus is being covered - has no beginning, no intermediate stage or an end, it is eternal and elevated above all words of the mind. Therefore never any scholar who knows everything about the two forms of the Absolute Person of the Complete I consecutively explained to you, takes the materialist position of a supposed single material manifestation for granted. At the one hand He transcendentally does nothing while He at the other hand with names, words and that what is denoted by those words, as the Absolute Person and Lord assumes forms and engages in actions in His pastimes. From the Supreme Person there were the founding fathers, and from them there were the leaders, the God-conscious souls, the seers and the respected ancestors. Also prominent persons, actors, singers, scientists, atheists and the carriers of wealth evolved in society. Farmers and sailors, experts and mongrels, spiritual people and caring souls, criminals and ogres, ghosts, spirits and goblins came about. The  sickening, the mad, the demoniac and the depraved souls as also the potency of the individual self was developed for the sake of engaging in action in relation to the agents of nature, the birds, the beasts and the reptiles found their existence. Many more creatures like the insects, the germs and other members of the flora and fauna on land and in the water found a life in this creation on this planet. All these lives are the results of actions in the past, of choices being made that can be good or bad or a mixture of both. These actions of individuals and of societies at large constitute one's karma, one's work load, and determine one's fate in life. This is how the adhibhautika potency of the Original Person evolved as a diversity of life forms."

Seeker: "I understand the fundamental importance of this comprehension of the potencies basic to the evolution of His manifestation, I see His independent position above this covering and have an idea how these three relate to the eighteen elements of the senses of perception and action and the basic material elements including the mind, the intelligence and the false ego. But you also mentioned the qualities of nature, the three so-called guṇas that are also interdependent fundamental aspects of the Universal Person of Comprehension. Can you tell how these three relate to the potencies you mentioned?" 

Teacher: "Goodness passion and ignorance, the three basic qualities of nature, are indeed associated with the three positions of respectively being enlightened in a transcendental position of meditation, of being humanly bound to and lived by material conditions and of finding oneself in the field of tension of different material forms of  temporal order. These are the three potencies of the Person of All Potencies as mentioned and thus is goodness associated with the adhyātmika knowledge potency of the soul, is the quality of passion associated with the adihdaivika potency of being moved by the forces of nature and is the mode of ignorance associated with the adhibhautika potency of being divided in ego fixations in a material respect. There are also other positions, dear seeker, that are the result of the mixture of each of these qualities with the other two. Because of theses mixes different habits and types of life developed depending on how one made one’s choices the moment one in a certain position with them was influenced by the other two. It now happens to be so that, after the universes found their existence from the Original Person in the Beyond, from Him who maintains the worlds, He time and again plays along in the game of His creation in which He reminds each of his nature and connectedness to Him by, according to His three potencies, assuming the forms of special divine beings, of common conditioned men and of plants and animals. Doing so He then liberates over and over, depending time and circumstances, each of these positions, including their mixed forms, from the domination of either of them. By promoting religiosity, authenticity and natural values - or the dharma - and encouraging each to accept Him as the ideal and lead in accord with one's own nature, He Himself then creates, by His traditions, cultures, teachers and devotees, harmony and welfare and thus provides meaning and motive to each form of existence.
The potencies are likewise associated with the three basic divinities belonging to the guṇas. A form of divinity or godhead is a personal integrity of functioning in a certain respect as an inseperable, fundamental essential part of the Complete Whole we call God, the Absolute Spirit or in Sanskrit brahman. The three guṇa appearances or guṇa avatāras together constitute His divine rule. They were the three most important gods in the Vedic culture, the remains of which we know as Hinduism. The divinity of maintenance named Viṣṇu belongs to the soul, the divinity of creation named Brahmā belongs to the active personality and the divinity of destruction called Śiva belongs to the material diversity. After a period of creation and maintenance there will be destruction. At that time everything that was created by Him will completely burn up  in the fire of the ever expanding space-time, the way clouds are dispersed in the sky. The Most Elevated Omnipotent Person of the Universe is by the great transcendentalists described in terms of this threefold order of the natural qualities and potencies, but enlightened souls firmly established in goodness acquire the privilege to see more than this and reach His glory in the beyond of these basic features. In the supreme position there is no mention of creation and destruction that characterize a material position. That elevated position is there as the counterpart of the material energy.
As for time I can tell you that the cyclic notion of material reality is the correct one. The modern political pragmatical view of time of linear weeks and averaged days does not concur with the natural order. The entire creation is a product of cyclic time. Matter is a phenomenon of cyclic time. Electrons spin around a nucleus the way planets spin around a sun. In India one speaks of a great cycle of creation or 'life of the creator' called a mahākalpa consisting of many repetitive years, months and days of creation called kalpas of a duration of 1000 times 3.24 million solar years or mahāyugas each. During a mahākalpa all the material elements evolve the way I described it to you. The mahāyugas that make up a mahākalpa, are periods of a fixed sequence of four normal yugas or eras of civilization that have a length varying from 1728.000 to 432.000 solar years according to the Vedic calculations of cyclic time. During each day of creation organic life evolves from scratch over and over, as it happened before after periods of destruction that are called nights of Brahmā. According to present-day scientific researchers we are now in the middle of another kind of period of destruction, an extinction wave with climate change, because of greenhouse gasses that are mainly caused by animal husbandry. Killing animals and cutting forests for food - and not so much industrial and private CO2 emissions - ultimately makes our own life, our present life cycle on the planet practically impossible. But this intermediate kind of extinction is not complete according to the Vedic vision. Only after a night of Brahmā the extinction is complete. In the kalpas in between, including in our own present Pādma-kalpa, as it is called, the planet with all its life will recover as it happened so many times before. Later on I will dilate on the different smaller divisions of time that ultimately form these great time periods."

Seeker: "In the previous set of inspirations you extensively dilated on the different aspects of filognosy, the spiritual knowledge we need to live and survive in peace and prosperity on this planet. I would like to have a further look into this matter conversing with you. There are rather a few questions left, next to which I wonder how one can leave one's home for spiritual purposes and then again can return back in society."

Teacher: "Okay, that is what we will discuss then. From one question we arrive at another en thus engaged with the Bhāgavatam for our lead, we certainly will discuss the entire matter. We take leave of the world to return home with a mind filled with wisdom. Listen carefully as I explain to you how that works."

Source for this Inspiration:
S.B. Canto 2, Chapter 10