"Fundamental Principles of Material Nature :"

Skandham-3.2

 

 

 

Chapter 26

 

 

 

Slokam- 1 to  72.

 

 

 Fundamental Principles of Material Nature :

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(1) The Supreme Lord said: 'Now I will describe to you the different categories of reality, knowing which anyone can be released from the modes of material nature. (2) What is said to be the spiritual knowledge, that is for a person the ultimate perfection of selfrealization, I will explain to you, as that is what cuts the knots in the heart. (3) The supreme soul of the original person is beginningless, transcendental to the modes of nature in the beyond and is everywhere perceivable as the self-effulgent of the entire creation that He maintains. (4) That very, greatest of the great person quite out of His own will accepted as His pastime the subtle material energy that relates to the divine and obtained the investment of the three modes. (5) By the modes nature created the variegated forms of the beings living materially, who seeing it, at once were illusioned there, having their spiritual knowing covered. (6) Through identifying with the material activities that are in fact performed by the modes of nature, does the living entity thus wrongly attribute them to himself. (7) From the misconception of its life in material conditioning it is made dependent although it is of the non-doer, that is the naturally joyful witness, independent. (8) The learned understand that the body and the senses of respect are under the causation of the material of nature; in regard of the perception of happiness and distress is the spiritual soul above matter responsible.'

 

 

 

(9) Devahûti said: 'Kindly explain me about the characteristics of as well the energies as the Supreme Personality, who are both cause of the manifest and unmanifest this creation consists of.

 

 

 

 

(10) The Supreme Lord said: 'Now further, is the undifferentiated that possesses the differentiated material nature, consisting of the cause and effect of the combination of the three modes, called the primary nature [pradhâna]. (11) That primary nature is known to be composed of the five gross and five subtle elements, the spiritual of the four internal senses and the ten senses of perception and operation, thus adding up to a number of twenty-four. (12) The five gross elements are to be exact: earth, water, fire, air and ether; the subtle elements are as many and by Me considered to be the smell and so on[taste, color, touch and sound]. (13) The ten senses are the organs of the hearing, touching, seeing, tasting and smelling, [for perception] with the mouth, the hands, the legs, the genitals and the excretion organs as the tenth [for acting]. (14) Mind, intelligence, ego and consciousness are then the four aspects of the internal subtle sense one has, seeing the distinct functions in the form of different characteristics. (15) Thus are to the spirit the material qualities enumerated as they indeed are arranged by Me [and are called saguna brahman], to which of the element of time is spoken as the twenty-fifth.

 

 

 

(16) The influence of the Original Personality of God is said to be the time factor from which some do fear in being deluded by the ego of contacting the material nature of individual existence. (17) The movement of material nature without its interaction of the modes and its specific qualities, o daughter of Manu, is the time from which we here know Him, the Supreme Lord. (18) He who exists from within, in the form of the original person and from without in the form of time, is He, the Supreme Lord by all His potencies to all [the elements] of life. (19) Of her destiny agitated, does the Supreme Person from His balanced potency impregnate the womb [of mother nature] and does she deliver the sum total of the truth of Brahmâ's effulgent golden reality [hiranmaya]. (20) The universe manifesting and containing within itself this unchangeable root cause, swallowed by its own effulgence the dense darkness in which it was enveloped. (21) The mode of goodness, which is that clear and sober way of understanding the Supreme Lord, is known by the name of Vâsudeva; that consciousness manifest as the great principle [the maha-tattva, the intellect]. (22) Being of clarity, undistracted and serene are thus called the characteristic traits of [Krishna- or natural time-] consciousness that is alike the natural state of pure water.

 

 

 

(23-24) From the complete reality undergoing changes brought about by the Supreme Lord His energies sprang up, endowed with its active power, the material ego transforming in three kinds as of goodness, passion and ignorance, from which also evolved the mind, the different senses of action and perception and the elements in five. (25) All of that ego consisting of the elements, senses and mind is directly the Supreme Personality of Ananta with His thousands of heads [Vishnu's snake-bed] known by the name of Sankarshana [also known as the Supreme Lord His first plenary expansion]. (26) The ego identified with matter can thus be characterized as being the doer, the instrument and the effect as well as being serene, active and dull. (27) From the goodness of material identification undergoing transformation evolved the principle of mind of which the thoughts and reflections give rise to desires. (28) That mind is factually known by the name of Aniruddha, the supreme ruler of the senses who is bluish like a lotus in autumn and only gradually realized by the yogîs. (29) From the transformation of the material identification in passion did the principle of intelligence arise, o virtuous lady, to give assistance in ascertaining to the senses the objects coming into view. (30) Doubt, misapprehension, correct apprehension, memory and sleep are thus said to be the characteristics of intelligence in its different functions.

 

 

 

(31) From the passion of ego do we verily have the senses of action and knowledge according respectively the active powers of the vital energy and the effect of experience of the intelligence. (32) From the darkness of the ego and its transformation, was, impelled by the potency of the Supreme Lord, the subtle element of sound manifested, the ethereal of which then made the sense of hearing as receptivity to its operation. (33) Learned persons know it to define as that which is indicative of an object; they know sound as betraying the presence of a speaker and as forming the subtle reality of sensual being [the ether]. (34) The activities and characteristics of the ethereal element accommodate for the room external and internal, being of all living beings the field of activities of the vital air, the senses and the mind. (35) From the ethereal evolving from the subtle of sound, does under the transforming impulse of time the evolution of the subtle element of touch take place and thus is the air found, the sense organ for it and of that sense the perception. (36) Softness and hardness, cold and heat also, are of this subtle element of touch the distinguished attributes in the sensual experience of the air. (37) By the distinct characteristics of the actions of the air moving and mixing it allows the approach [to the objects] carrying the particles and waves of sound that stimulate the senses into proper function. (38) From the air realized by the subtle reality of touch, evolved, according destiny, the forms from which arose the perception of the fire in the sense of sight for color and form.

 

 

 

(39) O virtuous one, the characteristics to the sense-reality of the form of an object are its dimension, quality, its certain individuality and the outgoing effulgence. (40) The functions of fire in reality are to illumine, to digest the drinking and eating, drive away the cold and to evaporate and also serve with hunger and thirst. (41) From the substance of form undergoing the transformations from fire became by divine arrangement the sense of taste manifest of which water and the relating tongue were found. (42) Although taste is one, is it divided by transformation to the manifold of other substances thus into the sensation of the astringent, sweet, bitter, pungent [salt] and sour. (43) The typical of water is to be moistening, coagulating, quenching, life-sustaining, refreshing, softening, cooling and to be available in abundance. (44) From the element of taste undergoing the transformations from water, superiorly arranged the measure of odor became manifest finding the earth and the smelling of aromas. (45) The one of odor is divided to the proportionate of substances in the separate of being mixed, offensive, fragrant, mild, strong, acidic and so on. (46) The characteristic function of the earth is to be the place for manifesting, separated in space, the nature of all existing that of the Supreme Spirit is modeled into forms, places of residence, pots to contain etc. (47) The sense that has the distinctive character of the sky [sound] as its object is called the auditory sense, and that sense which has the distinctive features of the air [touch] as its object of perception is known as the tactile sense. (48) The sense that has the distinct of fire [form] as its object is called sight, the distinctive perception of the characteristics of water is known as taste and the distinctive of earth in perception is called the sense of smell.

 

 

 

(49) The characteristics of the cause are verily observed in the effect and hence to that order are the distinctive characteristics of all elements observed in earth alone [and in lesser degrees in the former elements]. (50) When these [in the beginning] were unmixed, did all the seven of the primal complete [the five material elements, the total energy (maha-tattva) and the false ego] enter from the origin of the creation; in fact from the association with the time, the karma and the three modes of nature. (51) Then by and by [with Him as the time] from these seven principles, roused into activity, an egg-shape united with no consciousness, from which the celebrated Cosmic Being [or original person, the virâth purusha] arose. (52) This egg called Vis'esha ['the active'], found order expanding by tenfold to the greater of water and the other elements enveloped in the modes of the primary nature at the surface of the extending planetary systems; this is the [planetary] form that the Lord, the Supreme One, took. (53) From the golden [sunshine] of the egg arose, from within the waters that He pervaded and was lying in, the great of the divinity, divided in many cells in control of the light. (54) The first that appeared of Him was a mouth to relate in sound [Vânî] after which, with that organ, there is the divinity of [the digestive] fire, then joined by the nostrils with the vital air and the olfactory sense in them. (55) From the olfactory sense was the divine of the wind [Vâyu] realized, the two eyes for the sense of sight brought the divinity of the sun [Sûrya] into awareness and from the auditory sense of the two ears beamed forth the divinity of the directions. (56) Of the celebrated form appeared the skin with its hairgrowth and such whereupon then the herbs of medicine were seen as well as the sexual organs. (57) From that seed of sexual procreation took the divinity over the waters its place and manifested itself indeed an anus and the capacity to defecate, from which death causing fear throughout the world was realized. (58) Also two hands manifested with to the power of them the capacity to act to one's own satisfaction [Lord Indra]. From the manifestation of the two feet was seen the progression, to which one became aware of the Lord [Vishnu]. (59 -60) Of the celebrated personal did the veins show themselves and the bloodproduction to them. After them are the rivers seen. Next a stomach manifested of which hunger and thirst appeared. In their wake was the ocean seen. From the appearance of a heart then came forth the mind. (61) From the mind did to the intelligence then come the moon [Candra] into view and from that intelligence one saw the Lord of speech [Brahmâ]. Identification with the material then gave the appearance of Rudra [S'iva], the deity presiding over consciousness.

 

 

 

(62) All these divinities having found existence were not at all capable of reawakening the original person of celebration and thus they bred into the genes in order to awake Him in due order. (63) The divinity of the digestive fire settled for the mouth, but failed to give rise to the Celebrated One. The divine of the wind settled for the olfactory of the nostrils but then could not give rise to the Original One. (64) The divine of the light for His two eyes could not give rise to the Authentic One, and with the divine of orienting by the sense of hearing with His two ears then the Great of the Person wasn't brought forth either. (65) The godly of the skin, with its growth and blessing of herbs, could not raise the Celebrated Person and the divinity of water could, with the procreation by the organs of reproduction, then not bring the Great Person about either. (66) With the capacity to defecate could the God of death by His anus not spur the Cosmic One and not even the two hands of Lord Indra with their power of control could find a way to awaken the Virâth Purusha then. (67) Vishnu with the power of progress was with His two feet not capable of stirring the Great Complete into action indeed and the divine of the riverflow to His vessels with the blood and power of circulation did not move the Celebrated Person even then. (68) The ocean following with hunger and thirst could to His abdomen not raise the Great Person and the heart with the mind to the divinity of the moon then failed to awaken the One and Only also. (69) Also Brahmâ entered His heart with intelligence but did not raise the Celebrated person, as also couldn't the complete of the Purusha be awakened by Lord S'iva with ego to His heart. (70) But when the divinity ruling the consciousness, with reason entered the heart as the knower of the field, just then did the Cosmic Being arise from the causal waters. (71) It is like with a man asleep whose vital air, working and knowing senses, his mind and his considering, by their own power cannot arouse without Him. (72) Therefore should the embodied one carefully consider the thought of Him, the Supersoul, through spiritual knowledge, detachment and devotion in the execution of yoga.'