Cosmic Creation 
 
 lifornia 
 
 ional 
 
 iity 
 
 By SUKUMAR CHATTERJI
 
 $aijt^L<^2
 
 Cosmic Creation 
 
 By 
 
 Sukumar Ckatterji 
 
 Editor of "ChKatra Sahodar" 
 
 Published by 
 
 FIAT LUX SOCIETY 
 
 1411 6tt Avenue 
 San Francisco, California
 
 Copyright. 1932 
 
 ky 
 S. CHATTERJI 
 
 All rifints reserved, including translation
 
 tmttj Ijumbi* rettmtir* 
 
 to 
 hat (Smtt SOB* r of intmamttr, 
 
 to uthniu J nuir 
 all that 3 luinut 
 
 atto 
 all that 31 lut^f to be. 
 
 20O4814
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 GLOSSARY AND KEY TO PRONUNCIATION 
 
 A is pronounced as u in fur; a as a in far; 
 e as a in fate; ee as ee in feet; i as i in fit; 
 u as u in put ; u as u in rule. 
 
 Many Sanskrit words in the text have been 
 used in both a singular and plural sense. The 
 proper case-endings have purposely not been 
 used in order that readers unacquainted with 
 Sanskrit may not be confused. 
 
 Tat That (Indescribable Princi- 
 
 ple) ; First Cause. 
 
 (Tatwa Any step farther away from 
 
 (Padartha Tat; the twenty-four po- 
 
 tentially creative states. 
 
 Mool-Prakriti First effect of First Cause. 
 
 Prakriti Effect of Mool-Prakriti; un- 
 
 differentiated cosmic sub- 
 stance. 
 
 Mahat Tatwa Effect of Prakriti ; the Great 
 Impersonal Intelligence. 
 
 Aham Tatwa Effect of Mahat Tatwa ; first 
 birth of Consciousness. 
 
 Mana Effect of Aham Tatwa; Cos- 
 
 mic Mind; abstract sense- 
 consciousness. 
 
 Jnana-Ijndriya Effect of Mana; the five 
 knowing abstract sense- 
 concepts. 
 
 Karma-Indriya Effect of Mana; the five 
 working abstract sense- 
 concepts.
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 Tamnatra The five objects of Jnana- 
 Indriya; subtlest form of 
 actual matter. 
 
 Bhoota Physical manifestations of 
 
 Tanmatra; the five mater- 
 ial substances. 
 
 lAkash Subtlest Bhoota of space. 
 
 JWayu Subtlest Bhoota of air. 
 
 <Tej Subtlest Bhoota of fire. 
 
 /Apa Subtlest Bhoota of water. 
 
 IPrithiwee Subtlest Bhoota of earth. 
 
 Gun The three causative, guiding 
 
 qualities inherent in and 
 operative upon all Tatwa. 
 
 iSattwa Elevating Gun. 
 
 <Raja Activating Gun. 
 
 ( Tama Resisting Gun. 
 
 Jna That aspect of any state in 
 
 which another potential 
 state is seen. 
 
 Karma Action; effect. 
 
 Rishi Aryan sages. 
 
 Aryan Belonging to the oldest civ- 
 
 ilized race on . earth, of 
 which the Hindus are the 
 lineal descendants. 
 
 Weda The four sacred books of the 
 
 Hindus, which contain the 
 oldest historical and phi- 
 losophical literature in the 
 world. 
 
 [7]
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 The purpose of this series of which COSMIC 
 CREATION forms the first monograph is to pre- 
 sent pure Aryan thoughts in a purely Aryan 
 manner. At the same time, stress is laid upon 
 that phase of Aryan reasoning which is best 
 adapted to the comprehension of the Western 
 mind. 
 
 The aim of all Aryan literature has been to 
 stimulate the student to think for himself. I 
 have attempted to formulate the theoretical 
 portion of philosophy, which is embodied in 
 COSMIC CREATION, in such a suggestive way that 
 the reader will be eager to seek more enlighten- 
 ment for himself. 
 
 A great deal of misunderstanding exists in 
 the Western World in regard to Aryan litera- 
 ture. This condition has arisen partly from the 
 ignorance of translators, who almost without 
 exception have failed to grasp the fine distinc- 
 tions and subtleties of the Sanskrit language, 
 and who have not approached their subject 
 from the same angle of vision which character- 
 ized the ancient Aryan philosophers, and partly 
 from the deliberate and intentional misinter- 
 pretation by political and religious propagan- 
 dists. 
 
 I have begun this series, therefore, in the 
 hope of correcting many current misconceptions 
 about Aryan literature. COSMIC CREATION has 
 been presented first, not only because it is the 
 foundation of all Aryan philosophy and logic, 
 but also because a comprehension of the modus 
 
 [8]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 operand* of the Aryan mind, from its inception 
 to its conception, and from conception to ex- 
 pression, is essential to the understanding? of 
 the treatises which will follow, and which will 
 deal with practical methods of mental disci- 
 pline and achievements. 
 
 A knowledge of Cosmic Creation is necessary 
 to the student who seeks to find the basic laws 
 underlying meditation. Meditation is not the 
 self-induced sleep or hypnotism that it is gen- 
 erally believed to be. It can be attained only 
 thru a severe mental training, and consists in 
 identifying one's self consciously and volun- 
 tarily with any state of being. One must be 
 aware not only of the object of meditation, but 
 also of the unit of thought which is operative at 
 the time, and of the various states of conscious- 
 ness thru which one passes. To combine these 
 apparently different features of meditation re- 
 quires a singleness of mind that has realized 
 the ultimate oneness of Cosmic Creation thru 
 a systematic psychological training. 
 
 My grateful thanks are due to those friends 
 who urged and assisted me to bring before the 
 English-speaking world a small part of that 
 Aryan philosophy which, when not totally ig- 
 nored, has received such misrepresentation at 
 the hands of most Western scholars. I must 
 also express my gratitude to Swami Prakasha- 
 nanda of the Hindu Temple, who kindly placed 
 his Sanskrit library at my disposal. 
 
 SUKUMAB CHATTERJI. 
 
 San Francisco, California. 
 June 1, 1922. 
 
 [9]
 
 "Atma wa ithameka ewagra aseet" 
 
 'All this was one all-pervading Self in 
 the beginning" 
 
 [10]
 
 Cosmic Creation 
 
 HE impetus towards knowledge, 
 which is inherent in all beings, is 
 an urge to know. Knowledge in 
 the highest sense means to be. 
 The translation of the material 
 world, thru the medium of our 
 senses, into the world of abstract contempla- 
 tion, will give us the essence of understanding. 
 The foundation of all knowledge, in the sense 
 of ultimate realities, should be based on an as- 
 sumption broad and universal enough to in- 
 clude not only present experience but also fu- 
 ture discoveries. Such an assumption would 
 be the outcome of a deep contemplation which 
 had fathomed the inherent principles underly- 
 ing all phenomenal Nature. 
 
 Most basic assumptions in the past have been 
 directly formed from observation of existing 
 facts and phenomena, but this form of reason- 
 ing has always had to be either modified or dis- 
 carded whenever new investigation opened up 
 an unexpected phase of Nature that did not fit 
 into the theories that had previously been ac- 
 cepted as axiomatic. 
 
 The one great Harmony, whose expression is 
 variety, has been called God by the various 
 
 [11]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 sages. The Christian theologians have created 
 God in their own image, and by thus imputing 
 sex to God, have failed to conceive of the high- 
 est abstract principle, beyond limitation and 
 without qualification. (This Christian miscon- 
 ception of the nature of God is mainly respon- 
 sible for the spiritual inequality of Adam's rib, 
 and the general Biblical condemnation of wo- 
 men.) In Sanskrit, the classical language of 
 ancient India, the Ultimate Principle is repre- 
 sented by the word Tat or That, a sexless, in- 
 describable, unqualified existence. 
 
 The correlative existence of man has been ex- 
 pressed from many angles; sometimes the re- 
 lation of an individual to the infinite whole, or 
 again the relation of an individual unit to time 
 and space, or philosophically speaking, the rela- 
 tion between abstract and concrete. Kational 
 existence is based on an intricate relationship 
 between thought and matter, between finite and 
 infinite, where the idea of space terminates in 
 an all-inclusive expansion, and time is sub- 
 merged into eternity. In this way, the objec- 
 tive consciousness involves to the plane beyond 
 knowledge, and the seeking mind naturally 
 ends up in the world of the unknown. So, in 
 the domain of thought, where every atom of 
 matter must be identified with a mental con- 
 cept, it is necessary to understand the relation 
 between the concrete and abstract existences. 
 We will here consider the theories advanced 
 by three independent schools of thought . 
 
 The first school is the only one that has stood 
 the test of Time and its constant and various 
 discoveries. This school has assumed, first, that 
 thoughts are incepts beyond time and beyond 
 
 [12]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 space, all-pervading and everywhere at the 
 same time, and second, that the brain is merely 
 the recording instrument that attracts thoughts 
 to itself according to its individual capacity and 
 attunement. 
 
 The second school of thought claims that the 
 brain is the creator of abstract stuff, and that 
 thoughts are but the result of organized tissue 
 activity. This theory is a product of material- 
 istic laboratory experience, and is incapable of 
 explaining any of the facts of the higher men- 
 tal planes. It is as unreasonable to claim that 
 thoughts are created by the brain as it would 
 be to claim that wireless instruments create 
 the electrical waves which they receive. This 
 materialistic reasoning reminds me of an ex- 
 perience I had in India with a group of igno- 
 rant peasants. I was showing them, by means 
 of a microscope, the germs that exist in contam- 
 inated water. As this was their first experi- 
 ence with such an instrument, and as the germs 
 were not visible to the naked eye, they there- 
 fore came to the conclusion that it was the 
 miscroscope itself that had created the germs. 
 In a similar way, the materialistic school con- 
 cludes that as thought cannot be shown in a 
 laboratory to exist independent of a brain, 
 therefore it must be the brain that creates 
 thought. 
 
 However, it is not the purpose of this little 
 treatise to refute this theory in detail. It is 
 only necessary here to point out that whenever 
 a line of exact reasoning, such as the exact 
 sciences, has to be followed, even the most ma- 
 terialistic school has been forced to assume un- 
 known causes for known effects. 
 
 [13]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 The third school calls itself metaphysical, and 
 has managed to attain some prominence. It 
 takes its final refuge in mystery and a clever 
 manipulation of words. Even Truth sharpened 
 to an epigram would serve as an irritant, and 
 the slogan of this school ("What is Mind never 
 matter, what is Matter never mind") seeks to 
 hide its ignorance under a double meaning. 
 
 Let us consider the geometrical creation of 
 matter, and in this way serve a two-fold pur- 
 pose; first, that of opening up the vista of 
 thought with which this little monograph is 
 concerned, and second, that of refuting a fav- 
 orite theory of the metaphysical school, which 
 suffers from dementia on the subject of the 
 Fourth Dimension. 
 
 The first fundamental conception of geome- 
 try is a point, which has no magnitude, that 
 is, neither length, breadth nor thickness. The 
 second conception is a moving point which 
 makes a line, having length but neither breadth 
 nor thickness. The third conception is a sur- 
 face, having length and breadth but no thick- 
 ness. The fourth conception is a solid, with 
 the three dimensions of length, breadth and 
 thickness. This is the plane of matter. The 
 metaphysicians claim that the fourth-dimen- 
 sional plane is subtler and less bound by nat- 
 ural laws than the three preceding planes. 
 But anyone familiar with the geometrical crea- 
 tion of matter will realize that the fourth-di- 
 mensional plane, instead of being freer, would 
 be more limited by an additional dimension. 
 We have seen that a three-dimensional object 
 has length, breadth and thickness, while its 
 primary source has the potentialities of all di- 
 
 [14]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 mansions, but not their limitations. Hence, for 
 greater freedom and knowledge, we must go 
 back to the simple origin of matter rather than 
 advance into further dimensional complexities. 
 
 From the illustration just given, it will be 
 clear that all known substances have their birth 
 in the unknown, all gross objects spring from 
 a subtle origin, and all concrete creations come 
 from an abstract source. As Herbert Spencer 
 so aptly puts it, ' ' An entire history of anything 
 must include its appearance out of the imper- 
 ceptible, and its disappearance into the imper- 
 ceptible." This little treatise will deal with 
 the appearance of things out of the impercepti- 
 ble. By so extending our knowledge, we ex- 
 tend also the Unknowable. 
 
 The history of Aryan mental culture is 
 unique in its conception. The aspiring son 
 asked his father, "What is That knowing which 
 I shall know all ? " In answer to this question, 
 the whole structure of science, art and philoso- 
 phy was formulated in logical sequence. All 
 the great thinkers throughout the ages have at- 
 tempted to find that principle which includes 
 everything else, and the various means they 
 have adopted towards this end have formed 
 the various paths of learning. 
 
 The conception of That, the Great First 
 Cause, as an unknown, unknowable, unquali- 
 fied, unmanifested existence, has been taken by 
 the Hindu sages as the foundation or starting- 
 point of all the phenomenal manifestations of 
 Nature. In the Weda it is said, "That was 
 one and became many." 
 
 The first known effect of Tat or That is called 
 in Sanskrit Mool-Prakriti, or root of the first 
 action. Mool means root, and Prakriti is com- 
 
 [15]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 posed of the prefix pra, meaning first, and kriti, 
 meaning action. (Kriti and Karma both arise 
 from the same root of kri, to do. In this way, 
 Karma means action as well as effect, for every 
 action is an effect.) 
 
 Mool-Prakriti, then, is the first known effect, 
 and it in turn produces the first working prin- 
 ciple of Creation, or Prakriti. 
 
 It would be well to explain at this point 
 that every successive step farther away from 
 the Great Principle That, is termed as Tat-Twam 
 or, commonly, Tatwa. This word is composed 
 of two syllables, tat, meaning that, and twam, 
 meaning thou. So Tatwa means, thou art 
 That. That is used in the sense of the Ulti- 
 mate Substance, while thou is its shadow. This 
 signifies the beginning of duality, the noumena 
 and phenomena, the Real and its suggestion. 
 The word Padartha is sometimes used inter- 
 changeably with Tatwa. Out of these Tatwa, 
 which are twenty-four in number, the whole 
 mental world, and therefore the whole material 
 world, are ultimately created. 
 
 We will now return to Prakriti, the undiffer- 
 entiated cosmic substance known as Nature. 
 This Prakriti is the first of the twenty-four 
 Tatwa. It has position, but no magnitude, or 
 to put it more clearly, Prakriti has its "center 
 everywhere and circumference nowhere." 
 
 There are two methods of attempting to real- 
 ize this Prakriti. The first method is known as 
 conversion of concepts, and is a process little 
 known and seldom conciously practised. It is 
 a system of meditation involving deep contem- 
 plation about any substance until the thinker 
 and the object of thought identify themselves 
 as one. 
 
 [16]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 The second method is the process of retracing 
 one's steps back to the last conceivable stage. 
 This form of reasoning is more easily followed 
 by the average mind, and so it shall be used in 
 attempting to realize Prakriti. We can all un- 
 derstand that everything in the universe has 
 been produced by a cause, and by gradually 
 working back from effect to cause, and by real- 
 izing that every cause is only the effect of some 
 subtler cause, which in turn is also the outcome 
 of some more distance source, we shall at length 
 reach a mental limit beyond which our mind 
 cannot go. This limit will be determined by 
 the individual scope of mental experience, but 
 if we take the final conception of the most gi- 
 gantic mind in the world, then we shall dimly 
 apprehend the nature of Prakriti. 
 
 These abstract concepts cannot be illustrated 
 by means of analogy; for instance, space cannot 
 be compared with anything else. 
 
 Prakriti is still in an unmanifested state, be- 
 cause the Gun (three causative qualities) that 
 compose it are in a state of equilibrium, and 
 therefore nothing has occurred to stir it to ac- 
 tion. 
 
 Gun comes from the roots gu, to work im- 
 perceptibly, and nee, to guide. Literally, it 
 means quality, or that which guides impercep- 
 tibly. It is these three cosmic qualities that 
 act together to force manifestation from one 
 plane to another ; in other words, it is they who 
 produce an effect from a cause. By acting on 
 the first Tatwa, or Prakriti, which is their me- 
 dium while in a state of equilibrium, they dis- 
 turb the balance and cause the second Tatwa to 
 come into being. By a further manifestation 
 
 [17]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 of these causative Gun, the third Tatwa arises. 
 In this way, by the influence of the Gun on each 
 state of being, the twenty-four Tatwa which 
 are responsible for the ultimate created worlds 
 are brought forth. 
 
 In order to understand the nature and rela- 
 tionship of the three Gun, it will be necessary 
 at this point to turn from a consideration of 
 their unmanifested inherence in Prakriti, and 
 regard them as they appear in their final ex- 
 pressions of the mental and physical worlds. 
 In this way, by first realizing their influence 
 upon the planes with which we are familiar, 
 we shall be in a better position to apprehend 
 the nature of their initial manifestations. 
 
 The first Gun is Sattwa, or Sattwa Gun, 
 which comes from the root sat, meaning exis- 
 tence as well as truth. Therefore, everything 
 that exists bears witness to truth. Sattwa is 
 the most subtle of the three Gun. It illumines, 
 ascertains, soothes, and uplifts, by causing an 
 equilibrium. It is this quality which makes 
 real happiness devoid of excitement. It has no 
 motion of its own, and is incapable of action or 
 reaction unless influenced by the second Gun. 
 It predominates in ethereal natures, such as 
 that of a pure child. In its mental manifesta- 
 tion, it gives the power to will and to know. 
 It is this quality in flame that induces it to 
 burn upward. The purest example of Sattwa 
 Gun is Intelligence on the abstract plane. On 
 the physical plane, there is no pure example of 
 the Sattwa quality. The nearest approach to 
 its realization on the mental plane is that stage 
 of transition between the dreaming and wak- 
 ing states. Foods that are influenced by the 
 
 [18]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 Sattwa quality are milk, rice and wheat. It is 
 found to some extent in the white corpuscles of 
 the blood. It is symbolized by pure white. 
 
 The second Gun is Raja, or Eajo Gun, which 
 comes from the root ranja, to please or to color. 
 (It is interesting to note in this connection 
 that the word Rajah, or king, comes from the 
 same root ranja, to please. Hence, a king is 
 one who pleases his subjects.) Raja is the 
 quality that activates, produces motion, and 
 causes constant change in anything with which 
 it comes into contact. It is only by the influ- 
 ence of Rajo Gun that the other two Gun are 
 enabled to manifest their inherent qualities. 
 Rajo Gun gives matter its force and impetus, 
 and causes desire and endeavor in the mind. 
 It is this quality that imparts motion to air and 
 fire. Its purest example on the abstract plane 
 is Ego, and on the physical plane is energy. 
 It is found in the red corpuscles of the blood. 
 Foods that contain an excess of Rajo Gun are 
 red peppers, onions and liquors. Red is its 
 symbolized color. 
 
 The third Gun is Tama, or Tamo Gun. It 
 comes from the root tarn, which means to cover 
 or to darken. The function of Tama is to cover 
 Sattwa and obstruct Raja. It manifests in all 
 matter, whether gross or subtle, as its outer 
 cover. To use a scientific expression, it is the 
 skin of matter, such as the outer cover of a 
 drop of water, whose skin can be seen when a 
 bubble is formed, or the outer cover of flame 
 which does not allow the air to pass thru it. 
 It is Tamo Gun which makes it possible to feel 
 invisible air. This quality produces the ten- 
 dency in water to descend, and is responsible 
 
 [19]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 for the attraction or downward pull of the 
 earth. (Please observe here the idea of grav- 
 ity centuries before Newton.) It is Tamo Gun 
 which causes that resistance in matter which 
 prevents it from becoming one with the whole, 
 and it checks the efforts of Rajo Gun to acti- 
 vate unbrokenly. It halts and resists motion. 
 The purest form of this third quality in an ab- 
 stract sense is lethargy, and in a material sense 
 is the solidarity of the earth. It is found in 
 the dark blood of the veins in the form of car- 
 bon. Its influence is predominant in sleep and 
 laziness. An excess of it is found in stale meat, 
 poisons, and certain suffocating gases. It is 
 symbolized as dark-colored. 
 
 Now let us consider these three causative 
 qualities of Nature in their relation to one an- 
 other. When the second quality, or Raja, is 
 activated, it tries to make the first quality of 
 Sattwa manifest eternally, but is hindered by 
 the third quality Tama after the latter has been 
 precipitated into manifestation by an excessive 
 activity of Rajo Gun. Until this excessive mo- 
 tion stirs the Tama quality out of its inherent 
 state, however, Rajo Gun makes manifest only 
 the Sattwa quality. 
 
 The resistance of Tamo Gun on the expansion 
 of Rajo Gun causes the vibrations of the uni- 
 verse. All vibrations have one motion and one 
 pause to form a rhythm. The motion is made 
 by the quality of Raja, and the pause by Tama. 
 
 An increase in proportion of any one of the 
 three Gun enables it to counteract the effects 
 of the other two. For instance, the momentum 
 accumulated in the process of "looping the 
 loop" counteracts the pull of gravity. 
 
 An illustration of the three Gun in Nature 
 
 [20]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 would be the Sattwa quality in dawn, the Raja 
 quality in noon, and the Tama quality in night. 
 
 We will return again to Prakriti, where the 
 three causative Gun are in a state of equili- 
 brium, and hence the change, or effect from the 
 cause, has not yet taken place. This is the 
 cosmos unmanifested. 
 
 The Great Law of Karma pursues the three 
 Gun because of their association with past crea- 
 tions, and forces Rajo Gun to become active by 
 influencing Sattwa Gun. The Prakriti is in 
 this way broken up, and Mahat Tatwa comes 
 into being. This word conies from the root 
 maha, meaning greatest of the great. It sig- 
 nifies permeability, expansion, certainty, and 
 illumination, or the all-pervading intelligence 
 which is inherent in all manifestations. 
 
 It is generally taken for granted that intelli- 
 gence is monopolized by human beings alone, 
 but if intelligence is understood in its original 
 sense of capacity to expand, of possession of a 
 mixture of Sattwa Gun and Rajo Gun, of abil- 
 ity to ascertain purpose, and of power of 
 growth, then it will be clear that intelligence is 
 shared by all states of being, whether of Nature 
 or of man. 
 
 This quality of intelligence that is manifested 
 in Mahat Tatwa exists in a pure and perfect 
 state, and bears little resemblance to its ulti- 
 mate outcome, the individualized egoistic in- 
 telligence. The Mahat Tatwa, being the first 
 manifestation of Prakriti, is the absolute state 
 of assured knowledge. It may be conceived in 
 our minds as the sum of all cognition, all con- 
 cepts and all knowledge. Being more mani- 
 fested than Prakriti, it is less difficult to com- 
 prehend. 
 
 [21]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 Mahat Tatwa is inherent in all forms of crea- 
 tion, whether subtle or gross. It is this which 
 ascertains purpose ,and fulfills the ultimate des- 
 tiny, regardless of the ignorance of the ego. 
 For example, let us consider faith in human 
 beings. Faith is the substance of things hoped 
 for. Real faith is a faithful reality. It is a 
 glimmering of the pure inherent Intelligence 
 which has the assured knowledge of its destiny. 
 The individual who unconsciously glimpses the 
 Mahat Tatwa of his own being, becomes aware 
 of his future thru faith. Without knowing, he 
 has seen. A genius is one who has exchanged 
 his personal intelligence in the field of his art 
 for as much of the impersonal intelligence as 
 he can grasp. 
 
 Mahat Tatwa is composed of the Sattwa qual- 
 ity which has been activated by Rajo Gun. 
 Tamo Gun is still in its inherent state. By a 
 further increase in the activity of Rajo Gun, 
 Aham Tatwa, or the third of the twenty-four 
 creative Tatwa, comes into being. The first 
 two Tatwa, as we have seen, are Prakrit! and 
 Mahat Tatwa. Aham means I, and comes from 
 the root aha, to occupy separately. (Arhat, 
 meaning the disciples of a Buddhist sect, comes 
 from the same root. "R" is the letter in San- 
 scrit which signifies disintegration. Its use in 
 the word arhat symbolizes the breaking-up of 
 the occupation by the ego of a separate exis- 
 tence. Hence, this Buddhist sect strives to sub- 
 merge the ego.) Aham Tatwa is the first birth 
 of consciousness. It gives rise to ego, pride, 
 consciousness of self, of personal position, of 
 possession and ownership. It is responsible for 
 individuality ,for aloofness and separation, for 
 the variety that has come out of Harmony. 
 
 [22]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 Let us consider more fully the relationship 
 existing between Mahat Tatwa and Aham 
 Tatwa. It embodies the idea of Relativity, 
 or the relation between the individual and the 
 Infinite, or to put it in abstract terms, the rela- 
 tion between the great expansion called intel- 
 ligence and the limitation called ego. 
 
 A little illustration will serve to make the re- 
 lationship clearer. Imagine a cup in space. 
 Space is all-permeating; it is all around the 
 cup, above it, below it, inside it, and through 
 it. At the same time, the outer rim of the cup 
 encloses a certain amount of space. This is the 
 holding capacity of the cup. Puzzling ques- 
 tions can be asked about this simple illustra- 
 tion. Does the space hold the cup, or does the 
 cup hold the space? The answer from the at- 
 titude of the cup would be, the cup holds the 
 space, because the direct interest of the cup is 
 itself first, and the space next. 
 
 To understand this illustration is to under- 
 stand the idea of Relativity, and the relation 
 between intelligence and ego. Intelligence or 
 Mahat Tatwa is the first effect of Nature, and 
 is the cause of ego. However, the ego is first 
 concerned with itself, and considers the uni- 
 versal intelligence only as a secondary interest, 
 and only from the angle that it itself is affected 
 by Mahat Tatwa. 
 
 After Aham Tatwa has been separated from 
 Mahat Tatwa, then cognition or consciousness 
 becomes only relative. The ego has now lost 
 its compact infinity and its assured knowledge. 
 For example, imagine a cloud. It is possessed 
 of a Sattwa Gun predominancy which enables 
 it to float in the air. Its assured knowledge 
 
 [23]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 is that it is destined to be in a vaporish state. 
 When Rajo Gun becomes so active that Tamo 
 Gun asserts itself, then the inherent raindrops 
 in the cloud separate themselves, thereby los- 
 ing their compact form. They are at once at- 
 tracted by the Tamo Gun in the earth in the 
 form of gravitation, and having lost their 
 Sattwa buoyancy, they descend to the earth by 
 the help of Rajo Gun. The Mahat Tatwa or in- 
 telligence of the raindrops is obscured by the 
 Aham Tatwa which controls them in their fluid 
 state, and they therefore have lost their as- 
 sured knowledge. They believe their destiny 
 is to remain in the earth, having dimmed the 
 consciousness of their vaporish origin. But 
 their Mahat Tatwa, whose light is hidden, 
 knows their destiny is ultimately to leave the 
 earth by evaporation and resume their vapor- 
 ish state and compact form. 
 
 Another phase of the relation between the 
 ego and intelligence can be illustrated in the 
 following way. Imagine a pint-cup immersed 
 into a fifty-gallon tank of water. The cup can 
 only compare the capacity of the tank to its 
 own measurement of a pint, and so to the cup 
 the capacity of the tank would be four hundred 
 pints. Imagine that this tank was in turn 
 immersed into a larger tank, and that tank 
 into a river, and the river into an ocean. In 
 this way, the one which was included in the 
 other could only measure the greater one by 
 its own comparison. Similarly, the ego can- 
 not understand the intelligence except from 
 the standpoint of a separate consciousness. 
 Each stage of consciousness will measure by its 
 own limitation, until an absolute consciousness 
 will merge into pure intelligence . 
 
 [24]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 This state of absolute consciousness that has 
 been reached thru a series of partial or limited 
 consciousnesses is that phase of Mahat Tatwa 
 which is called Jna, or attitude. Jna is not a 
 state, but is that aspect of any state in which 
 there is potentially another state. For in- 
 stance, the Jna of Mahat Tatwa is that aspect 
 of it in which the potential Aham Tatwa is 
 seen. 
 
 It must be kept in mind that Mahat Tatwa 
 and Aham Tatwa are immortal, all-pervading, 
 abstract essences that have not yet limited 
 themselves to the various forms of their ulti- 
 mate physical manifestations. Aham Tatwa 
 is considered immortal because of its first mi- 
 ni anifested inherence in Mahat Tatwa. 
 
 Rajo Gun continues to influence the Aham 
 Tatwa, thereby arousing thru its activity the 
 desire for expression in the abstract ego. As 
 a result, Mana or Cosmic Mind, comes into ex- 
 istence. (Manush, or man, comes from the root 
 mana, and means a rational, thinking being.) 
 Mana is the fourth of the twenty-four poten- 
 tially creative Tatwa, and has the quality 
 of abstract sense-consciousness. In this way, 
 Aham Tatwa, or abstract consciousness, has 
 created thru its desire for expression Mana, or 
 abstract sense-consciousness. Mana is in touch 
 with Intelligence thru Aham Tatwa. 
 
 Thru the increasing activity of the Rajo Gun 
 on Mana, the abstract concepts of the ten senses 
 are born. These ten abstract senses, in addi- 
 tion to the four preceding Tatwa of Prakriti, 
 Mahat Tatwa, Aham Tatwa, and Mana, make 
 fourteen of the twenty-four Tatwa. 
 
 The five knowing and the five working senses 
 
 [25]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 in their abstract conception are the two divis- 
 ions of the ten sense-concepts. The five ab- 
 stract knowing senses are called Jnana-Indriya. 
 It is these that afterward realize the qualities 
 of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. 
 
 The five abstract working senses are Karma- 
 Indriya. It is these that are the mental corres- 
 pondence for the as yet uncreated physical 
 abilities to express thru speech, to execute, to 
 move, to procreate, and to throw off waste mat- 
 ter. 
 
 Mana is the guide of these ten abstract sense- 
 concepts, thru its sense-consciousness. 
 
 The Rajo Gun has by this time increased its 
 activity thru a mixture of Sattwa Gun and its 
 own momentum to such an extent that Tamo 
 Gun is hurled out of its inherent state into its 
 manifested quality of resistance. This check 
 on the motion of Rajo Gun produces the five 
 Tanmatra, or the objects of the five abstract 
 knowing senses. Tanmatra comes from two 
 roots, tat, meaning that, and matra, meaning 
 only or merely. Tanmatra, then, are Only 
 That, or Merely That. They are the subtlest 
 form of actual matter ; the first conceivable di- 
 vision of matter. They are called Shabda 
 (sound), Sparsha (touch), Roop (form and 
 color), Ras (taste and fluidity), and Gandha 
 (odor). Those floating lights, scientifically 
 called dream-stuff, which we see when we close 
 our eyes are the mental representation of Tan- 
 matra. Upon the ability of the individual man 
 to organize these Tanmatra depends his ability 
 to execute his plans. 
 
 Thru a further increase in the manifestation 
 of the heavy Tamo Gun, the five material sub- 
 
 [26]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 stances, or Bhoota, are formed. Bhoota comes 
 from the root bhoot, which means "to have 
 been." Hence Bhoota means past; that is, 
 their real nature is left behind in time. 
 
 Our idea of time is an arbitrary division of 
 eternity related to a standard of consciousness. 
 Our present becomes past and our .future be- 
 comes present. In this way, the five Bhoota 
 change their form so rapidly in relation to time 
 that before the moment we call present has 
 involved out of the future, the motion of the 
 five Bhoota has already caused them to exist in 
 the past. 
 
 These five Bhoota are scientifically called the 
 five realities of Nature. The first one as Akash, 
 which comes from the roots ang, to pervade, 
 and kash, to shine. It is that subtle and ethe- 
 real fluid which fills and pervades the universe, 
 and is the peculiar vehicle of light and sound. 
 The controversy being waged by scientists over 
 the medium of sound is based on a misunder- 
 standing of the nature of space. Space is the 
 medium of sound in the sense that it furnishes 
 the base which allows the vibration of the sound 
 to take place. The manifested sound of course 
 requires the medium of air. 
 
 The second material substance of Bhoota is 
 Wayu. It means "that which flows". It 
 comes from two roots, wa, to pervade, and yuk, 
 to augment. It is Wayu that makes air and all 
 gaseous substances able to manifest. In a sub- 
 tle sense, it means touch. Its- work is expan- 
 sion, contraction, and pressure. 
 
 The third Bhoota is Tej, or energy. It comes 
 from the root tejus, light. It causes magnet- 
 ism, heat, and light. Its work is to expand. 
 
 [27]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 In a subtle sense, it is color and form. It 
 causes fire to burn. 
 
 The fourth Bhoota is Apa, or fluidity. It 
 comes from the roots ap, to nourish, and a, par- 
 tial. Its work is to contract. In a subtle 
 sense, it is taste. It is responsible for all liq- 
 uids, such as water. 
 
 The fifth Bhoota is Prithiwee, which comes 
 from the roots pri, to nourish, th, to stand fixed, 
 and wee, covering. Prithiwee gives solidarity. 
 Its work is to harden and make compact. In a 
 subtle sense, it is odor, and in its grossest form 
 it is earth. 
 
 Each Bhoota has been successively formed by 
 a combination of the preceding qualities, in 
 the following manner. 
 
 Akash sound. 
 
 Wayu sound, touch. 
 
 Tej sound, touch, form and color. 
 
 Apa sound, touch, form and color, taste. 
 
 Prithiwee sound, touch, form and color, taste, odor. 
 
 Although all Bhoota are the outcome of a 
 predominancy of Tamo Gun, yet in the first four 
 Bhoota, Sattwa Gun is active to a certain ex- 
 tent. It is only in Prithiwee, or earth, that 
 Sattwa Gun has become an unmanifested, in- 
 herent quality. Akash has enough Sattwa Gun 
 to give it an all-pervading quality. Wayu and 
 Tej are induced by their Sattwa Gun to mani- 
 fest upward. Apa is influenced by its Sattwa 
 Gun when it is converted into steam. It also 
 gets its buoyancy from the Sattwa quality. 
 Wayu, Tej, and Apa get their motion from 
 Rajo Gun. Prithiwee is enabled by its exces- 
 sive Tamo Gun activated by Rajo Gun, to exert 
 its downward attraction. 
 
 Each Bhoota has a qualitative vibration or 
 
 [28]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 rhythm, produced by the resistance of Tamo 
 Gun on the expansion of Rajo Gun. 
 
 The vibration of Akash is geometrically rep- 
 resented by a circle enclosing innumerable dots, 
 signifying the atomic movement within limit- 
 less space. 
 
 The circular vibration belongs to Wayu. Its 
 form may be seen when a whirlwind causes 
 dust to gyrate in a circular course . 
 
 Tej has a triangular rhythm. This may be 
 observed in the flame of fire, which darts up- 
 ward in a conical form. 
 
 The semi-circular vibration is peculiar to 
 Apa. The undulating flow of the ocean-waves 
 illustrates this rhythm. 
 
 Prithiwee possesses an angular vibration, 
 which causes the composition of matter to be 
 divided into angular particles. 
 
 On these five vibrations, and their combina- 
 tions, are based all the movements of the uni- 
 verse, both of Nature and of man. The latter 
 has employed these rhythms in his expressions 
 of painting, music, poetry, dancing, weaving, 
 and in fact, all the arts and crafts. (It will 
 perhaps be of interest here to point out that 
 the ancient RishA who formulated the Sanskrit 
 language shaped the symbols or letters of the 
 alphabet by their connection with the various 
 rhythms, in this way suggesting to the mind 
 the various Bhoota. By so employing these 
 rhythmic symbols, tjhe translation from the 
 world of matter to the world of thought, or 
 from concrete to abstract, was accomplished 
 not arbitrarily, but naturally. The combina- 
 tion of the circular (air and ether), semi-cir- 
 cular (water), and straight-line (fire and earth) 
 
 [29]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 rhythms which compose the Sanskrit alphabet 
 make poetry effortless. The ancient Sanskrit 
 literature, therefore, has a liquid, flowing, edge- 
 less continuity of sound.) 
 
 We have seen that the twenty-four Tatwa, 
 which are Prakriti, Mahat Tatwa, Aham Tat- 
 wa, Mana, five Jnana-Indriya, five Karma-In- 
 driya, five Tanmatra, and five Bhoota, have 
 been successively produced by the influence of 
 the Gun of the preceding state. These Gun co- 
 exist in all Tatwa, but predominate variously. 
 Out of the twenty-four Tatwa, the whole mani- 
 fested world of Nature (including man^ has 
 been created. 
 
 In the individual man, the Jnana-Indriya and 
 Karma-Indriya, or the ten sense-concepts, are 
 the external consciousness, and Aham Tatwa 
 and Mahat Tatwa are the internal conscious- 
 ness, while the connecting link between the two 
 is Mana. The proportionate relationship be- 
 tween the internal and external states of being 
 produces the different stages of consciousness, 
 or in other words, the identification of Mana 
 with either the internal or external conscious- 
 ness, or both, constitutes the various degrees of 
 intelligence in man. 
 
 When Mana is in touch with Intelligence 
 thru Aham Tatwa, the knowing and working 
 senses possess a high and intuitive efficiency, 
 and the individual man is conscious of faith and 
 self-confidence. On the other hand, when 
 Mana is unable to reach the intelligence of 
 Mahat Tatwa because of the excessive manifes- 
 tation of Aham Tatwa, then Mana is forced to 
 identify itself with only the ten sense-concepts. 
 As a result, the knowing and working senses 
 
 [30]
 
 COSMIC CREATION 
 
 possess only mechanical efficiency, and memory 
 is their only basis for confidence. 
 
 Let us trace the inception of an idea to its 
 expression. When Mahat Tatwa suggests the 
 idea thru Aham Tatwa to Mana, the latter in 
 turn transmits it thru the abstract sense-con- 
 cepts to the Tanmatra, which finally material- 
 izes the idea in physical form thru Bhoota. 
 The objective, material form of the idea, 
 however, has lost much of the pristine, incep- 
 tive force that it possessed in the state of Mahat 
 Tatwa, owing to its contact with the various 
 limitations of the succeeding states. This is 
 why the individual man can conceive more than 
 he can execute. 
 
 Similarly, the Bhoota are but a limited ex- 
 pression of the unrestricted Prakrit! from 
 which they originated. 
 
 We have seen how abstract became concrete, 
 thought became matter, Infinite became finite, 
 and Formless took form. This transformation 
 thru limitation, therefore, has caused the 
 changes from Prakrlti, or undifferentiated Cos- 
 mic Substance, to the Bhoota, or differentiated 
 Cosmic Creation. 
 
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