Self-realization · 3 of 11
Brahmacakra: the cycle of creation
Everything comes out of Consciousness, goes as far from it as matter, and turns back. The circle has a name: Brahmacakra.
On each page the marked passages are the words of Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti, from the books. The lines between them are ours and only lead from one passage to the next.
Everything comes from one source
The starting point is that nothing lies outside the Supreme. The world is not made by It out of something else; the world is made of It.
Parama Puruśa says, “Everything has emerged from me, everything is being maintained in me, and ultimately everything will dissolve in Me.”
Therefore the entire creation is only made of Brahma. Brahma alone is the cause of the creation of the universe.
Saiṋcara: outward, from subtle to crude
The first half of the circle moves away from the center. The stuff of the Cosmic Mind grows denser step by step: space, air, light, liquid, solid.
Saiṋcara is movement away from the Nucleus – the Nucleus itself being the centre of Brahma Cakra, or the great cycle of creation. The force of saiṋcara is, therefore, centrifugal.
In the first phase of this crudification the chemical affinity permits the transmission of sound waves only. Hence at a stage when the citta, getting a bit cruder, is able to carry sound waves, it is said that ákásha, or the ethereal body, has been formed. This ákásha is the first rudimental factor on the physical level.
With the continued action of the static principle, the liquid body and finally solid structures are formed.
Thus the visible world is created through the gradual crudifications of His thought-projection.
Pratisaiṋcara: the way back
At the densest point the direction turns. Life appears, then mind, and every step from here on is a step nearer the center.
The very start of the animated stage is the beginning of the process of pratisaiṋcara. The crudest solid is the final stage of saiṋcara.
The formation of mind is the start of the process of pratisaiṋcara or the cycle for the unit to progress from the crude to the subtle. This progress is effected by the domination of Vidyámáyá or illusion of knowledge, whereby the direction of motion is towards the Nucleus Puruśottama, the centre of all creations. Every step in this direction is a step nearer the centre, the destined goal of all, the ultimate result of all creations. This force is centripetal and is associated with the growing attraction of Puruśottama. This attraction is His blessing by which He leads every being of His towards the kindly divine light.
Where a human being stands
The human being is at the far end of the returning half, and has something no earlier stage had: the power to quicken the journey, or to turn back.
Human beings form the last stage in the evolutionary ladder of the creation.
The unit mind, however, can accelerate the speed of this motion by realizing His blessing more and more and thereby acquiring a psycho-spiritual parallelism with greater speed.
Inferior animals, therefore, continue to march further on the path of pratisaiṋcara (because of their less-developed ego), while humans may retrace by adopting mean objectives.
This is why the pages that follow matter. What a person does with this freedom decides the direction.