COSMO-ORGANIC RELATIONSHIP

The fathomless cosmos is imperceptible to a finite mind. It is beyond the perception of the mind and senses and the comprehension of the intellect to decipher the intricate relational cobwebs of the governing principles. However, in cosmic infinity, there are hues of structural, processual, and functional organic relationships that metamorphose into organisation, order, coordination, stability, and predictability. The organic relationship steadfastly needs to be endeavoured to realise consciously, as it is latent, immanent, and its manifestation is discernible to a realised being. Nothing is outside of what is inside, as are all thoughts, actions, and processes as per the delineated lines. Three aspects of Cosmic Being may be considered part of a cosmically interlinked organic relationship. Firstly, there is singularity and non-duality of source, cause, and effect as creator, sustainer, annihilator, and absorber. Secondly, He is immanent, transcendent, and potent to pervade, enliven, illuminate, and energise the cosmic field. Thirdly, He is akshara (indestructible), infinity, the ultimate reality, the embodiment of truth, and Sat-Chit-Anand (Eternal Existence-Conciousness-Bliss), the ultimate repository of everything and beyond. He is the one controller among a multitude of performers. The performers perform the drama in the cosmic field, manifest or unmanifest, as per the direction of the Director of the cosmos.

The Svetasvatara Upanishad says that the non-dual Brahmān, who rules over every position; who controls all forms and all sources; who, in the beginning, filled with knowledge, was the omniscient Hiranyagarbha, His own creation, whom He beheld when He (Hiranyagarbha) was produced—He is other than both knowledge and ignorance. In the immutable, infinite Supreme Brahmān remain hidden the two: knowledge and ignorance. Ignorance leads to worldliness and knowledge, and immortality. Brahmān, who controls both knowledge and ignorance, is different from both. At the time of creation, the Lord spreads out individual nets in various ways, and then, at the time of cosmic dissolution, he withdraws them into the great prakriti. Again, the all-pervading Deity creates the aggregates of body and senses, both individual and collective, and their controllers also, and thus exercises His overlordship (Svetasvatara Upanishad 6.1-3).

1. Outline

Everything in the cosmos is intricately connected, arranged, coordinated, and organised in a state of organic relationships through cosmic energisation and enlivenment. There is nothing disconnected or unconnected in the organically related cosmic field. In such an organically connected field, there is no deviation or disconnection, even from the infinitesimal to the cosmic level. It is because the Supreme Being, or Cosmic Being, is immanent and transcendent and pervades every realm and dimension. He is the substrate over which this entire creation exists; He is the Creator, Sustainer, and Annihilator. Similar to the beads strung in a thread, which can move in their place, God has given individual souls the free will to act as they wish, yet their existence is bound to Him. The very concept and existence of samsar (birth and death) indicate seamless organic relationships between the Creator and the creature. The doctrine of reincarnation and transmigration of the soul goes beyond the conception of believing we are our physical bodies. The Ātman (inner self or inner spirit), within every being, has no birth or death; it is eternal. Birth and death are stages in the life process. That way of subjecting oneself to the perpetual revolving in the ocean of material existence known as life and death.

The Srimad Bhagavad Gita declares that just as the embodied soul continuously passes from childhood to youth to old age, similarly, at the time of death, the soul passes into another body. The wise by this remain beyond delusion.

dehino ’smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā

tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati

This establishes the principle of transmigration of the soul from lifetime to lifetime.

"The final stroke of a physical annihilation of our personality is not brought about by our connections with our family members or the society of people, but by our connection to space and time.... Space and time are not beyond us. We cannot see space, though we appear to be seeing it with our eyes. It is inwardly woven into the very fibre of our personality. There is space inside us also. Space is not outside anything, nor can it be said to be inside everything, because the very conception of a localised existence is impossible without the conception of space."

The organic relationship in the cosmos is a manifestation of the immanence of Cosmic Being. He is transcendent to all, as He is Akshara (Indestructible, not subject to decay), Param (Supreme) and Brahmān (Supreme Being, or Ultimate Existence). All life forms, visible or invisible, emanate from Him alone. He is the Creator, Sustainer, Annihilator, and Absorber. It is almost a relationship between puppets and puppeteers. All events, past, present, and future, are controlled, directed, and coordinated by Him alone. He is the only reality, and all others' existence is in correlation with Him alone. All events of history, all processes of nature, and all actions of individuals are motivated by the Supreme Cosmic Being, and that way He does everything.

2. Scriptures

The ancient scriptures are emphatic about the organic relationships of the cosmos. In the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna tersely says that I am the Creator and Sustainer of all living beings; I am not influenced by them or by material nature.

Sri Krishna affirms in the Bhagavad Gita that all living beings are manifested by His two energies, jīva śhakti, the sentient soul energy, and Maya, the insentient material energy or matter. He is the source of the entire creation, and into Him it again dissolves.

mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñchid asti dhanañjaya

mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva

There, it is said, nothing higher than Myself, and everything rests in Me, as beads strung on a thread.

The entire cosmic manifestation is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest form, says Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. All living beings dwell in Me, but I do not dwell in them.

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā

mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na chāhaṁ teṣhvavasthitaḥ

Swami Krishnananda, in his commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, emphasises that there is no place, no nook, cranny, or corner where the Supreme Being is not. He brings about an organic relationship among all the things in the world, though they are millions of light years away from the point of view of sense perception. He further highlights that something may be millions and millions of light years away, yet it is connected with us just here. The moment we sigh here on this earth, it is known in the abode of Brahma that we sighed. Such is the organic relationship of all things, because there is a life principle invisibly operating in all things. The Supreme Being is present in all things. Everything is pervaded by Him. There is no location where He is not. No one can hide anything from Him, as all things are located in Him.

This world is samsar, i.e., for birth, death, and rebirth. This entire process of manifestation and unmanifestation is being nurtured by no other being than the Supreme Being. The Srimad Bhagavad Gita firmly says so.

vyaktādīni bhūtāni vyakta-madhyāni bhārata

avyakta-nidhanānyeva tatra kā paridevanā

All created beings are unmanifest before birth, manifest in life, and again unmanifest on death.

The Bhagavad Gita affirms that those who relinquish the body while remembering Me at the moment of death will come to Me.

Swami Krishnananda, in his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, says there is certainly no doubt about this. Antakāle ca mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram, yaḥ prayāti sa madbhāvaṁ yāti nāsty atra saṁśayaḥ (Bhagavad Gita 8.5). Whenever the time comes for a human being to depart from this world, that particular context of the time of passing determines the nature of rebirth and the kind of embodiment into which the soul will enter in the region to which it will gravitate on account of its own present karmas.

Ishavasya Upanishad corroborates way as the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. It says that

īśā vāsyam idaṃ sarvaṃ yat kiñca jagatyāṃ jagat |

tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasya sviddhanam || 1 ||

In the Supreme Being is to be veiled all this—whatever moves on earth. Through such renunciation do thou save (thyself); be not greedy, for whose is wealth?

He who rules is (termed) Īt. Īśā (means), ‘by the Lord’. The Supreme Being is the Ruler and the real Self of every creature. By such a Lord, identical with oneself, is to be overspread, i.e., covered, all this, whatsoever, on earth. jagat = all that (moves). By one’s own self—the Lord, the supreme Self—which is the sole reality, all these unreal things, both movable and immovable, have to be covered over, (perceiving) thus—‘I am the inner Self of all’.

 The enjoyer (jiva), the objects of enjoyment, and the Ruler (Isvara)—the triad described by the knowers of Brahman—all this is nothing but Brahman (the Supreme Self, or Ultimate Existence), says the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (1.12). The Upanishad (1.8) emphasises that the Lord, Isa, supports all this that has been joined together—the perishable and the imperishable, the manifest, the effect, and the unmanifest, the cause. The same Lord, the Supreme Self, devoid of lordship, becomes bound because of the attitude of the enjoyer. The jiva again realises the Supreme Self and is freed from all fetters. This Brahman alone, which abides eternally within the self, should be known. Beyond it, truly, there is nothing else to be known.

 The Brihadaranyak Upanishad echoes the line of thinking that All is his Self.

yasyānuvittaḥ pratibuddha ātmāsminsaṃdehye gahane praviṣṭaḥ | sa viśvakṛt, sa hi sarvasya kartā, tasya lokaḥ, sa u loka eva || 4.4.13 ||

He who has realised and intimately known the Self that has entered this perilous and inaccessible place (the body) is the maker of the universe, for he is the maker of all; all is his Self, and he again is indeed the Self (of all). Is the Self something different from him? The answer is: He is indeed the Self (Loka). The word ‘Loka’ here means the Self. That is to say, all is his Self, and he is the Self of all. This innermost Self that has entered this body, beset with dangers and inaccessible, and which the knower of Brahman realises through intuition, is not the individual self, but the Supreme Self, because It is the maker of the universe, the Self of all, and all is Its Self. One should meditate upon one’s identity with the Supreme Self, the one only without a second: This is the gist of the verse.

The Katha Upanishad, in a relational sequence, declares that beyond the senses are the rudiments of its objects; beyond these rudiments is the mind; beyond the mind is atman, known as Mahat (great). Beyond the great Ātman is the unmanifested; beyond the unmanifested is the Puruṣa (the Cosmic Soul); beyond the Puruṣa there is nothing. That is the end, which is the final goal.

indriyebhyaḥ parā hyarthā arthebhyaśca paraṃ manaḥ |

manasastu parā buddhirbuddherātmā mahānparaḥ || 1.3.10 ||

mahataḥ paramavyaktamavyaktātpuruṣaḥ paraḥ |

puruṣānna paraṃ kiṃcitsā kāṣṭhā sā parā gatiḥ || 1.3.11 ||

Now this subsequent portion is introduced for the purpose of showing that the goal to be reached should be understood to be the Pratyak (the internal) atman, the subtlest proceeding from the gross senses in the ascending degree of subtlety. The senses are gross, and those rudiments (Vishaya) from which these spring for their own illumination are subtler than the senses, their own effects, greater than these, and the atman of these, i.e., bound up with these; subtler than these rudiments and greater than these, being the atman of these, is the mind. Here, the word mind denotes the rudiments of the Bhuta (Bhuta Sukshma) from which mind originates. Than the mind, which is the origin of volition, deliberation, and the rest, the intellect, which is subtler, greater, and more possessed of the functions of seeing, hearing, etc., does not shine, as the atman of any being concealed by ignorance and delusion. Oh, how deep, unfathomable, and marvellous this Maya is that every living being, though really in its nature the Brahman, does not, though instructed, grasp the truth ‘I am the Paramatman’ and feels convinced, without any instruction, that he is such a person's son mistaking for the atman the combination of the body and the senses, etc., which is not the atman and is only perceived by him, like the pot, etc.; indeed, the world wanders repeatedly deluded by the Maya of the Brahman alone; so the smriti also says, ‘Being concealed by Yogamaya, I do not shine to all, etc.’ Are not these statements inconsistent? Knowing him, the intelligent do not grieve, and ‘he does not shine.’ It is not so. It is said he does not shine because he cannot be known by the unpurified intellect, but he is seen by the purified intellect. Agryaya, like a point, i.e., concentrated, subtle, i.e., capable of perceiving subtle objects. By whom? By the subtle seers, i.e., by persons who, by seeing the different degrees of subtlety as pointed out by the rudiments, are subtler than the senses, etc., are characteristically able to see the subtlest, i.e., by learned persons.

3. Remarks

The Supreme Being is Omniscient, the most ancient One, the Controller, subtler than the subtlest, the Support of all, and the possessor of an inconceivable divine form. He is beyond all the darkness of ignorance, and brighter than the sun. One who, at the time of death, with an unmoving mind attained by the practice of yoga (meditation), fixes the prāṇ (life-airs) between the eyebrows and steadily remembers Him with great devotion, certainly attains Him.

The Srimad Bhagavad Gita is crystal clear in the process of life journey. It says that

anta-kāle cha mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram

yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti nāstyatra sanśhayaḥ

Those who relinquish the body while remembering Me at the moment of death will come to Me. There is certainly no doubt about this.

According to Swami Krishnananda, the nature of karma is hidden so secretly that its operations are not easy to understand. On the one hand, action seems to be connected with the individual initiative because it passes through the egoism of personality, but on the other hand, it is actually not entirely confined to the structure of human individuality; it is cosmically oriented. The difficulty that you feel in your personal life is regarding your understanding of the nature of the relationship that seems to exist between the cosmic impulsion behind all things and your individual initiative. Where does the demarcating line come between your assertion of personality and the operation of God's will? This is why it is said to be very hard.

Therefore, from the start of one's life and for the duration of it in this world, one should persevere to unveil the veil of ignorance that clouds the inner self and realise its luminosity. The birthright of all beings is to remain free and pursue action in a state of freedom. But all actions are not unconditional. Being exercises his free will and action in a state of condition pre-fixed before. The only option before him is to fasten up or slow down as per the delineated lines. Conditional free will and conditional action need to be exercised perspicaciously in a way that reflects detachment, equanimity, forbearance, and sense abnegation.

 -Asutosh Satpathy