Role of Prakrti
Human
body consists of same gross and subtle elements, tatva, tanmatras, anu, kanu, sub atomic particles- electrons,
protons, neutrons and many more tiny and microscopic particles as in Prakrti
being our supreme Mother and the universe. In view of this close relationship
of man with Prakrti, same laws are applicable to human beings as observed by
Nature and the universe. Being supreme mother she helps us to convey the same
in the form of Book of Nature. It is a separate matter that human beings tend
to create their own laws some times contradicting the laws of Nature under the
influence of their senses and outward looking mind (etani). Still worse, they not only contradict and flout laws of
Nature but also their own laws for heir selfish and vested interests. Many
learned persons have observed the flouting of man made laws by the human beings
and compared the same with sand houses, which are built and destroyed by small
children for their pleasure. William Shenstone had explained this human
phenomenon in his inimitable literary style,” Laws (made by human beings) are
generally found to be nets of such a texture as the little creep through, the
great break through and the middle sized are alone entangled in." All
physical forces in the Nature are man's greatest allies whether sun, rain,
moon, air, water and others. By flouting laws of Nature and even their own
laws, human beings unashamedly create pollution in these forces like acid rain,
depletion of ozone layer etc., over use the blessings of Prakrti and tend to
become parasite on this earth- described in Vedas as benign mother which does
not kick. There are man-made religious, state and social laws against
pollution, smuggling, rape, bribery, adulteration of food, medicines, dowry
system, infanticide etc., but all these activities and social evils continue
with vengeance. This ambivalence has created two faces of many human beings -
the face of their gross body and a masked face. Many of the ultra rich and
deliriously wealthy persons of gorging, giving and greed have masked faces in
society and their real face with unsociable activities is very often hidden
even some times from their own children. Thus, no one can deny the great social
importance of Vedic truth that not knowing the supreme Mother Prakrti and her
noble and benevolent role, human beings tend to move on the path of evil.
To
explain the role and functioning of Prakrti, recourse to 33 devas has been
taken by the Vedic metaphysicists. The total attributes of Prakrti have been
first split into 33 sets of attributes and each set is brought symbolically
under the charge of one Prakrti’s formless deva/devi.
Since Vedic rsis and munnies had
found the Supreme Reality as ineffable and for explaining His attributes even
the "words recoil", so they did transcendental research to find what
attributes of the formless Brahma are found in Prakrti as the divine Nature was
also His manifestation. Since Prakrti was created through the supreme spirit of
God as shabad Brahma OM, these
attributes came through His Spirit in the divine Nature, which is spread
everywhere. While God has infinite attributes, Prakrti has finite attributes.
From these attributes role of Prakrti can be easily appreciated. Rig-Veda
X-93-4 says," joyful lords of ambrosia are adorable.” The same hymn
further says,” Aryaman deva is the regulator of cosmic order, Mitra
the principle of effulgence behind the Sun, Varuna is the master`of oceanic
forces, Rudra- right and virtuous force behind the storms, hurricanes, Maruts
the cloud bearing winds, Pushan the nourishing principles, Bhaga the power
behind material and spiritual prosperity."
Deva
is epithet applied to all kinds of forces of Nature, including fire, water,
wind, electricity, wrath and other forms of energy, selfless service, light
etc. For each force, service there is a corresponding deva or devi. In all,
there are 33 devas/devis, who are
formless beings of light. The literal translation of deva is "shining
one" and owing to their partly divine attributes, they can be considered
as gods but without any human form. So to give form and worship them through
their idols is non-Vedic. Thus this epithet also applies to selfless service,
light, knowledge, oceanic forces, time calculation, education, decay and final
graceful death through their corresponding deva/devi. Indra, Agni, Varun,
Mitra, Surya and other are devas. Prithvi, Usha and Saraswati are devis. The female beings of light
preside over education, selfless service, time calculation, discipline etc.
Male devas who are the shining ones
preside over energy, power, knowledge and other natural forces like decay etc.
The attributes of Prakrti relating to production, scientific knowledge (of all
physical sciences), Vidya or jnan
through Book of Nature are presided by Ribhu, Ashvinau and Saraswati. Knowing
all these 33 beings of light, one can fully know the attributes of Prakrti.
Since these divine attributes are given to Prakrti through the Shabada Brahma -the Vedic cosmic Word OM
through which the spirit of God first entered Prakrti and later even the human
beings, so these attributes are also available to human beings and also other
animate life. However, the attributes of soul manifested in human beings (jivatma) are different- more in the
nature of a-priori principles being
partly omniscient.
This
kind of classification of the attributes of Prakrti in to 33 sets greatly
helped in the brevity of he Vedic hymns. Instead of repeating every time the
particular set of the attributes of Prakrti, the ancient rsis and muunies used
epithet like Indra, Varun,Usha, Prithvi etc., and succeeded in conveying many
attributes through one epithet each. Even though Vedic hymn, chant or mantra
may appear to be brief, its real meanings could be could be quite lengthy. In
addition to Devas, there is a
mention of another word "Devata".
This metaphysical word refers to subject matter and abstract ideas like
gambling and its censure (R.V. X-34-1 to
6), or praise of Sattavic Daan
(charity) of love, knowledge, selfless service (R.V X-117-1 to 4). Nowhere 33 devas or devis and devatas have been
mentioned as deities. The in-depth study of Vedas would indicate that emphasis
in Shruts ( Vedas) is not so much on prayer, meditation, worship but on
the understanding of God, Soul, Prakrti,
gunas, tatvas, bhutas etc. No one can move towards Moksha- the stage of eternal bliss, unless he/she is well integrated
with Nature. The divine Nature which is our supreme mother Prakrti is
benevolent like most of the devas, mighty like Indra, virtuous like clouds-
Maruts. The Sun is described as one wheeled single fellied, thousand spoked,
rolls East to West while being stationary, with one half of it making part of
the globe enlightened and the other half unnoticed (A.V. 10-8-7). The
attributes of Devas in some details are described in A.V.3-24-1 to 7, X-5-12,
S.V.1530, 1531. R.V. X-7-3, X-156-4, V1-1-5 and many others. Amongst these 33
devas, some seers and sages opted for different names for them like Savitar, Surya, Aryaman relate to Sun. Aditi, Devaki, Daivi are the epithets of
Prakrti. Thus for 33 devas/devis the
number of epithets in the Vedas could be more. However, Vedic metaphysicists
never restricted their findings for the guidance of Aryans alone but for the
entire mankind. Atharva Veda IV-16-8 says, "Varuna Deva exists length
wise, cross wise, he is for our land, he is for foreign land, he is
divine." Devas are stainless, are never amiss, no fault in them, revere
them with Soma hymn (S.V. 442), (R.V X-66-13, VIII-68-9, VIII-195-7, X-65-1.
They do not hate each other, worthy of our homage, praise and worship. They do
not get aged, years, months; days do not wear them out (A.V.III-30-4 and R.V.
X-63-2).
These
hymns clearly prove that attributes originally provided to Prakrti, by the
spirit of God through His cosmic word OM
at the time of creation, continue to remain the same from Zero Time till now
and shall not change till Pralaya or withdrawal
of the gross universe and there after subtle Prakrti. At that stage the entire
mass of universe would change to subtle energy and thereafter into the cosmic
word OM. Thus all activities in
Prakrti, universe and the world commence with OM and also end in the same
cosmic Word or shabada Brahma. Therefore,
Vedas advise the human beings should acquire the same attributes and
characteristics and follow their activities. Rise early when Usha is presiding
over dawn and contemplate over this word OM, pray for getting the divine
knowledge by contemplating and chanting Gyatri mantra, preferably seven times
and start your activities there after. Before finishing all the activities of
the day and going to bed follow the same by contemplating on OM and recite
mother hymn Gyatri mantra. Bhagavad Gita also reiterates the same. Perform your
selflessly activities and there after leave the same to God and do not expect
the result of your activities there and then. This is the path of Nishkam Karma of the Celestial Song and
the philosophy of Idd Nan Mmam of
Vedas.
Owing
to Flux in Prakrti and tatva's effect
of three subtle gunas, no one remains inactive even for a moment as all of us
are driven to action by nature born qualities (B.G.3-5). However, a person who
performs his activities like benign mother Prithvi (earth) and supreme mother
Prakrti without attachment excels (B.G. 3- 7). No one can maintain his/her
gross body without any good or bad action. We all know the role of food in our
life for survival, energy recoupment and maintenance of normal health .The
production of food is rooted in action. Thus, Prakrti and Prithvi are
continuously active for the benefit and welfare of all animate life. It is the
same about education, knowledge and all other welfare actions. However, in this
cycle or wheel of creation, the performance of one's allotted duties as per
four divine professions with selfless action without attachment is vital for
the maintenance of world order (B.G 3-20). Even God continues to work to avoid
any great harm to the world (B.G 3-22). Perform your duty selflessly without
attachment- it would bring blessedness even if death occurs while performing
the allotted duty. Performing other's duty is fraught with fear and can even
bring harm to the person and his family, state and society. To help the human
beings to perform their duties, Prakrti in her divine role creates the earth as
karma bhoomi for all of us. This karma bhoomi is the milch cow, which
does not kick. We only exist so long as we perform our allotted duties
otherwise, not to be occupied is the same thing as not to exist. Bhagavad Gita
amongst many other sins mentions idleness as sin. Voltaire also observed a
similar phenomenon in Nature and wrote,
"All people are good except those who do not work and remain idle.”
Holy Koran enjoins," when ever free resort to work.” Thus for the human
beings to work continuously is one of the laws of God. However, work that does
not benefit the human beings and positively harms the society is not work in
the Vedic metaphysics. Perform your role in the society in the same manner as
performed by your supreme mother Prakrti. This noble concept of work is also
found in Buddha's ethical metaphysics based on dhamma, ashata marga and panch sheel. Buddha had said that the work
of today for other's welfare automatically looks after one's own welfare
tomorrow. Prakrti guides us to the concept of work and its various
characteristics relating to nobility, selflessness, continuity, avoidance of
sin in the form of idleness, which all lead to love, cooperation, welfare based
on the philosophy of Idd Nan Mmam-
nothing for self, all for society.
All
civilisation of the world in the ancient, medieval and modern times are judged
from the mode of work people performed and the results achieved of their
collective efforts and not from their idleness or selfish objectives. The world
history tells us that most of the highly flourishing civilisations came to
their final end when the concept of work became part of materialistic philosophy
and value systems changed to economic values based on self interest. So any
effort on the part of modern science, economics, organised religion, cults,
material ethics and philosophy which ultimately lead to change in the
definition of work opposed to Vedic Idd
Nan Mmam or Bhagavad Gita's Nishkam
Karma and make human beings idle or perform work which is not useful to
families, society, state and the mankind of the entire world is against the
law of Nature. More one studies and understand the role of Prakrti, her various
attributes and facets, the more an individual can perform useful work for the
mankind.
Socrates
had known and understood the role of Nature and found from its working, if
society is to be saved, the polity (city-states then existing in Greece) should
be governed by wise men. For him wisdom, virtue and goodness were synonmous.
His disciple Plato in the theory of rule by philosopher kings in his “Republic”
later on perfected this noble concept of Socrates. In India king Janaka of 8th
century, B C referred in Bhagavad Gita, as an ideal king was more like Plato's
philosopher king, being benevolent ruler, metaphysicists of great eminence and
perfect administrator. It is a separate matter that Plato evolved his theory of
philosopher kings after about four centuries of the death of king Janaka.
Materialism had spread so much in Greek city-states that Plato himself could
not succeed in establishing rule of philosopher king in any of the city-states
of Greece. Aristotle, who was the student of Plato and teacher of Alexander,
finally did not consider the subject of philosopher kings important enough in
his metaphysics. However, the practical application of the concept of
philosopher king during the rule of king Janaka, made that period as golden
period of Vedic metaphysics. In the history of Indian philosophy, eminent
metaphysicists YajnaValkya, lady seer Gargi and many others used to attend king
Janaka's "darbar" where
metaphysical discussions were frequently held and spiritual aspect of
administration was also taken into consideration. His rule was so perfect where
every one in the state was fully satisfied that lord Krishna tells Arjuna in
Bhagavad Gita that amongst the perfect rulers, "I am king Janaka ".
Swami Vivekananda was emphatic that knowing and understanding God, Prakrti and
one's divine inner instruments, one can acquire real physical and spiritual
strength and without their knowledge, no nation can be strong. Sankracharya in
the 8th century A D gave much less emphasis on prayer, meditation and worship
of God and Prakrti but emphasised the need to know and understand Brahma,
Prakrti, Maya, soul (atman) and other Vedic metaphysical concepts. Many other
learned persons, seers and sages have also observed worship, prayer and blind
mediation is the hidden desire and ego of many persons following the path of
materialism with appendage of spiritualism, while these are not God's
requirement.
Prakrti
also performs the role of divine reformatory. She helps the human beings in
discharging their debts to the society, parents, children, friends and all
those who produce for you food and other items of daily use as well as those
who render various kinds of help and assistance to you. While providing all
these blessings, she also provides three kinds of pains and miseries. The first
and foremost due to mental and physical sufferings mostly self-inflicted owes
to lack of knowledge of God and Prakrti. Simply the first kind of sufferings is
due to avidya or ajnan (ignorance).
The second kind of sufferings is due to natural calamities and causes like
floods, arson, earthquakes, droughts etc. The third kind of miseries are due to
super natural causes which could be effect of planets, destiny due to one's
past karma, fate due to one's present
karma. Human beings undergo these
kinds of sufferings when they ignore the reformatory role of Prakrti. Since
salvation (moksha) is complete
freedom from all these sufferings and miseries described in Vedas as "adhyatamic,adhibhutic and adhidaivic Kashta"-
i.e. pains and miseries, Prakrti in the role of divine reformatory, helps us to
attain Moksha or Buddhist Nirvana. Individuals who are not well
integrated with Nature and also if they do not follow Rta-the laws of nature
become their own enemies and face these three kinds of miseries and can not
attain final liberation.
Those
who do not understand the reformatory role of Prakrti and even fail to
recognise her as their supreme Mother even resort to strange kind of spiritual
hypocrisy. The phenomenon is so vivid and apparent amongst some of the Hindus
that hardly any one through out the world can miss it. First by ignoring
Prakrti, many Hindus would worship God/gods as both supreme Father and Mother.
When their pursuit of money leaves no time for prayer, meditation and worship
God, gods and goddesses, they resort to proxy prayer and worship. More than
twenty kinds of proxy prayers and worships are performed in Hindu temples on
hefty payments, involving money, gold, diamonds and even animals like cows etc.
The more you get occupied in blind pursuit of money, power and influence
through corrupt practices, more you feel the need for proxy prayers and
worship ignorant priests about Vedic metaphysics and upanishdic
philosophy.
A
major role assigned to Prakrti by Brahma through His cosmic Word OM containing
the spirit of God is relating to Book of Nature. This Book teaches all her
children i.e. human beings and other animate life the cosmic laws of social and
moral order which for all of us are laws of necessity. An equally important
concept, which we learn from Prakrti, is "eternal Flux". The
composition of three subtle gunas of
sattavic,rajasic and tamasic, goes on changing in Prakrti to maintain
equilibrium, stability, gravitational effect and other properties of matter,
so there is continuous flux in Nature
and gross universe. This flux is both visible and non-visible to human eyes.
Even human senses cannot perceive this flux and so the help of material
scientific instruments are taken to know the intensity of this flux. This
principle of flux in Prakrti, gross universe and the earth, is also found in
the human beings, particularly in their gross bodies, from birth until old age.
Owing to the effect of gunas, human personality, thoughts, ideas, desires,
degree of transparency and even the gross body itself undergo a constant and
regular change. This flux gets more vehement with the predominance of tamasic gunas when it brings
inconsistencies, contradictions in the human conduct, behaviour and thoughts.
It is due to this effect that a person finds material justification for his
evil and corrupt actions and becomes extremely critical when others perform
same evil and corrupt activities. With the predominance of sattavic gunas though the flux still remains but its vehement
effect is much less. A divine person like Guru Nanak - the founder of Sikh
religion, with predominance of sattavic
gunas could only say that both Holy Koran and Vedas are true scriptures.
When sattavic gunas start diminishing
in the human beings, even the divine truths start appearing different to many
persons. At this stage some individuals consider that previous records of
revelations are not authentic and only a particular scripture of XYZ religion,
guru, cult or tantrik is only the
authentic message of God and applicable to the entire mankind. It is for this
reason so many different and contradictory divine injunctions; messages and
philosophies are spread in the world. Thus, inspite of flux in Prakrti, the
laws of God (Rta) do not undergo any change and are beyond gunas effect. These laws are logical, mathematical and remain the
same concerning Time and Space.
All
kinds of Flux in Prakrti, Universe and even in the human beings are related to Kala (time) and Dis (space) but these two concepts of Time and Space are beyond
Prakrti and hence not affected by Flux. These are part of the Grand Design of
God described in the Vedas as supreme Designer and Architect (Viswa karma). Since God designs the
Nature and the Universe and assigns certain roles to Prakrti, so her all the
roles are divine. She performs her role and other functions under the
supervision of God as mentioned in Bhagavad Gita. Under His supervision,
Prakrti creates all animate and inanimate life/ things and the spirit of God
provides constant energy to all kinds of life, including 21 kinds of fuels to
the human beings. She being His manifestation, He pervades everywhere in
Prakrti and gross universe. It is therefore, essential to know the relationship
between God and Prakrti.
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