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Every darsana, as a Vision of Reality, has a
notion of the nature of that Reality. In one
sense this notion is not considered to be out of
place. Reality is all this that is being
experienced. Nothing unreal can be experienced.
The non-existent is incapable of being, and so
cannot be an object of any knowledge. Even
though the world is riddled with contradictions
and illusions, and even though hallucinations
are not rare phenomena, nothing unreal can be an
object of knowledge. But we have to grapple, not
with these problems of the theory of knowledge,
but with reality as such. The Real is the
Ultimate source of all realities and sustains
all. It can be said to be the Substance of all
that is real. Being One, it manifests the Many.
This experience of the One Substance is
transcendental to all our known sources of
knowledge. Its reality is confirmed by
transcendental experience rather than by any
proofs or arguments for its existence on the
basis of our instruments of knowing the outer or
inner regions of being. Oneness of the One is an
experience, even as Allness of the One is; but
it is an oneness which brings out of itself all
these, both the cosmic and the individual, the
world of experiencing subjects and experienced
objects.
The individual's intuition, as it develops,
begins to grasp its own cause. Through intuitive
seeking one discovers how the effect could come
out of the cause and how it could enter back
into it. It is not merely a process of thought
which imagines the descent of effect from the
cause in which it is deemed to be potentially
present, or even of the ascent of the effect
into its cause. No rational explanation can show
how the manifest returns to its own potential
state as cause. There are of course persons who
hold that this cause-effect mutuality, or
reciprocal involvement and evolvement, is
nothing but an intellectual device to explain
immanence. Novelty seems to be ruled out of this
causal law. However, when one discovers in
experience that planes of being emerge and
immerge and lead up to the experience of the one
womb of all manifestations, then it will be seen
that there is a truth in the Oneness of Reality.
The intuitive experience of the One Reality,
which makes all diversity of experiences
possible, is considered to be the Ultimate.
Being beyond all the categories of Nature and
the individual, it is indescribable. That
becomes all these - Nature, individuals, worlds
and all. One's real existence is drawn from
That, so too are all individuals and things. It
is the source of all existence and maker of it;
it is the source of all awareness or
consciousness, and of all bliss or delight. In a
sense, it is that which makes all possible both
to itself and to all that arise from it.
Therefore it is called the Original Ground, the
Origin and End of all things.
The Original Ground is the Original Peace -
the Quiet or quiescence that all souls seek in
the world. The world of manifestation is in
constant movement and fulguration or divisive
manyness. Therefore there is loss of peace. The
loss of peace is experienced as misery, though
this has also the possibility of growth and
interweaving and inter-relationships with other
entities equally divided and moving. Harmony is
worked out of these manifold forces and
movements which become congealed into entities
or particles or monads. The living and the
non-living seem to be governed by the same
principle of interlacing, interweaving struggles
and to be engaged in conflict and tensions.
Harmony is sought to be evolved through the
principle of life (prana) that unites what would
fall apart; it makes growth possible and thus
organizes the inorganic and the unorganized.
This prana is the essence of the original quiet
whilst all these movements are the products of a
first thrust of the Quiet out of itself. This is
the mystery of the Original Movement or Whirl -
Kshobha. That this too is immanent in the Quiet
or Peace must be conceded, as it is also
experienced. Kshobha and Aksobha seem to be the
supported and the supporter respectively. But
Ksobha is just a portion (partial vibration) of
that Aksobha or Ultimate Ground.
The original impulse throws out the
potentialities into the realm of movement or
manifestation. Creation thus proceeds in
radiations and circles which are concentric.
This original impulsion leads to the fulgurative
diversity which proceeds from the utmost subtle
condition to the grossest condition, as the
radiations move more and more away from the
Central point of impulsion (ksobha). The worlds
and planes of being or of manifestation appear
to come out of that primary source in
succession. One may call this the descent into
manifestation (pravrtti), and all possess not
only the Original ground but also the impulsion.
Thus, subjectively, the individual particles and
monads seek the substance of being in rest or
pace, while at the same time they are struggling
onward to manifest further possibilities of
organic unity immanent in them - the ultimate
solidity that almost annihilates all movement
whilst preserving the Peace which is a mere
reflection of the Original. The pull from the
Centre remains always as the one
inextinguishable impulse to return to the Source
connecting all with it. This pull cannot be
resisted; it has to fulfill itself by returning
through all the various processes through which
it had passed. From the inorganic it has to move
towards the organic and then to the
supra-organic and spiritual being. As is the
pravrtti so too is the nivrtti. Evolution is a
movement back to the source, in the modern
language of moving from materialistic
homogeneity to organic and supra-organic
heterogeneity of original radiating fulguration.
The return or ascent in evolution is not built
on novelty, but is a renewal of the
supra-organic that had slumbered in the
inorganic creation.
The truth of experience is, in its highest
condition, beyond experience itself. The
transcendence of Reality to experience is such
that many empiricists would deny it. But the
Infinite is something that goes beyond the
experiences of the most advanced consciousness
itself. The evidence of the being or reality of
the Transcendent lies in itself rather than in
consciousness which appears to be the second
order Reality. This fact becomes an Experience
that reaches beyond itself, and gives the
impression of endlessness or infinity
(anantatva). This Transcendent is not, however,
a nothing or mere Zero, though according to some
it may be called so. The truly transcendent is
Transcendent to all consciousness, and as such,
capable of bringing into being consciousness of
all levels and grades.
The Reality thus becomes the very spirit of
existence and consciousness, and verily the
source and experience of delight or Ananda.
The permeating nature of Reality is such that
it is the meaning and soul of all things. All
things live and move and have their being in It
without fully knowing it. In moments of deepest
sleep or rest alone do they sometimes become
aware of that Reality. No wonder all things seek
rest, quiet, immobility, permanence, satiation,
fulfilment and security in it. But it is the
hidden fact (nidhana), the treasure-abode, to
which one returns after every exertion for
renewal. It is also called therefore the death,
which is rest itself, before one takes up
another birth.
In the world-creation there always exist the
two processes - the manifestation and the
withdrawal. To the ancients the waxing and the
waning of the moon symbolized the two processes
of evolution and involution in all planes of
Being. Reality is that which sustains both the
processes and gives meaning to life and all its
processes. Thus, Sri Ramchandra's Raja Yoga
ontologically accepts the One Reality which is
truly transcendent to all existence,
consciousness and delight, but which manifests
all multiplicity with all the triple forces of
sustaining existence, consciousness and bliss in
all the planes of super-consciousness,
consciousness, unconsciousness and matter.
The path of descent from the Central
Substance or Reality (Tam) ( The conception of
the Tam as the Reality is unique. It is like the
"unground" of Jacob Boechme. It is the Reality.
From it arises the Ksobha, which is called Naada
by taantriks. It is also called the Sudarsana by
the Pancaratra. It is Sakti. It is the Godhead
or Centre of all creative movement - the
Vasudeva, the Visnu, omnipervasive Being who is
known as the Jagadkaranavastu, or jagadyoni. It
is also Nature, Prakrti. This is its para-form.
The lower form develops as the radiations fall
away from the centre or move away from the
source. This first is also called Manas - the
first Mind, the cosmic form which develops the
individual forms for each one of the rays of the
Centre. The amsas are soul-like living rays of
the Divine which enclose themselves in the
prakrti which tends to become grosser and more
and more material for forming the bodies of the
souls higher up or lower down. The Inner ray
becomes the interior, whereas the gross becomes
the exterior and outer, parallel to the inner.
Thus there is always this parallelity between
the outer matter or outer mind and the inner
mind or spirit, manifested and related by the
operation of the reason or intellect in some
practical way. Sri Ram Chandra has described
this process of parallelity in a more luminous
form than Spinoza, Leibnitz, or the Jainas did.)
is through the vibrational radiations which form
rings and knots, or a chain with links of
several levels of consciousness which encircle
and bind the central radiational monad, and form
the objects of knowledge and utility to other
equally fulgurated monads.
Thus atoms, bodies, and monads are all
different levels of the One Ksobha; the
spiritual souls (these 'souls' being the
highest) are however eternal in the sense that
they, in their transcendent being, are of the
Centre merging and emerging from it during
creation without developing the rings and knots
and chains.
The metaphysics of the Sri Ramchandra's Raja
Yoga thus implies the acceptance of the
Transcendent which is beyond all description,
and yet is the fountain-head of all
descriptions. It is Infinite and indescribable,
but it is capable of being realized. It is that
which grants ultimate peace, perfection and
liberation to all. It is that which is to be
known, seen and entered into. From it all our
senses recede, and our mind also recedes, but it
can be transmitted as superfine Original
consciousness through which it can be realized
and entered into.
The manner of communication of this Reality
is only through transmission of the Prana, which
is pranasya prana, and therefore of all
instruments of knowledge and being. Therefore it
is that all efforts to reach this culminating
experience are centred in the principle of
Transmission. The really awakened one is one in
whom the prana of the Centre, the primary ksobha
or vibration, has begun to function without any
interruption and deviation or grossening. Even a
little of this superfine force is sufficient to
keep the entire organic structure and planes of
being alive and athrob (in tune) with the
Infinite. Each and every atom, and monad, and
cell, of the body becomes resonant with the
primary vibration or throb, and registers peace
and calm and non-resistance or ease (saralata).
Therefore one has firstly to develop the
capacity to receive this superfine
consciousness-force and perceive the Reality in
its primary nature.
Thus the Reality is experienced beyond all
experiences of the senses. The dynamic organic
explanation of the Sri Ramchandra's Raja Yoga
reconciles the basic concepts of creation with
the development of parallelity between the inner
and the outer. The inner, seen through inner
vision, is spirit, animated with that basic and
central life, whereas the outer is seen to be
the matter, the body of that inner, and there is
the transcendental interaction between them. At
any moment one could pass from the one vision to
the other and realize that both are real and
that a central force alone makes for the
transformation or translation of one into the
other.
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