The above representation of the Creation is at best a far approximation as we are trying to represent something beyond the material world but depicted through the concepts prevalent in the material world. So keeping in mind the severe limitation this imposes, let us try to understand it as best as we can - remember we are describing regions where time, space and language do not exist, using those very tools!
The Creator (capable force, sea of love, compassion and mercy in His radiant form) was in bliss and in the stride of bliss, felt like loving and became from “one to many” to love and be loved. This resulted in fragmentation of His light and a sound emerged from the radiant being, springing forth the spiritual region. In this region, which is the eternal center of the creation, the Creator loved the souls and they loved Him back. The characteristic of this field is love, absolute intelligence and absolute capability and as its inhabitants are part of the Creator (i.e. the souls) - bliss rules the region. The spiritual region is not bound by any dimensions – of time, space or material.
One of the souls used the Light fragmented from the source with the help of the sound current to create a Time Bound Material Universe (TBMU). This soul known as Kaal (literally Time or universal mind) created a Time Field, which then acted on the Light and Sound to condense it into the material universe. This field moves the material universe in a predestined rhythmic movement from its beginning to its end into the grand dissolution. As Dr. Stephen Hawkins has stated that the world came out of nothing and will end into nothing (the Grand Dissolution).
The Light fragmented from one to many (in different colors) and condensed to form basic elements in gaseous form. These elements then combined (including by nuclear fusion) to form heavier elements and compounds, providing the basic material with which the entire material universe is composed. This Time Field has the characteristic of keeping the souls busy in TBMU and not allowing them access to the Spiritual Region through operation of the law of Karma. It achieves this through the individual mind, which receives impulses from the universal mind through the various forces of nature - gravitational, electromagnetic and nuclear.
The study of origin of material universe is a constant subject of investigation for scientists and they continue to unravel it in some measure but are still far from its end. What is generally indicated though is that separation of material and force fields / energy may be just an illusion. Material is nothing but a condensed form of energy, which in turn is nothing but action or vibration on a field. To elaborate, it seems that at a quantum level the entire material universe and its energy is composed of quantum particles, which are vibrating. So how do these quantum particles get produced and why do they vibrate? While, this is still not confirmed by scientists, but one of the views is that the production and vibration of these particles is through an impulse (Sound Current?) on some sort of a field (Time Field?).
While science may take decades, centuries or eons to get to bottom of this, the purpose of this article is not to prove or disprove what scientists are doing but expand the understanding of the sincere seeker in spiritual matters and providing a linkage and consistency between what is witnessed around and what saints have been saying for a very long time – that the material world is a lower reality (or an illusion – Maya), which emanates from the Time Field and our destination is the Spiritual Region, with the Sound Current as the vehicle and a Saint as a guide (even driver). More about this later.
Macrocosm is in the Microcosm
It is very well to talk about the process of creation, the different regions and how they operate but we as human beings live in this material world with material desires and constraints. Our daily experience is very finite and the infiniteness of the Creation does not seem to reside in us. Saints on the other hand have said “Jo brahmande, so pinde” (the Macrocosm is in the Microcosm) – how fantastic is this preposition and how different from our experience! The saints say that the entire creation is within each human being - how can that be?
Let us first get it cleared that a lot of things we know are our perception and not reality and anyways most of what we perceive is through the sieves of the Time Field so not given to revealing the higher reality. For the time being suspend your perceptions and consider this – human beings reflect the creation through having the same composition and capabilities as the creation – body, mind and soul reflect the material, time and spiritual regions respectively. The link between these regions is the Light and Sound Current, which sustain all these regions and can take us beyond them.
In one sense only the Creator is the Truth and rest is all untrue as it is subject to dissolution, in another sense the spiritual region is True (being closest to the Creator, though still His manifestation), in yet another sense the Sound Current (also known as Shabad, Naam, Naad, Word, Sarosha or Kalma) is True as that is the immediate vehicle to take us back through these regions, in the same vein the Guru or Master (embodiment of the Sound Current) is True as he or she teaches and helps us to disassociate ourselves from this time bound material world and connect to the Sound Current and reach the source. However, the Time Field (with the law of Karma as its main tool) is only a partial truth and can be transcended and has a beginning and an end. The Material Universe as discussed before, even the science is getting closer to discovering is an illusion – though it looks very real, doesn’t it?
Similarly, the soul is true and permanent, the mind and body impermanent or an illusion – take your pick on how to describe it. The question still remains – is the Microcosm (or a human being) same as the Macrocosm (the entire creation) or is it same only in essence or just a reflection of the same. One hypothesis is that it is the same – let us see how, but for that we need to transcend our thinking beyond material concepts. If the time and space are created only through the Time Field and have no existence without it – there will be no distance between us and the Creator if we can transcend the Time Field, i.e. we are very near to the Creator, but this complex field of illusion prevents us from seeing that and we perceive a huge distance of separation. In other words, the Microcosm and Macrocosm are the same. The Time field separates the souls from the Spiritual region, thus giving it an illusion of operating under finiteness, separation and under the rule of Time. This illusion can be done away through the inner journey, connecting to the Sound Current.
What is Light (not to be confused with external light, which is a stream of photons) and Sound – it is the substrate and impulse of creation respectively. The entire creation is made out of Light and is sustained by the Sound Current. Our soul in its manifest form is this same Light and is acted upon the impulse of Sound Current emanating from the Creator - in its unmanifest form it is God. In the human frame, its outer expression is attention, which is the rudder for directing its energy in a particular direction. Wherever the Attention goes, the energy flows. Attention is the spark of the creator, which throws its light everywhere and can instantly understand every aspect of time and material. It is the attention, which helps us understand complex scientific facts as well as build complex machines - for it is the spark of an all capable force.
We have said before that Mind is akin to Time and is an instrument for operation of the Time Field (i.e. information of past and future). Thus, anything we try to understand through this Mind is restricted by its very nature – it operates under the laws of Time, i.e. keeping the souls busy in TBMU through application of Law of Karma. As it is an instrument and has no energy of its own, it constantly draws the attention towards issues related to Time and Material, thus the energy of the soul flows towards these issues. While, the energy of the soul is unlimited, at a given instant, this constant involvement in issues related to time and material and the burden of Karma can seem unbearable and gives us an illusion of suffering. Unless, we reconnect to the source and transcend the regions of Material and Time, we cannot regain the bliss to which we are born and is rightfully ours.
Does this mean we can ignore our bodies and mind and the laws of matter and time will not apply to us? No – they do apply, but only to our body and mind, which are acquired by the soul for a time bound sojourn on this material plane and not the soul itself, which remains pristine. What we can do is to reconnect ourselves and let the material and Karmic laws operate as they will. The saints teach us the path to reconnect by withdrawing the attention to the eye centre and placing it in the sound current, which pulls it towards the source, revealing the resplendence of the soul, while at the same time destroying the illusion bit by bit. They teach us through speech, conduct and direct percept, enabling us at the material, mental and spiritual levels to transcend the illusion.
A few sayings of different saints indicating the process of creation and transcending it back:
“Prem sindh se mauj uthee, jagat kiya ujjiyas”
{An impulse rose from the sea of love and created the universe. This is said by Swami Ji for the creation.}
“Ekam Bahusyam”
{One became many. This verse from the Vedas indicate the process of creation.}
“Shabde dharti, shabde aakash, shabde shabad bhaya parkas
Sari shrishti shabad ke paachhe, Nanak kahe shabd har ghat aachhe”
{The Sound Current created the earth and the sky. It was the sound current which illumined everything. The entire creation is sustained by the Sound Current, which is omnipresent. Guru Nanak says about the creation of the universe after the original creation}
“Woh rahim hain, woh karim hain, woh nahin jo zulm kare koi,
Yeh yakin hain zamane ko dekh kar, ki yahan khuda koi aur hain”
{He is forgiving and beneficient. He is not the one to make anyone suffer. I am convinced looking at the misery in this world that this world is ruled by someone else. This couplet by Sant Darshan Singh indicates that the Law of Karma, which makes us suffer so, is administered by Kaal and not the Creator, whose part we are.}
“Tan thir, man thir, surat nirat thir hoye
Kabir eh pal ko kalp na paave koi”
{The body is still, so is the mind and the attention is absorbed in seeing through the internal eye, such a moment is rarely achieved even in eons. Kabirdasji explains the process of meditation and indicates how rare it is to achieve perfection in meditation.}
"Rab da ki pavna, Idro putna to idro lavna"
{As per Shah Inayat, Guru of Bulleh Shah, to get God is as simple as disconnecting one's attention from the time and material world and fixing it in the sound current. When a disciple asked him the way to God, he was tending his garden and said this giving example of extracting a plant from one place and fixing it at another.}
By: Dr. Chand Bhardwaj
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