The
Meaning of the Universe
Let us, first of all,
ask ourselves, looking at the world around us, what it is that the
history of the world signifies. When we read history, what does
the history tell us? It seems to be a moving panorama of people
and events, but it is really only a dance of shadows; the people
are shadows, not realities, the kings and statesmen, the ministers
and armies; and the eventsÄ the battles and revolutions, the
rises and falls of states Äare the most shadowlike dance of
all. Even if the historian tries to go deeper, if he deals with
economic conditions, with social organisations, with the study of
the tendencies of the currents of thought, even then he is in the
midst of shadows, the illusory shadows cast by unseen realities.
This world is full of forms that are illusory, and the values are
all wrong, the proportions are out of focus. The things which a
man of the world thinks valuable, a spiritual man must cast aside
as worthless. The diamonds of the world, with their glare and glitter
in the rays of the outside sun, are mere fragments of broken glass
to the man of knowledge. The crown of the king, the sceptre of the
emperor, the triumph of earthly power, are less than nothing to
the man who has had one glimpse of the majesty of the Self. What
is, then, real? What is truly valuable? Our answer will be very
different from the answer given by the man of the world.
"The universe exists
for the sake of the Self." Not for what the outer world can
give, not for control over the objects of desire, not for the sake
even of beauty or pleasure, does the Great Architect plan and build
His worlds. He has filled them with objects, beautiful and pleasure-giving.
The great arch of the sky above, the mountains with snow-clad peaks,
the valleys soft with verdure and fragrant with blossoms, the oceans
with their vast depths, their surface now calm as a lake, now tossing
in furyÄthey all exist, not for the objects themselves, but
for their value to the Self. Not for themselves because they are
anything in themselves but that the purpose of the Self may be
served, and His manifestations made possible.
The world, with all its
beauty, its happiness and suffering, its joys and pains" is
planned with the utmost ngenuity, in order that the powers of the
Self may be shown forth in manifestation. From the fire-mist to
the LOGOS, all exist for the sake of the Self. The lowest grain
of dust, the mightiest deva in his heavenly regions, the plant that
grows out of sight in the nook of a mountain, the star that shines
aloft over us-all these exist
in order that the fragments of the one Self, embodied in countless
forms, may realize their own identity, and manifest the powers of
the Self through the matter that envelops them.
There is but one Self
in the lowliest dust and the loftiest deva. "Mamamsaha"ÄMy
portion,Ä" a portion of My Self," says Sri Krishna,
are all these Jivatmas, all these living spirits. For them the universe
exists; for them the sun shines, and the waves roll, and the winds
blow, and the rain falls, that the Self may know Himself as manifested
in matter, as embodied in the universe.