Origin of COSMOS: Hindu Perspective

According to the Hindu Philosophy, the Brahman or Para Brahmam is the supreme reality or to say the Ultimate GOD or Being or Conscious or whatever we can say. It is just a point blank as if when we felt when we close our eyes for one second and open again(Nothing but Exist). In order for creation, It is divided into Prakriti and Purusha . You can say it is Energy and its Medium. Only if it divides, life can start and come into existence. One is just a medium or dough and other is energy or spices in the medium. It is like electrons running around protons. Force with Mass. Both cannot exist alone.

Prakriti is the core hub from which all the components of reality have sprung. She is the atom in the center of the ocean of energy that is ultimate source of all the energetic fields that Western Science knows, like gravity, the electro magnetic field, and so on. Trantric philosophy calls this point the Divine Mother, Devi, Prakriti or ParaShakti. She is the very source of the subtle dimensions of reality that our physical senses can never perceive.

All creation is made up of combination and permutations of the three gunas, or essential qualities of Prakriti: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Her name correlates directly to these qualities with pra denoting satva, kri denoting rajas and ti denoting tamas. These gunas are found in all aspect of creation, they are the qualitative building blocks of creation. Without them the universe and its inhabitants would have no qualities. Tamas has the ability to distort the reality, Rajas to veil reality, and sattva to allow it to be seen, though dimly.If we employ the terms used in physics, we can say that tamas is the quality of inertia, rajas of kinetics, and sattva of equilbrium. Tamas, Rajas and Sattva correspond to different colors, according to Indian Thought. Tamas is black, Rajas is Red and Sattva is White.

Colors of the Divine Mother herself: Kaali is Black, Lakshmi is Red, and Saraswati is white.

Prakriti is known as Maha Maya or the great Deluder. But her Maya, or power of illusion, has two aspects: vidya maya and avidya maya. Vidya Maya is the power of goddess to dispel illusion by illumining our intellect through knowledge of reality: it is omnipotent and omniscient and is capable of revealing the Brahman, which is Prakriti's receptable.( Remember she is known as Para Brahma Swarupini, or the very form of the Brahman.) Avidya Maya is the goddess power to viel by which she binds the immortal soul to the mortal frame of the body. The three gunas form the very essence of the Divine Mother's avidya maya. Through avidya maya the supreme self is reflected in the individual as the jiva or jivatman- the embodied soul that has forgotten its original, pristine state. The jivatman is said to have three bodies: the gross body (or Physical Body), the subtle body ( consisting of the mind, ego and intellect), and the casual body ( the astral body, which transmigrates to the spiritual plane). Prakriti resides in the subtle body in two different forms as vidya maya and avidya maya.

Avidya maya conceals the supreme, and thus the jivatman experience all type of sorrows. In actuality the self or inner spirit, the Atman, is self-luminous; it is the eternal and blissful foundation of love. Jnana or knowledge is the very nature of the Atman. It is the basis of the knowledge of "I am" that every jiva possess. It is also the source of all love. Though they are in essence nothing but the one supreme self, the jivas thus appear to be many, as each is contained in a mortal frame, and they appear to differ from each other due to the different composition of the three gunas in the them.

Prakriti is no different from the Para Brahman. In that state Prakriti is pure sat(existance), chid (consciousness), samvit(intelligence) and ananda(bliss). It is beyond all attributes and Transformation. Maya is power of illusion and it is inherent in Prakriti.It is co-eternal with Prakriti. Maya arises from Prakriti as Heat from Fire and Rays from sun.Though Maya has no beginning, it is possible to end it with the attainment of supreme knowledge. Maya can be called neither existent nor nonexistence. If it existed eternally, there would be no liberation for jiva. But if it were not present at all, the practical world would not exist, so it cannot be nonexistent. It can be destroyed with with knowledge of Brahman,so it cannot be called existant either. It is thus mysterious power of delusion, and it can be overcome through grace of prakriti.

In essence Prakriti is nirguna ( without qualities), but when it relate it to Avidhya Mava, It become Sarguna( endowed with qualities). Then do I become the cause of the universe of names and forms.Thus avidya maya is the cause of this whole creation.From the point of view of the Brahman, there is no maya and no creation. Therefore, Prakriti is ever pure even though involved in creation, just as the suns rays are defiled by illumining dirty objects.

When maya unites with chid or consciousness, it becomes the instigating cause of the universe, and when it unites with the five original elements, it becomes the material cause. Avidya maya is what creates the delusion of time, space and causality, and its characteristic is to hide Prakritis true nature, but vidya maya has the ability to liberate the jiva from illusion.

Infinite and endless creations are threaded on Prakriti as perils on a string, Prakriti is the lord that resides in the casual and subtle bodies of the jivas. Prakriti is Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

The world is composed of twenty-five tattvas or elements. Ther first- Akasa(ether), Vayu (Air), Agni (Fire),Apas (Water), and Prithvi(earth). These are known as Maha Tattvas. When the Para Brahman relates to Prakritis Avidhya Maya, the Sound Hreem, which is the seed sound, is produced. Within this sound are contained the three Shakthis(powers). Iccha Shakti( the Tamasic Power of will), Jnana Shakti ( the Sattvic Power of Intelligence), Kriya Shakti(the Rajasic power of action).The above are essential for Creation.The sound hreem, is the Adi Sakthi is the Twenty Fivth Tattva.

The five qualities of sound,touch,form, taste, and odor are known as tanmantras or subtle elements. The subtle quality of sound is the first tanmantra to manifest from hreem. Then come the subtle elements of touch, form,taste and oder. Out of the subtle tanmantra of sound is manifested the gross element(tattva) of akasa or ether, the vast field of energy that comprises the universe. Vibrations in ether cause the movement of air. Thus from akasa appears vayu or air, which has its own subtle feature of touch plus the added quality of sound, which is incorporates from the previous tattva of akasa. Friction is caused by the continous movement of the air principle creates heat, which we call fire. Thus from vayu comes agni or fire, which has its own subtle feature of form plus touch and sound. Condensation of the density of these forces results in the formation of liquid or water. So the next to mainfest is apas or water which has its own subtle quality of taste plus those fo form,touch, and sound.The solidified form of all this is earth, so the last to appear i prithvi or earth, which its basic subtle feature of odor plus the qualities of the other four elements of taste, form, touch and sound.

The subtle elements (tanmantra) are sound, touch,form,taste and odor. The gross elements(tattvas) are ether, air, fire,water and earth, which are all derivatives of the subtle elements.

The five subtle elements all have Sattvic, Rajasic, and Tamasic qualities. The five jnanendriyas or sense organs of knowledge are created out of the satvi porton of the first five subtle elements. These are ears, skin,eyes,tongue, and nose, and they are the instruments through which the mind can interact with these elements in material world

The karmendriyas or organs of action come from the rajasic portion of the tanmantras. These are the organs of speech, the hands, the feet, the organs of procreation, and the anus or organ of excreation.The subtle elements of sound gives rise to space and ends in speech. The subtle element of touch projects as air, which is felted by the skin, especially the skin of the hands. The subtle element of taste gives rise to water, which turn produces the organ of procreation . The subtle element of odor produces the earth, which results in production of anus.

The five pranas or subtle breaths,which control the involuntary functions of the body,arise from the tamasic portion of the tanmantras. They are prana vayu , which resides in the heart and controls blood circulations; the aparna vayu, whcih resides in the lower portion of the body, and controls the expulsion of waster matter,the samana vayu, which resides in the navel and controls the digestion; the udana vayu, which resides in the throat, and controls speech; and the vyana vayu, which prevades the whole body.

The seventeen tattvas that make up the jivatman are the five gross elements, the five sense organs that correspond to these, the five pranas( or vital breaths), and the mind and the ego. THe linga sarira or subtle body of the jiva is made up of these seventeen tattva in their subtle forms. Yogis who perfected the ability to leave their physical bodies and will realize that their subtle or astral bodies were able to travel unhampered through space and gross matter. However,they could still hear, touch, smell, and feel in this state, so they concluded that the actual experience of these five sensational lies in the subtle body and not in its physical counter part.

Mind in the physical body has three functions with separate names. The part that received information through the jnanendriyas (sense organs) and then process and stores that information is called manas or mind.The part that relates to a particular individual, giving him a strong sense of individuality , the feeling of "my" and "mine", is called ahamkar or ego. The part that weighs alternatives and makes decisions is called budhi or intellect.

Mind in Subtle part called chitta. It is capable of obtaining data from our inner dimensions of reality and is a storehouse of information. It is in direct contact with Akasa, or the energy field or ether of the universe. After death or, for yogis, during astral travels the mind separates from Physical Organs and Operates in the realm of tanmantras or subtle elements. Then it is pure chitta alone. The chitta is very close to pure spirit(or atman) The difference is that chitta is still individual and it is carried to another body. The atman is on the other hand is ever pure. It carries nothing and goes now where since it is ever full.

Manas, Buddhi and Akamkara are basis of our personality(material constituent ) and have their roots to Prakriti and not in Spirit and Atman.

The universe's underlying energy field is akasa, the ether that is the twenty-third tattva. It is timeless, space less quantum that provides the ultimate blueprint of the world for the all time - past, present and future. It is not bound by the ordinary laws of time and space. It exist in a vast continuum of fluctuating charge.When we bring this energy to our conscious awareness through the act of perception, we create the separate obects of our world that exist in time and space.In fact we create our own worlds in time and space and thereby create our separate individualities. Both time and space depend on another multidimensional reality that cannot be comprehend fully through common experience; for human conscious to operate on the quantum level, it must reside outside of space and time. In theory such a state of conscious would mean that we would be able to access information both Past and future, that every moment of our lives could be made to influence every other moment; both forward and backward.