In English
Stages of change of the created Universe
As for being larger than the largest, consider the Sun. It is about 93 million miles away from the earth. Hence if we travel towards the Sun at the rate of 500 miles per hour and 24 hours a day, it would take over 20 years to reach it. The Sun is so big that the terrestrial globe can be dumped into any one of the thousands of pools or 'pits' which astronomers have discovered in its surface. The stars that appear to be so tiny and so multifarious are each far bigger than the Sun, and the distances between them are far greater than even the distance between the Sun and the earth! How can the petty mind of man ever conceive this vastness of the entire cosmos? But here too the sages by their sharpened Intellect and ecstasy-filled minds, have been able to visualise God, lmmanent as much in this macrocosm as in the microcosm and even transcending its boundaries of space and time. Their experience has led them to express their adoration through names such as God, , Jehovah and . These are embodiments of the Glory and the Grace they tasted, the Love they felt as being at the core of the cosmos. The created universe is called (Nature); prior to the Manifestation, there was darkness; after the Manifestation, there was light. The darkness was the thamasik (quality of inaction) state, when there was no activity. The light was the rajasik (quality of agitative) state, when with movement and agitation, uplift and downfall alternated. The 'five elements' were then formed, and in time attained comparative quiet. That was the sathwik (quality of serenity) state, when Divinity shone through them. These five elements are perceptible by the five senses; in fact they are the responses to the needs of the senses. The sathwik state is the Divine state, when light is shed on the Truth. This Truth was there even before the creation and the cosmos.