Matter-energy matrix

Jun 1, 2009, 08.00am IST
PRANAV KHULLAR.

The Prasna Upanishad sets the tenor of the enquiry of Self and Creation with a set of six fundamental questions asked by six pupils of Sage Pippalada . The first of these goes directly to the root of Creation itself: From where are we born?


Pippalada sets down the matter-energy matrix first as the principal source of Creation. This mixing of rayi or matter and prana or energy has manifested all species in the universe. Pippalada then details the bioplasmic origin of life, rayi also meaning food, the source of the seed or semen of Creation, and from which humans are born, all of which are also expressions of the same matter-energy matrix.


The second question goes into the relationship of the senses with the life force. Prana is defined as the essential life force which sustains all the sensory organs, allegorically stating it as the Queen Bee. So when the Queen Bee goes out, all the other bees go out, too. When the Queen Bee settles down, so do all the other bees.
Pippalada explicitly defines the mind too, along with the other sense-motor organs as dependent on, and originating from, this life force a prod to all seekers to go into the origin of thought itself "Who is the 'I' who asks the question?" as Ramana Maharishi often asked.
The third question is on the origin of prana itself. The prana as emanating from the atman. Energy is 'born' out of the cosmic womb, the Hiranyagarbha. This all-encompassing energy covers the Being much as a shadow spreads over a body, and so having no apparent separate existence other than the Brahmn atman, mysteriously draws a veil over the real nature of the latter. This it does by hypnotising the mind with the external dazzle of forms. Sankara was to develop his own theory of maya or illusion later, predicated on this very thought.


The fourth question takes the aspirant into an analysis of the three states of human consciousness, especially the dream-state and dreamless deep sleep. The question is asked: Which part of the human being sleeps? Who sees and remembers the dream? Pippalada sees the dream state as being viewed by the mind. When all other senses are withdrawn, the mind is the perceiver and the perceived, as it recreates the impressions of the waking state. It is finally in the dreamless sleep that the mind, too, gets absorbed back into the atman, and each being fleetingly goes back to the cosmic womb.


The fifth question draws the seeker into the meditative world of the Shabda-Brahmn , wherein the mystic syllable Aum-Om- Prana va, controller and life-giver of prana , being the primordial sound created at the time of creation, is to be meditated upon. Meditation on the Prana va as the beej or mool mantra of the cosmos was later developed into an entire philosophy of Shabda-tattwa or language by Patanjali and Bhartihari .
To the sixth and final question of where the Purusha , the Unmanifested Source is, Pippalada points to the physical sarira , the body, again the spiritual dimension is also within us only, waiting to be activated, beyond the socially and culturally conditioned mind. In that instant will arise awareness of the Source, Brahmn, not only as transcending everything, but as underlying everything.