From the Material to the Causeless Cause
By: Babaji Bob Kindler
Tags: Philosophy, Spirituality, Reincarnation, Causality, Nonduality

As pertaining to the life functions, and has been already mentioned earlier, the heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs inflate and deflate, the body’s waste gets evacuated, the senses operate, and the mind thinks under the facilitory auspices of prana. And as to how this pertains further to the five senses and the brain, these “six” senses (five senses and mind) owe a great allegiance to the pranic force. Relative to this, there is one story in the Upanisads wherein the gods of the mind and senses, the gods of the five elements, and the gods of other various functions in the heavens and on earth, all got together one day to debate on who was the greatest amongst them. Every one of them got up and spoke most convincingly on how he or she was the greatest power in the universe. But the god of prana only sat and waited, silently. When all had taken their turn and had their say, then prana stood up and said, “I am most definitely the greatest among you, and I can prove it!” Speaking thus, and before anyone could object, prana thereby and immediately vacated the premises, whereupon all the gods and goddesses present there fell down lifeless. No further argument was given.

The presence of life force, then, is undeniable, yet most beings, even intelligent ones, fail to acknowledge it. What is more, beings who do espy it see its inner workings and thus keep the mental picture clear. That is, people are always and ever attributing their actions and thoughts, and what happens to them on a daily basis, to God. “God made me do it,” “God granted me this boon,” “God took away my child or loved one” — these are common exclamations. But we have already stated that God, Brahman, is actionless and free of any intention or motive for beings or their lives — these lives (except in the case of the illumined souls) being assumed by the decision of their own desiring egos and lived under the force of their own personal karmas. Practically speaking, prana animates the body and senses; prana brings the forces of repercussion to bear on everyday life, and prana, again, causes the thoughts to rise and fall, advance and retard, aspire and fall down. Prana even facilitates life and death, even rebirth. Knowing this, beings should bring the forces of prana under their control so as to live a dharmic life — as the luminaries do.

On the subtle level, prana holds sway too. This has already been inferred by indicating the mind and its thoughts. These are presided over by what is called the psychic prana, which differs from the gross prana just like gross thought differs from refined thought. And here is the bridge to rudimentary spirituality. If a physicist were to detect prana, and became sure of it like the yogis are, he would soon become a metaphysicist. This epitomizes entrance into the subtler worlds which lie back in the recesses of the mind, as in the Christ’s saying that “The kingdom of heaven lies within.” Here, in this refined region, called a loka, the prana works in lightning swift fashion to bring thoughts, insights, and realizations to bear on the now awakened mind. This teaching reveals the distinction between brain and mind, the former which decays and dissolves, and the latter which stretches beyond matter and senses, remaining operative in what religion calls the “afterlife.”

The unreal never is. The Real never ceases to be.

To complete this overall description of the Primordial Cause, a mention of what the yogis call “the five tanmatras” is required. Listed on the chart under study as the “five subtle elements,” they are another unseen and missing bit of knowledge in our present-day understanding. Knowing about them will inform and connect us to the world of vital forces on so many levels which are important to our lives, scientifically, religiously, spiritually, and medically, to mention a few.

To explain this from the root up, the world, the senses, and the life forces are not to be taken for granted, or left unconnected in people’s minds. Through focused and quiescent meditation the nature of each tattva (mutable principle) is to be examined and known, and then connected consciously back into the Self. In brief, after separate meditations are accomplished on each tattva, then this liberating process of internal connections can be undertaken. This art of introspection is mostly missing in our western science and education due to a preoccupation with appearances perceived only by the senses. What underlies appearances, seen by the single eye of meditation, is far more real and vastly more important.

And so, and as a part of the meditative process, the seeker after what is subtle brings together earth with smelling, water with tasting, fire with seeing, air with feeling, and ether with hearing. When this work is complete, consciously, and the five elements have been linked to the five senses, the allocation of the elements and the senses to the subtle elements (tanmatras) comes next, i.e., earth and smell with the principle of odor/solidity, water and taste with the principle of flavor/ liquidity, fire and seeing with the principle of visibility, air and touch with the principle of tangibility, and hearing and ether with the principle of audibility. In other words, the principle of a thing/object is subtler than the thing itself, and also subtler than the senses which behold or experience it. This, in a nutshell, is the thorough examination of the world and its causes and effects on the basic yogic level, and how to look beneath appearances, or maya, to behold subtler causes.

What is good is called cosmology, what is better is called philosophy, and what is best is called spirituality.

How can this process of connections really help us? First, if external life is left unconnected, and all the elements of our existence are allowed to exist in a random and unordered fashion, the mind itself soon becomes fragmented. Then complaints inevitably begin to surface, oft repeated in this day and time, such as “I do not see any purpose to my life,” “I am bored and listless,” “Life does not make any sense,” etc. Here, the zest and verve for life are lost and the inner mystery of existence overlooked — those very things which are epitomized by prana itself. When a person is listless, then, he has literally lost hold of his vital energy, prana.

And here is a second reason for the integration of the physical elements to their primordial counterparts, that being that one can consciously gain control of the vital force and use it for revivification of body, life, and mind. This is called wholistic health in this day and age, though both higher intelligence and pure spirituality get overlooked in the quotient thus far due to contemporary man’s preoccupation with food. Besides the fact that we have never seen nor heard of a bored or listless luminary, the control of vital energy will allow the inner wayfarer to access what is subtler still. That is, if the gaining of control over the gross prana can bring good health and energy, and the acknowledgment and facility around the subtler level of prana can open the mind up to the secrets of where our ancestors have gone and are abiding, then the gaining of control over the psychic prana can throw open the doors of the all-powerful intellect and introduce the aspirant to the Subtle Cause.

The Subtle Cause

Higher intelligence has already been mentioned. In spiritual systems and circles, higher intelligence does not mean knowledge of intellectual subjects. Intellect is different from intelligence. The former is a sheath (upadhi) or container (kosha), and the latter is a free-flowing verity (partly due to prana) which shines with the Light of Consciousness Itself. The distinction between brain and mind also applies here. Suffice to say, however, that the Subtle Cause is the realm of mind per say, and intelligence plays the most important part in that realm.