The Ascent Man (1956)
By Sri Swami Sivananda
O All-Auspicious One! O Reservoir of bliss, the Bestower of all wishes! O Refuge of all, the Three-eyed Divine Goddess! Prostrations to Thee, O Narayani!
Children of the Immortal!
May the Grace of the Divine Mother be upon you all. May Devi Durga shower Her blessings on the whole world. May peace and plenty reign everywhere supreme.
The world is a stage where is enacted the grand play of the twin principles of consciousness and force. The world is a manifestation of Sakti, the Power of the Eternal, whose being is consciousness. It is Chit-Sakti, Consciousness-Force that displays itself as this majestic reality of the universe. Para-Sakti moves everywhere as Brahma-Sakti, Vishnu-Sakti and Siva-Sakti. Reason and intuition establish the truth of the existence of the Divya-Prakriti that sustains and works this vast panorama of experiential contents. Matter is reducible to energy. The Prasnopanishad says that Rayi and Prana, matter and energy, constitute the whole of creation. Matter is the outward index of the inward Power that is expressed by God. The Power that originates and sustains the universe is not the Jada-Sakti or the electrical energy which is the ultimate reality of the scientists, but Chaitanya-Sakti, the Power of the immutable Consciousness of Brahman. In fact, it is not a Power which is of Brahman, but a Power which is Brahman. Brahman appears as the universe of Lila, the sport transcendent, the self-revelation of the Real to the Real. The Bhagavad Gita speaks of the operation of the twofold Prakriti, the lower and the higher phases of the workings of the Eternal, the lower expressing itself as the phenomena of Nature, and the higher existing as the life-principle of all beings. It is the Supreme Being that is the All.
The universe, then, is the visible representation of the highest Ideal of human realisations. In both its lower and higher aspects, Prakriti presents itself as the moving Body of the Lord. The Srimad-Bhagavata admonishes man to the effect that each and every visible thing of the universe is an object of adoration and worship, for God resides in the temple of all things. The worship of God means at once an adjustment of oneself to the super-individual law of the universe. There cannot be spiritual devotion and worship without an inward adaptation of consciousness to the scheme of the universe which is God envisaged in the framework of space and time. The God outside and above is the same as the God within and below. The Upasana of the highest Deity has to be in terms of the supreme Sakti that is the eternal Mother of all beings.
The nine nights’ worship, called the Navaratri-Puja, is man’s adoration of the Great Creatrix in Her aspects of Durga, Lakshmi and Sarasvati, standing for the Great Reality manifesting itself through the properties of Tamas, Rajas and Sattva, the stuff of which the whole universe consists. Transformation, preservation and manifestation are the cosmic functions of the Glorified Mother who bestows on Her children who look up to Her for help, knowledge, prosperity and final salvation from the thraldom of relativistic life. She is Vidya and Avidya, Maya, Prakriti, Sakti, Devi,—all that goes to make up the scene of the life of the cosmos in its gross, subtle and causal realms. The Saptasati or the Devimahatmya refers to Her as Mahavidya, Mahamaya, Mahamedha, Mahasmriti, Mahamoha, Mahadevi and Mahesvari. She is Parabrahma-Mahishi, the Queen of the Sovereign of all existence. Her compassion takes the form of aspiration in the aspirant, Sadhana in the Sadhaka, Siddhi in the Siddha. She is the truth behind all thoughts, willings, feelings, understandings, actions, names and forms.
The sacred Sri Durga-Navaratri celebrations objectively portray the inner spiritual life of the world. Devi, the Divine Mother, is the higher spiritual Power which continuously meets the lower urges in battle and overcomes them completely in the end. In the process of Sadhana, what is conquered and transformed first is Tamas—thus Durga, the Divinity behind Tamas-Sakti, forms the object of the first three days’ worship. Next is subdued the force of Rajas, and there is Lakshmi, the Goddess superintending this force as the Deity of the second three days’ worship. Lastly is to be transcended the Sattva-Guna, and so the Devata of the last three days’ worship is Sarasvati, the Mother in Her Sattva Body. The tenth day is the Vijaya-Dasami, marking the celebration of Vijaya or the complete victory over the threefold force of the universe working in its Avidya aspect, won by Vidya Sakti or the higher spiritual Power, and the installation of the self in the immortal Consciousness of the Absolute. Madhu, Kaitabha, Mahishasura, Sumbha, Nisumbha, etc., are really the demoniacal elements that bind and pester the soul ceaselessly, and they are to be destroyed totally with Sadhanasakti, Mantrasakti, Dhyanasakti, Guru-Kripa and Isvara-Anugraha, all which are symbolised and embodied in the threefold form of the Divine Mother whom the devout Hindu worships with great love during the Navaratri Utsava.
Seekers of the highest blessedness! Offer your heartfelt prayers to Para-Sakti, who is your Atma-Sakti, Jnana-Sakti, and who is Moksha-Samrajya-Lakshmi. Every sincere prayer of the soul generates a power that breaks open the fortress of ignorance, and enables the soul to gain access into the mysteries of Reality, into the realm of true life and light. Let the holy Navaratri Puja mark for you the commencement of a reinforced practice of Sadhana for Self-realisation. Increase your inner toughness of spirit by Japa, Sankirtan and meditation. Observe strict discipline during the nine days and nights, and utilise your time in prayer, Parayana and Dhyana. The rise of the soul to the Immortal is through the vestures of objective consciousness which it beholds as the internal and external universe. The ascent of man to God is a gradual fulfilment of the laws of the realms of relative experience and a transcending of them in Self-Experience. Sakti is the path to Siva. The Divine Mother is the promise and the possibility of the attainment by the human being of the highest ends of existence, the supreme Purusharthas—Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Look to Her for Grace. Your Abhyudaya and Nihsreyas, prosperity here and beatitude hereafter are assured. May Mother Para-Sakti bless you all!
