MY WOMB IS THE GREAT BRAHMAN (MULA PRAKRITI) — Krishna, the Pure Consciousness, is trying to explain the “One-Womb” from which the entire Universe has arisen. On many occasions, in our discourses, we had stopped to explain how the One-Consciousness, identifying with various layers of Matter, manifests Itself as different entities, with different potentialities. A Prime Minister is also a voter — just a single voter under the constitution of the country. But a Prime Minister’s powers are a million times more than any average voter can ever hope to have. This omnipotency is gained by his OFFICE, because the voter in him has been successful in identifying himself with the “heart” of the majority of voters.

The Supreme, identifying Itself with the subtle Vasanas in an individual, becomes an individualised “Ego.” If any one of us (as a single voter) can renounce his limited tendencies and identify himself with the total thought-life of the Universe (the total aspirations of the Janata), the Consciousness that identified Itself with ‘total mind’ (the individual who identifies himself with the majority of voters) becomes the Ishwara (Prime Minister).

In the stanza, in the language of Vedanta, it is said that the total-Vasanas of the world, meaning the “total-causal-body,” is the “Womb,” which gets impregnated by the Lord. When life functions as the “total-causal-body,” it becomes dynamic and expresses itself as the “total-mind-intellect” (Hiranya-garbha).

It has already been explained that the Light of Consciousness conditioned by the mind and intellect-reflected in the mental pool of thought — is the sense-of-ego, the individuality, manifest in each of us. The total potential factor, from which the world-of-matter emerges, is termed as Nature — Prakriti. The Prakriti then is called the ‘Great Cause,’ because it embraces the entire Universe which is but its effect. Again, from Nature, the entire Universe has arisen and the Universe of names and forms is nourished and fattened by the very source which has given birth to it. Therefore, the total nature is termed here, as elsewhere in Vedanta, as the Great (Mahat)-Brahma, the total-mind-intellect-equipments.

IN THAT, I PLACE THE GERM — This total potential Nature is the virgin “Womb,” in which, when the shaft of Consciousness penetrates, the Light of Awareness that consequently plays in it, is Its act of impregnation.

Thus vitalised by Life, the inert Prakriti becomes dynamised, grows and manifests itself as the spectacular Universe. Hence it is said, “FROM WHICH IS THE BIRTH OF ALL BEINGS.”

Every creative action owes its origin and progress to a tendency for it in the artist. When this tendency in him becomes vibrant with a part of the life in him, it becomes potential, struggles to express itself in terms of ideas and feelings, and later on gets expressed in the particular medium of art chosen by the artist. He may express it through colours, as in painting; through songs, as in music; through stones, as in sculpture; or through words, as in literature. But a dead artist can no more express anything — even in terms of artistic ideas or thoughts. The total Universe of ideas and tendencies (Vasanas), when graced by Life, becomes vigorous and expresses as the Universe created.

The world of Vasanas, of ideas, of thoughts, and of actions, together constituting the total Nature, is ever controlled and directed by the gunas, and therefore, the three gunas are together called in Vedanta as Maya, the “cause of the Universe.” Maya, expressed in the individual bosom, is called ‘ignorance'(avidya). The ‘ignorance’is, therefore, the microcosmic expression of Maya, and the total “ignorance,” in its macrocosmic expression, is Maya. An individualised EGO is under the control of avidya, while Maya is under the control of Ishwara.

We are only to remember that we have been told already in the previous chapter, viz., that the “Field” and the “Knower-of-the-Field” are the two aspects of Nature (Prakriti), and both of them function on the same Substratum, the Absolute Eternal Truth, the Lord Krishna Himself. The Supreme, functioning in the “Field,” becomes the Enjoyer-of-the-Field, and therefore, the “Knower-of-the-Field,” detaching from the “Field,” rediscovers himself to be the Pure Absolute Consciousness.

CONTINUING TO ELABORATE THIS SUBTLE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATTER AND SPIRIT, AND EXPLAINING HOW THE ABSOLUTE IS THE UNCONTAMINATED AND EVER-VITALISING PRINCPLE IN BOTH THE “FIELD” AND IN THE “KNOWER-OF-THE-FIELD”:

Mama, My own Maya, i.e. Prakrti consisting of the three qualities, which belongs to Me; is the yonih, womb [Here Ast. adds ‘karanam, cause’ (-off all the creatures).-Tr.] for all the creatures. Since it (Prakrti) is great (mahat) as compared with all its effects, and it is the sustainer (brahma) [Prakrti is brahma since it permeates all of its own products.-A.G.] of all its own transformations, therefore the womb itself is qualified as mahat brahma. Tasmin, in that, in the womb which is the great-sustainer; aham, I, God, possessed of the power in the form of the two aspects, viz the field and the Knower of the field; dadhami, place, deposit; garbham, the seed-the seed of the birth of Hiranayagarbha, te seed which is the cause of the birth of all things-; i.e., I bring the field into association with the Knower of the field who conforms to the nature of the limiting adjuncts, viz ignorance, desire and activity. Tatah, from that, from that deposition of the seed; O scion of the Bharata dynasty, bhavati, occurs; sambhavah, the birth, origination; sarva-bhutanam, of all things, following the birth of Hiranyagarbha.