Why is the cosmos ideally set up to support life?


The Sunday Times October 08, 2006
Goldilocks and the riddle of the perfect universe

Why is the cosmos ideally set up to support life? Physicist Paul Davies tells Stuart Wavell about the point where science meets religion.

Why is the universe, like the porridge in the tale of Goldilocks and the three bears," just right"for life? Even cosmologists have said it looks like a fix or a put-up job. Is it a fluke or providence that it appears set up expressly for the purpose of spawning sentient beings?

Until recently the Goldilocks question was almost completely ignored by scientists. But dramatic developments in our understanding are propelling the issue to the forefront of the agenda, according to the acclaimed British physicist and bestselling author Paul Davies. To stoke the fire, he is to chair a debate between advocates of alternative theories at Oxford on Friday.

Anyone expecting Davies to recant his non-religious views and join the intelligent design lobby will be disappointed.”We can't dump all this in the lap of an arbitrary god and say we can't inquire any further," he says.”The universe looks ingenious, it looks like a fix, and words like meaning and purpose come to mind. But it doesn't mean that we're going to have a miracle-working cosmic magician meddling with events.”

What concerns him in his new book The Goldilocks Enigma is science and the universe's stringent conditions for existence, so finely tuned that even the slightest twiddle of the dials would wreck any hope of life emerging in the universe.”No scientific explanation of the universe can be deemed complete unless it accounts for this appearance of judicious design," he says.

Beyond the obvious prerequisites such as water, the sun's energy and the various chemical elements (oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc) needed to make biomass, there's the tricky stuff. If protons were a tiny bit heavier they would decay into neutrons, and atoms would disintegrate. No carbon would have been formed by nuclear reactions inside stars if the nuclear force varied by more than a scintilla.

This is where the acrimony starts. Some cosmologists claim the bio-friendliness of the universe is explained by a multitude of universes, known as the"multiverse.” Lord Rees, a leading proponent and president of the Royal Society, believes the laws of physics are merely local bylaws that hold good for our universe but will be different among our neighbours.

Such speculation has infuriated some particle physicists, particularly adherents of string theory, who aspire to a final theory that will unify all physical laws and tie up the loose ends.

Their scorn for the multiverse theory is echoed by Frank Close, professor of theoretical physics at Oxford and a participant in Friday's debate, although he is no string theorist: "It's a cop-out. To my mind it's no different from the idea that God did it. If we cannot do any scientific experiments to prove what one of these other universes would be like, it's beyond science. It's just giving up.”

Then there's the viewpoint of Richard Dawkins, the ardent Darwinist and recent author of The God Delusion, who holds that life is essentially pointless and came about by chance before natural selection took over. Close compares Dawkins to religious fundamentalists," who know they are right in their position, just as Richard knows he is right in his position.”

Davies wants to rise above such bickering.”I want to get away from this notion that something has to be accepted on faith," he says.”That just becomes a sterile argument. These people can argue all night, but you're never going to prove or disprove the other person's position.”

He is fascinated by an alternative answer to the Goldilocks question. "Somehow," he writes," the universe has engineered, not just its own awareness, but its own comprehension. Mindless, blundering atoms have conspired to make, not just life, not just mind, but understanding. The evolving cosmos has spawned beings who are able not merely to watch the show, but to unravel the plot.”

What exactly is Davies saying? His starting point is the"highly significant"fact that the universe supports people who understand its laws.”I wanted to get away from the feeling in so many scientific quarters that life and human beings are a completely irrelevant embellishment, a side issue of no significance. I don't think we're the centre of the universe or the pinnacle of creation, but the fact that human beings have the ability to understand how the world is put together is something that cries out for explanation.”

Davies's big idea goes back to the Big Bang. According to the standard picture, the laws of physics were already in place at the explosive origin of the universe. But he contends that perhaps the universe and its laws emerged together in malleable form: "We would expect that these laws were not infinitely precise mathematical statements, but they would have a certain sloppiness or ambiguity that could lead to observable effects from the earliest universe, when these laws were still congealing.”

So how did compatible life and mind come into being? Davies's explanation, involving quantum mechanics and something called backwards causation, is impossible to compress without sounding"ludicrous", he confesses. He's right: it's impenetrable.

But this scenario requires an act of faith as great as that of any religious believer. So hasn't he sidestepped the God question? Science can meet religion on middle ground, he says, but a superbeing who intervenes in events is anathema to most scientists.”You have to understand that science deals with hypotheses that can be tested, and religion proceeds from acts of faith that can't be tested.”

Davies has just left an academic job in Australia to delve further into the origins of things at the provisionally named Blue Sky think tank in Phoenix, Arizona. One of his first projects is to investigate the possibility that life emerged not just once on Earth, but thousands of times. The accepted wisdom is that all the planet's life derives from a common ancestor, ranged on the tree of life.

"The question is whether there's just one tree in the forest. If life is easy to get going, we might expect many trees of life but maybe only one tree survived. But maybe there are members of other trees under our noses, but we don't appreciate what they are.”He conjectures a fertile phase starting four billion years ago when ferocious cataclysms caused by comets and asteroids repeatedly zapped emerging life on Earth before the present"tree"took root 3.5 billion years ago.

In writing his book, Davies was struck by how"ridiculous"All the theories and options seemed. Perhaps, he muses, we have evolved to think about the world in a certain way and we are posing the wrong questions.”I wonder if we're just stuck in certain patterns of thought and we're doomed to forever have these discussions and arguments. Perhaps the real answers lie utterly beyond our ken.”

The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe Just Right for Life? by Paul Davies is published by Allen Lane, 22. A debate, Confronting the Goldilocks Enigma, will be held at the Oxford Playhouse at 5pm on Friday (www.oxfordplayhouse.com)


>
> What concerns him in his new book The Goldilocks Enigma is science
> and the universe's stringent conditions for existence, so finely
> tuned that even the slightest twiddle of the dials would wreck any
> hope of life emerging in the universe.”No scientific explanation
> of the universe can be deemed complete unless it accounts for this
> appearance of judicious design," he says.
>


Ancient Light

.”.. the universe began in a sort of explosion, starting from infinite density and temperature, and has been expanding, thinning out and cooling ever since. The beginning was not like an ordinary explosion, in which debris flies out into a surrounding region of nonmoving space. Instead the big bang explosion began everywhere. There was no surrounding space for the universe to move into, since any such space would be part of the universe. The concept boggles the imagination ...

... the universe was about 10(-8) seconds old (0.000,000,000,1) when its material was as a temperature of 10(+14) degrees (1,000,000,000,000,000). Any further extrapolation back in time toward the big bang, towards higher temperatures, enters the realm of speculation. Yet cosmologists have been forced to speculate. Many of the properties of the universe may have been determined in the first 10(-8) seconds and much earlier. If the grand unified theories are correct, then their most interesting effects would have happened when the universe was about 10(-35) seconds old....

The essential feature of the inflationary universe model is that, shortly after the big bang, the infant universe went through a brief and extremely rapid expansion, after which it returned to the more leisurely rate of expansion of the standard big bang model. By the time the universe was a tiny fraction (perhaps 10[-32]) of a second, the period of rapid expansion, or inflation, was over ... The epoch of rapid expansion could have taken a patch of space so tiny that it had already homogenized and quickly stretched it to a size larger than today's entire observable universe ... For the purpose of illustration, we will assume that the inflationary epoch began when the universe was 10(-35) seconds old and ended when it was 10(- 32) seconds old. At the beginning of the inflationary epoch, the largest region of space that could have homogenized would have been about 10(-35) light seconds in size, or about 10(-25) centimeters, much smaller than the nucleus of an atom. At the end of the inflationary epoch, this tiny homogenized region would have been stretched to something like 10(+400) light years... .

Numerically the Planck density is about 10(+93) grams per cubic centimeter. The infant universe had this enormous density when it was about 10(-43) seconds old.”

Allan Lightman, Ancient Light
Harvard University Press 1991, p. 33-154.


The universe began as an explosion from an infinite density and temperature; expanding, thinning and cooling since. It was an extra- extraordinary explosion. Unlike normal blasts, where debris fly into the surrounding nonmoving space, this was totally different. In fact it's conception staggers the imagination: there was no surrounding space for it to move into as all the universe was compressed into the subatomic sized origin — all existing space being part of it. Nothing existed before the Big Bang!

The universe was only about 0.000,000,001 seconds old when its material temperature was 100,000,000,000,000 degrees. Most of the properties of this universe was determined during this period and earlier still. Any attempt to go back into time would entail speculation. However, if the grand unified theories are correct then their most fascinating effects would have taken place when the universe was .000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001 seconds old!

The essence of the inflationary universe model is that, immediately after the big bang, the newly born universe underwent a very brief and extremely rapid expansion, before slowing down to the pace of the standard big bang model. By the time the universe was about .000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001 seconds old, expansion was over. within this extremely short period it had already expanded and stretched from an infinitesimal small pinpoint to a size much larger than today's observable universe.

To illuminate this fact we will assume that the expansion began when the universe was exactly .000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000, 000,001 seconds old, and ended when it was only .000,000,000, 000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,001 seconds old. At the beginning of expansion the largest area was about .000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,01 centimeters, a size far smaller than the nucleus of an atom. within that nano-second it had expanded to something like 1,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000, 0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,000 0000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,000000 0000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,000000000 0,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,000000000,00 0000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,000000 0000,0000000000,0000000000 light years!

And one light year covers about 6,000,000,000,000 miles! And this is just a fraction of the area that the most advanced telescopes can detect from ancient light still coming from the initial Big Bang. The universe is infinitely larger than is visible. In fact humans will never know the actual size of the universe as it is still expanding 15,000,000,000,000 years later!

The Planck density, a measure of weight, is about 10000000000, 0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000, 0000000000,0000000000, 0000000000 kilos per cubic centimeter. Our universe had this enormous density when it was precisely .0000000000,0000000000, 0000000000,0000000 000,0001 seconds old! It should be noted that the maximum size of the universe at this time was .000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,01 centimeters. This tiny fraction of an atom was already weighing billions of trillions of quadrillions of quintillions of tons! It takes a while for the sheer enormousness of this astounding Truth to sink in. It defies logic and eludes comprehension. The more the mind ponders the less it comprehends. The brilliant scientists, whom the civilized world cherished for their hair-splitting, or we could say, atom-splitting accuracy, have hit a colossal cosmic Reality. They have now to prove how did the pinpoint produce a universe that is now found to be vastly larger. The ubiquitous questions of this century: How, why and what was that primeval atom that formed an entire universe within a split second? The question of the next millennium: "Who made this awesome atom?”

The more the human mind visualizes this brain-boggling nature and awesome grandeur of creation the more humble it will become. There will never be any scientific explanation to the origin of the universe and if there is going to any at all, it will be preposterous, to say the least. Science's finest atheist minds are already beginning to whisper ever so softly that there is something else — the Almighty Creator!

Others are beginning to believe that humanity's quest for Truth through science is over. John Horgan, a 43-year-old senior writer with Scientific American magazine is one of them. His book The End of Science caused a commotion among scientists for its essence that"pure science, the quest for knowledge about what we are and where we came from, has already entered an area of diminishing returns.”

For those who have depended on science to disprove the myths of the scriptures it is time to turn back at these very early stages of admission that science cannot enlighten anymore. It has reached its natural limits. Now only the Spirit can take Homo sapiens beyond — far, far beyond — the limitations of their minds. And it has begun to do so!

Humans have done enormous damage to Nature in this blind pursuit of materialism. Science bears a disappropriately larger responsibility in trying to establish the superiority and dominance of humans over all Nature, and placed a premium on mastering matter. This scientific search began when Copernicus peered through his telescope and found that the Earth was not the center of the universe, in stark contrast to the holy, perfect symmetry that the Church had, in its ignorance, infallibly asserted. Ever since then there has been a relentless rape of the divine origin of creation and Western civilization has been wandering in the maze of mathematics and matter.

The cold, calculating core of science (not scientists) lacks the human qualities of love, compassion, tenderness, and emotion. Science is all mental, mathematical, material, logic and tangibility. Science cannot detect Spirit, vibrations, chakras, consciousness, thoughtless awareness, the Kingdom of Sadashiva. All the laws of matter, physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics are devoid of divinity and lead humankind further and further from the Absolute Truth. For decades they have stripped away the masks of this mysterious universe, expecting to find the mathematical mantra that would have etched their names in atheist eternity. Instead they have hit a colossal celestial Truth. Some of the greatest scientific minds on Earth are now beginning to hint that the answer to the origin of the universe will never ever be found or proven by their grandest theories. They are also admitting that there has to be a Creator!

The search for the origin of the universe has ended for science: the Truth lies elsewhere. As more and more theories flounder and crash in their quest to prove an atheist origin, the Ultimate Truth of the Almighty Creator will slowly but surely be recognized by His atheist adversaries. Even Stephen Hawkings, probably the most eminent theoretical physicist in the world today, while recalling his childhood fantasy on why the universe came into being, could only say," But I still do not understand why.”As long as he denies that he lives in His creation there will be no answer.

Humans have probed and peered far enough into the universe. For millennia they have projected all their senses outwards and yet found no answer to the fundamental mysteries of life. Isn't it time to separate scientific facts from spiritual Reality, and try a new approach by seeking from within? Simple logic and the law of averages point to that direction.

"Atoms are so small that the full-stop at the end of this sentence contains more than one billion of them. Tiny as it is, an atom is entirely made up of empty space. The rest consists of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons are found clustered together in a minute, extremely dense nucleus at the very centre of the atom. Little bundles of energy called electrons whiz around this nucleus at the speed of light. It is the presence of electrons that make the atom behave like a solid, in the same way that a fan blade spinning rapidly looks and behaves as if it were solid.”

Dr. Trevor Day, Nicholas Harris, The Incredible Journey to the Centre of the Atom, Orpheus Books Ltd., 1996.


"Most of the atomic mass is concentrated in a tiny nucleus, only a thousand-billionth of a centimeter in size. The nucleus is surrounded by a cloud of lighter particles — the electrons — extending out to a distance of perhaps a hundred-millionth of a centimeter. Thus, by far the greater part of the atom is empty space.”

Professor Paul Davies, God and the New Physic,
Simon and Schuster, 1983, p. 146.)


"The exponential factor implies that the odds against randomly- generated order increase astronomically. For example, the probability of a litre of air rushing spontaneously to one end of a box is of the order 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 zeros to one! Such figures indicate the extreme care with which low-entropy states must be selected from the vast array of possible states.

Translated into a cosmological context, the conundrum is this. If the universe is simply an accident, the odds against it containing any appreciable order are ludicrously small. If the big bang was just a random event, then the probability seems overwhelming that the emerging cosmic material would be in thermodynamic equilibrium at maximum entropy with zero order. As this was clearly not the case, it appears hard to escape the conclusion that the actual state of the universe has been 'chosen' or selected somehow from the huge number of available states, all but an infinitesimal fraction of which are totally disordered. And if such an exceedingly improbable initial state was selected, there sure had to be a selector or designer to 'choose' it.”

Professor Paul Davies, God and the New Physic,
Simon and Schuster, 1983, p. 167-68.)


"The accumulated gravity of the universe operates to restrain the expansion, causing it to decelerate with time. In the primeval phase the expansion was much faster than it is today. The universe is thus the product of a competition between the explosive vigour of the big bang, and the force of gravity which tries to pull the pieces back together again. In recent years, astrophysicists have come to realize just how delicately this competition has been balanced. Had the big bang been weaker, the cosmos would have fallen back on itself in a big crunch. On the other hand, had it been stronger, the cosmic material would have dispersed so rapidly that galaxies would not have formed. Either way, the observed structure of the universe seems to depend very sensitively on the precise matching of explosive vigour to gravitating power.

Just how sensitively is revealed by calculation. At the so-called Planck time 10-43 seconds (which is the earliest moment at which the concept of space and time has meaning) the matching was accurate to a staggering one part in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000. That is to say, had the explosion differed in strength at the outset by only one part in 10 (-60) (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000, 000, 000, 000,000,000,000,000) the universe we now perceive would not exist.” Professor Paul Davies, God and the New Physic, Simon and Schuster, 1983, p. 179.)


"Adi
In the beginning, to be sure, nothing existed, neither the heaven nor the earth nor space in between.
So Nonbeing, having decided to be, became spirit and said: "Let me be!''
He warmed himself further and from this heating was born fire.
He warmed himself still further and from this heating was born light. TB II, 2, 9, 1-2

Numerous texts are to be found in the Vedic scriptures, of extraordinary diversity and incomparable richness, which seek unweariedly to penetrate the mystery of the beginnings and to explain the immensity and the amazing harmony of the universe. We find a proliferation of speculations, doubts, and descriptions, an atmosphere charged with solemnity, a sense of life lived to the full — all of which spontaneously bring to mind the landscape of the Himalayas. These texts seem to burst forth impetuously like streams issuing from glaciers. within this rushing torrent may be discerned a certain life view, deep and basic, an evolving life view that can yet be traced unbroken from the Rig Veda, through the Atharva Veda and the Brahmanas, to the Upanishads.

What is fascinating about the experience of the Vedic seers is not only that they have dared to explore the outer space of being and existence, piercing the outskirts of reality, exploring the boundaries of the universe, describing being and its universal laws, but that they have also undertaken the risky and intriguing adventure of going beyond and piercing the being barrier so as to float in utter nothingness, so to speak, and discover that Nonbeing is only the outer atmosphere of Being, its protective veil. They plunge thus into a darkness enwrapped by darkness, into the Beyond from which there is no return, into that Prelude of Existence in which there is neither Being nor Nonbeing, neither God nor Gods, nor creature of any type; the traveler himself is volatilized, has disappeared. Creation is the act by which God, or whatever name we may choose to express the Ultimate, affirms himself not only vis-â- vis the world, thus created, but also vis-â-vis himself, for he certainly was neither creator before creation nor God for himself. The Vedic seers make the staggering claim of entering into that enclosure where God is not yet God, where God is thus unknown to himself, and, not being creator, is"nothing.” "

Professor Raimundo Panikkar, The Vedic Experience,
www.cybrlink.com/vedtoc.htm


"Mr. Horgan contends that science is a victim of its own success. Astronomers have seen as much of the universe as they ever will. Physicists have probed as deeply into the nature of matter as practical experiments will allow. And biologists have been finished since Darwin conceived of evolution in the 1850s ... Mr. Horgan says scientists are just fooling themselves ... We'll never know what existed before the universe began, what processes give rise to consciousness, or what physical rules lie beyond the ones that are currently understood, he argues. Those things simply lie beyond the reach of scientific investigation, so any theorizing or speculating about them is what he labels"Ironic"science.”It's ironic in the sense that real science can be taken as literally true," Mr. Horgan said. "They have gone beyond what science can do ... It is meaningless in human terms ... It doesn't tell us about the purpose of the universe and our place in it, and all those sorts of things.”

The Globe and Mail, August 13, 1996


"In recent times there has been a proliferation of literature drawing parallels between holonomis theories of light, quantum physics, and the mystics' view of integral wholeness. As a culture we have looked primarily to Western science to alleviate human suffering and to understand our purpose in the scheme of things. But is science capable of freeing us from all suffering? Can science guide us to a direct mystical experience through the bliss of integrating with the One Light? Is there a parallel between modern physics and the yoga of sacred art regarding the nature of light and consciousness? ...

The mechanistic parameters of Western science have permeated our perceptions, our thinking, our emotions, and even our ways of relating to one another. The result had been nothing less than a total fragmentation of our collective consciousness. The scientific worldview has led to the neglect of our intuitive spiritual perceptions and the creative developments of our souls — which, according to the sages of the East, are there to lead to greater understanding and release us from ignorance, laws of duality, and suffering. Because it is constrained within the laws of polarities, science by itself cannot help us to achieve wholeness. As Yogananda says:

"The entire phenomenal world is under the inexorable sway of polarity; no law of physics, chemistry, or any other science is ever found free from inherent opposite or contrasted principles.

Physical science, then, cannot formulate laws outside of maya: the very fabric and structure of creation ... Future scientists can do no more than probe one aspect after another of her varied infinitude. Science thus remains in a perpetual flux, unable to reach finality ...” "

Judith Cornell, PH. D. Mandala: Luminous Symbols for Healing,
Theosophical Publishing, 1994 p. 27-29.


"We are all literally made up of stardust," said astronomer George Smoot of the University of California's Space Sciences Laboratory and author of Wrinkles in Time. This much we know. But where that first pinpoint of intense energy came from — what unleashed its force to explode outward over billions of light-years of space; what set that power loose to evolve over the billions of years since into the intricately interconnected system of planets and stars; what brilliant design could set forth the pattern of development that could bring as complex a structure as humans into being — the scientists cannot explain or are uncomfortable explaining because it requires them to suddenly trade their theories and facts for the possibility that a supreme force beyond their explanations set it all in motion for a purpose.

"Facing this, the ultimate question challenges our faith in the power of science to find explanations of nature," Smoot wrote.”Is this then where scientific explanation breaks down and God takes over?” "

Walter Mercado, Beyond The Horizon,
A Time Warner Company, 1997 p. 51-2.


"The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.

To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifests itself as the highest wisdom, and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in the most primitive form — this knowledge, this feeling, is at the centre of true religiousness. The Cosmic religious experience is the strongest and oldest mainspring of scientific research.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slightest details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of the superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.

Religion without science is blind and science without religion is lame ... The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms — this knowledge, this feeling is at the centre of true religiousness.”

Albert Einstein


"We must first know what is Absolute Truth. We have human awareness. We also have freedom to form our own mental ideas. But Truth cannot be known through human awareness ... Any type of mental projection or ideology ultimately will recoil back because it has to be substantiated by Reality.”

Shri Nirmama Devi
Moscow, Soviet Union — June 25, 1990
Nirmama (164th): Without selfishness.


"What has gone wrong with the West is that they have never worried about their Spirit. They have negated all that is Spirit, all that is subtler life and have thought that it is better to master the matter, master all these things which they master ... Whatever you master is lower than you, is not higher than you ... If you want to be higher then you have to be useful to that higher goal ... we should allow the Higher thing to rule us.

So in ancient times so many people, we can call as seers and saints, went into the forest to find out what is the basis of human beings? What is the meaning of human life? What is the ultimate goal of human beings. And they found out that it is the Spirit. And they based all the Indian laws and Indian philosophies, music, art, dance, drama — every aspect of life — on the basis that we have to become the Spirit. But when we have the western influence and western education put on to us, everyone decided that give up whatever was traditional, whatever was old, and take to this.”

Shri Sanakadi-samaradhya Devi
Importance Of Self-Realization, Delhi, India — February 8, 1983
Sanakadi-samaradhya (726th): Worshipped by sages like Sanaka... She appears as Guru to the seekers because She is the source of all Knowledge.


"The other type of people are who think no end of their intelligence. They have denied God. They say," Where is God? There is no God. We don't believe in God. This is all nonsense. Science is everything.”What has science done so far, let's see that? Science has done nothing so far. It has only done all dead work. It has only made you ego-oriented.”

Shri Panca-tanmatra-sayaka Devi
Kundalini And Kalki Shakti, Bombay, India — September 28, 1979
Panca-tanmatra-sayaka (11th): She has in the fourth hand an arrow symbolic of the sense elements. By shooting with the mind as bow the arrow of the five sense elements, She creates the Universe, a projection of the mind through the senses.


"There are three questions which science cannot answer — How are we here? what are we here for? and what are we going to do? These three questions can be answered in Sahaja Yoga after Self-Realization . . Science is not conclusive. It does not give you Absolute Truth. It goes on changing from this to that ... we don't know the Absolute Truth.”

Shri Manorupeksu-kodanda Devi
United Nations Public Program, New York, USA — September 9, 1992
Manorupeksu-kodanda (10th): In the left lower hand She has the sugar- cane bow which symbolises the Samkalpa (power of desire) of the mind which creates the phenomenal Universe.


"The only thing we can enjoy is the Play of the Spirit ... Till the Knowledge of this Science does not come within us, the outside science is absolutely useless because there is very little of science that can explain about the material things outside. There is no comparison of this outside science — no collectivity, no humanity, no love, no art, no poem, no respect. There is nothing alive in it. It becomes like a machine.”

Shri Sadasad-rupadharini Devi
Shivaratri Puja, Pune, India — February 23, 1990
Sadasad-rupadharini (661st): She assumes the form of existence and non-existence. She is the source of this universe of name and form and the unseen cause behind it. 'Satyam Canrtam Ca, Satyamabhavat' (Taittiriya Upanishad) Both Reality and unreality emanated from the Ultimate reality. The power of illusion i.e. Maya-Saktii who creates the illusion of the Universe.


"And He can do anything that He feels like and we are nothing. We are nothing. There should be no rationality about it; about understanding God's miracles. How can it be? How could it be? You can't explain ... we are limited people. We have limited powers. We cannot understand how God could be All Powerful because we haven't got the capacity. So this God who is our Creator, who is our Preserver, the One who desired that we should exist, who is our existence itself, is All-Powerful God.”

Shri Nijaruna-prabha-pura-majjad-brahmanda-mandala Devi
Mahashivaratri Puja, Pandarpur, India — February 29, 1984
Nijaruna-prabha-pura-majjad-brahmanda-mandala (12th): Her red brilliance engulfs all the Universes. It means all the created Universe is only Her radiance.


"Thus this mind is created like bubbles on the Ocean of Reality, but that's not Reality. With this mind whatever we decide we know its very limited, illusive and sometimes shocking. The mind always moves in a linear direction and because there is no Reality in it, it recoils and boomerangs. Thus all the enterprises, all the projections so far we have done it seems come back to us. Whatever they discover comes back to us as a big destructive Power or a very big shock. So one has to decide what to do, how to be out of this trap of our mind — Kundalini is the solution ... With the awakening She takes you beyond your mind.”

Shri Pada-dvaya-prabha-jala-parakrta-sororuha Devi
The Witnessing State: To Know God, Shivaratri Puja, Sydney, Australia — March 3, 1996


"It was such a solace and such a hope that people who apparently appear to be in the charge of helm-of-affairs, are also in charge of the helm-of-affairs of God. A day will come when they will take up their new roles, when they will become aware that it is God who rules them. It is He who does it, it is He who has created everything, and it is He who enjoys everything.

For this awareness ... the seeking ultimately has to come to human beings because all that is done through mental projections and conceptions has one good point — that it is always exposed and comes to an end. Every set enterprise of human beings only moves in a linear way and at a point it drops down. That is why all our conceptions and all our ideas are challenged after some time.”

Shri Ksetra-Svarupa Devi
Ksetra-Svarupa (341st): The highest consciousness to the grossest matter and space consists of Ksetra. It is Her form.


Nirmama (164th): Without selfishness.

Sanakadi-samaradhya (726th): Worshipped by sages like Sanaka... She appears as Guru to the seekers because She is the source of all Knowledge.

Panca-tanmatra-sayaka (11th): She has in the fourth hand an arrow symbolic of the sense elements. By shooting with the mind as bow the arrow of the five sense elements, She creates the Universe, a projection of the mind through the senses.

Manorupeksu-kodanda (10th): In the left lower hand She has the sugar- cane bow which symbolises the Samkalpa (power of desire) of the mind which creates the phenomenal Universe.

Sadasad-rupadharini (661st): She assumes the form of existence and non-existence. She is the source of this universe of name and form and the unseen cause behind it. 'Satyam Canrtam Ca, Satyamabhavat' (Taittiriya Upanishad) Both Reality and unreality emanated from the Ultimate reality. The power of illusion i.e. Maya-Saktii who creates the illusion of the Universe.

Nijaruna-prabha-pura-majjad-brahmanda-mandala (12th): Her red brilliance engulfs all the Universes. It means all the created Universe is only Her radiance.

Ksetra-Svarupa (341st): The highest consciousness to the grossest matter and space consists of Ksetra. It is Her form.


—- In adishakti_sahaja_yoga@yahoogroups.com," jagbir singh"
wrote:
>
>
>"The follower of Sakthism, the worshiper of Shakti, is called
> Shakta. His conception of the Goddess is described in the Shakti
> Tantra Shastras, i.e., the holy scriptures of Sakthism, often in a
> very poetical way. Whereas we speak of Mother Nature only in a
> comparative manner, for the Shakta it is absolute reality. Nature
> is Her body. Her presence is personally felt by him, when he is
> standing on the fertile ground of the earth; he touches Her life in
> the blossoms of the pure lotus-flower. She animates all living
> creatures. His own body is a part of Her great body. Worshipping
> Her in all Her different forms, he will find Her light, too,
> within his mind and consciousness. Thus, to the Shakta the whole
> universe of mind and matter reveals itself in its unity; he see
> before him Her great body which he adores; Her sacred feet, Her
> heart, Her mind.
>
> It might be useful to describe this poetical view, which is at once
> physical and transcendental, by means of another diagram. We may
> for this purpose represent matter and mind by two circles , which
> intersect each other.
>
> Where they intersect, there is Shakti, so to speak, in Herself. But
> Her influence, Her being spreads into the whole realm of matter as
> well as that of mind. Nowhere is She absent, but Her presence is
> less distinct, is somehow veiled in those parts, which are further
> from the centre, where She is in Herself. Thus, for the sake of
> linear explanation, the mineral world—the solid matter—would have
> to be situated the furthest from Her, because there, as for
> instance in stone, she—Life Herself—is, much veiled, stone to
> the ordinary human view appearing to be dead. Nearer to Her is the
> realm of plants, where, with their growing and blossoming, She
> already becomes more apparent. I need hardly remind you of the
> well-known researches by Sir Jagadish Bhose of the University of
> Calcutta, who is endeavouring to make visible the actual heartbeat
> of plant life. Then, in due order with regard to Her would come
> the world of animals, which being animated have within their life—
> although perhaps still unconsciously—some access to Her. Lastly,
> within the highly developed organism of man She, for the first
> time, is inherent in her essential being. There She finds the
> possibility of being consciously awakened, so that she appears to
> him, who is looking and striving for her, in Her true nature as
> Shakti herself. The other side—the mind circle—comprises the
> mental faculties of man such as consciousness, will, feeling and
> logical perception, which, with regard to their aptitude for Her
> realisation, may be put in such order. The directions of
> development therefore go in the matter-circle from left to right—
> from stone, vegetable, animal to man, where Shakti will be
> realised; in the mind-circle, from right to left—from mere
> logical thinking to feeling, will-power, consciousness to man—
> where Shakti may be realised. Thus, as you can see from this
> diagram, everywhere there is Shakti. She is inherent in everything
> and at the same time transcends every thing; by meditation and
> religious ceremonies She may be realized everywhere, being
> inherent in the whole physical universe as it is given to us. And,
> moreover, above this we may touch Her in Her transcendental aspect
> as well. When She appears in Her true nature, then there is no
> more mind or matter, but only She Herself, in no sense bounded by
> such limitations. As such a one She may well be represented by a
> circle, the universe in its true aspect.
>
> To the European it may perhaps at first sight appear to be a mere
> poetical presentment and but little different from the theory of
> vitalism of modern natural science or from ancient animism in the
> religious aspect. But with regard to Vitalism, even if there be
> similarities the essential difference seems to me, that the
> Vitalism of the natural sciences is based principally upon the
> conception of a material world which is regarded as being animated
> by, for instance, the"lan vitale"of Bergson. But Sakthism holds
> its standpoint entirely on the spiritual side. She, the great
> mother, exists, and what in the material world is vitalised or
> animated, certainly comes from Her, but is only a veiled
> appearance of Her, who in Her true being can be experienced
> spiritually. And Sakthism is also not animism, if by animism may
> be understood the primitive idea of everything being ghost-like,
> being animated by"Phi"or spirits, resulting in as many ghostly
> spirits as there are different things. Sakthism represents a
> spiritual unity, all different things being united within Her
> always-greater aspect.
>
> The principal doctrine of"Sakthism", that the whole Universe of
> mind and matter is created by Her, the Powerful Goddess Shakti, is
> described in full detail, with Indian accuracy in spiritual
> matters, in the Cosmogony of Sakthism. It must be understood that
> every great Indian philosophical system has its own Cosmo-Genesis,
> that is, its special conception of the evolution of the world and
> its beginning. As a matter of fact, every conception of life and
> the Universe requires such a foundation to give it the necessary
> firm hold. For Sakthism this source, out of which the Universe as
> mind and matter has evolved, is the female spiritual Power,
> Shakti, who is the Great Mother of the Universe. In Her most
> concentrated form, when Her Power is just ready to expand, She is
> represented by a point called Bindu. This Bindu Point is mere
> Spirit. Everything manifested and created in this Universe has
> Spirit. Everything manifested and created in this Universe has
> Spirit as its source and essence. In the Christian Cosmo-Genesis
> of the Gospel of St. John it is called"logos"or"The word.” By
> expansion the Spiritual Power Shakti becomes, going through many
> different stages, Mind, Life, and Matter. She—the Goddess—is
> contained, in all the manifestations of the universe, but She
> remains, so to speak, unexhausted by being the material cause of
> the Universe. She in Her essence remains unaffected and greater
> than all the created world.
>
> In a diagrammatic way this cosmogenetic evolution can be
> represented like this. The active, most concentrated Point Bindu
> is red, the colour of activity. From this point the lines of
> evolution expand through the stages of mind and life towards
> matter, the mineral world. So the material world stands not first
> but last in the evolution of the Universe.
>
> According to the general doctrine of Indian metaphysics, this whole
> created universe is not everlasting but will one day be dissolved.
> The life or appearance of the universe lasts, as it is figuratively
> expressed, one day of Brahma, the Almighty, that is, millions and
> millions of years. After that the whole expansion contracts again
> in the opposite direction; first, matter will be dissolved, then
> life and mind will disappear till it reaches the state of the
> beginning, the spiritual Point, Bindu, where it will find its
> rest; until the dawn of a new day of Brahma, when a new creation
> will start. This Bindu Point is the great Goddess, the universal
> mother—womb—yoni—the creator and receiver of the Universe,
> which, as Shakti, is worshipped by the followers of Sakthism.
>
> The Indian Religion of the Goddess Shakti
> DR. HANS KOESTER
> THE JOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY
> Vol.23, part 1
> 1929 July >



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