A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga: The Yoga of WisdomAtkinson, William Walker
Religion
A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga: The Yoga of Wisdom
Atkinson, William Walker
Yoga, Jñana
In the Hindu classic, the "Mahabarata," Brahma created the most
beautiful female being ever known, and called her Tillotama. He
presented her in turn to all the gods, in order to witness their wonder
and admiration. Siva's desire to behold her was so great that it
developed in him four faces, in succession, as she made the tour of the
assembly; and Indra's longing was so intense that his body became all
eyes. In this myth may be seen exemplified the effect of Desire and
Will in the forms of life, function and shape--all following Desire and
Need, as in the case of the long neck of the giraffe which enables him
to reach for the high branches of the trees in his native land; and in
the long neck and high legs of the fisher birds, the crane, stork,
ibis, etc.
The Creative Will finds within itself a desire to create suns, and they
are formed. It desired planets to revolve around the suns, and they
were thrown off in obedience to the law. It desired plant life, and
plant life appeared, working from higher to lower form. Then came
animal life, from nomad to man. Some of the animal forms yielded to the
desire to fly, and wings appeared gradually, and we called it
bird-life. Some felt a desire to burrow in the ground, and lo! came the
moles, gophers, etc. It wanted a thinking creature, and Man with his
wonderful brain was evolved. Evolution is more than a mere survival of
the fittest; natural selection, etc. Although it uses these laws as
tools and instruments, still back of them is that insistent urge--that
ever-impelling desire--that ever-active Creative Will. Lamark was
nearer right than Darwin when he claimed that Desire was back of it
all, and preceded function and form. Desire wanted form and function,
and produced them by the activity of the Creative Will.
This Creative Will acts like a living force--and so it is indeed--but
it does not act as a reasoning, intellectual Something, in one
sense--instead it manifests rather the "feeling," wanting, longing,
instinctive phase of mind, akin to those "feelings" and resulting
actions that we find within our natures. The Will acts on the
Instinctive Plane.
Evolution shows us Life constantly pressing forward toward higher and
still higher forms of expression. The urge is constantly upward and
onward. It is true that some species sink out of sight their work in
the world having been done, but they are succeeded by other species
more in harmony with their environment and the needs of their times.
Some races of men decay, but others build on their foundations, and
reach still greater heights.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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