I have already said that the three Cardinal Attributes, (Sattwa, Rāja and Tama) Illumination, Activity and Darkness, are the joint parents of the Principles which compose all creation. When the forces of these Attributes fall into equilibrium, the dissolution of the universe takes place and the equalized Attributes merge into one another and become transformed into a substance quite different from their own. That substance is called Shuddha Sattwa—Pure Illumination. In Sattwa there is a mixture of some Rāja and Tama; in Rāja there is a mixture of some Sattwa and Tama: similarly, in Tama, there is some mixture of Sattwa and Rāja. In Shuddha Sattwa, the Sattwa is free from the other two attributes. Krishna (Absolute Love) is Purest Sattwa. The equalizing of the forces of the Attributes transforms them into Pure Illumination no doubt, but the transformation is temporary. Krishna (Absolute Love) is Permanent Purest Illumination. But even the temporary attainment, by the Attributes, of the Shuddha Sattwa state makes them for the time being the same substance as this First Principle and brings about their absorption into it as long as they keep in that state. This is almost exactly as the germ of a tree remains merged in and becomes part and parcel of the kernel of its seed. And as when the seed is put into the soil, the action of germination separates from that kernel the germ which then grows into a tree, so when in time the forces of the merged Attributes fall out of equilibrium by Rāja (Activity) asserting itself, they get separated and manifest themselves into the Universe. At first the activity of Rāja is feeble and Sattwa predominates. Out of predominant Sattwa springs the Mind, Rāja brings forth the Ten Senses and Tama the Five Essences and the Five Gross Forms of matter. And all objects and animals and men and gods and earth and heaven are but different degrees of blendings of the Three Attributes. The Satya Yuga (Golden Age) at the beginning of creation is so full of Sattwa (Illumination) that all Nature is made of materials almost transparent as ether. The matter of this first Golden Age is so fine that it would be invisible to the eye of our gross flesh of this distant Kali (Iron Age). Even in the last Golden Age, Nature was made up of such fine matter that it would look, to our gross vision of this day, as pictures of light.