Elements and Gods
[Shri Krishna´s Message]

by B.P. Wadia 


© 2003 Online Teosofiska Kompaniet Malmö 

                                            
Men of modern science know only a very little about what they themselves have called the correlation of forces. The imponderables of the invisible cosmos are substantial and produce results. Some of these effects have come under the notice of the great physicists, but even they do not suspect that these correlations of forces are effects and occur according to a law that the ancient Seers have called the Law of Transmutation among Forces. The imponderables are the basis of the old Greek and the older Aryan classification of the material elements into Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Æther. The visible counterparts of the invisible great Elements are effects of the working of intelligent forces called Elementals, which are described as the nerves of Nature. The Hindu Puranas speak of Devatas and Devas – Godlings or Elementals and the Devas or Gods presiding over them. 

Still more obscure is the working of the imponderables in the mental and moral spheres of our being. The Law of Transmutation among Forces causes remarkable changes in a man's character and circumstances, quite beyond us at present. These play a real part in the precipitation of human destiny, of the individual or of nations. 

Man lives not only on the surface of the Earth, nourished by Water, but affects and is affected by the atmosphere and by heat. Similarly, his emotions, his thoughts, and his volitions also affect and are affected by the subtler aspects of the great elements and the correlations of their forces. A man's thought, colliding with another man's thought, may cause a gale, a zephyr, or a tranquil light and a brightness of the air. A woman's anger or jealousy produces detrimental emotional reactions in more than one human being. A child's laughter may save an empire or avert a world war. Its screams may draw forth howls of mobs. All these instances may sound exaggerated as expressed, but a thoughtful examination of them will reveal a profound, stupendous underlying truth. 

Our personal make-up is intimately connected with the Elements of the ancients – Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Æther. It is through these that the embodied Spirit works, identifying itself with the material aspect of Nature, which Krishna calls his lower nature – apara-prakriti. (Gita, VII, 4) Dominated and guided by the constituents of this lower nature, it becomes the lower man. 

But Krishna has a higher nature – paraprakriti (VII, 5); it constitutes in man the Thinker and the Knower. This higher man is the controller of the lower wandering mind, the drifting, prowling heart and the exploited will, swayed by the notion of the false egotistic "I" and its lethal tendency to the dire heresy of separateness. This higher nature is the Light or the Wisdom of Krishna. While the lower nature is enveloped by avidya –  ignorance – creating illusion that degenerates into delusion, the higher is energized by Vidya – knowledge – creating Wisdom and rising to Compassion. 

Because of his attraction and response to the outer darkness of the rigid material universe, man overlooks the Light side of the higher nature of the universe. Therefore, he fails to benefit from "the sweet smell in the earth," from the living "taste (rasa) in water," from "the brilliance in the fire," from "the sound in Æther." The two Natures, Light and Darkness, conjointly working according to Law, benefit each other and the Supreme Spirit of which they are manifestations. 

Man has been taught to live independently. In the struggle for existence, he has competed against his fellows and become selfish and violent. Has not the time come for man to learn that living need not be a struggle? Only the man of Love can possess that Liberty. Freedom and Hatred cannot live together. Nature is the Great Totalitarian State, very unlike that which Stalin is trying to create. Nature is the Mighty Commonwealth whose riches are for the enjoyment of all. There are no foes to fear. All are friends to be loved. In the True Welfare State, all men, women, adolescents, and children flourish. The animals, vegetation, coal, oil, and minerals also flourish in their own right. Many are the bodies of Gods that nourish us. Nourishing each other, all obtain the highest felicity (Gita III, 11). The Gita promises us the enjoyment of our wishes if we observe the Law of Interdependence. (III, 12) He who practices the law of selfish independence exploits Nature and earns for himself the epithet of "thief." (III, 12) The World is One. The Universe is a Plenum – the grains of dust are akin to the myriad stars of the firmament. Man cannot live or evolve without either. 
How true it is that                      

"Back of the Bread is the Flour  And back of the Flour is the Mill,  Back of the Mill is the Sun and the Shower  And the Wind and the Father's Will."

B.P. WADIA

From "Thus have I heard", pages 13-15. Utgiven av Indian Institute of World Culture, 1959.

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