During the Upanishadic period six seekers of the Knowledge of the Brahman, the Eternal, approach Rishi Pippalada with due respect having done several years of tapasya. The Rishi tells them to dwell in holiness and faith and askesis for another year. Then Bhargava, hailing from Vidarbha, asks him: “Lord, how many Gods maintain this creature, and how many illumine it, and which of these again is the mightiest?” The Rishi answers: “These are the Gods, even Ether and Wind and Fire and Water and Earth and Speech and Mind and Sight and Hearing. These nine illumine the creature: therefore they vaunted themselves, ‘We, even we support this harp of God and we are the preservers.’ Then Breath answered, their mightiest: ‘Yield not unto delusion: I dividing myself into this fivefold support this harp of God, I am its preserver.’ ” The presence of Prāņa behind the five elements, indeed they coming from it, is what makes possible this harp of God, this instrument, to play the earthly song of manifestation. But Speech and Mind and Hearing and Sight, and the organs of cognition, come from Manas, the sense-mind, the essential sense behind them, behind the other five senses.

The material universe we inhabit is formed from these five elemental states of Matter, the ādhibhautic constituents. In it move the powers of Mind and Life, the ādhidaivic Gods. But far beyond them are the ādhyātmic or spiritual powers. Yet beyond them, beyond Indra and Vāyu and Agni, there is the Consciousness-Force that gives rise to them all. …   more »