The Part that Makes Creation Complete
   Up to now, our examination of the universe has focused upon objective Creation—all the things and happenings which we perceive throughout the world around us. What we have not yet investigated is the subjective aspect of the cosmos—namely, that part of us which perceives the objective universe from within the confines of our human body.
   Inside our body there dwells a nonmaterial instrument of awareness which we refer to as our “mind,” and beyond that lies a presence which is more subtle still: the inner Self—the essence of our being. Nowhere in our perusal of the objective cosmos was there any mention of the human mind or inner Self being created. How, then, did they originate? What is their place in the Grand Design, and what specific function has been assigned to them? It is to these important questions that we now direct our full attention.

Observer or Participator?
   From somewhere behind those probing eyes which greet us in the mirror each morning, the real us gazes out upon Creation. Our mind, brain and senses are the instruments through which we view the world around us, and invariably what these instruments tell us is that the universe is filled with diversity and duality, despite the fact that both modern physics and ancient spiritual science assure us there are no isolated objects in the cosmos, that everything in manifest Creation is intimately interconnected and interrelated— even apparent opposites—and that all phenomena arise from and  eventually subside back into a single, all-pervasive ground substance, which, though imperceptible, is the only true reality.
   Our mind, brain and senses also tell us that we, as the perceiver of the external world, are forever separate and removed from everything around us. Since our normal perception of the outer world has already proved to be defective, how reliable, then, is this notion that we are completely disconnected from the rest of Creation?
   The modern physicist has found that, although this feeling of separateness appears to be valid at the level of reality that our senses perceive, at a more basic level it, too, proves to be erroneous. When making observations in the realm of subatomic particles, physicists have learned that it becomes impossible for them to keep themselves clearly segregated from the objects they are attempting to observe. It seems that the very act of observation entails an interaction between the observer and the object of observation, and this interaction automatically alters the nature of the object.
   If the universe is in essence nothing but a vast network of intermingling vibratory patterns, then both we and the object we wish to observe are simply two such patterns which have begun to interact, each having some effect upon the nature of the other. After all, the act of observation cannot take place across empty space because, as we have already seen, there is no such thing as empty space. All objects are intense, temporarily stable energy patterns, and all interactions among them take place in the form of more subtle, less stable energy patterns. This second type of pattern overlaps and joins all those of the first type into a single web of interconnected patterns. Thus, we become faced with another interesting paradox of modern physics: In order to observe an object accurately we must completely isolate it and remove it from any external influences and yet, in order to observe said object we our self must interact with it!
   All our definitions and measurements of the external world, then, are nothing more than the effects of interactions which create certain sensations in our consciousness. All the properties and propensities which we assign to things cannot he relied upon to exist when we are not observing them. The closer physicists look at one property of a subatomic particle, such as its velocity, the more uncertain another property, such as its location, becomes. Since it is impossible to separate themselves from the objects of their observation, today’s particle physicists now consider it inappropriate to think of themselves as “observers”; they now consider themselves “participants” who alter the very structure of nature by the act of perceiving it.
   Max Born, the renowned German physicist who was one of the founding fathers of quantum physics, commented extensively upon this unexpected discovery of modem science, as evidenced in the following excerpt from one of his published papers:
   We have all been taught that there exists an objective physical world, which unfolds itself according to immutable laws independent of us; we are watching this process like the audience watches a play in a theatre.
Quantum mechanics, however, interprets the experience gained in atomic physics in a different way. We may compare the observer of a physical phenomenon not with the audience of a theatrical performance, but with that of a football game where the act of watching, accompanied by applauding or hissing, has a marked influence on the speed and concentration of the players, and thus on what is watched. In fact, a better simile is life itself, where audience [observers] and actors [observed objects] are the same persons. It is the action of the experimentalist who designs the apparatus which determines essential features of the observations. Hence, there is no objectively existing situation, as was supposed to exist in classical physics.13
   If, as modern physics insists, there is no objectively existing situation to be perceived by us, then what are we to make of this very real and solid world of beings, objects and events which we seem to experience all around us? If the material world is not “out there,” then where is it?

It’s All in Our Mind
   Both Yoga and modern science assure us that the only things which really exist in the universe around us are (1) an all-pervasive, organic ground substance which, though everywhere, cannot be perceived, and (2) a vast array of interconnected, constantly changing patterns of vibration, some of which are capable of interaction with our physical senses. This, we are told, is all that exists “out there” at this very moment; it’s all that has ever existed “out there,” and it’s all that will ever exist “out there” until the end of time.
   But somehow, whenever we enter the scene, suddenly “out there” seems to take on a completely different appearance. We look around us and see a multitude of independent objects and events, forms and colors; we listen and hear a multitude of sounds; we sniff and smell a multitude of aromas; we touch and feel a multitude of densities, textures and temperatures; we taste and savor a multitude of flavors. How, then, is it possible that true reality consists only of interacting vibratory patterns, when all our personal experience tells us that there are solid things out there?
   Despite the convincing testimony of our mind, brain and senses, there still remains an annoying fact which must be reckoned with: Solid matter does not exist. As we saw in the previous section, modern physics has discovered that what we experience as matter is in reality nothing more than a particular pattern of energy vibration which displays the amazing property of appearing to be solid when in fact it is not. This leads to an interesting conjecture: What if there is no observer present to perceive that appearance of solidity? The inescapable conclusion seems to be that the world assumes a substantial appearance only when it is being perceived!
   According to Kashmir Shaivism, the universe cannot exist unless it contains both an objective side (all the objects and events in all the many realms of manifest Creation) and a subjective side—some sort of witness capable of perceiving the objective world. Translating this into our physical reality, it means that no material object as we know it can exist unless there is a perceiving subject present to experience its existence.

   Most of us will find this rather hard to swallow, because common sense tells us that even though no one may he on hand to witness an object’s existence, the object could still he there all by itself. For example, we might argue that even if there were no living creatures here to perceive this world, the world would still be here, wouldn’t it’?
Ah, but would it’? And this is where we begin to slide into a very creepy “Twilight Zone,” for despite the obvious fact that each and every one of us experiences that there is a very real and solid world outside of us, both modern and ancient science inform us that this material world does not exist “out there” at all—it exists only in our mind. In short: No mind, no world.
   Modern physicists view the universe as a teeming sea of energy patterns, and they know that matter is really nothing more than a cohesive mass of vibrational packets which appear to us as particles, and which in themselves contain no such properties as color, solidity, aroma, flavor, texture, density, etc. If we then ask these physicists how they reconcile this scientific picture of reality with the world which they perceive through their physical senses, they will probably state that all the qualities of our everyday world of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feelings are created and superimposed upon reality by the mind of the perceiver.
   Perhaps the best way for us to achieve at least a general understanding of this astounding concept is through an example which combines images borrowed from both Yoga and modern science.

   In Figure 10 we see represented a small field of interacting energy patterns. Let’s assume that this field is just a minute section of the cosmic sea, though of course in reality it would be much more complex than this simple, two-dimensional rendering.
The white background represents Shiva, the static ground field, and the wavy lines symbolize Shakti, interacting waves of vibrational movement. In this particular field we find two “objects” —temporarily stable and intense energy patterns—and between them is a more subtle and unstable force pattern which joins the two objects together and mediates an interaction that is taking place between them. Since there is as yet no perceiver present on the scene, the only distinguishing characteristics among these patterns are that each displays a unique configuration, intensity, and range of influence. This represents reality in the absence of a perceiving mind; in no way does it resemble a scene that we would recognize as belonging to the material world.
This illustration is symbolic of what is really “out there” when no mind is tuned into objective Creation; it’s what is really all around us when we close our eyes, for example, thereby ceasing to bestow such qualities as form and color upon these patterns.
The next illustration (Figure 11) outlines what begins to happen the moment a perceiver appears upon the scene. Suddenly, the smaller object-pattern becomes a source of light, and its surrounding field begins to behave as if it’s made of photon particles radiating outward in every direction from the object’s center.

   Some of these photons flow directly into the perceiver's eye. While others are absorbed by the pattern on the left, which now reveals itself to be some sort of perceivable object.    This pattern, too, now begins to behave as if it were made of particles instead of vibratory waves; its electrons absorb photons from the light source, become excited for a split second, and then eject new photons, in effect reflecting the light back into space. Many of these “reflected photons” enter the perceiver’s eye, which precisely records the pattern of arriving photons and relays it to the brain.
   Though it seems as if our eyesight actually “reaches out” across empty space and lights upon an object before us, this is not the case at all. We never really see any external object, for our eyes are sensitive only to the photons which such an object emits. Even if there were really a solid object before us, we would still be able to see only the photons reflected from its surface, not the object itself. Then, this photon pattern interacts with the retina of our eye, producing chemical changes in particular cells which in turn relay a pattern of electrical impulses to our brain. Once again, this electrical pattern does not even vaguely resemble the object we are supposedly “seeing.”
   At this point, according to Yoga, our mind now deciphers this pattern of electrical impulses and uses it to faithfully recreate, out of its own “mind-stuff,” an exact duplicate of the external energy pattern from which the photons have just arrived. Thus, we see in Figure 11 that in the perceiver’s mind there now appear internal patterns which are like mirror images of the ones outside: the mind assumes the shape of whatever it perceives in the outside world.

   Now the mind is ready to work its most amazing miracle. These newly created internal patterns interact with that part of the mind concerned with the sense of sight, and immediately there are evoked within us sensations of form, color and space. Our intellect then tells us that the objects before us are a chair and a burning light bulb, and our ego adds that we, the perceiver, are distinctly separate from both. Then, as Figure 12 illustrates, our mind combines all these newly bestowed qualities into a multi-dimensional mental hologram, which we then project into the outer world,  before us in that same form. This entire process, from the moment we open our eyes to the time we perceive a chair and burning bulb before us, takes no more than a few billionths of a second!
   Of course, though it is perfectly true that the physical world as we know it exists only in our mind, this does not imply that there is nothing objective at all “out there.” The universe around us is indeed filled with “objects,” but these do not possess any of the definitive qualities which we normally apply to “objectness.” For example, in the exact spot where we perceive a chair to be, something is really there—a unique pattern of energy which will remain intact as long as the object we know as a “chair” exists. However, the only time that particular pattern will ever take on the characteristics of “chairness” will be when it is being perceived by someone, at which time the properties of a chair as we know it will be projected into that pattern by the perceiver’s mind.
   If we were to now move forward until the pattern of our body came into contact with that of the chair, that same vibrational pattern would then begin to interact with the part of our mind connected with the sense of touch, causing within us sensations such as density, texture and temperature. Thus, each energy pattern we perceive manifests itself in a particular way to one or more of our senses; some, though imperceptible to our sense of sight, interact instead with our hearing, smell, taste or touch.

   One way for us to imagine the real world of vibrational patterns in space is to compare them to the air around us, which is presently filled with invisible television signals. In the very place where we are now reading this web page, the space around us contains countless vibrating TV waves. If we were to record these waves on an oscilloscope, all we would see would be squiggly lines— patterns of vibration; but if we were to bring in a TV receiver and tune it to those signals, we would suddenly perceive a whole world of objects and events projected onto the TV screen.
   Those vibrating TV waves in the air around us are actually formless versions of all the things we could perceive if a TV set were present. In the absence of a receiver, however, all those sporting events, quiz shows, newscasts, cowboys, landscapes, music, words, etc., are still in the air around us, but only in the form of vibrating waves; they cannot materialize until a receiver is present to tune them in, process and interpret them, then project them through its picture tube and loudspeaker in the form of images and sounds.
   This is very much like the way Creation works. The objective world is there, all right, but only in the form of vibrational patterns. It has no substance until some perceiver comes along and tunes it in, interprets it, and then projects its appearance of substance into the perceiver’s own mind. Just as the TV screen or loudspeaker can never see the actual vibrations that the receiver’s tuner has picked up from “out there,” so too the mind can never perceive the actual sea of Consciousness which it is constantly transmuting into substantial form.
   When a being becomes Self-realized, however, and transcends the limited mind, he then becomes able to perceive not only the mental world of form and substance, but also the real world of vibrating Consciousness as well. According to Shaivism, such a being experiences all the objects and events of the material world as existing in a subtle sea of shimmering blue Consciousness, a perception which is said to be indescribably beautiful and a source of endless delight.
So, a Creation without a perceiver is like television signals without a TV set, and this is why Shaivism states that such a Creation could not be considered as having true existence.             

   Our TV analogy works tine in describing how the world of form, color and sound exists only in the mind, but what about the world of density and texture? Perhaps the strongest evidence supporting the existence of a material world “out there” comes from our own physical body, which constantly comes into direct contact with things which quite obviously have substance. After all, how can that stone wall not be there when our body crashes into it so convincingly? What we forget with such reasoning is that our physical body is made of matter, too, so it only appears to have substance. Our body is just a particular field of vibrating Consciousness which interacts with all the other fields around it, some of which can be passed right through without resistance, while others interact with ours in such a way that we cannot intermingle with them, so they feel solid to us. A cloud, for example, may look the same to us as a huge mound of cotton, but their vibrational patterns are such that we can pass right through one, while the other resists us and therefore we say it has more density.
   It’s also important to note here that by no means are our physical senses capable of perceiving all the vibrations around us. The physical body responds to an extremely limited range of vibrations, which means that there are actually not just one but many different worlds around us all the time, but their vibrations are so subtle we can pass right through them without having any awareness or perception of them whatsoever. The fact that some people can “see things” which others cannot is due to their having activated one or more subtle psychic senses which lie dormant in most people and which are made operational through the practice of Yoga.
   Meanwhile, the next time we crash into a stone wall, we may console our self with this true understanding: “In a place which appears to be ‘out there,’ what appears to be my physical body has appeared to crash into what appears to be a stone wall, causing what appears to be ‘me’ a lot of what appears to be pain!” In reality, of course, all that has happened is that there has been an interaction between two particular fields of vibrating Consciousness; everything else has occurred in our own mind.
   Most of us are familiar with the classic philosophical riddle which asks, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it fall, does it make a noise?’’ From our present level of understanding, not only would there be no noise, but with no perceiver present to witness the event, no tree would fall at all, because that tree can exist as a tree only in the mind of some perceiver. If we were there at the time, of course, we would witness the event of a tree falling, but in our absence the only event taking place would be a sequence of modulations in a particular field of vibrating Consciousness. Without an experiencing subject present, in fact, the entire forest would not exist in material form, nor would the earth or the sky, the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy or the entire universe. This is why Shaivism says, “Because you exist, everything exists; without you, nothing is.”
   Modern physicists now agree that the perceiver is a fundamental element of Creation. To quote the famous scientist, Dr. James Jeans: “The complete closed world consists of three parts substratum, phenomenal world and observer.’ Renowned physicist Arthur Eddington then adds, “Recognizing that the physical world is entirely abstract and without ‘actuality’ apart from its Linkage to consciousness, we restore consciousness to a fundamental position instead of representing it as an inessential complication occasionally found in the midst of inorganic nature at a late stage of evolutionary history.”
   Even when we attain an intellectual understanding that the objective world as we know it is not really “out there,” we will still experience great difficulty in maintaining this understanding in our daily life, because once we become used to looking at things in a certain way it’s very hard to change that point of view. For example, in a recent scientific experiment subjects were fitted with eyeglasses designed to make everything appear upside down. Within just a few days of wearing these topsy-turvy glasses, however, everyone in the experiment had learned to correct the obvious misinformation their eyes were receiving, and they began to perceive everything right side up again in their minds; then, when the glasses were removed, they suddenly saw the world as upside down again until their minds made the desired adjustment once more!
   So the mind greatly resists being made to view the world in a different way from the one to which it has become accustomed.

   Even though we all know very well that the mind is quite capable of housing a complete multi-dimensional world including space, time, form, color, sound, taste, fragrance, density and texture— for it does this very convincingly each night in our dreams—still we find it extremely difficult to foster in our self a constant awareness that our waking state is also just another state of mind, and that our waking world is not “out there” at all. In fact, how can there even be such a place as “out there” if, in reality, all there is in the entire Creation is just one single thing?
   Most of us will readily accept the fact that our brain and senses are merely instruments which we employ in order to perceive the universe; they belong to us, but they are not the real us. Though our senses dutifully record and relay to our brain all the information they receive throughout the day, unless our mental awareness is also focused upon the information received by the brain, we will not experience its existence. For example, when we are lost in thought, our eyes may be wide open and yet we do not really see anything before us. Thus, unless the mind is actively connected to our senses, we do not perceive an external world. No object assumes any of its familiar qualities for us until its mental counterpart is created in our mind and is interpreted by those functions of mind which operate through the physical senses.
   Thus, we now know that the function of mind in Creation is to make manifest the material world as we know it. This notion is not limited strictly to the field of spiritual science, either. A few progressive, contemporary physicists have recently postulated a holistic model of the cosmos which they call “the theory of the holonomic order of the mind/brain/universe.” According to this theory, the mind, the brain, and the external universe are all parts of a single creative entity, the entirety of which is contained in any of its parts. Reality, speculate the holonomic physicists, is the perceived result of interactions among these three types of being, meaning that objective Creation is as much within the mind/brain as it is within the external universe.
   To explain the function of the mind, however, still does not explain its origin. Is the mind a bona fled perceiver, or is it nothing more than another instrument of perception, like the brain and senses? Also, we still have not discovered the function and origin of the inner Self in God’s Creation. What is the relationship between the Self and the mind? For these answers we will have to look to Shaivism—until, of course, we can find out for our self, firsthand, through meditation.

Creation = Self + Mind / Matter
In describing earlier the process of Creation according to Kashmir Shaivism, it was explained metaphorically that Shakti issues from Shiva in the form of infinite vibration and, as she slows down, all the objective realms come into being. But we also know that Shiva and Shakti represent two eternally united aspects of a single cosmic principle, so it’s clear that one could never really issue from the other. What actually happens, then, is that they only appear to become separated—a concept with which we should all feel quite comfortable by now. Truly speaking, Creation is not the work of just Shakti alone; Shiva also becomes an integral part of the manifest cosmos.
During the process of Creation, both aspects of the supreme principle voluntarily take on limitations, with Shiva appearing to become the subjective side and Shakti appearing to become the objective side. Paramashiva’s pure consciousness becomes, in effect, divided into three basic types of manifestation: (I) Self— the Knower, (2) mind—the instrument of Knowing, and (3) matter
—the Known. While the Self constitutes the subjective side of the universe, mind and matter together constitute the objective side, for Yoga considers “material” everything which is not pure transcendent consciousness.
Shakti takes on limitations by appearing to separate from Shiva and assume the form which Shaivism calls prakriti or nature, including our mind and all the objects and events of manifest Creation. At the same time, Shiva also takes on limitations by seeming to take the form of countless individual souls, called purushas, and these become the experiencing subjects of Creation. Actually, of

course, both subjective and objective Creation are simply the opposite poles of a single, continuous spectrum of vibrating Consciousness, the highest, most subtle frequencies manifesting as the Self, and the lower, more gross frequencies manifesting as mind and matter. The vital difference between these two poles is that subjective Consciousness possesses powers of awareness and perception, while objective Consciousness does not.
The mind, being a manifestation of objective Consciousness, is therefore itself an inert object. Without the subjective awareness of a purusha flowing through it, the mind is like an unplugged television set, completely unable to receive, process, or convey information. On the other hand, a purusha without a mind through which to perceive is like an observer without eyes. Mind is the essential instrument through which subjective Consciousness perceives objective Creation.
Since Shiva is equally present throughout the universe, there must be a purusha in every manifest object, even every subatomic particle; hence, everything in Creation possesses some level of awareness, but unless there is also a mind therein, there can be no experience of the objective world as we perceive it. In this respect, then, it can be said that although everything in existence is made of Consciousness, only the subjective element is “conscious.” We speak of our self in the very same way, in fact, for when we are wide awake and perceptive of the objective world we describe our self as “conscious,” while when we’re in deep sleep—insentient and unaware of anything—we’re “unconscious.” These two states differ only in the degree to which our mind is operational. When it is fully functioning, we’re conscious, and when it’s “unplugged,” we lose conscious awareness. In the same way, we can think of the subjective purusha as Consciousness which is relatively awake, and the objective prakriti as Consciousness which is relatively asleep.
Just as the objects of Creation are infinite in number, so are the souls, each of which is like an individual cell in Shiva’s cosmic body. Just as every one of countless drops of water is identical in essence to the ocean, each purusha is essentially identical to Shiva. When a purusha loses the awareness that it is Shiva, however, and instead begins to identify itself with the instruments through which it perceives—e.g. the mind, ego and body it becomes a ‘hound soul”; and when it becomes re-established in its identity as Shiva, it becomes a liberated being. What we call the “Self” is simply that aspect of the purusha which is pure Shiva, without any false identification clouding its essential nature; thus, a soul is said to be “Self-realized” when it becomes free of false identification and regains its lost state of Shivahood.
   Summing up the viewpoint of Shaivism then, we can say that for Creation to exist in a substantial form, it must consist of both a subjective and an objective aspect. The universe as we know it comes into existence only when there is an interaction between the perceiving Self and perceivable matter, and this interaction is mediated through the instrument of perception called mind.
   Entities with more sophisticated minds are called “higher life forms” because they have more perceptive powers than “lower life forms,” and the most gifted of all perceivers are human beings; thus, we represent the capstone of Creation’s subjective structure. To illustrate this in a clear and simple manner, Yoga employs a most effective instructional tool—the allegory.
   When Yoga masters wish to share with us some subtle esoteric knowledge, they often choose to tell us a symbolic story which conveys the essence of their teaching in simple images. Such tales are called allegories—extended metaphors in which the interactions of cosmic principles are depicted in the form of humanlike relationships. In this way, very profound and complex concepts are reduced to fairy-tale-type narratives in which, though the characters and events may be contrived, the essential Truth is never sacrificed or sullied.
   One such allegory is entitled “The Secret Key,” which describes the subjective role of humankind in the great cosmic drama of Creation. Some of this narrative we may recognize as a further simplification of symbology covered in previous sections; the rest will be discussed in more detail afterward. Though this tale is ancient, it is also timeless, which means that it can always be related in very up-to-date language.

The Secret Key
   Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was absolutely nothing anywhere. Imagine a total void stretching out forever in every direction, an infinite emptiness made of pure, unmanifest Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss—going nowhere and doing nothing.
   This was Shiva.
   To you and me, the condition described above may sound a bit too vague to be much fun, but Shiva didn’t feel that way at all; to him, just “hanging out” was perfectly wonderful. That is, it was almost perfectly wonderful—all except for one tiny part of him which was slightly discontented.
   How could anything possibly disturb Shiva’s infinite repose? There could certainly be no restlessness in that part of him which was pure existence for that was completely content just being—it didn’t have to be anything in particular. As for the aspect of eternal bliss, what possible complaint could it ever have? That leaves us with the part made of supreme consciousness, and therein lay the rub. To be sure, it was great fun to understand and be aware of everything everywhere, but at this point “everything” was only a potential, not a manifest reality. What’s more, it’s the nature of consciousness to seek some sort of self-expression. So it was this small part of Shiva’s infinite consciousness which began to become a little edgy in the Void.
   Shiva never does anything; therefore becoming restless is completely contrary to his nature. This caused the tiny part that was a malcontent to gently emanate from him and become his cosmic complement, the goddess Shakti. Now Shiva had a mate, and this was perfectly fine with him; everything was O.K. with Shiva—he was the ultimate Mr. Nice Guy. Shakti, however, was the ultimate agitator; she was not a bit happy with what she saw all around her, which was, in fact, nothing at all. Being Shiva’s consort, she naturally shared his sterling qualities of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss, but in addition to these she boasted another characteristic uniquely her own: Boredom. If you can imagine boredom on a cosmic scale, you will undoubtedly sympathize with Shakti’s predicament. Not satisfied with just hanging around all day like her languid mate, Shakti did what any other activist would do when feeling oppressed by the status quo: she began to agitate for change. (And agitation is vibration, remember, and vibration is kinetic force—energy in action.)
   Being very bright and talented, Shakti decided to express herself by doing something creative with her consciousness. As we all know, being a Creator is very hard work; first you have to engineer your Creation, then supervise and maintain it, and finally when you’re through with it you have to take it all apart and clean up the mess. This was not Shakti’s idea of fun; she was only interested in the recreational aspect of self-expression and not in any administrative responsibilities. It would be far more playful and exciting, she decided, to become the Creation itself rather than its Creator. So the first way she expressed herself was by creating a supreme “Boss,” whom she called Ishwara, and instructed him thusly: “Ishwara, see that something pretty is created out of me so I can play in it for a few billion years.”
   Ishwara was the perfect Lord of Creation, a superb administrator as well as a creative genius. His initial act was the creation of a talented Board of Directors to serve under him. Brahma was Vice President in Charge of Creation, Vishnu was V.P. in Charge of Maintenance, and Rudra was V. P. in Charge of Demolition. At their first board meeting Ishwara gave them their assignments:
   “Brahma, I want you to create a great universe out of Shakti’s body, a universe so beautiful and intricate it will keep her happily occupied for billions of years. Vishnu, you are responsible for keeping this Creation running smoothly until she’s finished with her play. Rudra, when the game is over, you put everything back where it came from and clean up the mess. Any questions?” There were none; no questions were necessary. All the gods had played this game countless times before; the real challenge lay in making each universe even more breathtaking and sophisticated than the preceding ones.
   Brahma then stood before the goddess Shakti, who by this lime was so aquiver with excitement and anticipation that she was virtually invisible, and he wrapped a veil around her many times, each layer causing a grosser universal realm to spring into manifest existence. This rendered Shakti content at last, for now she had a vast cosmic playground in which she could express herself through countless forms. Shiva, too, was supremely happy, because Shiva was always supremely happy.
   Now, however, it was lshwara who was dissatisfied. Being the high and mighty, ephemeral intelligence that he was, he had no way of checking on the work of his subordinates. He had no eyes with which to see the universe, no nose with which to smell it, no ears with which to hear it, no mouth with which to taste it and no hands with which to touch it. Moreover, he had all the responsibilities of being the great Lord of the Universe, with neither the excitement of manipulating his domain (as his board members did), nor the fun of being a part of it (as Shakti was). “Why should everyone else have all the fun and excitement?” he fumed.
   Determined to rectify the situation as soon as possible, he called Brahma into his office and said, “I want you to make me a very special creature. In addition to the usual physical senses, it should have the ability to understand and appreciate the wonders of Creation. It must also have the power of discrimination—an ability to recognize the difference between reality and illusion—and it must be able to manipulate its environment. Inside this creature there should be a place in which a fragment of my own pure being can be installed, so I can work with and enjoy the universe through its body and mind. Is all that clear?”
   Brahma thought a moment. “Sounds as if you’re asking me to make a human being,” he finally said.
   “Good thinking,” agreed Ishwara. “Give it top priority.”
   Soon the very first human body was ready, and Brahma asked the Lord for a fragment of his own being (which he called a purusha, or “soul”), and placed it inside the human’s heart. At once Ishwara became plugged into his cosmos, and the initial results seemed very promising. Now he could perceive and enjoy all the wonders in Creation; he could also modify his environment in different ways, and keep tabs of the work of his board members. The human being seemed to be having a really fine time, too, sampling all the sensual pleasures while secure in the knowledge of actually being the Lord himself experiencing his domain through a very sophisticated instrument called the human body.

   Everything ran smoothly for a day or two, until suddenly the human got a taste of pain and suffering, the dark side of Brahma’s Creation. To Ishwara, of course, everything experienced through the human being was pure bliss; pain and suffering  were every bit as wonderful as pleasure and happiness; he loved every detail of Creation quite equally. But the human did not like pain and suffering at all because, quite frankly, they hurt. At the first experience of slight unpleasantness the human cried, “Phooey on this nonsense! I’ll take uninterrupted bliss any time!” and it immediately merged its soul back into Ishwara, leaving its body behind to die.
   Ishwara was suddenly cut off from the universe again, so he called Brahma and complained. Brahma admitted that his first model of a human had developed a few bugs, which he promised to iron out when the bodies went into full production. Suspecting that the first experiment had failed because the human had lacked adequate companionship, Brahma now created two human beings, a male and a female, with a soul installed in each of them. This gave Ishwara two instruments through which to function, hence doubling his enjoyment of the universe and delighting him immensely. His enthusiasm was again short-lived, however, for as soon as the human couple encountered pain, they merged back with Ishwara and left their bodies behind to die.
   “Back to the drawing board,” sighed Brahma, and this time he decided to go all out and create a hundred human beings, each with a fragment of Ishwara inside. Again Ishwara enjoyed a few days of ecstatic enjoyment, but then the souls were flocking back to him by the score, and all of them were telling exactly the same story: “Experiencing Creation through human bodies is great fun from up here, but from down there it’s the pits!”
   In desperation Ishwara called a meeting of his Board of Directors and asked for their advice. Brahma said, “Listen, Boss, those human beings are the finest creatures ever created. If you ask me, we’ve got a maintenance problem, not a creative one, and maintenance is not my department.”
   Ishwara turned to his maintenance V.P. “Any ideas?”
   Vishnu nodded “As I see it, so long as these humans know that they’re each an extension of you, they’ll keep running back to you as soon as the going gets a little rough for them down there. How about if we modify them a little, just so they’ll forget their connection to you’? That way they won’t know how to get away from pain and suffering, so the souls will all stay in their bodies.”
   “Good idea,” agreed Ishwara. “Let’s give it a try.”
   So Vishnu saw to it that the few remaining humans suddenly forgot that they were really extensions of the Lord, and they immediately stopped merging back with him in the face of pain and suffering. Their numbers began to multiply and soon there were thousands, then millions of them. Now Ishwara had millions of eyes, ears, noses, mouths and hands, and his enjoyment of Creation was millions of times greater than ever before. But gradually the experiment began to turn sour once again.
   This time, as humans experienced more pain and suffering than they thought they could bear, they knew of nowhere they could go for relief. Thinking themselves to be all alone in the vast unfathomable universe, with no connection to divinity, they began to feel desperate, frustrated and terribly lost. Crime, violence and immorality reached epic proportions. Everywhere deluded, deranged people were abusing, torturing, even killing themselves and one another; it soon became apparent that if something wasn’t done humanity would completely destroy itself again.
   Exasperated, Ishwara called another board meeting and told its members that their jobs were on the line. “What’s this world coming to anyway?” he exclaimed. “It’s getting to the place where a poor god can’t even enjoy a little universe once in a while without a lot of hassles!”
   This time, Rudra the Destroyer spoke up. “Look. Chief, what say we just dismantle the entire works and call it quits?”
Ishwara peered at him. “And just what do we tell Shakti?”
Rudra shrugged, “Tell her we decided to end the game a bit early this time.’’
“Four billion years early?” fumed Ishwara. “Are you nuts? Why, she’d run my tail so far into the boondocks the Void would seem overpopulated in comparison!”
Vishnu, who had been in deep meditation, was aroused by Ishwara’s shouting. “What we all seem to be forgetting here,” he said,  ‘‘is a little thing called Compassion. I mean, those poor people are really suffering down there. We need to find a happy medium between their being able to merge with you any time they get a little toothache, and their not being able to get back to you at all no matter how tough it gets for them.”
   “Good point,” Ishwara nodded. “Any thoughts about how we strike this happy medium?”
   “Well,” Vishnu continued, “how about the old Secret Key routine?’’
“I get your drift,” Ishwara said. “We hide the knowledge of humankind’s true nature—make it difficult but not impossible to find.”
   “Right. Only those people who want more than anything else to be free of pain and suffering will be able to discover the Secret Key that will help them find their way back to you.”
   “Okay,” Ishwara agreed, “the Secret Key routine it is. Now we need to decide where to hide this key so that the humans will have a hard time finding It.”
“How about at the bottom of the ocean?” Brahma suggested. “They’ll never think of looking there.”
Ishwara thought a bit. “No, I see them inventing submarines and diving bells. As soon as one of them finds it, everyone will start using It.’’
   “How about the moon?” Rudra suggested.
“I see space ships,” Ishwara said. “They’d all have the key again in no time.”
“I know!” said Vishnu triumphantly. “Let’s hide the key right inside the human body! That’s the last place anyone would ever think of looking for it!”
   “Brilliant!” agreed Ishwara. “Even when someone discovers it within his or her own body, other people will refuse to believe that the exact same key is inside them as well!”
And so, under Ishwara’s orders, Vishnu caused a great flood to cover the earth, wiping out all but two members of the wicked, lost race of humans, and inside these remaining two he hid the Secret Key. The new race of humans survived and multiplied; Ishwara soon boasted billions of eyes, billions of ears, billions of  noses, mouths and hands. The humans constantly strove to maximize pleasure and minimize pain: but no matter how frantically they all searched for the Secret Key which would end all their suffering forever, only a few ever thought to look within.
   This allegory captures the essence of everything we’ve covered so far, and much more. Despite all the various characters, settings and events it portrays, the tale really contains only one character, one setting, one event: Shiva. All gods and goddesses are merely different aspects of Shiva—cosmic principles isolated and assigned unique names for ease of comprehension. Truly speaking, in fact, all names (including our own) are only aliases of Shiva; all forms and events are really Shiva in disguise. Here is the story of the Secret Key in a nutshell: Shiva (in the form of a human being), forgetting that he is Shiva (the Supreme Lord), searches inside Shiva (the universe) trying to find Shiva (the Self), all for the entertainment of Shiva (in the form of Shakti).
   As all of us have undoubtedly guessed by now, our Secret Key is none other than the inner Self—every human being’s direct link to the universal mind. The use of a key to symbolize the hidden Self inside us is a wonderfully appropriate analogy. A locked door can be opened by just one special key; no other key will work the latch, and yet there could be countless duplicates of this unique key— enough identical copies for every person on earth to carry one in his or her pocket. In the same way, the inner Self is our only key to the source of all Creation, and this key is identical in every human being: the exact same Self is shared by all of us.
   On the surface, each one of us is independent and unique, but underneath we are all united—joined to one another by a common core of being—as illustrated in Figure 13

The figure shows the cross-section of a group of islands jutting up from the ocean floor. Each island is like an individual human being. The air above the surface of the sea represents the realm of conscious awareness—our normal waking state—what we call the outside world. In this realm everyone’s independent ego functions and we appear as separate entities to one another. The underwater area represents the unconscious realm, the inner world of which  few of us are ever aware. The earth of the sea floor is Shiva, the source of all Creation. What we call an island is really just a projection of the ocean floor, and similarly, what we call a human being is really just a projection of Shiva. The deepest part of our being, which we call the Self, is simply the point at which Shiva begins to take the form of a human being. As the illustration clearly indicates, we could explore the outer world till doomsday and never discover the underlying unity existent in all of Creation. Only through meditation, the exploration of the inner depths, can we ever hope to see things as they really are.

How the Key Got Lost
   What fateful quirk did the gods install in us to make us “misplace” the most essential aspect of our being? If we have always carried inside us this pure and perfect Self, our own private conduit to the very source of infinite power, love and wisdom, how did we ever let our self lose touch with it? What made us trade a priceless treasure for an almost worthless copy which causes us endless pain, suffering and frustration?
   The quirk, Yoga tells us, is simply in the way our organism functions in its environment. Remember back in Part Two when we described how the constant fidgeting of the body and mind tends to lure our awareness away from the deeper aspect of our being?

Because of this quirk, our natural inclination is toward limiting our sell awareness to our most superficial aspects—our body and mind. Unless we are raised in a culture which provides us with guidance and encouragement in the development of inner awareness, our talent for perceiving and operating on the more subtle levels of our being tends to atrophy and become dormant.
   The primary focus of our modem educational system is on conceptualization rather than feeling. Our reasoning power is cultivated, while our power of intuition is ignored. Both at home and at school, children are programmed to accept and respond to models of Truth contrived by their elders rather than being encouraged to sharpen their own instinctive abilities to distinguish between right and wrong, reality and illusion. In Western culture, the three R’s are considered essential for a happy, productive and fulfilling life, while such things as self-exploration, self-expression and inner unfoldment are not. So much emphasis is placed upon mental gymnastics and learning how to manipulate our external environment, and so little emphasis is placed upon the realization of our psychic potential, it is little wonder that modern civilization has become, at the same time, both a material wonderland and a spiritual wasteland.
   Once we become limited to experiencing everything through just our body and mind, we are doomed to perceive the rest of Creation as being decidedly separate from us; life becomes the defensive act of seeking personal survival at any cost in an alien environment whose obvious purpose is to destroy us at the first opportunity. An awareness imprisoned solely in the body and mind is doomed to operate entirely through the physical senses, which are designed to project awareness outward, not inward. Thus these senses perpetually send us the same message: I am “here” and everything else is “out there,” separate from me.      Yogic philosophy however, tells us that all our pain and suffering is a direct result of our failure to recognize and experience our intimate kinship with nature and our fellow human beings.

   Up to this point we have dealt with the nature of humankind in general terms, and our goal is to eventually zero in on the individual human body itself, pinpointing the exact mechanisms which are activated inside us through the practice of meditation, and explaining precisely how this process of Yoga leads to Self - realization.
   Before we can do that, however, we must first examine a few principles which may be vague or unknown to some of us at this time. First there’s the yogic concept of evolution, which is decidedly different from most current notions about it; then we must briefly review the Eastern doctrines of reincarnation and karma, both of which hold prominent places in yogic philosophy.