The Consciousness is All

Sage Vasishtha

THE LORD continued:

It is this infinite consciousness that makes the seed sprout with the help of earth, water, time, etc., and become food. It makes flowers blossom and makes the nose smell their fragrance. In the same way, it is able to create and sustain the substances int he world and their corresponding sense-organs, with the help of suitable means which are also brought into being by the same consciousness. The energy of this consciousness is able to create the entire universe and then, entertaining the notion 'This is not', reduces everything to a state of void. 

This apparent creation is but a reflection of consciousness within itself, which has apparently acquired a body in course of time. The trinity is the manifestation of - and also is - that cosmic power or energy that determines 'So it shall be, and it shall not be otherwise.' Yet, consciousness does not create anything; it is like a lamp that illumines a room in which actions take place. 

VASISHTHA asked:

Lord, what are energies of this Shiva (consciousness) and what are their powers and their activities?

THE LORD replied:

The supreme being is formless and yet the following five are its aspects - will, space, time, order (or destiny) and the cosmic unmanifest nature. It has countless powers or energies or potencies. Chief among them are knowledge, dynamics, action and non-action. 

All these are but pure consciousness; because they are called the potencies of consciousness, they are apparently regarded as distinct from consciousness, though in fact they are not. 

This entire creation is like a stage on which all these potencies of consciousness dance to the tune of time. The foremost among these is known as 'order' (the natural order of things and sequences). It is also known as action, desire or will-to-do, time, etc. It is this potency that ordains that each thing should have a certain characteristic - from the blade of grass to the creator Brahma. This natural order is free from excitement but not purified of its limitation: that (the natural order) is what dances a dance - drama known as world-appearance. It portrays various moods (compassion, anger, etc.), it produces and removes various seasons and epochs, it is accompanied by celestial music and the roaring of the oceans, its stage is illumined by the sun and the moon and the stars, its actors and actresses are the living beings in all the worlds - such is the dance of the natural order. The Lord who is the infinite consciousness is the silent but alert witness of this cosmic dance. He is non-different from the dancer (the cosmic natural order) and the dance (the happenings).