Yogi Teachings

The Yogi Teachings contain much regarding the "Days and Nights of Brahm;" the "In-breathing and Out-breathing of the Creative Principle;" the periods of "_Manvantara_," and the periods of "_Pralaya_."

This thought runs through all the Oriental thought, although in different forms, and with various interpretations. The thought refers to the occult truth that there is in Cosmic Nature alternate periods of Activity and Inactivity--Days and Nights--In-breathings and Out-breathings--Wakefulness and Sleep. This fundamental law manifests in all Nature, from Universes to Atoms. Let us see it now in its application to Universes.

At this point we would call the attention of the student that in many of the presentations of the Hindu Teachings the writers speak as if the Absolute, _Itself_, were subject to this law of Rhythm, and had Its Periods of Rest and Work, like Its manifestations. This is incorrect.

The highest teachings do not so hold, although at first glance it would so appear. The teaching really is that while the Creative Principle manifests this rhythm, still even this principle, great though it be, is a manifestation of the Absolute, and not the Absolute itself. The highest Hindu teachings are firm and unmistakable about this point.

And, another point, in which there is much mistaken teaching. In the periods of Creative Inactivity in a Universe it must not be supposed that there is no Activity anywhere. On the contrary, there is never a cessation of Activity on the part of the Absolute. While it is Creative Night in one Universe, or System of Universes, there is intense activity of Mid-Day in others. When we say "The Universe" we mean the Universe of Solar Systems--millions of such systems--that compose the particular universe of which we have any knowledge.

The highest teachings tell us that this Universe is but one of a System of Universes, millions in number--and that this System is but one, in a higher System, and so on and on, to infinity. As one Hindu Sage hath said: "Well do we know that the Absolute is constantly creating Universes in Its Infinite Mind--and constantly destroying them--and, though millions upon millions of aeons intervene between creation and destruction, yet doth it seem less than the twinkle of an eye to The Absolute One."

And so the "Day and Night of Brahm" means only the statement of the alternating periods of Activity and Inactivity in some one particular Universe, amidst the Infinite Universality. You will find a mention of these periods of Activity and Inactivity in the "_Bhagavad Gita_," the great Hindu epic.

The following quotations, and page references, relate to the edition published by the Yogi Publication Society, which was compiled and adapted by the writer of these lessons. In that edition of the "_Bhagavad Gita_," on page 77, you will find these words attributed to _Krishna_, the Absolute One in human incarnation:

"The worlds and universes--yea, even the world of Brahm, a single day of which is like unto a thousand _Yugas_ (four billion years of the earth), and his night as much--these worlds must come and go... The Days of Brahm are succeeded by the Nights of Brahm. In these Brahmic Days all things emerge from invisibility, and become visible. And, on the coming of the Brahmic Night, all visible things again melt into invisibility. The Universe having once existed, melteth away; and lo! is again re-created."

And, in the same edition, on page 80, we find these words, attributed to the same speaker:

"At the end of a _Kalpa_--a Day of Brahm--a period of Creative Activity--I withdraw into my nature, all things and beings. And, at the beginning of another _Kalpa_, I emanate all things and beings, and re-perform my creative act."

We may say here, in passing, that Modern Science now holds to the theory of periods of Rhythmic Change; of Rise and Fall; of Evolution and Dissolution.

It holds that, beginning at some time in the past aeons of time, there was the beginning of an upward or evolutionary movement, which is now under way; and that, according to the law of Nature, there must come a time when the highest point will be reached, and then will come the beginning of the downward path, which in time must come to an end, being succeeded by a long period of inactivity, which will then be followed by the beginning of a new period of Creative Activity and Evolution--"a Day of Brahm."