English
You may call this energy the "Universal Life Energy" if you wish, but, to those who know it, it is a Will — an active, living Will, in full operation and power, press- ing forward toward the manifestation of objective life. The Creative Will seems to be filled with a strong Desire to manifest. It longs to express itself, and to give birth to forms of activity. Desire lies under and in all forms of its manifestations. The ever present 58 GNANI YOGA. Desire of the Creative Will causes lower forms to be succeeded by higher ferms — and is the moving cause of evolution — it is the Evolutionary Urge it- self, which ever cries to its manifestations, "Move on ; move upward." In the Hindu classic, the "Mahabarata," Brahma created the most beautiful female being ever known, and called her Tillotama. He presented her in turn to all the gods, in order to witness their wonder and admiration. Siva's desire to behold her was so great that it developed in him four faces, in succession, as she made the tour of the assembly; and Indra's long- ing was so intense that his body became all eyes. In this myth may be seen exemplified the effect of De- sire and Will in the forms of life, function and shape — all following Desire and Need, as in the case of the long neck of the giraffe which enables him to reach for the high branches of the trees in his native land; and in the long neck and high legs of the fisher birds, the crane, stork, ibis, etc. The Creative Will finds within itself a desire to cre- ate suns, and they are formed. It desired planets to revolve around the suns, and they were thrown off in obedience to the law. It desired plant life, and plant life appeared, working from higher to lower form. Then came animal life, from nomad to man. Some of the animal forms yielded to the desire to fly, and wings appeared gradually, and we called it bird- life. Some felt a desire to burrow in the ground, and lo ! came the moles, gophers, etc. It wanted a think- THE CREATIVE WILL. 59 ing creature, and Man with his wonderful brain was evolved. Evolution is more than a mere survival of the fittest; natural selection, etc. Although it uses these laws as tools and Instruments, still back of them is that insistent urge — that ever-impelling desire — that ever-active Creative Will. Lamark was nearer right than Darwin when he claimed that Desire was back of it all, and preceded function and form. Desire wanted form and function, and produced them by the activity of the Creative Will. This Creative Will acts like a living force — and so it is indeed — but it does not act as a reasoning, in- tellectual Something, in one sense — instead it mani- fests rather the "feeling," wanting, longing, instinc- tive phase of mind, akin to those "feelings" and re- sulting actions that we find within our natures. The Will acts on the Instinctive Plane. Evolution shows us Life constantly pressing for- ward toward higher and still higher forms of ex- pression. The urge is constantly upward and on- ward. It is true that some species sink out of sight., their work in the world having been done, but they are succeeded by other species more in harmony with their environment and the needs of their times. Some races of men decay, but others build on their founda- tions, and reach still greater heights. The Creative Will is something different from Rea- son or Intellect. But it underlies these. In the lower forms of life, in which mind is in but small evidence, the Will is in active operation, manifesting in Instinct 60 GNANI YOGA. and Automatic Life Action, so called. It does not depend upon brains for manifestation — for these lowly forms of life have no brains — but is in operation through every part of the body of the living thing. Evidences of the existence of the Creative Will act- ing independently of the brains of animal and plant life may be had in overwhelming quantity if we will but examine the life action in the lower forms of life. The testimony of the investigators along the lines of the Evolutionary school of thought, show us that the Life Principle was in active operation in lowly animal and plant life millions of years before brains capable of manifesting Thought were produced. Hae- kel informs us that during more than half of the enor- mous time that has elapsed since organic life first be- came evident, no animal sufficiently advanced to have a brain was in existence. Brains were evolved ac- cording to the law of desire or necessity, in accord- ance with the Great Plan, but they were not needed for carrying on the wonderful work of the creation and preservation of the living forms. And they are not today. The tiny infant, and the senseless idiot are not able to think intelligently, but still their life functions go on regularly and according to law, in spite of the absence of thinking brains. And the life work of the plants, and of the lowly forms of animal life, is carried on likewise. This wonderful thing that we call Instinct is but another name for the man- ifestation of the Creative Will which flows from the One Life, or the Absolute. THE CREATIVE WILL. 61 Even as far down the scale of life as the Monera, we may see the Creative Will in action. The Mo- nera are but tiny bits of slimy, jelly-like substances — mere specks of glue without organs of any kind, and yet they exercise the organic phenomena of life, such as nutrition, reproduction, sensation and movement, all of which are usually associated with an organized structure. These creatures are incapable of thought in themselves, and the phenomenon is due to the action of the Will through them. This Instinctive impulse and action is seen everywhere, manifesting upon higher and still higher lines, as higher forms of or- ganisms are built up. Scientists have used the term, "Appetency," defin- ing it as, "the instinctive tendency of living organisms to perform certain actions; the tendency of an un- organized body to seek that which satisfies the wants of its organism." Now what is this tendency? It cannot be an effort of reason, for the low form of life has nothing with which to reason. And it is im- possible to think of "purposive tendency" without as- suming the existence of mental power of some kind. And where can such a power be located if not in the form itself? When we consider that the Will is act- ing in and through all forms of Life, from highest to lowest — from Moneron to Man — we can at once rec- ognize the source of the power and activity. It is the Great Life Principle — the Creative Will, manifest- ing itself. We can perhaps better form an idea of the Creative 62 GNANI YOGA. Will, by reference to its outward and visible forms of activity. We cannot see the Will itself — the Pressure and the Urge — but we can see its action through living forms. Just as we cannot see a man behind a curtain, and yet may practically see him by watching the movements of his form as he presses up against the curtain, so may we see the Will by watch- ing it as it presses up against the living curtain of the forms of life. There was a play presented on the American stage a few years ago, in which one of the scenes pictured the place of departed spirits ac- cording to the Japanese belief. The audience could not see the actors representing the spirits, but they could see their movements as they pressed up close to a thin silky curtain stretched across the stage, and their motions as they moved to and fro behind the curtain were plainly recognized. The deception was perfect, and the effect was startling. One almost believed that he saw the forms of formless creatures. And this is what we may do in viewing the opera- tion of the Creative Will — we may take a look at the moving form of the Will behind the curtain of the forms of the manifestation of life. We may see it pressing and urging here, and bending there — building up here, and changing there — always acting, always moving, striving, doing, in response to that insatiable urge and craving, and longing of its inner desire. Let us take a few peeps at the Will moving behind the curtain ! Commencing with the cases of the forming of the THE CREATIVE WILL. 63 crystals, as spoken of in our last lesson, we may pass on to plant life. But before doing so, it may be well for us to take a parting look at the Will manifesting crystal forms. One of the latest scientific works makes mention of the experiments of a scientist who has been devoting much attention to the formation of crystals, and reports that he has noticed that certain crystals of organic compounds, instead of being built up sym- metrically, as is usual with crystals, were "enantion- morphic," that is, opposed to each other, in rights and lefts, like hands or gloves, or shoes, etc. These crystals are never found alone, but always form in pairs. Can you not see the Will behind the curtain here? Let us look for the Will in plant-life. Passing rapidly over the wonderful evidences in the cases of the fertilization of plants by insects, the plant shaping its blossom so as to admit the entrance of the par- ticular insect that acts as the carrier of its pollen, think for a moment how the distribution of the seed is provided for. Fruit trees and plants surround the seed with a sweet covering, that it may be eaten by insect and animal, and the seed distributed. Others have a hard covering to protect the seed or nut from the winter frosts, but which covering rots with the spring rains and allows the germ to sprout. Others surround the seed with a fleecy substance, so that the wind may carry it here and there and give it a chance to find a home where it is not so crowded. Another tree has a little pop-gun arrangement, by means of which it pops its seed to a distance of several feet.