You are what you feel! Know how and why?
By Vivek Sharma
You and your nature are not two different entities. There is no difference between Prakriti and Purush. Both are One and not two. We can understand it through common terms.
Krishna says: प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव विद्यनादी उभावपि…the created and the creator both are infinite, continuous and ceaseless. Both have the same features. Because, both are the same. One is the centre and the other is the spherical extension around it, infinitely so!
कार्यकरणकृतृत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतिरुच्यते। Action and the agency of action, medium of action, are called Prakriti. पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते।। Perceiving, feeling the positives and negatives of the action is called the Purush, the centre. Sukh-dukh here are two opposite forces operating on the centre while the sphere is expanding. Expansion is taking place in Prakriti and all the pulls and pressures generated during the process are borne, felt and perceived by the centre, the Purush, whose extension is Prakriti. So, the experiencer and experience are the same. The doer and the done are the same. What you see and feel is nothing but you, yourself all the way!
The Purush cannot experience without being an experience himself. The centre cannot expand and realise it unless it becomes the expanding sphere itself. That is what Krishna means when ?He says: पुरुषः प्रकृतिस्थो हि भुंक्त्ते प्रकृतिजानगुणान् । The Purush can only experience the growing, changing Prakriti only by being into it. The experiencer can experience the experience only by being in it—not outside it! So, experiencer, since is in the experience, is experience itself. You are what you feel. Simple. Not different from your feel. If you are jealous, you are jealousy itself and by being that you experience jealousy and all the changes happening thereafter! If you feel God, you are God yourself and being that you experience God and all the changes happening thereafter!
Let’s Understand It
Let us call Prakriti a car with intelligence and the purush, is driver-cum-mechanic, from whose mind has come out the car with intelligence.
In fact, car with intelligence is nothing but the driver himself. Without the driver, the car is non-functional and non-existent. In fact, the two appear different but they are not. Prakriti is nothing but the layout of the car system and Purush is nothing but the layout in its seed form. The layout is the same right from the seed to the tree. The machine acts as per its system. In fact, the system makes the machine act. That system is called Prakriti. Anything pre-created with a particular purpose is called Prakriti, the inbuilt system. An action is possible only in the machine and by the machine. The driver is just there to give it a direction. The driver can only run the machine as per its system, not otherwise! You can only drive a car on the road, you can’t fly it without changing its system according to the purpose! That is why God only upgrades you through your inbuilt system. He doesn’t trash it unless it is required in a particular case. So respect your nature, your system. It alone is the possibility of your growth. A scooter can be upgraded into a better scooter, a car a better car, unless, of course, the upgraded scooter is fit to be upgraded into a car and a car, into an aero plane !
All changes are happening in Prakriti, the system inside and outside. All upgrades are possible in the system. What this upgrade means in the case of a human? It means ‘a change for the better’. But, what is this better? It is the system’s requirement that a fool has to become wise, poor has to become rich, have-nots have to become haves….So where do you think all these actions, activities are taking place? It is in Prakriti, in the system itself. The machine is acting in itself, not the driver. The driver is only using the machine as per its potential. In our case, we are the driver-cum-mechanics. We are experiencing the machine function. We are experiencing how it can be improved. The demand of improvement is happening in the driver-cum-mechanic. But, it is system generated. Therefore, as long as the driver is driving the car, he is car itself, the system itself, but when he comes out of it, he ceases to be the car and its system. So the driver-cum-mechanic is nothing but a part of the system in the car. But, he is akarta when he comes out of it or unbuilds the car or upgrades the system to keep it working in the changing Prakriti outside. The one who can build and unbuild is Purush and what he can build and unbuild is his own system—prakriti. That is why he is called the akarta when uncreating the created and the prakriti when he is part of it as a driver! As the car cannot be dissociated with the driver, the system cannot be but extension of the mechanic. The mechanic can re-do it, reset it, the extension as per his choice, at that time /he is akarta.
The word akarta has deeper dimensions. It doesn’t simply mean inactive, non-active. This is the foolish idea being carried forward for time immemorial.
The same way Prakrit
Action is only possible in the relative — where a moment in time and space is progressing in decided patterns. Like the seed is sown, it sprouts, becomes a tree. Action is happening from the seed moment to the tree moment and on, as per the decided pattern in the direction of progression — forward movement, called Prakriti. Who is performing action? The Prakriti itself, the system itself is working by its own force. Like the car runs along as per the system and moves. The movement is generated by the system in the car itself, not by the driver. The. Driver can only drive the car, not fly it. To fly it, the Driver needs to change the system—prakriti.