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It is ordinarily stated that Prakriti or Akasa is the Kshetram or the basis which corresponds to water in the example we have taken: Brahmam the germ, and Sakti the power or energy that comes into existence at their union or contact.*[1]
But this is not the view which the Upanishads take of the question. According to them, Brahmam †[2] is the Kshetram or basis, Akasa or Prakriti, the germ or seed, and Sakti the power evolved by their union or contact. And this is the real scientific, philosophical mode of stating the case.
Now, according to the adepts of ancient Aryavarta, seven principles are evolved out of these three primary entities. Algebra teaches us that the number of combinations of n things taken one at a time, two at a time, three at a time and so forth=2n—1.
Applying this formula to the present case, the number of entities evolved from different combinations of these three primary causes amounts to 23—1=8—1=7.
As a general rule, whenever seven entities are mentioned in the ancient occult science of India, in any connection whatsoever, you must suppose that those seven entities came into
- ↑ * Or, in other words, "Prakriti Swabhâvât or Akasa is—Space as the Tibetans have it; Space filled with whatsoever substance or no substance at all; i.e. with substance so imperceptible as to be only metaphysically conceivable. Brahmam, then, would be the germ thrown into the soil of that field, and Sakti that mysterious energy or force which develops it, and which is called by the Buddhist Arahats of Tibet—fo-hat. "That which we called form (Rupa) is not different from that which we call space (Sûnyata)..Space is not different from Form. Form is the same as Space; Space is the same as form. And so with the other skandhas, whether vedana, or sanjua or sanskara or vijnana, they are each the same as their opposite"...(Book of sin-king or the "Heart Sutra,". Chinese translation of the "Maha-Prajna-Paramita-Hridaya-Sutra." (Chapter on the "Avalokiteshwara," or the manifested Buddha.) So that, the Aryan and Tabetan or Arhat doctrines agree perfectly in substance, differing but in names given and the way of putting it. A distinction resulting from the fact that the Vedantin Brahmans believe in Parabrahman, a deific power impersonal though it may be, while the Buddhists entirely reject it.—Ed.
- ↑ † See Appendix, Note IV,—Ed.
