24 Evolution of Life and Form. 



its manifold and veiled manifestations in the lower 

 worlds. Hence the lofty point at which he started, 

 no less than the arising of Ishvara enveloped in 

 Maya. 



What is Ishvara ? What is Maya ? There is the 

 first great problem. Let us reverently address our- 

 selves to it. The philosophers of India have answer- 

 ed these questions in different ways, each one contain- 

 ing part of the eternal truth. Ishvara is that 

 mighty centre of consciousness that exists un- 

 changed in the bosom of the One Existence. There 

 are innumerable such Centres of Consciousness, of 

 which you may remember your own Svami Subba 

 Rao wrote as existing in the bosom of the One 

 Existence. Ishvara in manifestation is like a lamp, 

 a light enclosed in a shade. Ishvara, enveloped in 

 Maya, brings forth a universe and is enclosed, as it 

 were, in the universe of which He is the Light. 

 Breaking the shade, the light shines forth in every 

 direction. Dissolving the universe, He still 

 remains. The centre remains, but the circumfer- 

 ence that circumscribed it is gone. So is that 

 mighty centre when the universe vanishes; He 

 alone remains, holding His centre unshaken in the 

 very act of merging in, expanding into, the Infinite, 

 the Absolute, the Super-Consciousness, the One. 

 Let us think of Him as an eternal centre of self- 



