Sri Paramhansa Yogananda
We can readily understand how man first conceived of a science of medicine. He suffered physically and therefore sought a method to heal himself. But how did man happen to try to find out about God? The question gives scope for profound reflection.
In the Vedas of India we find the earliest true concept of God. In her scriptures India has given the world immortal truths that have stood the test of time.
Every material inventor is actuated by material need “necessity is the mother of invention”. Similarly motivated by necessity, the early rishis of India became ardent spiritual seekers. They had found that without inner satisfaction, no amount of external good fortune can bring lasting happiness. How then can one make himself really happy? That is the problem the wise men of India undertook to solve.
Three Aspects of Nature: Worship of God in prehistoric times began through man's fear of the various forces of nature. When it rained excessively, floods killed many people. Awed, man thought of the rain and wind and other natural forces as gods.
Later on, human beings realised that nature operates in three ways: creative, preservative, and dissolutive. A wave rising out of the ocean exemplifies the creative state; staying for a moment on the sea-breast, it is in the preservative state; and sinking back into the deep, it passes through the dissolutive state.
Just as Jesus beheld the universal force of evil personified in Satan, so the great rishis beheld the universal forces of creation, preservation, and dissolution personified in definite forms. The sages of old named them Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. These primal powers were created as projections of the unmanifested Spirit to unfold His infinite drama of creation, while He, as God beyond creation, remains ever hidden behind their consciousness.
In times of cosmic dissolution, all creation and its vast activating forces dissolve back into Spirit. There they rest until called upon again by the Great Director to reenact their roles.
Excerpted from Man’s Eternal Quest, collected talks and essays on realising God in daily life, Vol1, by Sri Paramhansa Yogananda; Pg 3
