fested Universe. The idea that this wonderfully and beautifully designed Universe in
which we live has no purpose, is really an insult to human intelligence and yet it is
tacitly accepted by the large majority of modern scientists or the so-called intellectu-
als. If you ask the average scientist what he has to say about the purpose behind the
Universe he will most probably show his impatience and reply that he does not know
and does not care to know. He has very conveniently put aside the question of ‘why’ of
the Universe so that he may be able to devote himself to the ‘how’ without being pes-
tered by any uncomfortable doubts with regard to the utility of what he is doing. The
most convenient way of avoiding your pursuers is to shut your eyes and forget about
them.
- The stages of the Gunas are the particular, the universal, the differenti-
ated and the undifferentiated.
The nature of the three Gunas which was indicated in the last Sutra is further
elaborated in this Sutra. The Gunas, according to this Sutra, have four states or stages
of development corresponding to the four stages of Samprajnata Samadhi mentioned
in I-17. As consciousness and matter work together in the phenomenal world it is to be
expected that the expression of the deeper layers of consciousness should require a
subtler form of the three Gunas. The essential nature of the Gunas remains the same
but they undergo a kind of subtilization, matching, as it were, each of these deeper or
finer states of consciousness and enabling these to be expressed through matter. An
illustration from the field of Science will perhaps enable the student to understand this
relation between the states of consciousness and the stages of the Gunas. Sound can be
transmitted through a comparatively heavy medium like air but light, which is a much
finer vibration, requires for its transmission a subtler medium like the ether.