What do yogis, the ancient rishis of yoga, think of Gods? Is there a God? Is it many Gods, 330 million gods, or just one God? We will cover two famous suktas related to this at the end.
If a human worships a deity thinking the deity is one and s/he is another, he does not know. (Satapata Brahmana 14.4.2)
na taṃ vidātha ya imā jajānānyad yuṣmākam antaram babhūva | nīhāreṇa prāvṛtā jalpyā cāsutṛpa ukthaśāsaś caranti ||
“You know not him who has generated these (beings); (his life) is another, different from yours; wrapped in fog and foolish speech, (do they) roam around gluttonous and engaged in devotion (singing hymns, uktha).” (Rig Veda 10.82.7)
… absolute certainty is like God – Chaitin
[even Plato implied this idea of uncertainty or imperfections in his Theory of Forms]
Now, what do you think yogis’ take on the existence of God is? We took several angles to this question before (as the universal form during Kundalini awakening, as Brahman, as Prana, etc.) but here we will take a slightly different angle…. So, did they believe in God?
How about all those wishes that came true? Doesn’t that kind of prove that there’s a God or some force that’s making things happen? How about the finding that those who prayed and have a more positive attitude survived medical procedures better and lived longer? Why only some wishes come true and not all?
Yogis come at it from a slightly different angle – their proposition is that the true power is in your prayer, that single mindedness of your desire, intention! That ability of yours to focus and seek to manifest, in all earnestness, is the true strength of your prayer. The more you focus, the more your control is over that wish. Your actions at the center of everything you experience and manifest; nothing random or bestowed upon… D.I.Y all the way!
If you are thinking how this is, think of yourself as holding an edge of a large heavy net that you can barely lift. You start shaking it but only meekly. That little wave you created dies out right around you. But with focus and a little practice, you gain strength, focus on the rhythm, and start shaking that same net with purpose, concentration and in sync with what the net is throwing back at you, you affect the entire net to a point where the pattern you establish with your shaking becomes the pattern of the full net. That in a nutshell is the power of prayer. You manifest your intention, through connecting and imposing your wish.
Digging a little deeper, in yogic terms, all the power of your prayer is in the dharana and dhyana stages of Yoga., that is if you are using yogic techniques to fulfil your wishes. Dharana and Dhyana stages of Yoga (the 6th and 7th steps of yoga) allow us to improve our concentration manyfold over normal levels. That’s when we can manifest – we speak to God directly. Make things happen. Now, with this power, recall from previous blurbs that wishing for individual gains is a dangerous business. Only way to get out of our wish-seeking conundrum is to make them useful for as large a section of the universe as possible – sarve jana sukhino bhavantu (may all be happy)! That is the power of Prayer!
Okay, now how about God? We can call it whatever we want, but whatever is out there, an image of it is within you, including God – Tat Twam Asi (thou art that). Right or wrong, that’s what they subscribed to. No exceptions. In this projection concept of the yogic model, the infinity is at your heart center, as a tiny, point-sized lightening streak at the heart center, as extolled by another famous sūkta called nārāyaṇa sūkta.
Below the Adams apple, at a distance of a finger-span, and above the navel is the great abode of the universe, as if adorned with garlands of flames. (7)
Surrounded on all sides by nerve-currents, suspends the lotus-bud of the heart in an inverted position. It is in a subtle space (a narrow aperture) and therein is to be found the basis of all things. (8)
In the middle of those (narrow space of the heart) remains the undecaying, all-knowing, universe-faced, great Fire, which has flames on every side, which enjoys the nourishment presented before it, which remains assimilating that consumed, (9)
which is dazzling like the flash of the lightning that appears in the middle of a rain-bearing clouds, which is slender like the awn of a paddy grain, yellow (like gold) in color, in subtlety comparable to the minute aṇu, (this tongue of fire) grows splendid. (11)
In the middle of that flame, the supreme-self (brahman or paramātma) dwells. This supreme self is Brahma, Siva, Hari Indra, the imperishable infinite, the absolute… (12).
Essentially, this sūkta paints a picture of that semi-infinite universe, or external creation, as a reflection of the size of a minute dot at our heart center. This concept should be very intuitive to Jungian psychologists and mathematicians familiar with conformal mapping.
Okay, basically it’s difficult to capture the essence of the infinite, except to realize it at the heart center through the process of yoga and meditation. The next closest thing we can explore is the first conscious being that emerged from this infinite. This being is basically described as an agglomerate of all the specificity information – that residue from the previous cycle – capable of being aware, not a being in the sense of a human being. The story of what we call creation starts there – residual information aggregation. According to yogis…
From this infinite brahman emerges the first conscious being. This is where we will start, since that God (or that brahman) must have had a hand in it, because there was nothing else before! The first “conscious” being is the one who was capable of experiencing things, inside thoughts or outside events… (reflexive awareness). Recall that anything with specificity (as in identity) is associated with purusha – the universal subjective. According to vedas, all things are born from this entity. What is this entity, and how is it created? First, what is this entity called? It is the who!
KA – and uncertainty in everything
…ko asi katamo asiíti prajaápatirvai kah– kásyaasi ko naámaasiíti prajaápatirvai …
‘Who (ka) art thou? Which one art thou?’
–‘Whose art thou? who art thou by name?’-–Ka by name is Prajâpati
(Satapata Brahmana 4.5.6.4)
Somehow, rishis determined that the first being should be called “Ka” – the Who!! The Who, really! The reason? See Chaitin’s (a modern mathematician) quote from above. Similar to that, yogis theorized that there’s uncertainty in every answer we give and get, and by extension everything around us. This entire universe sprung forth from this entity with uncertainty built into it. This is like the generalized version of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle, where the uncertainty is generalized to the realm of awareness also. So, when we answer any question, we need to be careful.
Consider a simple example. Let’s say there are two apples, one Fiji and one Gala type, in front of us. If someone asked how many apples are in front of you? Don’t we normally say two? Is that true? Consider the uncertainty in this answer… What do the numbers mean? Numbers typically represent whole identical entities. Are they the same type, same color, weight…? There are so many assumptions made, and so many angles we can take to this answer. Here the uncertainty is very clear. Even if these apples are of same type (say Fiji, or Gala), we still have uncertainty in terms of their shape, size, weight, color uniformity, etc. At the end of the day, the answers are not absolute, but depend upon what we care about, and how deep we dig. There’s always uncertainty and ambiguity in information, but our judgement of sufficiency is what keeps us away from those deep-ends.
So it all started with Prajāpati, but who created this Prajāpati? He is born out the information residue from the previous cycle, which survived dissolution of that cycle as seven seers. So, the creation and evolution of conscious beings is NOT a linear process with a sharp start and stop, but it is a continuous cyclical process. See page Universe and I; this continuity condition obviates several knotted philosophical questions. Every cycle starts with a Prajapati.
There’s more than just Prajapati as conscious beings emerged in this universe – a line in the very famous Purusha Sukta– thri pādasyāmrutham divi. This basically means “all that was created in this world is but one part of that purusha, while the other three parts are the heaven immortal.” Since everything that is born has to disintegrate, eternal has to be a potential state only. It is the dense content of these simple phases for vedic suktas that require our contemplation, and not just a quick bedtime read.
How about DEMONs and evil?
Yogis’ give us another hint for their concept for gods and demons, through stories. We can be both depending upon which aspect we manifest. The more you identify with the specific thought patterns from your mind and ego, the more you manifest of those qualities. The god and demonic forces are activated through thought.
Gods: the god forces emanate out of infinite unconstrained consciousness. The word in sanskrit is Aditi. Infinite space is the meaning!
Demons – the opposite: they take birth or get activated through constrained and finite level consciousness. – Diti. Finite space is the meaning! Finiteness is what is responsible for our lower emotions such as anger, jealousy, miserliness, infatuation…
The father is the same – Prajāpati.
The basic teaching here is that when the masculine seed (specific information) is let into mind’s or nature’s constrained (or unconstrained) awareness field, corresponding god/demonic forces emerge, within us and in the macro.
Constraints: What are the constraints that we put on consciousness? It is our beliefs, preferences, prejudices, programmed instincts (vasanas), unwanted emotions. That’s it. it’s our choice; DIY; the rest are details!
In a subtler way, the Bruhadaranyaka Upanishad (in BU 1.3, papa-sambhava section) teaches us that the genesis of evil lies in the disturbances that our body functions experience, individually, due to our self-imposed constraints in the form of beliefs, preferences, biases and habits. The god-forces attempt to overpower the demon-forces by chanting Udgitha (the three and half syllable mantra, Aum). Somehow, the demon-powers keep disturbing it, until the prana gets involved. Recall that the mantras and chants are designed for specific sound patterns, and may not specifically mean much. Now we can connect the dots…
The beauty of the yogic model is that your choices are at the center of your world, not someone else, or some uncontrollable force.
Remember from the Upanishadic model recited in an allegorical form – in that story, gods achieved a stable existence at earth (bhu)-level of consciousness only after they occupied their respective locations in the human body. Even further, all gods are born out of prana, the same prana that keeps us alive. So all the 33 gods (or 330 million) that emanated from brahman or prajapati (depending upon the text), needed an ideal body to manifest completely (at bhu level consciousness). We have already went through Godhood as a process earlier, and in 31: Niyama 5.
How many god-forces are there Exactly?
You can skip this, but below is a conversation from Satapata Brahmana, repeated in several other places. This conversation is also the source of the misconception that Hinduism has 33 crore (330 million) gods. No, we all start with our personal gods (now probably 8 billion), and all merge into an impersonal. Is it one? Can we count infinities? No – uncountable or a-samkhyeya! That famous conversation below:
Then Vidagdha, the son of Sakala, asked him: “How many gods are there, Yajnavalkya?
Yajnavalky said, “As many as are indicated in the Nivid of the Visvadevas – 300 and 3003 (this maybe an origin of frequently cited myth of Hindus having 33 crore gods).” Then Sakalya asked: “How many gods exactly are there, Yajnavalkya?”
Yajnavalkya said: “Thirty-three.”
Then Sakalya asked: “How many gods exactly are there, Yajnavalkya?”
Yajnavalkya said: “Six.”
Then Sakalya asked: “How many gods exactly are there, Yajnavalkya?”
Yajnavalkya said: “Three.”
Then Sakalya asked: “How many gods exactly are there, Yajnavalkya?”
Yajnavalkya said: “Two.”
Then Sakalya asked: “How many gods exactly are there, Yajnavalkya?”
Yajnavalkya said: “One-and-a-half.”
Then Sakalya asked: “How many gods exactly are there, Yajnavalkya?”
Yajnavalkya said: “One.”
One and half? Rishis keep using these half states… for states that are in between yes and no – transcendental. There are several theories included in vedas, but uncountable – asaṃkhyeya. – is the most intriguing of all. The concept is incorporated into the famous vishnu sahasranama of Mahabharata.
We will now cover two famous suktas in entirety – one that cover to whom should I pray (offer oblations; the Kā sukta), and what was it like at the beginning of creation (Nāsadiya Sukta).
Now, to Whom Should i pray?
In varied forms, this shows up in other parts of vedas, most famously as Hiranyagarbha Sukta in Rg veda. The tone is similar. As the title suggests, the rishi answering the question from someone like me – the question is “to whom should I offer oblations (or pray)?”. The rishi takes us through the message step-by-step. Rishis always start with a beginners’ parochial view, and slowly ramp it up for experts with metaphysical details. The bottomline is to develop a sense of wholeness with everything around us and gratitude.
(From Maitrayaiva-Brahmaiva-Upanishad or also called Maitrayaniya Upanishad)
Kā Sūktam (or THE “WHO” Sūktam)
The question – who should we know as “god”, and to whom should we offer our oblation? – repeats after each verse in this sūktam. Themes of each verse provided below.
1. Pray to him who bestows the soul (atma), and strength (bala); whom [even] the gods [the 33 placed inside us] wait upon the instruction; who or what is source of these bipeds and quadrupeds. [this is for the beginner – look around, hypothesize a source, and offer your oblation, gratitude to that source]. Here developing the sense of gratitude and making an offering is more important than the source [in modern society, the emphasis has become the source, while yogis’ emphasis is on the other half].
You want to dig a little deeper?
2. Know that which keeps the rhythms of praṇa through breathing (internal clocks) and time (external clocks), which in maintains lifecycle of the world and its inhabitants. [here the emphasis has shifted to a slightly more sophisticated concept of time and breath rhythms]
You want to dig a little deeper?
3,4. Know and pray to that which keeps the earth and space in their orbits, and moves them [that force… call it gravity … where’s that gravity coming from? That]
You want to dig a little deeper?
4, 5. Know and pray to that which is the essence of space, earth, snowy mountains by the ocean; the directions , as in space. [continuing with essense of day-to-day phenomena with a little bit of wonder in terms of space and directions; how many dimensions do we need to describe the complete physics of what we experience – if you ask a modern physicist, could be 11 or 26].
A little deeper?
6. Know and pray to The cosmic waters (in which everything existed in a dissolved state) in the beginning, assuming the form of an embryo… [everything that was in potential state from the big bang, the embryonic dissolved state; from which the universe manifested]
Even deeper?
7, 8. Know and pray to That golden seed (hiraṇya-garbha, puruṣa the universal subjective) that was in the cosmic waters (from 6), that prakr̥ti, that which emerged as this total universe. And that behind that movement of the embryo and waters to result in the creation… Know, acknowledge and offer your feelings of gratitude, amazement [whatever you feel] as oblations.
The creation Hymn (Nasadiya Sukta)
(Rig Veda 10.129 – the principle of “Not the non-existent”)
How was it like at the beginning, and what was before? An incredibly beautiful, thought provoking, poetic, and even with a sense of bewilderment at times. It is this speculative aspect that allows meditators to read, reread and use it as a seed for own contemplation purposes.
So, first question – who of what started the creation?
Rig Veda says – can never be completely known in an objective sense – uncertainty. As detailed above, there’s uncertainty in every thought, belief, concept. But the rishis elude to an event that started creation – it started with a single, focused, laser beam-like thought wave (tapas or ardor) emerging from the unmanifest background. (see the third sloka below).
The non-existent did not exist, nor did the existent exist at that time.
There existed neither the mid-space (antariksha) nor the heaven beyond (dyaus).
What stirred? From where and in whose protection?
Did (cosmic) water exist, a deep depth?
Death did not exist nor deathlessness then.
There existed no sign of night nor of day.
That One breathed without wind through its inherent force.
There existed nothing else beyond that.
Darkness existed, hidden by darkness, in the beginning.
All this was a signless ocean.
When the thing coming into being was concealed by emptiness,
then was the One born by the power of heat.
Then, in the beginning, from thought there developed desire,
which existed as the primal semen.
Searching in their hearts through inspired thinking,
poets found the connection of the existent in the non-existent.
Their cord was stretched across:
Did something exist below it? Did something exist above?
There were placers of semen and there were powers.
There was inherent force below, offering above.
Who really knows? Who shall here proclaim it? –
from where was it born, from where this creation?
The gods are on this side of the creation of this world.
So then who does know from where it came to be?
This creation — from where it came to be,
if it was produced or if not –
he who is the overseer of this world in the highest heaven,
he surely knows. Or if he does not know… ?
R.L. Griffith’s translation of nasadiya sukta with comments
1. THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of movement (Rajas), no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was a water there, unfathomed depth of water? [this is the primordial waters, with everything dissolved, including gods]
2 na mṛtyur āsīd amṛtaṃ na tarhi na rātryā ahna āsīt praketaḥ | ānīd avātaṃ svadhayā tad ekaṃ tasmād dhānyan na paraḥ kiṃ canāsa ||
Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day’s and night’s divider. That One Thing, vātaṃ-less, came alive by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever. [Remember, without vāta is to lifeless, according to yoga, and with self-generated capability, this being created the first vāta wave or signal]
3. ama āsīt tamasā gūḻham agre ‘praketaṃ salilaṃ sarvam ā idam | tucchyenābhv apihitaṃ yad āsīt tapasas tan mahinājāyataikam ||
Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminate chaos. All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth (tapas) was born that Unit.
4. kāmas tad agre sam avartatādhi manaso retaḥ prathamaṃ yad āsīt | sato bandhum asati nir avindan hṛdi pratīṣyā kavayo manīṣā ||
Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit. Sages who searched with their heart’s thought discovered the existent’s kinship in the non-existent.
5 tiraścīno vitato raśmir eṣām adhaḥ svid āsī3d upari svid āsī3t | retodhā āsan mahimāna āsan svadhā avastāt prayatiḥ parastāt||
Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it? There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder.
6. ko addhā veda ka iha pra vocat kuta ājātā kuta iyaṃ visṛṣṭiḥ | arvāg devā asya visarjanenāthā ko veda yata ābabhūva||
Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation? [that uncertainty again; the source itself included this uncertainty]
The Gods are later than this world’s production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
7 iyaṃ visṛṣṭir yata ābabhūva yadi vā dadhe yadi vā na | yo asyādhyakṣaḥ parame vyoman so aṅga veda yadi vā na veda ||
He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it,Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.
May we all be blessed with a vibrant and healthy body, nervous system and mind_/\_/\_/\_
भद्रं नो अपि वातय मनः
(bhadraṃ no api vātaya manaḥ)
Yogic Thought 
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