p151 _
-chap- _
toc-1 _
p152w _
toc-2 _
+chap+ _
p153
----- bhagap152.html
In men, Rajas plays the most important part. Through the
ever increasing activities of mind and the development of conscious-
ness, man runs after all sorts of experience, pleasurable and painful,
till at last the idea of lasting and real bliss settles down in him, and
he knows more of bliss than any other being in the universe. The
future evolution of man lies in the permanance of spiritual bliss,
which is purely Satvic in its character.
Vishnu preserves all beings in their Tamasic, Rajasic and
Satvic stages. For preservation means the maintenance as well as the
improvement of beings. Therefore preservation is Satvic, and Vishnu
is the Preserver. We live and move onwards in all stages of our
being. But in Rajasic and Tamasic stages, it is the attendants of
Vishnu, the door-keepers, that preserve us, and the Daityas are the
lower manifestations of Jaya and Vijaya. One is Tamasic and the
other Rajasic.
Hiranyaksha is Tamasic. He represents the original inertia
of matter, its primary resistance to the onward process of evolution.
There was existence after Pralayic sleep But it was homogeneous
existence, with little or no phenomenal change. Varaha got over this
homogeneal tenacity by the killing of Hiranyaksha, and he set going
the process of planetary and individual life.
Hiranyakasipu came next. He was the favoured son of
.Brahma. He helped the evolution of individual life. Minerals be-
came vegetables. Vegetables became animals, and animals became
men. The intellectual power of men rapidly increased, and there
was material and moral progress. The limit of moral progress was
reached by Prahlada. But the ideal of Prahlada was based upon the
conception of differences and of individualities. It is for this reason
that Varna and Ashrama Dharma, or the separate duties of life for
separate classes of men, is dealt with in the discourses with Prahlada.
But though Prahlada was a son of Hiranyakasipu, he was an
exception to the general run of material evolution which was fostered
by Hiranyakasipu. Hiranyakasipu hated the development of Satvic
virtues, he hated Hari, the embodiment of Satva. Nrisinha killed the
great Daitya, and Satva made its appearance in men.
Hiranya means gold.
Hiranyaksha is gold-eyed.
Hiranyakasipu is gold bedded.
II. Rdvana and Kumbhakarna.
Hiranyakasipu represented the gradual development of mate-
rial and intellectual evolution, till the highest point was reached.
[[152]]
p151 _
-chap- _
toc-1 _
p152w _
toc-2 _
+chap+ _
p153
v?