Page 6 - All India Magazine Jul-2021

What is Existence

Existence is not a fluke, a random creation by nobody, a
thing that unaccountably happened to be. It carries in it-
self the Word of God, it is full of a hidden Divine Presence.
Existence is not a blind machine that somehow came
and started a set ignoble motion without object or sense
or purpose. Existence is a Truth of things unfolding by a
gradual process of manifestation, an evolution of its own
involved Reality.
Existence is not an illusion, a Maya that had no reason,
no business to exist, could not exist, does not exist but
only seems to be. A mighty Reality manifests in itself this
marvelous universe.
*
Manifestation is not an episode of the Eternal. It is his
face and body of glory that is imperishable, it is the move-
ment of his joy and power…
*
All that is is the manifestation of a Divine Infinite. The
universe has no other reason for existence.
*
The Divine that we adore is not only a remote extra-cosmic
Reality, but a half-veiled Manifestation present and near to
us here in the universe. Life is the field of a divine manifes-
tation not yet complete: here, in life, on earth, in the body,
— ihaiva [here (itself)] as the Upanishads insist, — we have
to unveil the Godhead; here we must make its transcendent
greatness, light and sweetness real to our consciousness,
here possess and, as far as may be, express it.

CWSA 12: 218, 219, 218; CWSA 23: 74

All India Magazine, July 2021
6