47 Verbum, Lux, & Vita
We have just alluded to the action of the Word that produces the 'illumination' which is at the origin of all manifestation, and which is also found analogously at the beginning of the initiatic process. Although the question may appear to be somewhat outside our principal subject (although, because of the correspondence between the 'macrocosmic' and 'microcosmic' points of view, this is so only in appearance), this leads us to the close link that, from the cosmogonic point of view, exists between sound and light, which is very clearly expressed by the association and even identification made at the beginning of the Gospel of Saint John between the words Verbum, Lux, and Vita. [1] It is known that the Hindu tradition, which considers 'luminosity' (taijasa) to be characteristic of the subtle state (and we will soon see how this relates to the last of the three terms we have just mentioned), affirms on the other hand that the primordiality of sound (shabda) among the sensible qualities corresponds to ether (ākāsha) among the elements. So stated, this affirmation immediately refers to the corporeal world, but at the same time it is also susceptible of transposition to other domains, [2] for in reality it only translates the process of universal manifestation
with respect to the corporeal world, which, in the final analysis, is merely a particular case. If manifestation is considered in its totality, this same affirmation is that by which all things, whatever their state, are produced by the divine Word or divine Utterance, which is thus at the beginning or, better (for this is something essentially 'timeless'), at the principle of all manifestation, [3] which is explicitly stated at the beginning of the Hebrew Genesis where, as we have just said, the first word spoken at the starting-point of manifestation is the Fiat Lux by which the chaos of possibilities is illuminated and organized. This reveals precisely the direct relationship that exists in the principial order between what by analogy can be called sound and light, that is to say those realities of which sound and light in the ordinary meaning of these terms are the respective expressions in our wotld.
Here we should make an important remark. The verb amar, which is used in the biblical text and which is usually translated as 'to say', in reality has in both Hebrew and Arabic the principal meaning of 'to command' or 'to order'. The divine Word is the 'order' (amr) by which creation, that is to say the production of universal manifestation, either in its entirety or in some one of its modalities, is effected. [4] Likewise, according to Islamic tradition, the first creation is Light (an-Nür), which is called min amri' Llah, that is, 'proceeding immediately from the divine order or command'; and this creation is situated so to speak in the 'world', that is to say the state or degree of existence which, for that reason, is called 'alam al-amr and forms the purely spiritual world properly speaking. Indeed, the intelligible Light is the essence (dhat) of the 'Spirit' (arRüh), which, when it is considered in its universal sense, is identified with the Light itself. This is why the expressions an-Nür alMuhammadi [the Light or Reality of Muhammad] and ar-Rüh alMuhammadiyah [the Spirit of Muhammad] are equivalents, both
designating the principial and total form of 'Universal Man', [5] who is Awwal khalgi' Llah, 'the First of the Divine Creation'. This is the true 'Heart of the World' the expansion of which produces the manifestation of all beings and the contraction of which brings them back in the end to their l'inciple; [6] and thus it is both 'the first and the last' (al-awwal wa 'l-ākher) with respect to creation, just as Allah himself is 'the First and the Last' in the absolute sense. [7] 'Heart of hearts and Spirit of spirits' (Qalb al-qulūbi wa Rūh al-arwāh), it is in his boson that the particular 'spirits', the angels (al malä'ikah) and the 'separated spirits' (al-arwāh al-mujarradah), are differentiated, which are thus formed of the primordial Light as their unique essence, with no admixture of elements representing the determining conditions of the lower degrees of existence. [8]
If we now pass on to the more particular considerations of our world, that is to say to the degree of existence to which the human state belongs (this state here considered in its entirety and not restricted to its corporeal modality alone), we must find in it, as 'center', a principle that corresponds to the 'Universal Heart', of which it is as it were only a specification with respect to this state. It is this principle that the Hindu doctrine designates as Hinanyagarbha; it is an aspect of Brahmā, that is, of the Word that produces manifestation, [9] and at the same time it is also 'Light', as is indicated
by the designation 'laijasa given to the subtle state that forms its proper 'world', the possibilitics of which it contains essentially within itself. [10] Here we find the third of the terms mentioned at the beginning. For the beings manifested in this domain, and in conformity with their particular conditions of existence, this cosmic Light appears as 'Life': Et Vita crat Lux hominum ['and that Life was the Light of men'], as the Gospel of Saint John says in exactly this sense. Hiranyagarbha is therefore in this respect like the 'vital principle' of this entire world, and this is why it is called jiva-ghana, all life being principially synthesized in it. The word ghama indicates that the 'global' form we spoke of above in connection with the primordial Light is also found here, so that 'Life' appears as an image or reflection of the 'Spirit' at a certain level of manifestation; [11] and this same form is also that of the 'World Egg' (Brahmãnda) of which Hiranyagarbha is, as its name signifies, the vivifying 'seed'. [12]
In a certain state corresponding to the first subtle modality of the human order that properly constitutes the world of Hiranyagarbha (although of course without identification with this 'center' itself), [13] the being is aware of itself as a wave of the 'primordial Ocean', [14] without it being possible to say whether this wave is a sonorous vibration or a luminous wave. In reality, it is simultaneously the one and the other, indissolubly united in principle, and
beyond all differentiation, which arises only at a later stage in the development of manifestation. We speak analogously here, which goes without saying, for it is evident that in the subtle state there can be no question of sound or light in the ordinary sense, that is to say as sensible qualities, but only of those realities from which these respectively proceed; and on the other hand, vibration or undulation in their literal meanings necessarily imply the conditions of space and time proper to the domain of corporeal existence; but the analogy is nonetheless exact, and here it is the only possible mode of expression. The state in question is therefore directly related to the very principle of Life in the most universal sense in which this can be understood; [15] and an image of this is found in the primary manifestations of organic life itself, those that are strictly indispensable to its preservation, such as the pulsation of the heart and the alternate movements of respiration. And this is the true foundation of those multiple applications of the 'science of rhythm' the role of which is extremely important in most methods of initiatic realization. This science naturally includes the mantra-vidy $ar{a}$, which corresponds to its 'sonic' aspect; [16] on the other hand, since the 'luminous' aspect appears more particularly in the nädīs of the 'subrle form' (sükshma-sharīra), [17] one can see without difficulty the relation of all this to the double nature, luminous (jyotirmayi) and sonorous (shabdamayi or mantramayi), that the Hindu tradition attributes to Kundalini, the cosmic force that, insofar as it resides within the human being in particular, acts there as 'vital force. [18]
Thus we always find the three terms, Verbum, Lix, and Vita, inseparable cven at the origin of the human state; and on this point as on so many others, we can recognize the perfect accord of the different traditional doctrines, which in reality are only different expressions of the one Truth.