Mandukya_Upanishad

distinctions that scientists do make, because inanimatematter, the vegetable kingdom, the animal world and thehuman species are distinctions made on account of theobservation of degrees in the manifestation of Reality, byus, as human beings. No such distinction obtains to theVirāt Himself. He is present in the inanimate as well as inthe animate by means of what are called the gunas ofprakṛiti – sattva, rajas and tamas – composure, activity andinertia – properties of matter. When He manifests Himselfthrough tamas alone, we call it inanimate existence. Suchobjects as stone, rock, which, from our point of view, donot seem to have any consciousness animating them, arerevelations of the Virāt-puruṣha through tamogunaprakṛiti, a quality of prakṛiti in which rajas and sattva arehidden, tamas predominating over rajas and sattva. Whenrajas and sattva slowly reveal themselves more and more inlarger quantity and extent, there is animation, life creepsinto existence, and from the inanimate we come to theanimate. The first manifestation of life is through what wecall prāna – the vital sustaining power in all living beings.While prāna does not operate in inanimate objects likestone, there is prāna functioning in the world of plants,vegetables, etc. Plants breathe; they do not merely exist likerock. But plants do not think as animals do. The function ofthinking belongs to a higher order of Reality we call theanimal world, with all its instincts and sensations. Here wehave a still greater degree of the manifestation of Reality.There is an approximation to sattva in the human level,where we have not only functions of breathing andthinking, but also of understanding, ratiocination and54