Evolution and involution
Man has always pondered the mysteries of creation. Scientists through the ages—astronomers, cosmologists, physicists—have developed various scenarios of the beginning of the universe.
The big bang theory states that around fifteen billion years ago, all of space and matter was compressed into an infinitely small point. All of a sudden, the big bang—and the physical universe was born. The explosion occurred and Life began to evolve from the subatomic particle to our present universe.
Those who believe in this theory quietly hide their eyes from the question, “What came before the big bang? What was the cause behind the effect?” Though the theory may explain one aspect of one cycle of cosmic evolution, it doesn’t provide the framework for an integrated and all-embracing cosmo-conception.
Not material scientists but great scientists of the Spirit, the ascended masters and cosmic beings can provide infant mankind with a perspective that spans endless eternities of creation. In their view, the Law of Cycles is the key to the alternating cycles of the explosion and implosion of the Matter universes as they proceed in and out of Spirit.
Spirit and Matter
We find described in the Bhagavata Purana scriptures of Hinduism the endless rhythmic pulsation of cosmic creation called in the East the Maha Kalpa, or “Great Cycle.” Though there are infinite cycles within cycles, the overall flow consists of an outbreath and an inbreath, an Alpha thrust of creation followed by the Omega return to the heart of Brahma. At the end of each creative cycle is the pralaya. At best, then, the big bang theory becomes a statement of the sublime cosmic moment of the birth of worlds when the sine wave passes from imperceptible to perceptible reality—that is, from what we call Spirit to what we call Matter.
Delving deeper into the mysteries of creation, we come to the awareness that all is Spirit. All forms of Matter—even the densest physical substance—are the crystallized fire mist of spiritual essence. The successive lives of Brahma can be conceived of by our limited minds as immense cyclic arcs of pure Spirit involuting into the veils of denser Matter, and then evoluting back to the ethereal, spiritual origin.
Our relative position in the grand cycle of our personal or planetary cycle can be understood as the ratio of Spirit to Matter. As Brahma outbreathes the web of creation, there is a densification as the universe puts on its seven coats of skins.
An axial point is reached in the cycle where the outbreath is expended and inbreath begins. It is the point of the lowest descent of the arc of Spirit into Matter. It is the state of equilibrium of the positive and negative poles of the cosmic magnet. It is the halfway point in the cycle that we have passed.
Then there is the period of return to Spirit. All that has become involved in material form begins its process of etherealization and return to the one Source—and to the period of pralayic rest—once again to begin a new cycle of becoming.
This is the night of Brahma, when all is drawn back into the Godhead. During this period of rest, all the patterns of creation—the whole divine DNA chain, if you will, the patterns by which stars will be born, spiral nebulae, whole systems and galaxies—are being gathered within, like a seed. There is a manifestation of divine intelligence, the stirring, the shaking of divine intelligence in the seed, the drawing by the fingers of God of the various graphs and patterns and hieroglyphs that are going to manifest in the various systems of worlds. And when the whole is complete, then once again comes the dawn of creation and the exhalation of the breath of God.
The Word: the nexus of being
The path of the ascension is the means whereby sons of God preserve an identity as a single cell in the being of Brahma throughout the pralayas and throughout the inhalation and the exhalation of God. To endure as a cell in the consciousness of God when that God is at perfect rest is to enter with him into the cosmic cycle of nirvana. To do this, one must pass through the nexus of the cycle, which nexus we term the Word.
We read in the Vedas: “In the beginning was Brahman with whom was the Word, and the Word is Brahman.”[1] In order to be in Brahman, we must be in the Word. “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”[2] That me is the supreme I AM THAT I AM manifest as the Word. By the Law of Cycles, then, we are set upon our courses spiraling once again through the nexus of being, the nexus being the Word itself, the Law of Cycles being the emanation of the Word.
Cosmic evolution
God is a transcendent Being, and with each new outbreath he evolves to a greater state of cosmic perfection and beauty.
The cycles are not really circles or sine waves but they are spirals—spirals of infinite expansion according to the geometry of the golden ratio (1:1.618...). Each cycle of evolution takes in more of God. Each round sends us into wider spheres of the body of God’s cosmos.
The individualities enmeshed in the fabric of the Godhead eventually reach a point in evolution where they span the cyclic lifetimes of Brahma. With each new pulsation, after each successive pralaya, the imprint of higher planes of perfection impregnates the gestating Cosmic Egg.
In the endless cyclic patterns of cosmic evolution, each new cycle begins at a higher point of perfection. God and all of his creation is continually transcending itself, with the leading edge of consciousness always able to contact new vistas of infinity and to create greater manifestations of divine purpose.
Thus, as we ascend the scales of evolution, we are entrusted with the divine power and authority to initiate cycles that may last forever.
See also
For more information
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Path to Immortality, pp. 3–112.
Sources
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Path to Immortality, pp. 13–14, 18–19, 20, 29.