The Fourteen Worlds of Evolution
This explosion is completed in fourteen different stages of your existence. There are seven worlds below you, you are in the eighth world now, and there are six above you.
You have gone through the mineral phase, the water phase, the fire phase, and so on. You have aggregated yourself and accumulated cells, become animals, and finally become a human being. This is the eighth world you are passing through now. After you leave your body, you go through the further six stages of evolution. When you have achieved the fourteenth chakra, you have completed the process of evolution.
Thus, this fourteen-cornered figure represents the fourteen phases of evolution. There are fourteen corresponding powers (Goddesses) associated with these fourteen worlds, and they are shown in the Śrī Cakra.
The Circles and the Eight-Petaled Lotus
The circle is drawn to show that this evolution is complete. The inside has exploded completely and the outside has exploded completely.
Then you start experiencing your interaction. You have started your life as a separate entity. The world is formed, and you are interacting with the world, and you are experiencing the world.
You start exclaiming:
“This is hard — this is earth.”
“This is flowing — it is water.”
“This is fire — it burns.”
“This is air — it is cool to the touch.”
“This is space — in which I can walk around.”
These are different experiences.
Then I realize that I am separate from other people. We say, “We are humans; we are not animals.” These distinctions are created by us.
The cosmic wealth of our experiences are called the Ananga Devatās. Aṅga means limb. Ananga means without limbs.
Ananga Kusuma, Ananga Devatā, Ananga Rekhā, and so on — these eight are the forms of wealth, the wealth of experience of God, the cosmos.
The eight-petaled lotus is the wealth of God: the eight forms of Aiśvarya (divine opulence).
The Sixteen-Petaled Lotus
You not only experience these things statically, but dynamically.
Time is measured in terms of the lunar calendar because the Moon is the fastest-moving object in the sky next only to the Sun. That is the lunar clock. The lunar clock is divided into sixteen digits or phases of the Moon. These phases are shown as the sixteen-petalled lotus.
Just as a woman menstruates every twenty-eight days, so the cosmos has its cycles and periods.
You know the word lunar is also associated with lunatic, because sometimes we go crazy, disorderly, irrational; sometimes we maintain our balance. There are cosmic cycles with which we sometimes resonate and sometimes do not. Sometimes we are lunatic, sometimes sane.
Each day of the week is also associated with one of the planets, and different pūjās are done on these days.
On Sunday we do pūjā to all the nine planets, including the Sun.
Monday we worship Śiva.
Tuesday is for the warlike Durgā.
Wednesday is sacred to Rāma.
Thursday is for Guru and Mahālakṣmī.
Friday is for the worship of the woman.
Saturday is for worshipping Saturn or the couple.
Kanyās (virgin girls) are worshipped on Tuesdays.
Married women are worshipped on Fridays.
Both husband and wife are worshipped on Saturdays.
The man is worshipped on Mondays.
These are the days for worship.
The Square Enclosures — The Eight Passions
When you come to the square, you are down to the earth, down to the present level where we think we are distinct from each other, where we are fighting, where we are playing our ego and power games.
This is represented in the outermost enclosures. It is here that Sṛṣṭi is completely manifested.
Let us take again the example of the little pot drawn earlier. The pot is the concept of the self, the ego structure. The individual is created, the cosmos is created, and the flow of time is being experienced.
You are experiencing your interactions with the world. These interactions are sometimes pleasant and sometimes unpleasant.
You experience fear, lust, anger, and all these things. These experiences are generated by the five arrows coming in — the five senses agitating your mind.
You say, “I like this. I want this. Without this I cannot live.”
Lust is called the passion Brahmī.
When lust is denied, you get angry — anger is Māheśvarī.
Kaumārī is possessiveness.
Vaiṣṇavī is delusion.
Vārāhī is pride.
Mahendri is jealousy.
Mahālakṣmī is the vice of attachment.
Cāmuṇḍā is the virtue of letting go.
Why is Mahālakṣmī called a vice? Because attachment to wealth creates enmity even between a mother and her child. Such attachment can only be a vice.
These are the Eight Passions.
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