Asvins - The twin principle

We respectfully and humbly enter into the understanding of the most sublime, cosmic principle called Asvins. Asvins represent the twin principle in creation. The twin principle is such that when one manifests as two, one remains invisible, while another remains visible. One remains the content, while other remains the container. When it is one, it is incomprehensible. It is pure existence. When it is two, it is existence and awareness.

In the creation, all that happens is on the basis of the two. There is a beautiful statement coming from Madame Blavatsky, which says, “The second springs out of the first and develops the third.” That which we call awareness, or primordial light or the cosmic mother is a periodical emergence from pure existence, of which naught can be said. The pure existence cannot be experienced because it is the very basis of experience. The awareness springing from existence, is the fundamental aspect of the twin. And all creation is presided over by this twin aspect, which is called, in the West as the Male-Female God. Before it became two, it is neither male, nor female. It is both! The pure spirit cannot be experienced because the experiencer is merged in experience. That is also called the 'Truth'. You can become one with the Truth, but there is no experiencing the Truth. There has to be a subject, and an object for experience. When the two are together, there is no such thing as experience, there is pure existence. It is only in the secondary state of awareness, we are able to feel the existence. “That we exist”, we are aware of, only when we have come into awareness. Not before!

Before we step down into awareness, from existence, what remained was existence only and there is no one to observe that existence. Only, when awareness springs from existence, we know that we are existing. It is the mother aspect or the secondary aspect, that enables experiencing the successive states. That awareness is a spring up from pure existence. It is said, Shakti comes out of Siva, and details into a triple, and conducts a fivefold creation.

Awareness, as it springs up from existence details into a triple - the impulse which we call the will, the knowledge and then the activity. This basic triangular activity is based upon awareness. There is existence eternal, from which there is a periodical awakening. That which awakens, develops states of awareness. Once again when awareness merges into existence, there is naught. These two primary dimensions of existence and awareness is to be firmly established in us! That is the basic ideation recommended by the Veda.

Early in the morning as we wake up, we are already two. There is existence and awareness. The awareness is like the electron. All female activity is seen as electronic activity. We should be thankful for the prevalence of awareness in us, on the basis of which all our activity happens! We take that background awareness for granted!

From awareness, there is the impulse to do something and then the knowledge related to it, and then the doing. The basis for this triangle is behind, as the Truth. The basis of this triple activity is pure awareness which is not generally perceived. Therefore, the Veda says, we should be thankful to the one, who make us realise that we are existing! The existence-awareness pair, though very much there, is not there for our perception unless we make an effort. Unless, we make an effort, they don’t seem to be! This pair or the twins are the foundation. They are not perceivable easily and that is why they are called not-untrue-beings. It is a double-negative. If you are busy in your activities, you do not remember them. Sometimes, they seem to be there, and sometimes, they do not seem to be there, according to your orientation. It is like, we have the foundations of the building which are not visible, but the building is visible. For the whole creation, there is a foundation, which is called Male-Female God, in the scriptures.

Of the two, the awareness can be perceived. The basis of awareness cannot be perceived. When you reach it, you merge into it, and you are not there to experience any further. Of the two, one is totally imperceptible, but it is always there.

The primary state is existence which is eternal. The secondary state is also eternal in the sense that, sometimes, it is expressive, sometimes it is absorbed into existence. It is ignorant to say that the awareness is not eternal, that, the mother is not eternal, and the father only is eternal.

The truth is, it is two-in-one in the primary state or the original state, and it is one-as-two in the secondary state. ‘I Am’ is within 'That'. From 'That', this ‘I Am’ which is existing in 'That' emerges. This is symbolically presented as a circle with a central point.

Circle with central point means, ‘That I Am'. Unless there is a centre, there is no circumference. What we call as a centre, itself has a circumference also. If you make a dot, within the dot, again there is a centre! So, centre and circumference, is a simultaneous emergence. Before the centre is formed, it is an undefinable state. When there is emergence of awareness, there is existence seen as the background for awareness. Therefore, from ancient times, we are told to relate to ‘That I Am', which is a secondary state, in connection with, the primary state. The secondary state, by itself cannot have existence. Awareness has no independent existence! It is a projection of existence.

In the Eastern scriptures, they say, the awareness is at the heart of the existence. When it emerges, the existence gets into background. With the awareness as the foreground, there is the whole drama of life, and the whole drama of creation. Before that, there is no trinity. When there is awareness emerging, the time emerges. Until then, in eternity, there is no time. Eternity or pure state is beyond time, beyond awareness and beyond anything that we can conceive. Awareness emerges from it, which is its nature. This awakening happens on account of an impulse generating from existence.