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There is a lot of talk in New Age circles about the ‘akashic record’. Nikola Tesla, in his book ‘Man’s Greatest Achievement’ published in 1907 was saying that:
“All perceptible matter comes from a primary substance or tenuity beyond conception, filling all the space. The Akasha or lumineferous ether, which is acually acted upon by the life-giving Prana or creative force as well, calling into the existence, in never ending cycles, all the things, and the phenomena.”
Also, New Age author Alice Bailey, who writes on ‘theosophical subjects’ said: “The Akashic record is like an immense photographic film. It is registering all the desires, as well as earth experiences of our planet.”
So, what is this notion of ‘akashic record’ actually refer to according to proper Vedic philosophy? Is it simply the element Ether (akasha) from Sāńkhya? What is the relationship with prana?Even the manifest world is produced from the unmanifest, which exists as a possibility. The mind can perceive possibilities but the senses cannot. This unmanifest is three main things: the universal possibilities and the individual guna and karma. The guna are the habits we have formed; every time you do something you form the germ of a habit, and it will prompt you to do the same thing again. Karma is the consequences of the previous actions, depending on the moral judgment in that context. All of these — the universal possibilities, the individual guna, and karma — lie dormant so you can call it the ‘akashic record’.
Factually, there are many kinds of akash. As I have described in some posts, the body moves, the senses move, the mind moves, the intellect moves, the ego moves, etc. So, all of them are moving but there are different kinds of motions. And when there is motion there is akash. So, there are many kinds of akash. In Srimad Bhagavatam and many other places, four main types of ether are described, but that is just a high-level description. For example, the madhyama ether contains the mahattattva, the ego, intellect, mind, and senses, which have their own ether. So, everything is ether and its modification; the modification is adding some detail to abstraction.
Prana plays an important role by combining the universal possibility with guna and karma to create an experience. The process of combining is also the process of activating them into an experience. So, prana is activating this ‘akashic record’ and bringing it into ‘existence’. It is not ‘existence’ but experience. These things are already existing, just not experienced.
Time plays a crucial role in the process of experience. To understand this role, we need to make a distinction between the ‘unmanifest’ and ‘about to manifest’, distinct from ‘manifest’. Time converts the ‘unmanifest’ into ‘about to manifest’. Subsequently, this ‘about to manifest’ becomes ‘manifest’ due to prana. The action of time means that something is about to happen but who is going to do that thing is not fixed. The prana acting under the free will of the soul combines these ‘about to manifest’ possibilities, guna, and karma to produce the individual experience.
So we can say that in the age of kali-yuga all these bad things will happen, and some good astrologers can say that a war is about to break out, etc. That doesn’t mean the individual participants or actors in that event are already fixed. It is in the ‘about to manifest’ state, which means that time has acted and brought it to a state where someone can perceive it. Then based on guna, karma, and free will somebody will be sucked into it and become ‘manifest’.
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