Isha Upanishad - Super school - Auroville - Isha Upanishad 1102

The Beings of Truth, Light, Life and Delight, four Beings and then these four beings deviated, deviated because it was it was one of the possibilities. There are hundreds of possibilities in the consciousness, one of the possibility was to deviate, there was a deviation, alienation from that comprehensive consciousness, which was in that state of concentration. And as a result there was a direct precipitation and these four Beings became their opposites; Truth became Falsehood, Life became Death, Light became obscurity, darkness and Delight became suffering, sorrow, − their opposites.

You might say there must have been many beings but these four Beings first came out. Just as the Veda says the first thing to come out was Truth. The first things to come out were Truth, Light, Life and Delight and then there was a deviation. This is not the word used in the Veda but it says that then came about darkness and then a greater darkness, first ignorance, night came and then came about inconscience. So here also this story says that there came about the four Beings and then they deviated and as a deviation there came about their opposites and after that they became completely Inconscient.

If you read ‘Savitri’ the great epic written by Sri Aurobindo, the first book is called ‘The Book of Beginnings’ and there Sri Aurobindo starts the first sentence it is very important, ‘It was the hour before the gods awake’. These four Beings that came out were cosmic beings but when the darkness came out of them and there was nothing but darkness, then as the Mother's story goes further, the Supreme Divine consciousness saw all this happening and She said to the Supreme Lord that this is what has happened that darkness has come about. The Lord said, ‘the darkness has to be repaired’. The Divine said, now you produce those being, these four beings deviated and you produce such beings who will not deviate, this also is possible, there are all kinds of possibilities. You produce those beings who will not deviate. Then beings came out, these beings are what we call gods, then gods came out.

Sri Aurobindo’s poem begins at a point when darkness has been spread all over but gods have not yet come out that is later. There is a very important verse in the Veda, which also describes the darkness. That there was in the beginning darkness and then it says what was this darkness, how it came about and what was that beings which were still breathing, the Supreme Being was breathing, he was not abolished, darkness does not mean abolition of the Supreme consciousness.

We have seen already that even when darkness of ignorance arises that which is there is not abolished it is ignored. So there were still Being who was breathing but then what is the relationship between this Being that was breathing and this darkness, how did this happen? So the Veda says, perhaps the gods know it, how did this happen but then it makes a question mark. Even the gods may not know it because they were not there at that time, so even the gods do not know how this has happened.