The World as Power: The Selected Works of Sir John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon)

There is a Supreme Reality which is Eternal and Indefinable. It is an Absolute, inconceivable and ineffable- the Brahman. Unknowable in its utterness, this Reality presents itself to us in three supreme terms of its Truth: an absolute Existence, Sat; an absolute Consciousness, Cit; and an absolute Bliss, Ananda. This is the poise of Brahman turned towards self-revelation.

It perceives itself as an infinite Existence; not a mere existence but a Being with a full awareness of all that It is, an infinite Consciousness. This Consciousness inherent in the supreme Being is no static awareness it is instinct with a Power, a Force dynamic with all the content of the Consciousness. And the nature of this selfconscient Existence is an inalienable Delight. All is a manifestation out of this triune status of the Eternal, Sat-Cit-Ananda.

All is contained in the infinite Being of Brahman; it is brought out and released into a plenitude of manifestation by the Consciousness-Power innate in Himself for the sheer Delight of His Becoming. It is His own Consciousness as Power, the Cit-Sakti, that pours out the potentialities held in the infinitude of Brahman, throws up Forms from out of the Formless depths of the Eternal. The Seers of the Veda speak of it as Maya, the power that measures (miyate anena iti maya) out of the Immeasurable, the Force by which all is shaped out.

This is the theme of the present book by Sir John Woodroffe.