_." This
thought runs through all the Oriental thought, although in different
forms, and with various interpretations. The thought refers to the
occult truth that there is in Cosmic Nature alternate periods of
Activity and Inactivity--Days and Nights--In-breathings and
Out-breathings--Wakefulness and Sleep. This fundamental law manifests
in all Nature, from Universes to Atoms. Let us see it now in its
application to Universes.

At this point we would call the attention of the student that in many
of the presentations of the Hindu Teachings the writers speak as if the
Absolute, _Itself_, were subject to this law of Rhythm, and had Its
Periods of Rest and Work, like Its manifestations. This is incorrect.
The highest teachings do not so hold, although at first glance it would
so appear. The teaching really is that while the Creative Principle
manifests this rhythm, still even this principle, great though it be,
is a manifestation of the Absolute, and not the Absolute itself. The
highest Hindu teachings are firm and unmistakable about this point.

And, another point, in which there is much mistaken teaching. In the
periods of Creative Inactivity in a Universe it must not be supposed
that there is no Activity anywhere. On the contrary, there is never a
cessation of Activity on the part of the Absolute. While it is Creative
Night in one Universe, or System of Universes, there is intense
activity of Mid-Day in others. When we say "The Universe" we mean the
Universe of Solar Systems--millions of such systems--that compose the
particular universe of which we have any knowledge. The highest
teachings tell us that this Universe is but one of a System of
Universes, millions in number--and that this System is but one, in a
higher System, and so on and on, to infinity. As one Hindu Sage hath
said: "Well do we know that the Absolute is constantly creating
Universes in Its Infinite Mind--and constantly destroying them--and,
though millions upon millions of aeons intervene between creation and
destruction, yet doth it seem less than the twinkle of an eye to The
Absolute One."

And so the "Day and Night of Brahm" means only the statement of the
alternating periods of Activity and Inactivity in some one particular
Universe, amidst the Infinite Universality. You will find a mention of
these periods of Activity and Inactivity in the "_Bhagavad Gita_," the
great Hindu epic. The following quotations, and page references, relate
to the edi