Extract from ScienceAndOccultism, by I.K.Taimni

What we should note carefully in the present context is that according to Occultism motion is essentially a function of mind and does not result unconscious mechanical agencies which work automatically and which we generally indicate by the term “forces”. It is true that mind acts through apparently objective material” agencies in the manifested world but these agencies are themselves derivatives of Mind or rather Mind-Substance called Chidäkäsha as shown above. All objects will thus be seen to be essentially and completely mental in nature – products of mind in its subjective and objective aspects. That is why movements within them or associated with them as a whole (planetary, electronic etc) are based upon and governed by mind. No independent and mechanical forces, as imagined by us, are involved in the phenomena.
This mental nature of the phenomenal world is implicit in the Occult doctrine according to which all natural phenomena are the result of and guided by “conscious” forces or divine agencies. A purely material universe or partly mental universe motivated by independent insentient mechanical forces could not possibly be amenable to mental guidance of this nature.
If the basis of the manifested worlds is mental, essentially, it can be seen easily how all movements involved in natural phenomena will be produced in such ideated worlds automatically according to the laws which are inherent in the Universal Mind. The suns will shine and the planets rotate and evolve not as a result of blind mechanical forces acting upon them from without, or due to constant Divine guidance from within, but simply because they are essentially mental phenomena taking place in the Universal Mind according to Universal Laws inherent in this Mind. It is the existence of these laws underlying manifestation which accounts for the compulsive force behind all natural phenomena.
The scientific conception of a magnetic or gravitational field being produced and determining the motion of objects will perhaps help us to understand how the presence of the Divine Mind within the manifested universe ensures that all natural phenomena will take place automatically in the universe according to the Universal Laws present in the Universal Mind. The Divine Mind which has created the manifested world and pervades that world can also be considered to create a definite “field” which determines not only the nature and manner of all kinds of movements taking place in the universe but also the nature and manner of all kinds of phenomena in different spheres and at different levels. This unique field created and maintained by the Universal Mind must by its very nature be so comprehensive and all inclusive that it can provide for the occurrence of all kinds of natural phenomena which are possible in the universe. The “field properties” of this “Divinc field” if we may use such a phrase, may be considered to be defined by the totality of Universal Laws which are inherent in the Universal Mind and derived from Divine Consciousness by differentiation. No one can, of course, define the structure of this field by mathematical equations, as is possible in the case of specific kinds of phenomena like magnetism or gravitation, because the Divine Consciousness is an integrated state and the field which it creates and maintains within the universe must also be an integrated state. For, only in such an integrated field can all kinds of natural phenomena take place according to the conditions which are present at any moment. If the specific field created in a particular kind of phenomenon may be called a Kshetra-the Sanskrit equivalent of “field” then this integrated, all-inclusive field may be called Maha-kshetra.
It is this all-inclusive field pervading every manifested system which is the real nature of Prakriti, the correlate of Purusha. The Sanskrit word Prakriti means “nature”. In this particular context, it obviously means Divine Nature which is co-extensive with Divine Consciousness and pervades the manifested universe like the Divine Consciousness. The phenomena in the manifested universe take place as they do because Prakriti is always present everywhere in the back ground and provides the necessary field or conditions for their occurrence. These conditions are not provided in a haphazard manner but according to natural laws which are inherent in the Universal Mind. These laws are as definite and work with as much exactitude as the laws of gravitation or magnetism, but being far more complex and to a great extent unknown, we cannot calculate or predict their resultant effects in a particular set of conditions. Science has discovered only a few of these laws acting on the surface of the manifested universe while the knowledge of the totality of laws inherent


A circle with an infinite number of radii and concentric circles is a very apt symbol of manifestation, the radii representing the Monads and the concentric circles the planes of existence 
It will be seen from the above diagram how the Monads become more and more separated in the world of manifestation as their consciousness recedes from the centre and becomes involved in grosser forms of matter and less subtle states of mind. On the other hand, the more the consciousness of a particular Monad draws along its radius towards the common centre, the more it approaches the consciousness of the other Monads and the Reality from which they are derived. This relation holds true not only between the differen tiated aspects of the Divine Principle which a Monad represents and embodies but between the differentiated aspects of any principle which has its source in the Absolute and descends step by step and finds expression in the increasingly dense states of matter. The more it recedes from its central source the more its expressions differ from one another and become more difficult to identify.