We call this energy “the Creative Will,” because it is the objective manifestation of the Creative Energy of the Absolute—­Its visible Will manifested in the direction of physical life.  It is as much Will in action, as the Will that causes your arm to move in response to its power.  It is no mere chance thing, or mechanical law—­it is life action in operation.

This Creative Will not only causes movement in completed life, but all movement and action in life independent of the personal will of its individual forms.  All the phenomena of the so-called Unconscious belong to it.  It causes the body to grow; attends to the details of nourishment, assimilation, digestion, elimination, and all of the rest.  It builds up bodies, organs, and parts, and keeps them in operation and function.

The Creative Will is directed to the outward expression of Life—­to the objectification of Life.  You may call this energy the “Universal Life Energy” if you wish, but, to those who know it, it is a Will—­an active, living Will, in full operation and power, pressing forward toward the manifestation of objective life.

The Creative Will seems to be filled with a strong Desire to manifest.  It longs to express itself, and to give birth to forms of activity.  Desire lies under and in all forms of its manifestations.  The ever present Desire of the Creative Will causes lower forms to be succeeded by higher forms—­and is the moving cause of evolution—­it is the Evolutionary Urge itself, which ever cries to its manifestations, “Move on; move upward.”

In the Hindu classic, the “Mahabarata,” Brahma created the most beautiful female being ever known, and called her Tillotama.  He presented her in turn to all the gods, in order to witness their wonder and admiration.  Siva’s desire to behold her was so great that it developed in him four faces, in succession, as she made the tour of the assembly; and Indra’s longing was so intense that his body became all eyes.  In this myth may be seen exemplified the effect of Desire and Will in the forms of life, function and shape—­all following Desire and Need, as in the case of the long neck of the giraffe which enables him to reach for the high branches of the trees in his native land; and in the long neck and high legs of the fisher birds, the crane, stork, ibis, etc.

The Creative Will finds within itself a desire to create suns, and they are formed.  It desired planets to revolve around the suns, and they were thrown off in obedience to the law.  It desired plant life, and plant life appeared, working from higher to lower form.  Then came animal life, from nomad to man.  Some of the animal forms yielded to the desire to fly, and wings appeared gradually, and we called it bird-life.  Some felt a desire to burrow in the ground, and lo! came the moles, gophers, etc.  It wanted a thinking creature, and Man with his wonderful brain was evolved.  Evolution is more than a mere survival of the fittest; natural selection, etc.  Although it uses these laws as tools and instruments, still back of them is that insistent urge—­that ever-impelling desire—­that ever-active Creative Will.  Lamark was nearer right than Darwin when he claimed that Desire was back of it all, and preceded function and form.  Desire wanted form and function, and produced them by the activity of the Creative Will.