The plane of the Gods is the Overmind, where each power and aspect of the One Divine is released as a distinct Godhead, turned towards creation. Beyond the Overmind, the Gods are part and parcel of the One Infinite Divine. Quite naturally, the powers of creation that come from the Divine are unleashed through these beings and forces into creation. This became necessary because it was ‘impossible’ for different elements of creation to open straight away and directly to the fullness of the Divine. It is like exposing the seed directly to full light of midday sun in summer. It would just burn away.
Hence these intermediaries were required to slowly prepare earth and matter and man for the full blossoming of divinity within. In this process, each main aspect of the Divine has created out of himself many aspects and sub-divinities, operating at different levels and planes of creation. Each of these divinities or sub-divinities so to say becomes a god with his or her own domain and power, each presiding over some small or big movement of nature in one of her countless movements in one of the three planes of mind, life, and body.
Below matter there are also planes of dark worlds, which are the planes of the titanic energies. These dark labourers have ploughed matter and also helped in the process of evolution. So long as they stay in their domain there is no problem and the balance of creation is maintained. But often they have a tendency to rise into worlds of mind and life, and create a chaos by increasing the energies of disintegration and darkness and unconsciousness and division there. In the vital and mental planes, for example, one may often find Asuras whom (or their various reflections on the different planes) man has so far mistaken as the Ultimate God.
At the apex of this play we have four main Powers that eventually have the absolute power in this lower world. They are: Brahma (the creative power), Vishnu (the power that maintains the balance, the preserver so to say), Shiva (the destroyer who releases energies locked in form and brings it back to its original status) and Krishna (who draws all things upwards by his attraction, by the power of delight that is inbuilt in the very fabric of creation everywhere). Creation progresses/evolves through this perpetual wrestle between the gods and the titans. In other words, it is a vast and complex play of forces and beings and energies that maintain the balance of creation.
The Divine has so arranged things that it is possible 
for an individual soul to come out of the play at any given point of time. This is possible because though the Divine acts in His universal play through His cosmic being and the gods, He can also act directly in the individual, as He is hidden within him as the immanent Divine Presence and the Divine Energy or Shakti coiled up at creations base. One can go through the gods or without them as far as individual evolution is concerned. Of course, they would still be there, helping overtly since the twin energies of gods and the titans are interwoven in each particle of matter. But one need not consciously invoke the gods to pass beyond them. Even, as the Upanishads seem to suggest, it is even a superior and better way to go directly to the Supreme since the door of that possibility is open in man. However, if one wants to build something here, upon earth, then usually one has to take into consideration the complex play of godlike and titanic energies.
More and more souls are now ready or getting ready, having gone through the long process of evolution, to evolve under the direct sunlight of the Divine Consciousness. They need neither the brilliant veil woven by the gods nor the shadow that holds us back and strengthens our roots in matter until we are ready to climb further. These souls are ready for the next great collective adventure of a New Creation here upon earth. They too can go through the gods if that is their calling or else surrender directly to the Divine Mother and bypass this pong complex winding process.
The above reflections bring some light upon the gods and their place in the New Creation. There are many other subtle ones which are not necessary for our understanding as far as the yoga is concerned.
Alok Pandey
