| |
|
|
|
|
Articles |
Glossary |
Questions |
Home |
by
Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL
No. 79
September: 2007
PRASTHANATRAYAM –THEIR IMPORTANCE IN SANATAN PHILOSOPHY.- Part 4 or THE BEGINNING.
Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty
As we discussed in the last lecture on The Prasthanatrayam, the wisemen advice us of the necessity of regular reading of the scriptures to acquire knowledge of The Brahman and not to waste away our precious lives in meaningless pursuits of the pleasures of life.
Following this advice in the next few lectures we shall pick up some selected portions randomly from any of these scriptures, dealing with a particular topic and explore the wonders of the wisdom of sanatan philosophy. Those who do not get the opportunity to read scriptures, this exercise may greatly help. Very few of us indulge in reading the Vedas. This should be our opportunity to get exposed to the Vedas through the Upanishads.
We shall begin from the beginning, with a sloka from The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (section II) which deals with the concept and beginning of this phenomenal creation- how all these started. It is, so to say we begin from the beginning.
Why the beginning?
Because life is nothing but a continuous journey. Not this particular life we have now, but the entire existence of ours encompassing lives after lives, our movement from yoni after yoni or womb after womb. It is a long and arduous journey which may prolong for millions of cycles of birth and death, roaming through 84 lakh yonis if you believe some puranas. Let us just understand that we have a long road ahead.
Where we are heading to? We are returning back to where we came from. Our destination is the same as from where we came. We return back as the prodigal son who returns home. The end of the journey is where the beginning was. It is a full circle, where the end or ‘anta’ meets the beginning or ‘adi’. The soul’s adi and anta are the same.
In between lies all the drama, all the sadhana, all evolution and development.
The jiva or the soul may not yet have experienced the end, but it had most certainly the knowledge of the beginning. It has, hidden within him, the knowledge of his source or the home it started from. It has no doubt become hazy and clouded like dhumena abrta vanhi as The Bhagavad Gita says, the fire covered in smoke, by the influence of what we call Maya the illusion. The sadhaka’s constant endevour is to pierce this veil of smoke, overcoming the blinding effect and see for himself the clear vision of his destination.
Therefore if we are searching for our forgotten home, we must understand how all the illusion began in the first place to make us forget the memory of our home. The sloka from The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad is as good a beginning to unravel this mystery.
It goes like this:
Naiveha kincanAgra Asit, mrtyunaivedamAbrtam Asit- asanAyaya, asanAyA hi mrtyuh; tanmanah akuruta, Atmanvi syam iti . Sah arcannacarat, tasya Arcata Apah ajAyanta; arcate vai me kam abhuditi, tadeva arkasya arkatvam; kam ha va asmei bhavati ya evam etad arkasyAarkatvam.
In the beginning there was nothing. Naiveha kincanAgra Asit. This statement That there was nothing in the beginning, is one of the most misunderstood and most debated truths in our philosophy. This is almost like the starting point of philosophical thinking – the darshana. Scriptures after scriptures have wondered on this point. The Rk Veda also exclaimed:
Ko addha veda ka iha pravocat
Kuta AjAtA kuta iyam visrstih
Who really knows? Who can tell from where all these began?
Iyam visrstiryAt Ababhuva
Yadi vA dadhe yadi vA na
Where from it began to start flowing out?
Yo asya adhyaksya paramevyoman so anga veda
Yadi vA na veda
He who is seated in the highest heavens, perhaps knows, perhaps knows not, or if any one knows, it is He who knows.
With such a mind filled with wonder or vismay, the scriptures said let us begin from the zero state.
In the beginning there was nothing. Naiveha kincanAgra Asit.
But how is it that there was nothing? Where from all these then come? How can something come out of nothing? The logic demands that if it is not there, it can not come to be. Something can not come out of nothing. The fire was there in the wood otherwise it can not come to be. The tree was there in the seed. That is why the seed produced the tree. So how can it mean that the visible universe or the phenomena of the created cosmos around as it is comprehended as of now by our tools of perception, the sense organs (indriyas), mind, intellect, egoself etc, was not there. There has to be a source within which all these in every aspect were hidden within and then unfolded out.
That source, the Brahman Himself, the mahatyoni was there, but the picture as it is presented to our faculties was a different picture which was not known. It was a different state altogether but that state was not known. These plants, these living animals, these stars and galaxies that we see in front of us today were not there for any one to see. But all the different states of what was, what is and what will be in future are there hidden in the womb of that great womb- the mahatyoni. The futile debate as to what is the ‘starting point’ of the creation or this universe is discarded by the sanatan philosophy. There is no beginning. It is always a continuous change from one state to another state. (we had discussed this in detail when we talked of “Attempts to describe Brahman” in April 2004- Those interested may refer to “Attempts to describe Brahman part 12” in April 2004 issue.).
We are talking here of ‘non-existence’ as well as of ‘all-existence’. In order to understand correctly the meaning of this beginning of the creation from a so called void state, we may again go back to what we discussed in April 2004.
People wonder, is there a beginning to this universe? Is there a point in time and space which can be fixed as the origin of the universe? The upanishadic logic also makes this question absurd and irrelevant. If Brahman himself is this manifested universe, then asking if there is a beginning of this universe is tantamount to asking if there is a beginning of Brahman. This is again absurd because Brahman by definition is anadi, without a beginning.
Further, when we are searching for the starting point of the creation or the universe, which state of the universe we should take as our universe? The universe that we have around us, can we say that this is the real state of universe that we are talking of? We can not say so, because from moment to moment, from a fraction of a second to another fraction of a second, the universe is changing its shape and form. The heavenly bodies that we see at this very moment, at the wink of the eye have vanished or changed. Some of them that we see are not even existing. Only their light which started when they were existing is reaching us now. So the 'creation' of the universe is a ceaseless continuous process- never stopping and never constant. There was never a zero state as far as the creation of this universe is concerned.
This means that the creation was always there. It had only a different form, different arrangement and shape. Before our solar system came into being, something else in another shape was existing in its place. That was one state of creation. When our solar system, our galaxy or any other galaxy will cease to exist, the creation will be another state in another form. There is no beginning and there is no end to this ever dynamic manifestation of Brahman. At the start of the vedic concept of Brahma day, when the visible creation unfolds out of Brahman, this creation is in one form. At the end of Brahma day, when the Brahma night begins, when the phenomenal creation collapses into the Brahman, it is again the creation in another form in the cycle of events. Which point in this is the beginning? Which is the end? All these are ever-existing Brahman in His ever dynamic aspect.
Then there is a lot of talk about some kind of a big bang which supposed to have triggered the creation of this universe. Which is this big bang? What is this explosion? We all know that in this universe explosions are taking place every moment of time. Some heavenly system is blowing up right now, some new systems, galaxies, stars are forming and some collapsing. There are bangs everywhere and every moment. Srusti, Sthiti and Pralay, coming into being, existing for a fleeting moment and passing on to another state is the non-stop game being played around. So which bang is big and which bang is small? Do we know? Do we know which portion of the universe we are talking about? Do we know the boundaries of the universe? Do we know what is the total content of this limitless universe? Do we know in which part of the universe, what is happening at this very moment?
The point is not whether there was a certain explosion at a certain point of time or not and some effects produced by it. But a particular explosion as the beginning of the creation is the point the sanatan philosophy discards. The vedic concept here is one of anantakoti Brahmanda, a countless systems and objects within this limitless space. Barring that much, we know no more. Our limited mind and intellect are incapable of comprehending the picture or knowledge of the universe in its totality. In the absence of all these knowledge to talk of a specific event as the trigger point for creation can only be termed very amusing.
But when we talk of Brahman as the source and the continuous flow of the creation, it begins to make some sense. When we see Brahman as verily the creation, we also see the futility of searching out the starting point of creation and thereby the birth of Brahman Himself.
We can see a similarity of concept when we read Sri Aurobindo in the Life Divine, when he states “In fact The Infinite does not create, it manifests what is in itself, in its own essence of reality…The Absolute neither creates nor is created.”
He also pointed out that “The word for creation in Sanskrit means a loosing or putting forth of what is in the being.”
All these are quite some food for thought for the modern day scientists and cosmologists.
So everything was in state that can best be described by our limited faculties as undefined and unknown and was covered by non-knowledge.
With this background we shall return to the truth expressed in that sloka from Brhad Aranyaka Upanishad nextt
.
