Wednesday 9 January 2019

God and the Universe


(adapted from a lecture of Swami Paramarthananda)


Svetasvatara Upanishad (6-18) states:
yo brahmaṇaṃ vidadhati purvaṃ yo vai vedaṃsca prahiṇoti tasmai I
taṃ ha devaṃ atmabuddhiprakasam mumuksurvai saranamaham prapadye II
Seeking Liberation, I take refuge in the Lord, the revealer of Self-Knowledge, who in the beginning created Brahma and delivered the Vedas to Him.
The Vedas that have been handed to Brahma, and coming down to this present day is a guide book for living and offers guidance for living to those who have the trust in the validity, efficacy and utility of Vedas. Those who have shraddha in Vedic teachings were called Vaidhikhas, who are now called as Hindus.  Vedas prescribe a life-style that is God-centred for its followers.  For a devout Hindu the day starts with the remembrance of God and in every activity during day God is remembered.  For instance during bath God is visualised in the heart and bath is considered as an abhishekam to the Lord.  Pradhakshinam a  Hindu does in temple is a symbolic declaration that his life will be centred around God only,  Not only the daily chores but also all other aspects of Hindu life like music and dance, art and architecture are all centred on God.

The scriptures not only give the instructions but also teach the significance of each action.  But over the period of time, the backup teachings were lost and the scriptures are not studied with sraddha; only the traditions are maintained with the result the practices now appear to be ‘meaningless rituals’ to the younger generation.  But one will understand that rituals like puja are not meaningless if one learns the principle and purpose behind it. Let us see a few salient points of the backup teaching in support of the God-centred lifestyle, starting from the common definition of God. 
The common provisional definition of God is ‘Srsti Kartha’, creator of the world.  Scriptures themselves refine that definition for serious thinkers, the reason being that according to Vedas nothing can be created or destroyed, which idea is echoed by modern science through its law of conservation of matter and energy.  Only transformation takes place; nothing is created, nothing is destroyed. Before the world came into existence, it was already existent in potential form only.  What was potentially existing in an un-manifest form alone comes to manifestation in what we call ‘creation’. This un-manifest form is called the seed of universe.  This 'seed', which existed before the emergence of the universe, is called God.

This Lord Krishna points out in Bhagavad gita (7-10),
bijaṃ maṃ sarvabhutanaṃ viddhi partha sanatanam [7.10]
O Arjuna!, may you understand me, the Lord, to be the very cause or the seed of the entire universe.
Sri Adhi Sankara also mentions in Dakshinamurthy stotram:
 bijasyantarivankuro jagadidaṃ prannirvikalpaṃ punaḥ
mayakalpita desakalakalana vaicitrya citrikṛtam I  (first half of sloka 2)
This universe, undifferentiated at first like a sprout within the seed, becoming manifold through maya's aspects of time and space.

From that 'seed' - which is called God - alone, the entire universe, consisting of all the galaxies and planets and all living beings, emerges. Then, the scriptures point out that you can divide the entire universe broadly into two categories.  One is, inert material universe - called acetana tattvam; and the second is sentient living beings - which is called the cetana tattvam.  So this manifest universe consisting of cetana- acetana tattva dvayam, evolved out of that one 'seed', called God.  That means both the tattvams existed in God in potential form and emerged out of it in ‘creation’.  Lord Krishna names them in the Bhagavad gita as Puruṣha and Prakṛti,  Purusha referring to the chetana tattvam and Prakṛti referring to the achetana tattvamPurusha evolved in the form of living beings. Prakṛti evolved in the form of the inert principle.  So, the first lesson of the backup teaching is; the God, which is the centre of our life, is the 'seed' of the universe, which is cetana-acetana tattva dvayam.

The second lesson arises from God being the seed of the Universe.  As God is seed, God is kaaranam and universe being the product is kaaryam.  From this kaarana-kaarya sambanda we can draw certain conclusions.  One of the popular examples given in the scriptures to illustrate kaarana-kaarya sambanda is gold and gold ornaments, gold being the cause of various gold ornaments made out of it and gold ornaments, the product i.e. gold, the kaaranam and gold ornament the kaaryam.  From the study of their features; we can draw four conclusions regarding kaaranam and kaaryam
1)    Gold, the cause, is one only from which various ornaments of different designs and shapes are made. So while kaaranam is one, eka, Kaaryam is many, aneka
2)    Gold only is the substance that has weight in all ornaments, which are all gold +nama+rupa.  Without gold the ornaments are reduced to weightless nama and rupa,  So kaaranam is the essence, sara, and Kaarayam having no substantiality of its own is asara
3)    Gold was there in the past, before it was converted into ornaments. Gold is therein the present as ornaments.  Even if the ornaments are melted in future, gold will still remain. So kaaranam, in relation to kaaryam is present in all the three periods of time and so permanent, nitya, while kaaryam temporary, existing in the present only, anitya.
4)    Gold has independent existence and is satyam as compared to ornaments which do not exist without the gold and have dependant existence, asatyam.  So kaaranam is satyam and kaaryam is asatyam.

Applying this to God and universe we learn that God is eka, sara, nitya, and  satyam while universe is aneka, asara, anitya and asatyam.  But universe has its own plus points like variety, beauty and novelty but it has no stability to rely upon as it is asara, anitya and asatyam. Human beings suffer from a feeling of insecurity, which is termed samsara.  Among many definitions of saṃsara, one  definition is, the sense of insecurity.  As a child one clings to mother for security and as one grows up this clinging for security continues, only it gets transferred to various objects of the world like money, fame, relationships etc.  Freedom from the feeling of insecurity, called Moksha, cannot be attained through reliance on anitya vasthu, the objects of the world.  Worldly objects are like a cardboard chair.  They can look beautiful in various designs but you cannot lean on them or sit in them as they are not stable and strong enough.  Emotionally leaning on any object of the world for security leads only to emotional trauma.  Therefore, scriptures guide us that if one wants to solve the fundamental problem, then one must turn to God for security.  Spirituality begins when one recognises the problem of insecurity and turns to God who is sara, nithya and satyam.  Rely on God for getting out of the feeling of insecurity, is the second lesson of scriptures.

The third lesson of scriptures arising from the previous two is on “How to find God and security?”  Scriptures present it in two stages.  The first stage is preparation of the mind to find God.  Because, God is an extremely subtle principle, being ultimate seed and cause beyond even time and space.  So in the first stage one makes use of the world to refine the mind using world as a field of service i.e. by serving the world in different areas through pancha maha yajna.  When with a refined mind one seeks God through scriptural study with the help of a guru, one discovers God in oneself as one’s Own Self, Athma.  God being the kaaranam pervades the kaaryam, the world, as gold pervades the golden ornaments.  The infinite, nitya God pervades the finite anitya universe with its sentient and insentient divisions.  And so what one discovers is;  “In this very world, in every object, in every living being, that includes ‘me’, God is there and so in  'me', the imperishable God is available within the perishable part of 'me'.    

In kathopanishad Lord Yama teaches the same to Nachiketas:
angusthamatrah puruso madhya atmani tisthati I
isanam bhutabhavyasya na tato vijugupsate I etadvai tat II (2.1.12)
The Purusha (Athma), of the size of a thumb, resides in the middle of the body as the Lord of the past and the future; knowing Him one fears no more. This verily is That.

When one seeks the God and discovers It as one’s own Athma, then life is no more a struggle for security but an expression of security and one does not need anything else for one’s peace, security and happiness as one has found them within oneself.  Then life becomes successful and meaningful; because, one would have solved the fundamental problem of samsara.  But, all these are possible only if one takes the guidance of the guru and the scriptures and leads a life which is God-centric.  And the rituals in Hinduism are really a periodic reminder to the devout Hindus not to get lost in worldly pursuit, swerve from a God-centric life and forget the real goal of discovering security in that God which is one’s own Self only. 
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