This Wonderful Creation of Ours - Swami Radhamadhavananda Saraswati

What is Creation?

Our creation consists of Jiva, Jagat and Isvara. Jiva is the individual soul which takes different embodiments birth after birth by the force of his Karmic influences of past lives, known as Samskaras.

Jagat is the vast cosmos spread before us. It is the field provided by Isvara in the form of a suitable environment for the Jiva to experience the fruits of his past actions.

Isvara is the overall controller and awards the fruits of actions to the Jivas and also provides a suitable environment for the Jiva to enjoy or suffer, as the case may be, the fruits of his past actions.

The three entities i.e., Jiva, Jagat and Isvara are interdependent. If Jiva could be eliminated, there would be no need of the field of experience (Jagat) and the controller (Isvara) because there would be no one to experience or be controlled or supervised.

Therefore the recipe for freedom or salvation (Mukti) is to eliminate the Jivahood by knowing one’s essential nature, which is the Self or the Pure Consciousness. Once this is done, Jagat and Isvara disappear automatically, leaving behind Pure Consciousness, one without a second. Hence the saying, "Know thyself and be free."

Also in the Mundaka Upanisad the creation (Srsti) is described as of two types viz., Isvara-Srsti and Jiva-Srsti. According to this Upanisad, the Jiva-Srsti can be destroyed through knowledge. When this is done, the Isvara-Srsti also disappears at the same time simultaneously and thus one is established in Aksara Brahma i.e., the Self.

Object of Creation—

Object of creation on the part of Paramatman may be considered to be His free will because of His unlimited opulence i.e., powers of desiring, knowledge and action. He creates simply by desiring without effort or purpose just as we create a dream world in our sleep without any effort or purpose. Infact from the Absolute standpoint nothing was ever created, as we shall see later.

Creation is described variously in our Hindu scriptures such as Srimad Bhagavatam, Mundaka Upanisad and Prasna Upanisad and other Vedantic texts, in great detail.

The purpose of these descriptions is not to give the status of reality to the creation. But on the other hand to put the facts in detail before the Jiva (in the human embodiment) for him to appreciate the cause of his miserable existence and give him the clues to the ways and means of getting out of his misery once for all by providing an opportunity for dispassion towards this illusory Creation and making him realize the true and blissful nature of his own being, the Self.

Form of Creation—

The form of creation is illusory in the absolute sense or at best it is a relative reality in as much as the dream world is a reality to the dreamer. This is expounded in detail as follows:

Is it an Illusion or a Reality—

Since time immemorial man’s mind has been seized with an intense desire and inquisitiveness to find the primal cause of this created universe. Human mind has ever remained anxious to collect information about the super-sensuous world. Man can know himself and at the same time perceive the extensive universe spreading before him. It is a natural curiosity to know the underlying principle of this extensive universe as well as the man. This thought has intrigued human mind since very ancient time.

The Hindu philosophers observed that by knowing the nature of clay, one knows the nature of everything made of clay. This inquiry was likewise extended to determine that basic material of the universe, by knowing of which everything in that universe will be known.

Our scriptures declare that the Supreme Truth alone is the Reality. All else is an illusion. This truth is one without a second. There is none like it and none other than it. Therefore the perceived world or creation is non-different from Reality but is a superimposition upon it. As the dream world disappears upon waking up, so does this superimposition upon realizing its substratum, the Reality.

Game of Maze—

The creation is like an unending game of maze, but unfortunately the subjects are not even aware that they are caught up in this eternal game. This is because, while they eternally suffer, there are merry-go-rounds provided for their pleasure, so as to keep them deluded. But there are some lucky one’s who after long suffering over many many thousands of births, come to realize that they are trapped in the play of Maya. Such individuals are shown the way out or are guided out of this game of maze by the ever-merciful Lord.

Product of Maya—

This wonderful creation of ours, is said to be a product of Maya, and it works endlessly like clockwork to the pinpoint precision, which is possible only in an illusion. The term Maya is often used in the scriptures and therefore, it would be worthwhile to understand what it is?

Maya is the non-existent illusory power of Paramatman and is said to be Anirvacaniya meaning indescribable. No satisfactory logical answer can be given. It is posited to unravel the mystery of creation. It is like an unknown variable ‘X’ brought in, into arithmetic problems to find out the answer. Like the Maya, this variable ‘X’ neither appears in the question, the cause, nor will it appear in the answer, the effect. Appearing in the middle, it helps to solve the problem and obtain the correct answer and then disappears. Even so, say the scriptures, this inscrutable Maya, which is not in the Paramatman, helps the individual Jiva to solve the mystery of life, and also helps him to get out of this wheel of Samsara. Ultimately the illusory Maya also disappears root and branch, along with its effects, i.e., the Jiva, Jagat and Isvara, leaving behind its substratum, the Pure Consciousness.

What this non-existent Maya does, is beautifully described by the great Acharya Sankara and the same is summarized below—

1. Maya is extremely clever and reconciles the presence of Jiva-Jagat-Isvara as three different entities in one non-dual Brahman, eternal, without parts etc.

2. Maya is wonderful and makes the apparently impossible seem possible. It is able to lure the highly learned with the bait of wealth and sense-objects and hurl them down to the level of beasts.

3. Maya, very cleverly, is able to affect an apparent union of the non-dual, Absolute-knowledge-bliss, with the ephemeral BMI (body-mind-intellect) etc.

4. Maya is able to make the unreal appear as real and create multiplicity in the one non-dual Knowledge-Bliss-Absolute and is able to create attachment to son, wife, house, and the like and thus creating complete delusion beyond description.

5. The marvel called the Maya is dexterous in making the false appear as true. Having created the false appearance of Brahma, Visnu, and Siva in the non-dual, homogeneous Brahman embarrasses even the highly learned and makes them roam about deluded, with the idea of differences among the Trinities.

6. The wonder of all wonders called the Maya, in spite of its magical powers will take to its heels, if only we start inquiring about the Truth.

Because this cosmos is a creation of Maya, we see wondrous feats around us, which are virtually impossible to attain in practice. When we need to build a high-rise building or a bridge across a river or send a satellite into space, imagine how much time, effort and resources are required to realize a successful project. For the Maya to hang up the planets like the moon, the earth, the sun, mars, jupiter and so on, weighing billions and trillions of tons, in the middle of nowhere, seems to be a child’s play. Not only these massive objects are floating in space, without any supports, they are in constant motion at tremendous speeds. The earth goes about its own axis, the moon revolves around the earth, the moon and the earth, while maintaining their relative motion, go round the sun. Again the whole solar system, along with its satellites, is in constant motion at a very high speed and yet in a predictable fashion. The whole cosmos seems to be topsy-turvy or in a state of flux. In an illusory creation, nothing is impossible, yet there is a perfect method in this seeming madness.

Illusion but methodical, is the buzzword for Maya. Maya puts a proper hierarchy in place, for this illusory creation to function effectively and the whole thing is explicable to the minutest detail. First of all Maya creates its own boss called Isvara, then comes Hiranyagarbha where all the 24 categories (such as five great elements, organs of action and perception etc.) are created in subtle seed form. To give form to these formless elements, Brahma is evolved. Then come Jiva and Jagat along with their total package of Karma, Upasana, Yoga, Bhakti, and knowledge etc. Every stage of creation is explained to the minutest details in a whole library of Vedic scriptures, which is mind-boggling. The whole purpose of this elucidation in the scriptures, is to bring home to us the reality of this eternal dream/sleep state, to the level of our own essential nature Sat-Cit-Ananda.

Analogy with the Dream World—

This universe may be compared to the dream world projected by the mind, during sleeping and dream state, the latter being a dream within a cosmic dream. The dreamer, the dream world and the dream experiences, all the three are projected by the mind, from the mind and unto the mind. During the dream state, mind behaves like Maya and during the waking state it acts as a tool of Maya with all the three Gunas of Prakrti viz., Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, in full swing. When we are kicked out of the dream state by an incident of the dream experience, only then we come to realize that the dream was an illusion. Likewise, the ‘waker’, the ‘waking world’ and the ‘waking experiences,’ all the three are also an illusion. It may seem difficult to accept this theory; likewise a dreamer would never accept that he was dreaming, if he was reminded of this fact while dreaming, if it was at all possible to communicate to him during the dream. The saints and sages and also the Hindu scriptures have always declared, that this waking world is nothing but an illusion like the dream world, but we are not prepared to believe them, out of ignorance.

Projection of a snake on the Rope—

Our creation may be considered to be a mental projection on to the Consciousness as its substratum as in the classic Vedantic example of ‘Illusory snake on the rope," wherein the projected object has the opposing qualities compared to the base on to which it is projected. This illusory snake appears to be shining and attractive to look at, but poisonous and dangerous in actuality, and it is superimposed on to an innocent and rather harmless rope. Similarly, our world though appears to be wonderful and full of fun, is infatuated with all sorts of perils and misery at every step. Like the harmless rope is the support for the snake, the self, whose nature is Bliss, supports this illusory world. Therefore, there is a contrary perception in both cases. The rope is harmless, the snake is dangerous, similarly the Self is of the nature of Bliss but the projected world is full of misery and strife.

Life span of Creation—

What is the life span of this illusory world? Very short, like the Asvattha tree, shall be the answer. It disappears very quickly for any pretext. When we go to sleep or dose off or even when we sit on the seat of meditation with the eyes closed, the world folds up. Also if we can eliminate anyone pair of opposites (e.g., Birth and death, i.e., if there is no birth, no death, there is no world), the world disappears. It is as simple as that.

The world is an illusion beyond doubt; scriptures declare it and the wise agree unanimously.

© `Kalyana-Kalpataru’ (October, 2000) published by Jagdish Prasad Jalan, Govind Bhawan Karyalaya, Gita Press, Gorakhpur. Reprinted with permission.

<<Back