The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Ch-1, Second Brahmana, Post-3. : Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday, February 08, 2021. 08:42. AM.
Chapter I :
SECOND BRAHMANA: THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE-3.
Post-3.

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Now, this peculiarity, whatever we may call it, whatever designation may be applied to it, is the cause of the distinction of the effect from the cause, and that becomes the first breeding ground for the further multifarious division we see in the form of this vast creation. The moment this creation begins, the moment there is the potency released for the external expression of what was hiddenly present in the cause, there is a catastrophic change taking place. And, this is the urge for creation, the urge for diversity, multiplicity, colour, sound, activity, etc. This characteristic of self-division is called M?tyu (death principle), that which destroys the indivisible, that which isolates the one from the other, that which disfigures the original condition of things, the destroyer of the original state of affairs. That is symbolically called death here, and further, it is described as the hunger of things to grab other objects.

Now, what is this hunger mentioned here ? It is the urge that is simultaneously present in the process of creation for an involution of things. When there is a separation of one thing from another in creation, the seer becomes distinguished from the seen, the subject is separated from the object, they struggle to become one; because that which is separated has hiddenly present in itself the capacity to unite also, as the two are nothing but the substance of the one. So, the indivisibility of the one presses itself forward even in the divisibility of the two. So, there is restlessness everywhere. Our sorrows, our difficulties or problems, our griefs and every kind of unwanted things here, are a tussle between two elements in our soul – the urge for diversity and the urge for unity, fighting with one another. This struggle is Samsara, right from the original Creator, Brahma, down to a blade of grass. This , the hunger of the spirit, is the activity of the cosmos, where, on one side, it struggles to become more and more wide in its physical quantitative expanse, and on the other side, it struggles to become one with the Universal Spirit. So, we have two elements present in us always – the tendency to unity and the tendency to diversity. We ask for expansion in quantity, and at the same time, we ask for a heightening of our value in quality. However, the Upani?had here mentions, in a very difficult word, that the origin of creation is indescribable, and it is indescribable merely because it preceded a state which requires the presence of the effect in the cause, and which was also preceded by a state which has within it, invisibly present, the capacity to multiply and also the capacity to unite.

The mind of the cosmos, which is called the Cosmic Mind, in usual parlance, is regarded here as an evolute, and not the original Being. The Absolute is Transcendent Being, and not a mind, thinking. It is not even a causal state. Even the causal state is supposed to be posterior to the Absolute. We never associate the Absolute with the world. The Brahman of the Upani?had, or the Absolute of philosophy, is the assertion of Being which is unrelated to creation. And, when we have to associate God with creation, we have a new word altogether for it. ?shvara is the word we use in the language of the Ved?nta. Such words do not occur in the Upani?hads. They are all to be found in the later Ved?nta, but they are assumed here.

To be continued ...

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