The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Ch-1, Second Brahmana, Post-4. : Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday, February 11, 2021. 10:43. AM.
Chapter I :
SECOND BRAHMANA: THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE-4.
Post-4.

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In the Sankhya and the Vedantaam cosmological descriptions, we have certain grades mentioned of the coming out of the effect from the cause. Before we go further into the difficulties envisaged in these passages of the Upani?hads, it is better to understand the evolutionary principles as initiated in the Sankhya and the Vedanta. The Sankhya tells us that there was an original condition where everything was potent, though not patent. Everything was hidden, though not expressed. Everything was in a universal causal state. That is regarded as the non-existent, dark, undeveloped, indivisible state of things. That is called Prakriti in the S??khya language. Those of us who have studied the Sankhya philosophy will know what is Prak?iti, and how evolutes proceed, come out, from this Prak?iti. Prak?iti is only a Sanskrit term for the matrix of all things, the original state where everything is in a mass, where one thing cannot be distinguished from the other, what the astronomers would call the nebular dust, in some way. But this is something more than that. It is a cosmic death, one may call it. Everything is contained there, and everything is hidden; everything is undeveloped and indistinguishable, incapable of being perceived, because even the sense-organs are not developed there.

Then, there is a tendency to think. The cosmic thought develops itself. That is what is indicated here by the words, 'tan mano' 'kurata'. From this undeveloped Being which was equivalent to universal darkness, mind arose. That mind is the Cosmic Mind. In the Sankhya, we call it Mahat; and in the VedAnta, we call it Hira?yagarbha. This cosmic undeveloped state is sometimes called Ishvara. Now, Ishvara is not undeveloped in the sense of a primitive state where intelligence is absent, but it is an exceedingly intelligent condition where distinctions are not present. We call it symbolically dark, because the light of the senses will not operate there. It is a light that is transcendent; and in the passages occurring in such verses as the Manusmriti, we are told that it was shinning as brightly as thousands of suns, Sahasram?usamaprabhm. How can we call it darkness? But, it was darkness to the eyes which were not developed, just as the blaze of the sun may be darkness to the eyes, when it is very intense.

So, the mind that is supposed to be the evolute, immediately proceeding from the undeveloped condition, is the Hira?yagarbha principle of the Ved?nta, coming from the ?shvara principle, or Mahat coming from Prakruiti. Then, there is the Ahamkaram proceeding from Mahat, the Self-sense of the cosmos. This is how the Sankhya would describe the development of the original, Cosmic 'I'-sense from the Cosmic Intelligence, which, again, is an evolute of the Cosmic Prakruiti. Then, there is the distinction between the subject and the object; on one side, there is the physical universe, and on the other side, there are the individuals. The physical universe is constituted of the Tanmatras – Sabda, Sparsa, Rupa, Rasa, Gandha, which become concretised by a process called quintuplication into the five elements – ether, air, fire, water and earth. And, subjectively, they become the individuals with the five Koshas – Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vijñanamaya and Anandamaya. These Koshas are the vestures of the individual soul – the physical, the vital, the mental, the intellectual and the causal bodies. These are called the five Koshas. And within these Koshas we have the Pranas, the senses of perception and action, and the mind, the ego, the subconscious, the unconscious, and the intellect; and ultimately, a very unintelligible substance within us which we experience in deep sleep – that is the causal state. So, this is how the Sankhya would describe the process of creation, which is followed literally, to some extent, in the Vedanta also, with only a distinction in definition. Instead of the terms; Prakruiti, Mahat, Ahamkara, we have the terms; Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha, Virat.

To be continued ...

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