The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Ch-1, Second Brahmana, Post-5. : Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, February 21, 2021. 03:53. PM.
Chapter I :
SECOND BRAHMANA: THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE-5.
Post-5.

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So, this cosmological process, the development of the effect from the cause, gradually, from the Universal Being, down to the lowest of diverse elements – this it is that is described here in this Br?hma?a, which says that originally nothing was, from where the element of distinction between the subject and the object, characterised by a double activity of grasping and separation, was evolved, and then arose the Cosmic Mind, Hira?yagarbha.

Here is a passage of great significance from the point of view of philosophical technique employed in the understanding of the relation between the individual and the Universal. This which is a symbolic statement in the Upani?had, very hard, indeed, to understand, conveys a wealth of meaning. What exactly is the connection between the diverse individuals and the Universal Absolute? 

This has been a great point of discussion throughout the history of philosophy, and it is not easy to come to a conclusion. Often, it is thought that the Universal is a collection of all the individuals or particulars. Many a time, we are told by philosophers that the Absolute is the whole, and the individuals are the parts thereof; so that to get the Absolute, one has only to collect all the individuals and group them together, which means to say, anything that we find in the individual will be found in the Absolute. 

There will be nothing more in the Absolute than what we see in the individual. This conclusion also will follow, if this assumption is correct; and it is a very uncomfortable conclusion, because we are not seeking in the Absolute merely what is in us. A million people put together cannot be regarded as qualitatively superior to what a single individual is. It is also held that the Absolute is transcendent in the sense that it has no connection at all with the visible universe. Often, it is also held that the Absolute is so much absorbed in the universe that we cannot find it outside the universe. So, we have theories and theories, and doctrines and doctrines.

This Upanis?had, in this one single sentence, tells us what the fact is. The original condition, causing the manifestation of diversity, is the death of universality. This is what is called M?ityu. The death of something becomes the birth of something else. For the birth of the individual, the universal has to die. Very strange, indeed! We cannot understand what this means. The death of the universal means the complete abolition of the consciousness of the universal; and for all practical purposes, death and absence of consciousness are the same. 

The condition that is requisite, absolutely necessary, for the manifestation of the universe in the form of diversity, is an abolition of the consciousness of the Absolute, because there is no question of the manifestation of diversity in the Absolute. Manifestation requires space, time and cause, and many other things that follow. If the Absolute is spaceless and timeless, durationless, infinitude, eternity, the question of creation, manifestation, etc. does not arise there. Then, how comes this universe? From where has this universe arisen, or the diversity come? It can be explained, says this Upanis?had, by a strange phenomenon that should be assumed to have taken place, if at all creation is to be taken as a fact.

To be continued ....

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