The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Ch-1. Second Brahmana, The Creation of the Universe. : 4. Swami Krishnananda.

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Tuesday, June 1, 2021. 8:05. PM.
Chapter - I :
SECOND BRAHMANA: 
THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE-4.
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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 Upanishad, 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. Ishvara is the word we use in the language of the Vedanta. Such words do not occur in the Upanishads. They are all to be found in the later Vedanta, but they are assumed here.

In the Sankhya and the Vedanta 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 Upanishads, 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 Prakruti in the Sankhya language. 

Those of us who have studied the Sankhya philosophy will know what is Prakruti, and how evolutes proceed, come out, from this Prakruti. Prakruti 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 Hiranyagarbha. 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 Samaprabham. 

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 Hiranyagarbha principle of the Vedanta, coming from the Ishvara principle, or Mahat coming from Prakruti. Then, there is the Ahamkara 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 Prakruti. 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 Prnas, 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; Prakruti, Mahat, Ahamkara, we have the terms; Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha, Virat.

To be continued ...


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