The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Ch-1. Second Brahmana, The Creation of the Universe. : 8. Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, July 11, 2021. 7:26. PM.
Chapter - I :
SECOND BRAHMANA : 
THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE-8.
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So, such is the very interesting doctrine propounded by thinkers like Acharya Adi Sri Swami Sankara. 

We find it in the Brahma-Sutras, especially, mentioned in a very concise form. Perhaps, this doctrine is based upon the Upanishads, which are more concise and less clear in their exposition. 

Here we have such a type of doctrine of creation, which makes out that the consciousness of the world is the reverse of the Consciousness of the Absolute, which is very strange for us to hear and even to understand. It is not a part of the Absolute that we are seeing when we are looking out into the world. We are seeing something topsy-turvy, a reversed form, as we see ourselves reversed in water as a reflection. 

When we stand on the bank of the Ganga and see ourselves reflected, we will find that the head which is topmost will be the lowermost there. The feet which are the lowermost will be the uppermost in the reflection. So, there is a complete reversal of the position of the body when it is reflected. Some such thing is said to have taken place at the time of creation, so that, when we see the head of ours reflected in water, it appears to be our head, but it is not really our head. 

The head that we see, reflected in water, looks like our head, and it is exactly like our head. We may mistake it for our head, but it is not our head, really. Likewise, we may mistake these things of the world for the Absolute, but they are not, in the same way as we may think the reflected head is ours, but it is not.

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And, also, another analogy is given in a passage of the Katha Upanishad as to what happens in creation. 

There is a reversal of the whole position, as our face is reversed in a mirror where it is reflected – the right becomes left, and the left becomes right – even so, the subject becomes the object, and the object becomes the subject, when the creation takes place, which is the essence of the whole matter. Very interesting, and very comforting, indeed! We can imagine where we are seated, and what has happened to us. God has played a very beautiful joke with us, made us great fools, turned us upside down by positing the subject in the context of the object, and the object in the context of the subject. Really, we are the objects; the universe is the subject. 

This is the truth. But, we think that we are the subjects, and the universe is the object, and gaze at it, look at it, try to exploit it for our own individual purposes, under the misapprehension that we are the subjects. We are subjects in the same sense as the reflected head is our head.

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So, this reversal of the position of the Absolute is called Mrityu, or destruction, or death, here. 

Well, it is destruction indeed, when we mistake one thing for another thing by completely forgetting the original, and we are destroyed, in fact, when we are in a different paradise altogether, where we are under an illusion. And, consciousness gets reflected wherever there is this reversed position, cognised or felt, where consciousness attends. 

So there is a reflected consciousness, also. The entire personality of ours may be said to be a reflected structure. Even the intellect is a reflection of the consciousness of God. It is not qualitatively equivalent to God-consciousness. It does not mean that a tiny part of God is in our brains. Not so; it is reflected, which means distorted. The sun, reflected in water, may look like the sun, but it does not have the quality of the sun. It will not burn you. You cannot warm yourself by the reflected sun in the water.

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To be continued ....


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