Guest guest Posted December 20, 2000 Report Share Posted December 20, 2000 - "Gopi Krishna" <gopi <vivekananda; <Ramakrishna > Wednesday, December 20, 2000 11:00 Question - Srishti Pranams, I have a doubt. May I request you to enlighten me. What is the meaning of this srishti? Why God has to do this Srishti at all? What is the basic idea behind it? Having created it, why has HE created both good and bad people. As we all know, Ravans and Hiranyakasypas turned against HIM and HIS devotees, ravaged Ashramas of Rishis and killed innumerable Sages and God Himself has to descend on earth to save His devotees. What is this all? God would have created only good people so that there will not be any problems whatsoever in the society. Every one would have been a righteous man and spend their tiem in praise of Lord always. What is the essence and purpose of this Srishti? May I request you to think it over and enlighten me. Om Srikrishnaarpanamasthu. Pranams Gopi. ========= one response ======== Dear Gopi Let me try and answer some of the points raised:- (a) One of the definitions of the word Shristi is - "projection". i.e. the Universe is really a projection (it is not real) is one vedantic concept. (Plato was working on similar ideas of ideal forms). This concept perhaps offers the best answers to the questions you have raised. (b) If the world is really a projection (and not the real thing) then we are stuck with a projection and do not have the 'real thing' -- what we perceive is never the absolute but always the relative. As soon as we get involved with the relative world there will be good and not so good (after all that is what relative means). So the idea of absolute good is replaced and we have good and not so good (which we normally label as bad). © The strongest criticism to such an approach would be: ' The world is for real' and all such vedantic thinking is 'mere escapism'. (The opponent will argue:"The fact that one cannot tackle the problem of evil does not mean you deny the the whole cosmos as mere projection). (d) Advaita Vedanta will respond. This is how the absolute appears or becomes visible (via the relative and hence there is no escape from the good and not so good = evil). 'Maya' is the only way to answer this question. (e) Dvaita Vedanta answers. All this (good and evil) is just the play of the Lord (called Leela). He needs both in order to develop the play. Why does He bother? "Well you should ask Him", they will say. But the key thing in a play is that play is for the sake of the play.... (so it is not that God is forced to create or even create good and evil - it is just his way of playing). Both these answers are quite unique to Hinduism. In a way both are attempting to answer the tricky questions: Why this universe ? Why evil? One is saying: There is really no creation it is just an appearance-Maya.. The other is saying: It is all just the way the Lord plays...Leela.. : ) jay ===================== Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 20, 2000 Report Share Posted December 20, 2000 > What is the meaning of this srishti? Why God has to do this Srishti at all? > What is the basic idea behind it? In RigVeda 10.129.4, it is said that 'Desire came upon that one in the beginning; that was the first seed of mind. Sages seeking in their heart with wisdom found the bond of existence in non-existence'. >Having created it, why has HE created both good and bad people. Nowhere in RigVeda does it say that HE created good and bad people. As per RigVeda, HE created beautiful people in his own image. >As we all know, Ravans and Hiranyakasypas turned > against HIM and HIS devotees, ravaged Ashramas of Rishis and killed > innumerable Sages and God Himself has to descend on earth to save >His devotees. What is this all? Sri Shankara said in one of his works, "A wicked son is sometimes born, But an unkind mother there cannot be." Besides, Krishna says in Gita 10:36, "I am the gambling of the fraudulent; I am the splendour of the splendid". >God would have created only good people so that > there will not be any problems whatsoever in the society. Every one would > have been a righteous man and spend their tiem in praise of Lord always. As per RigVeda, God created Shrishti in his own beautiful image that is exactly what the above inquiry seeks that God should have created only good people. > What is the essence and purpose of this Srishti? Essence and purpose of this Shrishti may be to understand for ourselves, what RigVeda said about Shrishti. In my humble opinion,Sir. With Love, Raghava Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 20, 2000 Report Share Posted December 20, 2000 Harih Aum: Swami Dayananda Saraswati of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam classifies shristi into two: Ishwara shristi and Jiva shristi. Let me repeat his example to ditinguish between Ishwara and Jiva shristi. Everything that we observe in the nature such as Banana, Apple, animals, insects, human beings are all parts of Ishwara shristi. When the jiva calls a banana - good banana, bad banana, rotten banana, riped banana, unriped banana belongs to jiva shristi. In addition, jiva also makes expressions such as "I like banana or I hate banana" also fall into the jiva shristi category. The jiva shristi will only cease when jiva accepts the nature as it is. Another way of saying this simple fact of life is the Upanishadic syaing: "Life is a bridge, enjoy while crossing and don't build any castles!" Most of the time, we determine to change the 'world' around us instead of changing our attitude to the world. Gandhiji once said, "The only change that the world need is you!" Calamities such as floods, fire, etc. do appear in the nature. The purpose of any such calamities is not to finger-pointing but it calls for our immediate action (most important opportunity) for help. There is another beautiful quotation which is displayed quite common in Christian Homes: "God grant us the serenity to Accept the things we cannot change; Courage to change those things we can, And the wisdom to know the difference." warmest regards, Ram Chandran advaitin , raghavakaluri wrote: > . > Nowhere in RigVeda does it say that HE created good and bad people. > As per RigVeda, HE created beautiful people in his own image. > .... > > With Love, > Raghava Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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