Srimad Bhagavad Gita (God created the Universe)

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dear devotees, i took time for this post because there was a need to clarify

some of the key points on this apparently simple statement. sankara starts his

gita bhashya with

 

 

bhagavan srshtvedam jagat.

 

the lord created the universe

 

[Those who are some what familiar with advaita vedanta may

ask : " according advaita vedanta only brahman is real. this world is false. so

how is it said that the lord created the universe ? The world is not completely

false as in buddhist sunya vada. It is due to not misunderstanding of what is

mithya that most confusion comes. So let us dwell on this point right away based

on his own majestic statements on what is Maya in Vivekachudamani.

 

As in all his works, Sankara starts Vivekachudamani after worshipping Sri

Govinda, the supreme Teacher, beyond mind and words. In this work, Sankara

BhagavatpAdAl clearly talks about maya. let his majestic statements clear our

doubts about his position.

 

" avyaktanAmAni paramEsa sakti anAdi avidyA trigunAtmikA parA.

kAryAnumEyA sudhiyaiva mAyA yayA jagat sarvamidam prasUyate " (verse

110)

 

" MAyA is called avyakta. It is the power of paramEsvarA. It is

beginningless avidya. It is compacted of three gunas. It is superior to its

effects and is to be inferred from its effects by the wise whose intellect

functions in accord with the sruti. She gives birth to this entire world " .

 

(Please note how great paramesvara, the controller of mAyA, should be if mAyA

herself cannot be perceived directly but only inferred through its effects by

the wise - that too not by themselves but in accordance with the sruti.)

 

" sannApyasannApyubhayAtmikA no bhinnApyabhinnAyubhayAtmikA no.

sAngopyanangApyubhayAtmikA no mahAdbhutA'niraniyarUpA "

 

(Enjoy the nice metre of this verse as you delve in this divine

confluence of complex metaphysics and poetry)

 

" It is not real, not unreal, not both. It is not different, not non-different,

not both, It is not with parts, without parts, not both. It is very wonderful

and of a form, which is inexpressible "

 

The simplistic understanding of maya being false and same as sunya vada will

lead to all the confusion about advaita. It will make one an atheist if he did

not learn it properly.

 

Why does Sankra talk about world as being not aboslutely real. It takes courage

to say that what every one sees is not absolutely true. There is an old adage

" What is seen is false, What is heard is false, What is realized after thourough

investigation alone is true " . Though every one sees objects, if we scrutinize,

we are unable to ascertain their reality. Modern science is also not able to

grasp what is reality. For example, look at the tumbler in front of you, which

presents itself unquestionably as a tumbler. But when you analyze, it

is an alloy of steel, made of panca bhutas and ultimately sabda.

Where is the tumbler gone ? So reality of perception is valid only until our

intelligence operates to question that.

 

Sankara tells reasons based sastras as to why the world is not

aboslutely real.

 

" satyam yadi syAhhagadetadAtmano nantatvahAnirnigamApramAnatA

asatyavAditvam apIsitu syAt maitattrayam sAdhu hitam mahatmAnAm "

 

" If the world is real, the infinitude of the atman will be affected. the Vedas

will be rendered unauthoritative. Isvara will proclaimed as a speaker of

untruth. These three are neither good nor desirable to the great. " (verse 234)

 

isvaro vastu tattvajno " na cAham teshvavasthithah na ca matsthAni bhutAni "

tyemeva vyacikathat|| (235)

 

" Isvara who knows the truth about things has declared I am not in them nor are

the beings in Me "

 

Isvara knows the truth by the virtue of absence of ajnana in Him and as He is

free of the defects of delusion etc. He is jnana shakti balishvarya. He says,

" matsthani .... yogamisvaram "

 

" All beings are in Me and I am not in them.The beings are not in Me. see my

divine mAyA " . The Lord reconciles the seeming contradiction in these statements

by saying : " See my divine mAyA " . MAyA here means the power to make what does not

exist as it it exists and vice versa. This capacity itself is what is called

mithya, not complete falsity. The nature of mithya consists in a thing not being

as it appears and in appearing as it is not. Also, taitreya upanishad says that

" satyam

jnanam anantam brahma " and Chandogya upanishad says " The Self is all; All is

Self " . From this it is known that only the parabrahman exists. One may say " But

does the world not exist also? " If the inert world existed as it is, then the

brahman's infinitude, blissful nature would be affected as that which is inert

and niranda cannot be brahman. Even the world (aropita) has the lord

(adhishtana) as its basis. Nyaya sastras have clearly established the that

aropita is non-different from adhishtana. So the world as it appears (asat,

acit,nirananda) is not its true nature. Advaitins say, if he world is absolutely

real, let it appear in the dreamless sleep also.

 

" atah prthan nAsti jagat parAtmanah prthakpratitistu mrsA gunAhivat AroptasyAsti

kim arthavattA adhishtAnamAbhAti tathA bhramena "

 

" Therefore the world does not exist separate from Brahman. The

appearance of separateness is false, like a snake appearing on a

rope. What is the reality of the superimposed ? it is that the

substratum appears like it due to delusion " (237)

 

it is sruti vakya " sarvam khalvidam brahman " . " all this is brahman. "

 

The lord creating this world is only a tathastha lakshana. His

svarupa is ananda maya and jnana maya. He is non-different from

ananda and jnana. All that is there is present in parabrahman

inconceivably as jnana. Dont we see the banyan tree coming out of a seed which

has all the forms and functions of the banyan tree encoded in its genes ? That

is how every thing that is perceived - all names, forms and actions are present

in the supreme brahman as pure jnana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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