Thath thvam asi - chandhogya upanishat 6.1

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thath eke

aahuH asadheva idham agra

aaseeth ekam eva adhvitheeyam thasmaath asathaH sath jaayatha

 

Some say ( the nihilists or soonyavadhins) that

Non-being alone, without a second was in

the beginning and from that Non-being arose the Being.

 

Kuthasthu

khalu soumya evam syaath ithi hovaacha kaTham asathaH sath jaayetha ithi. Sath

thu eva soumya idham agra

aaseeth ekam eva adhvitheeyam

 

How can Being originate from Non Being, my dear,

Only Being was there in the beginning one only without a second.

 

In any argument First the main subject must be

established without doubt. Here Brahman or sath is the main subject and it is

established by quoting an opposite view and refuting it. The nihilists of

Buddhist school deny a permanent existence and hence they are called

sunyavadins. For them everything that

exists has no real existence and nothing , sunya was there in the beginning.

The universe as such is only an illusion.

 

This view is negated here by pointing out the

absurdity that Being or existence can come out of non-existence or

Nonbeing.There should be a cuse for everything and that should be a real thing

sucha s the sprout coming from the seed and a pot produced from clay. Even for an

illusion like a serpent seen in a rope there should be a real substratum , the

rope. Buddhist doctrines are refuted in

the commentaries on Brahmasuthra both by Sankara and Ramanuja. That is the

elucidation of what is said in the Upanishads.

 

Denying that Nonbeing could not be the source of

Being Uddhalaka Aruni proceeds to explain further how the universe came into

being from Brahman.

 

thath

aikshatha bahu syaam prajaayeya

 

That Being, Brahman willed. ."I may become many : I

may grow forth."

 

The sentences sadhevasoumya

idham agra

aaseeth, ekam eva adhvitheeyam ; thadhaikshatha bahusyaam prajaayeya taken

together is known as sadhvidhya. Brahman is thus shown to be the upaadhaana karaNa , material cause of

the universe like the mud in the creation of pot, and also the nimittha karaNa like the potter and sahakari karaNa, auxiliary cause like

the potter's wheel.