Hari Potter or The Complexities of Creation

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Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

 

 

Hari Potter or Complexities of Creation

 

The one thing philosophers belonging to all religions, sects and sub

sects are agreed upon is that God created this world. There might be differences

among them about the exact process and the nuts and bolts of Creation, but they

are unanimous on the Lord's authorship of the world and its innumerable

inhabitants.

 

There is also no difference of opinion that non-sentient matter as well as

sentient beings were indeed products of God's creation. Only the atheists,

consisting of a microscopic minority, disagree with this idea: however, since

they disagree with most of what everyone else agrees upon, we need not take them

seriously.

 

 

 

Turning to our own Sampradaya, as staunch votaries of the Shruti, we

believe implicitly in the Lord being the Creator. The TaittirIyOpanishad says,

" yatO vA imAni bhootAni jAyantE-------tat vijigyAsasva, tat Brahma " ,

conclusively laying down that the Supreme Power is that from which all beings

and objects are born. This is reiterated in the Mahabharata too, in the words of

Sri Bhishmacharya-

 

" yata: sarvANi bhootAni bhavanti Adi yugAgamE " . Sri Nammazhwar concurs with this

at several places in Tiruvaimozhi-

 

" ondrum dEvum ulagum uyirum mattrum yAdum illa

 

andru nAnmukhan tannOdu dEvar ulagOdu uyir padaitthAn "

 

 

 

" pAmaru moovulagum padaittha PadmanAbhAvO " etc.

 

 

 

" Eka: tvam asi lOkasya srashtA samhAraka: tatA " says the Jitanta Stotram.

 

The reason for furnishing these multiple quotes to confirm the same point is to

emphasize the unanimity on the subject.

 

 

 

The Purusha Sukta, describing the process of creation, details a Cosmic yagyam

performed for the purpose, from which was born the VirAt Purusha, from whom were

born various categories of celestial beings. From the Lord's face were born

DvijAs, from His powerful shoulders the princely clan and so on. From His mind

was created the Moon, giving it its pleasant and cool nature, and from His eyes

the Sun, the provider of life-giving light and heat. Again from the face was

born fire and from His breath, air. The skies originated from His navel and the

upper worlds from His head, while the Earth was born from His holy feet. His

ears gave birth to the four principal directions and so were created the various

worlds and their inhabitants.

 

 

 

The process of Creation is recounted in other contexts too in the Shruti,

slightly differing from the one outlined above. The Puranas too devote quite a

few pages to the subject, with minor differences in detail. Again, there is no

dispute about who created the worlds.

 

 

 

If we go into the mechanics of Creation, not only of the Universe, but of any

creation or production, we find that there are three principal requirements for

the process-

 

 

 

1.The material cause- There has to be some raw material, out of which the

proposed object is to be fashioned. This is indispensable, for things can't be

made out of thin air. If we take the oft-repeated example of a pot, it can be

made only out of the basic raw material of clay. Think of anything, you will

find that there is something that goes into its manufacture, an essential

material component.

 

 

 

2. The Accessories- For making anything, one needs tools. Raw materials will not

by themselves be transformed into the desired object, unless they are processed

with the aid of tools. In the aforesaid example of the pot, clay can be made

into a pot only if it is shaped on the potter's wheel.

 

 

 

3. The Efficient Cause-The basic material and the tools of production may be

available, but unless there is someone to make use of them in the appropriate

manner, production would not result. Without the potter, neither the clay nor

the tools themselves would be of any use. It is he who uses both in the

prescribed fashion to turn raw clay into an earthen vessel, with the aid of the

wheel.

 

 

 

Apart from the above, there has to be a place from which the production process

is to be carried out, as the potter, his wheel, clay etc. require a location

from which to operate.

 

 

 

Having accepted the Lord as the Creator, we are faced with a few questions,

seemingly unanswerable, which strike at the very basis of our belief.

 

 

 

First and foremost, it is necessary to have tools for any sort of production or

creation, making them indispensable aids in the process. If we accept this, then

the question arises as to what are the Accessories that the Lord uses when He

creates. Accepting the existence of such accessories would again raise the

question as to who created them. If our reply is that the Lord created the

accessories also, this would raise the query as to what were the tools used in

the manufacture of those accessories. Such questions could hence be asked ad

infinitum, and would be akin to the argument about which came first, the hen or

the egg. If He used tools, then those tools had to be created with the aid of

some more tools, which again would not have been possible without yet more

accessories, and so on. If carried to its impossible but logical conclusion, it

may necessitate an admission as to the existence of tools, which were not

created by the Lord, which again would run counter to our principle of the Lord

being the Universal Creator.

 

 

 

The second question is-when the Lord creates, which place does He have as His

base for the process? Just as the potter has his shed from where he turns out

the pots, the Lord too has to have some place from which he carries on the

process of Creation. If we point to a particular place and ascribe the activity

as based in that place, we would have to answer the question of who created that

place. If our answer is that the Lord did, it would again raise the query as to

from which base the instant place was created. Interminable questions could be

asked in this regard, as each successive production base for the creative

process would be subject to the same objection that it has to have a different

place of establishment.

 

 

 

There are also allied questions as to why the Lord should create the world, for

any action is invariably with a purpose in mind. None, not even a mad man, acts

in a particular fashion, without a specific purpose- " phalam anuddisya na mandOpi

pravartatE " . Hence Creation too has to be with a definite objective in mind. If

we accept this, then it would mean that the specific purpose the Lord had in

mind while undertaking creation, was obviously not satisfied prior to Creation.

Had the objective been achieved prior to Creation, there would be absolutely no

need for Creation at all. And if there was a time (before Creation) when the

Lord's wishes had not been satisfied, we can't really call Him a person with

fulfilled wants ( " avApta samasta kAma: " ), can we?

 

 

 

These and other objections of the same genre are not idle ones thrown up just

for debate, but were issues bandied about by a minority school of thought, who

would not accept the Lord's authorship of the world. This is evident from Sri

KoorattAzhwan's couplet in Sri Vaikuntastavam-

 

 

 

" Kim sAdhana: kva nivasan kim upAdadAna:kasmai phalAya srijati Isa:idam samastam

 

ityAdi anishtita kutarkam atarkayanta: tvat vaibhavam Shruti vidO vidu:

apratarkyam "

 

 

 

Sri Koorattazhwan terms all the aforesaid questions as " kutarkam " or illogical

arguments against the Lord's Creatorship of the world.

 

 

 

If these are questions regarding Creation, there are others too about the Lord's

role in Destruction, the Cosmic Deluge. This time, it is no cantankerous

adversary who raises the matter, but an Azhwar. Sri Poigai Azhwar, referring to

Emperuman's endearing form, that of an infant lying on a banyan leaf amidst the

raging waters of the Cosmic Deluge, with all the worlds and beings safe in His

small tummy-the Vatapatra SAyee. He asks the Lord, with the liberty of those who

are close, where the banyan leaf came from, when the entire universe was in the

throes of destruction. Where could the parent tree have been rooted, for there

was absolutely no land left, having been inundated by the swirling waters of the

praLayam. Azhwar wonders sarcastically whether the strange tree (which gave

birth to the leaf on which the Lord reclined) had its roots in the waters or in

the sky. Azhwar seeks a categorical reply from the Lord as to the origins of

this weird ad wonderful tree, which had not a place to put out its roots, yet

was able to beget the leaf, which could accommodate the Lord Himself. Here is

the beautiful pasuram, for which the Lord apparently no reply-

 

 

 

" BAlan tanadu uruvAi Ezhulagu uNdu-Alilaiyin

 

mEl andru nee vaLarnda mey enbar-Al andru

 

vElai neer uLladO viNnadO maNNadO

 

sOlai soozh kundru edutthAi sollu "

 

 

 

Imagine the scene-all the Universe, with its innumerable inhabitants, has been

overrun by the swirling waters. There is a great emptiness, relieved only by the

deluge, in which all the oceans have combined to inundate all available land.

The sole remnant of the destructive deluge is the Lord Himself, who has

swallowed all the sentient and non-sentient beings and stored them in His tiny

tummy for safekeeping, till the occasion arises for the next Creative process.

His form, however, is that of a bewitching infant, apparently in hunger and

chewing the toe of His foot, holding it still in His right hand. And amidst all

the deluge and the raging waters, He reclines on a small banyan leaf, hardly

enough to provide full cover to His little back. Amidst the chaotic inundation,

this wonderful leaf and its worthy occupant alone remain stable and steady,

unaffected by the terrifying torrents. It is this scene that makes the Azhwar

wonder where the leaf could have come from and how it was able to accommodate

the great and glorious Lord Himself.

 

 

 

These and other such questions about the Lord's doings are answered by Sri

KoorattAzhwan in the latter half of the sloka cited above- " tvat vaibhavam

Shruti vidO vidu: apratarkyam " . Those who have mastered the Vedas know that the

Lord's capabilities are beyond debate, He being verily the omnipotent Supreme

Being, having the wherewithal to make anything happen, however strange and

impossible it may sound for others. His capacity for extraordinary feats is

indeed inexhaustible and it is futile to question Him on how or why He does

certain things and not others.

 

 

 

Lest this be regarded as a facile explanation for the inconvenient questions

posed above, Sri Koorattazhwan cites the impartial and eternal Shruti as the

expert witness in this regard, for proving the Lord's competence for making the

impossible happen ( " aghatita ghatanA sAmartyam " ).

 

 

 

The Upanishad pays glorious tribute to the Lord's capabilities, by putting them

on a lofty pedestal, beyond human ken, and attesting to their varied and

imponderable character- " ParAsya shakti: vividhaiva shrooyatE "

 

 

 

We, who have not even a trillionth portion of the Lord's capacity, in all its

myriad manifestations, are hardly qualified to comment on what He can or cannot

do. Nothing is impossible for Him, for His Shakti is such. If we are able to

accept, albeit with a pinch of salt, the daring and hardly-credible exploits of

Supermen in films and comics, we should have no difficulty in admitting the

powers extraordinaire of the omnipotent Lord for creating without aids or

accessories, for carrying out the Creative function without an apparent base,

for undertaking the function of destruction lying on a little leaf emanating

apparently from nowhere. For, after all, He is the Parabrahmam who is able to

see without eyes, hear without ears and run without legs, capable of achieving

any objective instantaneously, through the single thought that it be so.

 

 

 

Swami Desikan too deals with the matter and arrives at the same conclusion in

his own inimitable way, in Achyuta Satakam-

 

 

 

" Purusha pradhAna sharIra: bhuvanAnAm bhavasi Achyuta! UpAdAnam

 

nija sankalpa sanAtha: vahasi nimittatvam api adhbhuta shakti: "

 

 

 

Addressing Sri Devanatha of Tiruvaheendrapuram, Swami Desikan wonders at His

astonishing powers for putting through amazing acts, beyond even the

contemplation of the most exalted of deities, powers which have been neither

heard of or witnessed earlier-:adhbuta shakti: " . It is this Shakti, which

enables Him to create the various worlds with Himself as both the material and

efficient cause. Having accommodated all matter and beings in a sublime form in

His capacious stomach, He uses the same as the material cause for bringing forth

Creation as and when occasion arises. It is His divine Will, Sankalpam, to

transform Himself from a Supreme Being with sentient and non-sentient matter

forming an inseparable part of Himself, into the Universal Ruler with a full

complement of adoring acolytes, manifesting themselves into a gross form

compared to their earlier subtle one. When He wills to become many ( " bahu:syAm

prajAyEyEti " ), He creates the innumerable varieties of beings and objects, all

forming His own sharIram.

 

 

 

It is this wonderful character of the Lord that makes Him tower head and

shoulders above deities who are after all His own creation and make the latter

appear to be mere pygmies in comparison. And it is this amazing ability of the

Lord to enact the apparently impossible, that also endows us with the faith that

there is some one who can pardon even our gross, grievous and countless sins

accumulated over one sinful birth after another. Otherwise, we feel convinced

that it is impossible for anyone to take anything but a serious view of our

innumerable indiscretions. As " aparAdha ChakravarttIs " specialising in

transgressions, we are relieved that it is indeed possible for the Lord, with

His powers extraordinaire, to forgive us, notwithstanding our unforgivable

offences, if only we adopt the simple but effective strategy of Prapatti.

 

 

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana

Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dasan, sadagopan