Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 71)

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Parts 1 to 70 were posted earlier. This is part 71. Your comments are welcome... Vivekananda Centre London

Earlier postings can be seen at http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 71

 

2. God Creates the World through the Eternal Ideas of the Vedas

Knowledge exists, people only discover it. The Vedas are the eternal knowledge though which God created the world. (35)

The commentator Sayanacharya says, somewhere in his works, "[God] created the whole universe out of the knowledge of the Vedas." (36)

The Creator Him or Herself is creating, preserving and destroying the universe with the help of… [Vedic] truths. (37)

Veda is of the nature of shabda or of idea. It is but the sum-total of ideas. Shabda, according to the old Vedic meaning of the term, is the subtle idea which reveals itself by taking the gross form later on. So, owing to the dissolution of creation, the subtle seeds of future creation become involved in the Vedas.... In other words, all created objects began to take concrete shape out of the shabdas or ideas in the Veda. For in shabda, or idea, all gross objects have their subtle forms. Creation has proceeded in the same way in all previous cycles or kalpas. (38)

In the universe Brahma or Hiranyagarbha or the cosmic Mahat first manifested Himself as name, and then as form, i.e. as this universe. All this expressed sensible universe is the form behind which stands the eternal inexpressible sphota, the manifester as logos or word. This eternal sphota, the essential, eternal material of all ideas or names, is the power through which the Lord creates the universe; nay, the Lord first becomes conditioned as the sphota, and then evolves Himself out as the yet more concrete, sensible universe. This sphota has one word as its only possible symbol and this is the Om. And as by no possible means of analysis can we separate the word from the idea, this Om, and the eternal sphota are inseparable; and, therefore, it is out of this holiest of all holy words, the mother of all names and forms, the eternal Om, that the whole universe may be supposed to have been created. (39)

Disciple: But, sir, how, in the absence of an actual concrete object can the shabda or idea be applied, and for what? And how can the names, too, be given at all?

Swami Vivekananda: Yes, that is what on first thought seems to be the difficulty. But, just think of this: supposing this jug breaks into pieces; does the idea of the jug become null and void? No, because the jug is the gross effect, of which the idea jug is the subtle state, or shabda state of the jug. In the same way, the shabda-state of every object is its subtle state; and the things we see, hear, touch or perceive in any manner are the gross manifestations of entities in the subtle or shabda state, just as we may speak of the effect and its cause. Even when the whole creation is annihilated, the shabda, as the consciousness of the universe or the subtle reality of all concrete things, exists in Brahman as the cause. At the point of creative manifestation, this sum total of causal entities vibrates into activity, as it were; and, as being the sonant, material substance of it all, the eternal, primal sound of Om continues to come out of itself. And then from the causal totality comes out first the subtle image or shabda-form of each particular thing and then its gross manifestation. Now, that causal shabda, or word-consciousness, is Brahman, and it is the Veda. This is the purport of Sayana. Do you now understand?

Disciple: No, sir, I can't clearly comprehend it.

Swami Vivekananda: Well, you understand, I suppose, that even if all the jugs in the universe were to be destroyed, the idea or shabda, jug would still exist. So, if the universe be destroyed - I mean, if all the things making up the universe were to be smashed to atoms - why should not the ideas, or shabdas representing all of them in consciousness, be still existing? And why cannot a second creation be supposed to come out of them in time?

Disciple: But, sir, if one cries out, "Jug! Jug!" that does not cause any jug to be produced!

Swami Vivekananda: No, nothing is produced if you or I cry out like that; but a jug must be revealed if the idea of it rises in Brahman, which is perfect in its creative determination. When we see even those established in the practice of religion (sadhakas) bring about by will-power things otherwise impossible of happening, what to speak of Brahman, with perfect creativeness of will? At the point of creation Brahman becomes manifest as shabda and then assumes the form or nada or Om. At the next stage, the particular shabdas or ideas that variously existed in previous cycles, such as bhuh, bhuvah, swah, cow, human being, etc., begin to come out of the Om. As soon as these appear in Brahman endowed with perfect will, the corresponding concrete things also appear, and gradually the diversified universe becomes manifest. (40)

 

Cross reference to:

Ka. Up., 1.2.15-16