Vivekananda Mailing List-8/6/03

[Guest guest]

To use a simile: Brahman is as the clay or substance out of which an

infinite variety of articles are fashioned. As clay, they are all one;

but form or manifestation differentiates them. Before every one of them

was made, they all existed potentially in the clay, and, of course,

they are identical substantially; but when formed, and so long as the

form remains, they are separate and different; the clay-mouse can never

become a clay-elephant, because, as manifestations, form alone makes

them what they are, though as unformed clay they are all one. Ishvara

is the highest manifestation of the Absolute Reality, or in other

words, the highest possible reading of the Absolute by the human mind.

Creation is eternal, and so also is Ishvara.