The Jagat or Cosmos was created by God out of Himself so that
He is the originator as well as the material of the Cosmos. As a
result, He is Full (Paripoorna). The Creation is also Full and the
Individual Atma is also Full. Therefore, many full entities are
postulated. God made the Cosmos manifest from Himself; when this
declaration is made, the doubt may naturally arise, "How could God
become these walls, these tables?" God is supremely pure; how
could He become these impure things? This is another doubt that
comes uppermost to some.
Let us seek the answers. Man is fundamentally Atma; but, he has
the encasement of a body, hasn't he? From one point of view, man
is not distinct from the body, is he? In spite of this, however,
man feels that he is not This body, that his reality is distinct
from it, that he is not the baby he was or the old man he is, that
he is neither male nor female, and that he persists through
babyhood, boyhood, middle age and old age, masculinity and
femininity and all the other stages and changes. So too, the
Cosmos and all Creation are but the billion bodies of God. He is
all this and in all this, but, He is changeless and eternal.
Nature is amenable to change. The Atma too can contract or expand,
blossom or fade, shine or be befogged. Bad deeds will diminish its
splendour by clouding its brilliance. Its innate and genuine Truth
and Wisdom may be hidden by evil thoughts and deeds. Those acts
and practices that can disclose the native splendour and glory of
the Atman are termed 'good'.
The Atma is 'unbound' at first; but, later it is seen as
limited and restricted. Through good deeds and activities, it
resumes its vastness and boundlessness. Everyone without any
difference has the opportunity to achieve this transformation.
When the time gets ripe, everyone can succeed in this and liberate
himself from the bounds and bonds. But, the Jagat (Cosmos) will
not end. That is eternal, incapable of being destroyed. This is
the explanation of the second school of philosophy in India. The
first one is the Dualist or the Dwaitha. The second one is the
Visishta-adwaitha or the Special-Adwaitha. This is a higher stage
in spiritual enquiry and experience. It posits three entities -
God, the Atma, and Nature, and speaks of an integration of the
three. The Dualists posit that the Cosmos is a vast machine
designed and operated by God. The Visishta-Adwaithins declare that
it is a phenomenon that is interpenetrated and imbued with the
Divine. But, the Adwaithins or the Non-Dualists assert that God is
not outside the Cosmos, that He became the Cosmos (Jagat), and
that He is all that is. There is nothing except God, no
Other, no Second. This truth has to be accepted by all. This is
the highest Truth. To say that God is the Atma and the Cosmos is
as the Body which He operates and lives in, is not correct. To
assert that the Atma (God) is eternal and changeless but the
Cosmos which is His Body can be subject to change and
transformation is also not satisfying.
What does it signify when it is said, "God is the
Upadana-karana, the Proximate Cause of the Cosmos"? Proximate
cause means the cause which produced the effect. The 'effect' is
the 'cause' in another form. It cannot be separate from the cause.
Every effect that we notice is but the cause that has assumed a
new form. The Cosmos is the effect, God is the Cause - these
statements only stress the fact that the Cosmos is but God in
another form. When it is argued that the Body is limited and
subtle, and that It leads one to the Cause, that is, God, or it
was from God that it has evolved and taken shape, the Non-Dualists
would reply that it was God Himself who manifested in the form of
the Cosmos.
It may be doubted whether all this multiplicity of things and
beings are really God. Yes. It is the Truth. All these that the
senses cognise, that come into the awareness, are God. There is
nothing else but He. Our bodies, minds, intellects, consciousness
- all are God.
Here, another doubt may arise. Why should God be so many
individualised beings? Why should He be so many Jivatmas? Will
God, who is of one Form, manifest Himself as so many? How did this
happen? If God had transformed Himself into the Cosmos, He should
have subjected Himself to change; all things in Nature that are by
their very composition subject to change, suffer both birth and
death. And, if God has come within the precincts of change, does
it mean that He too has to die some day? Has he to undergo change
and ultimately end? Keep in mind this point also. Then, there is
another point to be considered. How much of God, what portion of
God became the Cosmos?
The Adwaithins say, "Whatever the portion you may allot, or
guess about, remember this: The Cosmos does not exist. It is an
illusion. It never is, has been or will be. The Creation of the
Cosmos, the dissolution of the Cosmos, these billions of
individuals emerging and merging, all this is but a dream. There
is no individualised Jivatma at all, no separated Atma. How can
there be billions of Jivatmas? There is only One Indivisible
Complete Absolute. Like the one Sun reflected as a billion suns in
a billion lakes, ponds, and drops of water, the Jivatmas are but
reflections of the One in the minds that it shines upon. This is
what Bharathiya thought emphasises most clearly through the
Adwaithin thinkers. Those who cannot grasp this truth are under
the influence of Maya or Delusion, it can be said.
Dreams too have to be based on reality. Without a basic
reality, the 'dependent idea or fact' cannot exist. Without a
basic thing, subsequent things cannot emanate. Without a basic
being, subsequent beings cannot manifest. That base is God or
Iswara. He is Full, He is the Mind, the Body, the Atma. You are
only as real as a dream. For the eye that can see reality, the
Cosmos is, not this multiplicity of name and form, but, mere
Sath-Chith-Ananda, Being-Awareness-Bliss. Just think of your
dream. It does not arise from somewhere outside you nor do the
varied images and activities disappear into some place outside
you. They arise in you and disappear into you. While dreaming, you
consider the events and persons as real, and you experience, as
really as in the waking stage, the feelings of grief, delight,
fear, anxiety, and joy. You do not dismiss them at the time as
illusory. The Cosmos is the dream of God; it arises in Him and
merges in Him. It is the product of His Mind. These lives, and
repeated arrivals, all are the fanciful weavings of Maya, unreal
fantasies, illusory agitations, unreal appearances. You are the
Full, you are God. God is You. Those who have experienced this
highest wisdom can attain oneness with the One, here and now.