Sutra Vahini Index

Eekshather Naa Sabdam

The Vedas assert that Brahmam is the Primal Cause of Jagath (Cosmos). They do not posit any non-conscious entity (achetana) as the Cause. The Sabdam, or the Voice of God or Veda, does not support the view of the non-conscious as being the origin of Creation. On the other hand, the Being (Sath) is asserted to have resolved upon Becoming, to have entertained a Sankalpa (decision). Resolution, decision, design - these are acts of Consciousness; non-conscious entities are incapable of such exercises of will. Brahmam, which is All-conscious, has therefore to be accepted as the Primal Cause.

The non-conscious or achetana is called the Pradhaana. The Vedas do not speak about it. This is what this Sutra reveals very clearly. Pradhaana is the designation by which the Name-Form-Flux, namely, the Jagath or Cosmos, is denoted by some schools of thought. Other schools refer to it as Atom-composed or Prakrithi (the Made). Others say, in terms of praise, "You are the Omniwill, the Absolute Self, the Paramatma. Because of You, all this diversity is projected." Others argue that the three gunas or qualities are the fundamental constituents, which, through the preponderance of one or the other, cause the diversity in Nature.

These views are not supported by the Vedic authority. The Vedas maintain that Brahman willed and Creation emerged. That Will is the prologue, the preliminary act. The Sankhya school posits the Pradhaana and bases Creation on the Gunas. When the three Gunas (Sathwa - Serenity; Rajas - Activity; and Tamas - Passivity) are well balanced and in equipoise, no conscious decision can arise, the Sankhyas said. That state has to receive the impact of a Purusha who is the Witness and who is Awareness or Consciousness, in other words, the impact of God's Will. That makes the Pradhaana knowing and knowable.

Considering each of these theories, the most correct conclusion is that Brahman is the Prime Cause. Of course, the highest accessible Truth is not the Attributeless, Qualityless, Intangible, Inexplicable Brahman. It is the Saguna Brahman, the Brahman cognizable through the Qualities which It has imposed on Itself. This Cosmos, which is composed of Consciousness and non-consciousness, is the Body It has assumed.

The Individual has to be endowed with Consciousness (Chaithanya) so that he can either commit or omit, do or desist from, actions which he feels he should carry out. What has to be done today or put off till tomorrow, which crops have to be grown in the coming year - such thoughts, plans and projects arise only in the field of Consciousness and not in non-conscious stone and wood, hill and dale. Willing is the sign of Consciousness; that which has it not, cannot will at all.

When the Will emerged, Brahman became Iswara, God. And by that Will alone, God created the Cosmos or Jagath. From the superficial view (Sthoola Drishti), God and Jagath strike one as distinct. But when examined with subtle insight (Sookshma Drishti), one finds that there is not fundamental distinction between the material (padaarth) and the Maker (Param-aartha), the Living unit (Praani) and the Life Principle (Praana). The Life principle imposes a body on Itself and appears as Praani; and then from Praani, Praana emerges.

The Vedic scriptures deal with the Brahman Principle and Its manifestations. They give man the treasure of wisdom and intuitive experience of that wealth (Jnana and Vijnana). But with the passage of time, the hymns, verses and sacred formulae (Mantras) were interpreted ritualistically. They were extolled and expounded as useful for attaining worldly and other-worldly objectives. Rites performed with the recital of these were considered as beneficial Karmas. In fact, there is nothing in Cosmos apart from or distinct from Brahman. All of it emanated from Brahman, all of it is absorbed (laya) in Brahman, and all of it moves and has its being in Brahman only.

This truth is made clear by the Sutra, Thajjallaath: Thath (from That) ..Ja (born) ..La (absorbed) ..Aath (grows). These are the four feet on which the proposition stands and is established. Birth, growth and death form a Yajna or Sacrifice of the Purusha, the Person.

The Cosmos (Prapancha - the five-element Composite) has emanated from the Omniself, the Paramatma, Brahman. There is no spot anywhere where Its manifestation is not. The Jagath is ever in movement; the Lord of the Cosmos (Jagadiswara) is the mover. Worldly love is not genuine love; the love of the Atma is the source of all such love. The Upanishad announces that this was the teaching that Yaajnavalkya imparted to Maitreyi. "Aatmanastu Kaamaaya sarvam priyam bhavati". (It is for one's Atma that all is dear). Love for the Self is primary; love for other objects is secondary. If one loves another, that cannot be termed as love. The self craves for Ananda, and loves because of the Ananda derivable therefrom. Anuraaga or affection or love flows from self towards self. So, when the Atmic Reality is understood as the Source, we can know that all that happens through the Supreme Consciousness, Brahma Chaithanya.

Chara and Achara (the apparently moving and unmoving, active and inert) are both willed by the Divine (Daiva sankalpa). That Will is Chetthana, a Conscious Act; it is not A-chethana, a form of inertia. This is the truth revealed by this Sutra - Eekshather naa Sabdam.

Whatever arguments and counter-arguments are advanced by any person, the truth that Daiva Sankalpa is the root of everything stands unshakable. Those persons are either deluded by appearances or are only trying to bolster up their pet fancies avoiding deeper probes.

The human body is a support, a receptacle (aalam-banam) for the Atma. Elements like water and wind are intimately bound up with the body. Therefore, the Atma Principle, the Brahma Principles, which is the core, is not cognized. Man has lost the awareness of this Principle or Thatva which is his Truth. It is in the body, but not of it. It is the A-sareera Thatva, the Principle that does not belong to the body though active in it. That is the Atma.

The capacity of the eyes to see and the capacity of the ears to hear are given by the Atma. How, then, can the eyes see the Atma or the ears hear It? The eyes and ears are (Aadheya) sustained; the Omni-Consciousness (Sarva Chaithanya), the Brahman Principle, the Atma, is the Aadhaara, the Sustainer. That is the real "You", the Will, the Sankalpa.

The elements (space, wind, fire, water and earth) that constitute the Cosmos operate only as prompted by the Supreme Wisdom (Prajnana). The gods (Devathas) or the Shining Ones are luminous only through that Wisdom that energises them. The entire world of living beings (Praana Koti) is sustained by that same Prajna. The fixed and the moving (the Sthaavara and the Jangama) are both firmly based on Prajna. The Supreme Wisdom is Atma; the Supreme Wisdom is Brahman. The Supreme Wisdom is the Loka, the Visible, the objective world. The Cosmos is Prajna, through and through; the Prajna is the Chaithanya that fills the Cosmos (Prapancha).