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CHAPTER IX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF
These questions
cannot be answered further than by saying what has been
said in the fourth and fifth stanzas of this hymn, that is to
say, by saying that the Kama-formed Element of creating
the universe, somehow or other came into existence in
the Mind of that indescribable ONE and Bole Parabrahman,
and that the entire development of sat, that is, the imposing
edifice of ether and earth, came into existence as a result of its
branches spreading out above and below, and in all directions
like the threads in a piece of cloth or the rays of sunshine.
[1]. And, therefore, the meaning conveyed in
this hymn has been adopted in the Upanisads in the words :
"so 'kamayata I bahu syam prajayeyeti I" [2], that is, " that Parabrahman acquired the Desire of becoming
multifarious"[3]; and even in the Atharva-Veda,
there is a statement that ' Kama ' (Desire) came first into
existence out of the Fundamental Substance at the root of the
visible world [4]. But, the wonder about this
hymn ia, that instead of becoming a slave to Reason like the
Samkhyas, and imagining the existence of another self-created
and independent element like Fundamental Matter, because
the question of the creation of the Qualityful from the
Qualityless, or of the asat from the sat, or of the dvamdva
(subject to doubles) from the nirdvamdva (beyond doubles), or of
the sanga (attached) from the asanga (unattached), is beyond the
grasp of human intelligence, this Rsi frankly says : "Say that
you do not understand that which you do not understand ; but
on that account, it is not proper to give to the Illusion in the
form of the visible world, the same value as the indescribable
Brahman, which has been definitely ascertained by means of
an absolutely purified Mind and as a self-experience. Besides,
one must also realise that even if one considers, the three-
constituented Prakrti as a second independent substance, one
still cannot answer the question as to how Reason (mahan) or
Individuation first entered that substance, in order that the
universe should be created ; and if this difficulty cannot be
overcome, where is the point in looking upon Prakrti as independent ?
All that one need say is, that it is impossible to
understand how Prakrti or sat came into existence out of the
fundamental Brahman. For that, it is not necessary to look
upon -Prakrti as independent. It is not possible even for gods to
find out how sat came into existence; much less, then, for human
intelligence; because, as even the gods came into existence
after the visible world, how can they know anything about it f
[5].But, some one may here raise the following doubt:
it is stated in the Rg.-Veda itself that the Hiranyagarbha is
prior in point of time and superior even to the gods, that He
alone was in the beginning "bhutasya jatah putireka asit"
[6], that is, "the ' pati' , or 'king', or , adhyaksa’
of the entire universe "; then, how can He not be knowing
this Thing?; and, if it is possible for Him to have known it,
how can you say that It is unknowable ?
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