Gita Rahasya -Tilak 191

Gita Rahasya -Tilak

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CHAPTER VIII
THE CONSTRUCTIN AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE COSMOS


From the Paramatman, (not from the funda-mental Gross Matter as the Samkhyas say), ether was first created; from ether, the air; from the air, the fire; from the fire, water; and from water, later on, the earth has come into being. The Taittiriyopanisad does not give the reason for this order. But in the later Vedanta treatises, the explanation of this order of creation of the five primordial elements seems to be based on the gunaparinama principle of the Samkhya system. These later Vedanta writers say that by the law of " guna gunesu vartante" (qualities spring out of qualities), a substance having only one quality first conies into existence, and from that substance other substances having two qualities, three qualities etc., subsequently come into existence. As ether out of the five primordial elements has principally the quality of sound only, it came into existence first. Then came into existence the air, because, the air has two qualities, namely, of sound and touch. Not only do we hear the sound of air, but we feel it by means of our organ of touch. Fire comes after the air, because, besides the qualities of sound and touch, it has also the third quality of colour. As water has, in addition to- these three qualities, the quality of taste also, water must have come into existence after fire; and as the earth possesses the additional quality of smell besides these four qualities,, we arrive at the proposition that the earth must have sprung' later on out of water. Yaska has propounded this very doctrine ([1]. The Taittiriyopanisad contains the further description that when the five gross primordial elements had come into existence in this order, "prthivya osadhayah I osadhibhyo'nnam I annat purusahI" [2], i. e., "from the. earth have grown vegetables; from the vegetables, food; and from food, man. This subsequent creation is the result of the mixture of the Ave primordial elements, and the process of that mixture is called ' panci-karana' in the Vedanta treatises. Panci-karana means the coming into existence of a new substance by the mixture of different qualities of each of the five primordial elements. This union of five (pancikarana) can necessarily take place in an indefinite number of ways. In the ninth dasaka (collection of ten verses each) of the- Dasabodha, it is stated :

By mixing black and white I we get the grey colour I By mixing black and yellow I we get the green colour II

[3] And in the 13th dasaka, it is stated as follows :-

In the womb of that earth I there is a collection of an infinite number of seeds m

When water gets mixed with the earth I sprouts come out II

Creepers of variegated colours I with waving leaves and flowers are next born II

After that come into existence l fruits of various tastes II

The earth and water are the root I of all oviparous, viviparous, steam-engendered, and vegetable life II Such is the wonder I of the creation of the universe I

There are four classes and four modes of voice l eighty-four lakhs [4] of species of living beings II

Have come into existence in the three worlds I which is the Cosmic Body " II


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References And Context

  1. ↑ Nirukta 14. 4)
  2. ↑ (Tai. 2. 1)
  3. ↑ (9. 6. 40)
  4. ↑ This idea of 84 lakhs of births is from the Puranas, and it is quite dear that it is only approximate. Nevertheless, it is not totally without foundation. Western natural scientists believe, according to the Theory of Evolution, that the human being has come into existence by evolution from one subtle micro-organism in the form of a living nodule at the beginning of the universe. From this idea, it becomes quite clear how many generations of each subsequent species (yoni) must have come into existence and passed away in Older that this subtle nodule should have become a gross nodule, and that this gross nodule should in its turn have been transformed into a living bacillus and this bacillus been evolved into the next subsequent Jiving organism. From this an English biologist has worked out a calculation, that for the smallest fish in water to develop its qualities and ultimately assume the form of a human being, there must have been at least 53 lakhs and 75 thousand generations of intermediate species and that the number of these generations may as well be ten times as much. These are the species ranging from the small aquatic animals upto the human being If, to this are added the number of minute aquatic organisms lower down in the scale of life, it is impossible to ascer- tain how many more lakhs of generations will have to be counted. Prom this it will be clear to what extent the idea of these genera- tions in the purana of Materialistic scientists has exceeded the idea of 84 lakhs of species in our Puranas. The same law applies to the calculation of limt. Geo-biologists say that it is impossible to form even a rough idea of the date when living micro-organisms first camo into existence on the earth, and that aquatic micro- organisms must have come into existence crores of years ago. If further concise information is required about this matter, ttie reader is referred to The Last Link by Ernst Haeckel, with notes etc. by Dr. H. Gadow (1898). The above particulars have been taken from the appendices. The 84 lakhs of generations mentioned in the Puraoas are to be counted as follows: — 9 lakhs for aquatic animals, 10 lakhs for birds, 11 lakhs for germs, 20 lakhs for beasts,. 30 lakhs for immoveable things and 4 lakhs for mankind (See Dasabodha 20. 6 ).