Sathya Sai Vahini - Chapter 9

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Sathya Sai Vahini

 

Chapter 9

One with the One

 

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.