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The Philosophy of the Upanishads c10.s3.t1: 1. The Kalpa Theory of the later Vedânta

The Philosophy of the Upanishads c10.s3.t1

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1. The Kalpa Theory of the later Vedânta

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Before we trace in the Upanishads the development of the doctrine of Brahman as destroyer of the universe, it is worth while to glance at the theory of the later Vedânta, which is the result of this development. According to the Vedânta system, the actions of each life-history find their precisely equivalent recompense in the next succeeding life. Each life both in doing and in suffering is only the fruit of the actions of a preceding birth. Hence it follows that each existence always presupposes an earlier, that consequently no existence can be the first, and that the migration (saṃsâra) of souls is maintained from all eternity. The absence of a beginning of the saṃsâra (saṃsârasya anâditvam) is therefore a necessary consequence of the Vedânta teaching; and this is not only assumed by Gauḍapâda¹ and defended by Śankara, but occurs also already in the sûtras of Bâdarâyaṇa,² and is actually found in some of the later Upanishads.³ This absence of a beginning to the circuit of the souls' migration is in contradiction to the numerous creation theories of the Upanishads, which collectively teach a creation of the universe at one time, as is at once proved by the constantly recurring expression, “At the beginning.”⁴ In order to assert the absence of a beginning of the saṃsâra as demanded by their system, and yet to uphold the Upanishad doctrine of a creation, the theologians of the Vedânta conceive the creation of the universe as an event recurring periodically from all eternity. The universe created by Brahman persists through an entire world-period (kalpa), after which it returns into Brahman, only to issue again from him; since at each dissolution of the universe there are works of the soul that still survive, and these demand for their expiation a renewed existence and therefore a re-creation of the universe:—

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¹ Mâṇḍukya-kârikâ 4. 30.

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² 1. 35.

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³ e.g. Sarvop. 23; cp. the drastic description of Yogatattva 3–5.

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⁴ agre, Ait. 1. 1. 1, Chând. 3. 19. 1, 6. 2. 1, Bṛih. 1. 2. 1, 1. 4. 1, 10, 17, 5. 5. 1, Taitt. 2. 7. 1, Maitr. 2. 6, 5. 2.

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All living beings, O Kaunteya,
Return back into my nature
At the end of the world; at the world's beginning
I re-create them anew.⁵

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⁵ Bhag. Gîtâ 9. 7, cp. 8. 17–19.

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For proof S'ankara relies, as perhaps Bâdarâyaṇa before him,¹ on the verse in Ṛigv. X. 190. 3:—

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¹ 2. 1. 36.

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*Sûryâ-c'andramasau dhâtâ yathâpûrvam akalpayat*, in which according to the context *yathâpûrvam* signifies only "one after the other," not as S'ankara maintains,² "as before." The other passage also, on which his theory rests:—"I will enter into these three divinities with this living self,"³ does not prove, as he believes, that the "living self" existed already before the creation. This entire conception of a periodically recurring creation and destruction of the universe is still entirely foreign to the older Upanishads. In order to trace its origin we shall have to distinguish, (1) the return of individuals into Brahman, (2) that of the universe.

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² p. 495. 7.

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³ Chând. 6. 3. 2.

Cites (11)