The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c7.s2.t4: 4. Brahman and the Powers of Nature

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c7.s2.t4

Language: English

4. Brahman and the Powers of Nature

In all considerations of this section, it is well to keep in mind that the Indian idea of creation differs essentially from our own. For whilst by creation, we understand something done once for all, and therefore at a given time, the consciousness of the Vedântin is dominated by the concept that from eternity to eternity the world periodically emerges from and again returns to Brahman; and it emerges and returns times without number: "the past and future world-periods (kalpa) are measureless," as the Purâna passage quoted on p. 495, 10, declares.

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But how comes it that the world, through all its new creations, remains the same in character?—This question compels us to seek the basis of this uniformity in Brahman himself.

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Further: how can the manifold manifestations of the world arise from the uniform Brahman?—For this multiplicity, there must also be a sufficient reason in Brahman.

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In these postulates we must seek for the motive of the manifold powers (çakti), which Brahman contains, the resemblance of which to the Platonic teaching of ideas we have already referred to, above pp. 69—70.

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This valuable thought is unfortunately only slightly developed in our system; it only appears sporadically, and its position is uncertain; sometimes the powers of Brahman appear simply as the expression of his omnipotence, sometimes they mean the fructifying power of those things which, at the destruction of the world, enter as a germ into Brahman, to come forth again at the new creation. We will briefly gather together what is to be found scattered here and there, on this subject.

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"That the uniform Brahman produces the diverse manifestation of the phenomenal world," so is stated on p. 486, 10, "is to be explained through His providing Himself with various powers." To prove this, certain Vedic passages are mentioned, which, however, do not appear to assert anything more than the omnipotence of Brahman ('all-working is he, all-wishing, all-smelling, all-tasting'): Brahman is furnished with all powers (p. 1125, 8), is connected with the unfolding of many powers (p. 445, 11), the Îçvara possesses innumerable powers (p. 490, 8), as appears from his being the cause of the origin, subsistence, and destruction of the world (p. 1126, 1); these powers without which Brahman could not create (p. 342, 6), are deduced from the multiplicity of their effects (p. 486, 2); as to their relation to Brahman, from the expression used on p. 476, 8, that Brahman "is filled with powers," (*paripūrṇaçaktikam*), we may conclude that these powers are believed to be immanent in Brahman.

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The Scripture (Çvet. 1, 3) leads to the assumption of one power of the highest God, which orders and creates the whole world (p. 358, 5). It is this godlike power not unfolded in name and form, which is the original state (*prāg-avasthā*) of names and forms (p. 358, 10); in this original state, the now manifested world existed before manifestation, in a state of seed-force (*vīja-çakti-avasthā*, p 341, 9); "if" (it is said on p. 342, 2 in the polemic against the Sāṅkhyas) "we acknowledged a self-subsisting original state of the world as cause, we should make room for the assumption of a material cause (of the world); we assume though that this original state of the world was not self-subsisting, but dependent on the highest God. Such we must of necessity take it to be, and on good grounds. For without it, the creative work of God is impossible, for an activity of God devoid of his powers is unthinkable... This unmanifested (*avyaktam*) seed-force, as it is called, resting in the highest God, is in its inherent character Ignorance (*avidyā*), a deep sleep produced by glamour (*māyā*) in which lie those wandering souls, who have “not awakened to the knowledge of their real nature [the “knowledge of their identity with Brahman].”

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According to these passages, it appears that 1. the creative power of Brahman, 2. the seed-forces of things, and 3. individual souls existing by means of their subtle bodies, are all confused together in the indeterminate idea of the powers of Brahman. We have already seen (above p. 70) that these powers were not annihilated at each destruction of the world, but remained in existence as its root (p. 303, 1), and in such a way that their character remained unchanged (p. 303, 2). From this, it follows, that in spite of the continual destruction of the world, the same elements (earth, etc.), the classes of beings (gods, men, animals), and the worldly distinctions (castes and Âcramas), come forth anew (p. 303, 4).

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The multiplicity of these powers does not contradict the unity of Brahman who contains them, since the power of multiplying (*vibhâga-çakti*), before and after the existence of the world, as well as the tendency to multiplicity (*vibhâga-vyavahâra*), during the existence of the world, rest on false perception (*mithyâjñânam*) (p. 433, 13); as we shall see more in detail, in the esoteric cosmology.

Linked texts (1)

Śvetāśvataropaniṣad — Śvetāśvatara, Sanskrit