Did God create the world? || Acharya Prashant, on Vedanta (2021)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Your world is with you at the center.

00:15Brahm is just the substratum.

00:18It has been referred to in various ways in Vedantic literature.

00:24Sometimes it's called the substratum.

00:27Sometimes the background, sometimes the space, the ether in which everything is happening.

00:36Sometimes the watcher, sometimes the progenitor.

00:45Sometimes the mega-controller who operates only at the meta level.

00:56The idea behind all these expressions has one thing in common.

01:02Brahm has no interest in any participation at the macro level.

01:08At the micro level, it's your own doing.

01:18It's the play of your own tendencies.

01:32Your own tendencies make you see a problem where there is none.

01:44You imagine.

01:51And then you do a lot to get rid of that problem.

02:02And then, obviously, to do a lot, you create the entire space in which a lot of doing

02:15can happen.

02:20If you want to play a game, you cannot just play it.

02:30You want to play golf, or tennis, or cricket, right?

02:38You cannot just randomly and suddenly initiate the game.

02:46If you're a serious player, as we all are, then you, in fact, require to build an entire

02:55stadium.

02:56Why?

02:57Just because you wanted to play one game.

03:03That's what desire does.

03:06Because it has to do what it has to do, therefore it has to create an entire universe.

03:12That's the reason why our universe exists.

03:14So that we may do just a few things.

03:19Even if you have to play a 10-over match, you need to create an entire infrastructure

03:36for it, no?

03:39Our life is that 10-over match, amounting to nothing, nothing much at all.

03:55But what do we do?

03:56We build an entire… like somebody deciding to fly to a place just 200 kilometers away.

04:11The place might be just 200 kilometers away, but if you have decided to fly, then what

04:18all do you need to build?

04:19What do you need to build?

04:26Then you actually need to launch satellites.

04:33You need rockets.

04:37You need rockets that go beyond the atmosphere of the earth.

04:47You would be flying well within the limits of the atmosphere.

04:55Needless to talk of all the infrastructure that you need to build on the ground, the

05:01airports and such little things.

05:05Just because you wanted to experience one flight.

05:13So just because we want to live that small happy life of 60 years with two or four or

05:26six of our near ones, the entire cosmos has to exist, entire cosmos.

05:40No, it does not exist on its own.

05:44It exists because you want a nest within it.

05:49Your nest necessitates the entire cosmos.

05:58So your nest is not within the cosmos.

06:02The cosmos is within your nest.

06:05Poetically, you have always said that, have you not?

06:10But it turns out that it is true conceptually as well.

06:17Poetry meets mathematics.

06:20So when you say, you know, my little house is my universe, you are horribly right.

06:46It's your desire that breeds the universe.

06:55Else there is nothing.

07:01So there is desire that gives birth to the worlds.

07:09And then there is desire that gets fed up of the worlds and returns to the pure, the

07:21original, the immutable.

07:29The first kind of desire that brought us where we are, it's not much use discussing it now.

07:39Because the deed has been done.

07:46We do exist today, at least in our own frame of reference.

07:53Evolution has taken place.

07:57We cannot de-evolve now.

08:01What do we do then?

08:08We make use of the second kind of desire.

08:12What is the second kind of desire?

08:23Remember that Vedanta has nothing to do with stuff miscellaneous.

08:49It talks only of the one.

08:54And if the one is too difficult to talk of, it talks of two, truth and the mind.

09:03And if the listeners clamor too much for detail, then at most it talks of three, truth, the

09:15mind and the body.

09:22The Rishis were simple people.

09:31They loved relaxation.

09:36And they were too wise to indulge in needless details.

09:52When the thousand are all included in one, how wise is it to talk individually of the

10:09thousand?

10:17Like efficient mathematicians, they referred only to the one.

10:25Which one am I talking of?

10:28Mind.

10:29Why refer to the thousand things in the mind?

10:33Simply call all that as mind stuff, full stop.

10:38Otherwise there is no end.

10:43With nothing at its center, the mind still has the magical capacity to keep weaving an

10:53infinite net, innumerable things the mind can breed.

11:10The wise one says, why talk of all that diversity?

11:15Why be so interested in it?

11:18I know all those things are just one.

11:29Otherwise one can just be lost in the count.

11:40There is no end to diversity.

11:44If you cannot see the commonness behind stuff, the oneness behind things, then you will be

11:55consumed by the count.

12:01So they don't talk of too many things.

12:04So the Rishis have no business talking of food or grain, cereals, mundane things.

12:17Moment you see such a thing being talked of, you should immediately know that something

12:22else is being referred to.

12:31Never deviate from the first principles.

12:38Never.

12:40All the verses have to be read in the light of the first principles.

12:49And the first principles have nothing to do with food.

13:08Disputably the Rishis were fun-loving people.

13:16But they had higher sources than food to extract fun from.

13:30They won't be so particular about un as to give it a place of pride adjacent to Brahma.

13:47In the same verse where you are talking of Brahma, if you find un too mentioned, then

13:53you should know it's just a pointer towards something else.

13:59So what does un refer to?

14:03Material.

14:04Gross manifestation.

14:05Gross mind.

14:06So there is nothing.

14:18Then there is just the little sensation, that little vibration, that beginning of movement

14:32which is nothing but the beginning of deviation from the center, which is nothing but the

14:38beginning of maya.

14:43And then that which is in the beginning just a little vibration, a bit of a spasm, in due

15:00course of time explodes into the entire universe, which in due course of things sees its own

15:18futility and therefore recedes back into the source.

15:29Getting it?

15:34The entire curve is the movement of maya or desire.

15:40You should know the point you are standing at on that curve.

15:52If you know where you are, you will also know what you ought to do.

16:13You have already come a long distance.

16:17Cannot undo the journey.

16:21You cannot untravel the distance.

16:26What do you do then?

16:29Complete the cycle.

16:37Have the right desire that stimulates you into the right action, the right works, the

16:47right actions that lead you into immortality.

16:54That's what you need to do now.

17:00Now that you have chosen to be in the world of action, you cannot avoid action.

17:06Act rightly therefore.

17:10Act vigorously.

17:11Act rightly.

17:15Would have been wonderful had you not needed to act at all, had you not been present at

17:25all, had you not taken birth at all, but you are born now.

17:39Past is irreversible.

17:45In our own eyes we exist and we exist as creatures of suffering.

17:54Therefore what do we do?

17:58We do justice to this birth.

18:08Having chosen to be born, now justify your birth.

18:19No, but we didn't choose to be born.

18:24You see, if you know that much, I too know that you know that much.

18:36So if I am saying that we have chosen to be born, obviously there is something I mean.

18:44Kindly try to grasp.

18:53Our consciousness goes into our self only to a small degree.

19:06Your self is like a deep well, deep well, and your consciousness is like the light of

19:17a feeble electric torch that you throw into the well.

19:23How deep does the light penetrate?

19:27When the well is old and deep, it's not as if it is a reservoir of clean and clear water.

19:46There is all kind of dubious, nefarious stuff cluttered within it, and primitive spiders

20:14have woven webs that your torchlight cannot penetrate.

20:26The area illuminated by your torchlight is the conscious mind.

20:30It is only a small part of your self.

20:35Beneath that there is a lot that you do not know of.

20:39So your choices come from there.

20:44You refuse to own those choices because those choices aren't conscious choices.

20:51Your refusal means very little.

20:56They are your choices even if they were unconsciously made.

21:02So being born is one such choice.

21:06And how is it possible?

21:08When I am not yet born, how do I decide to be born?

21:14How is it even conceivable that a child decides to be born?

21:22Maybe only the body is born.

21:24Maybe the tendency that decides to take birth exists even before the body.

21:31Maybe what you are calling as birth is just the physical appearance of the desire.

21:39Maybe the desire pre-exists its gross appearance.

21:44How is it possible?

21:47You mean that I existed even before my birth?

21:51Of course you did.

21:52Not in a physical way.

21:54Not in a physical way, but you did exist.

21:58I am not talking of the Atman here.

22:01I am talking of that primitive tendency that pervades all existence.

22:07The tendency which keeps taking birth again and again in the form of every new child.

22:17The tendency decided to take birth, right?

22:20That tendency is you.

22:21So you decided to take birth.

22:24No, fine.

22:25Having decided to be born, now make good use of whatever is available to you.

22:47To put it realistically, let's make the best use of a bad situation where we may decide

23:01to entertain ourselves by thinking that it's great to have taken birth and we are here

23:10to really have a good time.

23:15It's like being invited to a party or something.

23:20No one is born on a Saturday night.

23:25Unfortunately, it's not quite that way and we know that.

23:38The first step in spirituality is to honestly acknowledge that it's not quite the great

23:42situation we keep telling ourselves it is.

23:48So let's make the best of a bad place, right?

23:56Which is that you are condemned to desire, at least desire rightly.

24:04You cannot not desire.

24:05You cannot not act.

24:08You cannot not want.

24:11The best is to obviously be in a situation where you don't need to want, but you need

24:18to want.

24:22You need to want.

24:23You need to be attracted.

24:25You need to beg.

24:26You need to practice.

24:29You need to work.

24:34You need to love.

24:40Desire rightly, act rightly, think rightly, work rightly, love rightly.

24:49The result of the right pursuit that it will be, that you will come to a point where you

24:55will not need to work or desire or act or even love.

25:19Matter exists only for the one who acknowledges matter.

25:44You cannot look at Brahm and matter objectively.

25:50When you say, did Brahm always exist with matter or co-exist, who are you looking at

25:56these two?

25:58Who are you?

26:03So truly only Brahm exists, right?

26:09It is the power of Brahm to forget itself.

26:17Brahm doesn't quite create.

26:20It manifests.

26:26And when it manifests, it gets divided into two.

26:31You and what you see.

26:37Non-dual Brahm manifests itself by dividing itself into two.

26:44You and what you see.

26:47And by you, I do not mean Anupam.

26:50I mean the I-Tendency.

26:53The I-Tendency is also the Universe-Tendency.

27:06And the I-Tendency takes various shapes and forms.

27:12Those various shapes and forms are the individual persons.

27:21Each person projects and experiences his or her own world.

27:29Each sentient being.

27:30I am not talking only of human beings.

27:34Every sentient being lives in the cocoon of its own experienced universe.

27:42Beyond that cocoon, it knows nothing.

27:47How do you think the universe of a firefly or gadfly is?

27:51Same as yours?

27:58Stretch your imagination and conceive the universe of a mosquito.

28:04What do you think?

28:05Same as yours?

28:06Even that of your pet dog.

28:13There it is relatively easier to appreciate the difference.

28:18To see that the universe of the dog can just not be the same as your universe.

28:25It's not so easy to appreciate that your universe cannot be the same as her universe.

28:32And for you, your universe is unfortunately the truth.

28:38And for her, her universe is sadly the final truth.

28:45And that's the root of all suffering, including all human suffering.

28:52Because we believe so much in ourselves, therefore we believe in the finality of our universe

28:57and therefore our experiences.

29:00That's the ego.

29:04I am surely the truth, therefore what I experience, how can it be false?

29:17Therefore the world is as real as I am.

29:22I am real and the world is real.

29:24If you are real and the world is real, what is this reality so afraid of?

29:31Why do you live in perpetual fear?

29:35The real should be the last one to fear.

29:44That's the missing link in your entire narrative.

29:48The little gap through which we keep bleeding.

30:01So Brahm is not the creator.

30:04When you desperately want to invent a creator, then you come up with Ishwar.

30:14But Vedanta is not very enamored of Ishwar.

30:22So Vedanta says Ishwar is just Maya.

30:34Because you experience the universe, therefore you feel the need to justify the origin of

30:44the universe, therefore you must have an Ishwar.

30:53But how can the creator of a false universe be real?

30:58If the universe is false, what do you say about its creator?

31:08So Vedanta isn't very enthralled with Ishwar.

31:18The creator creation theory goes more with God.

31:32God is comparable to Ishwar.

31:38Brahm is not God.

31:42Brahm is not God.

31:53Knowers of Brahm would say God and God's creation both are just Maya.

32:15Don't be deceived when sometimes you come across the word God even in Vedantic literature.

32:25Be careful at such points.

32:29See carefully whether it relates to Brahm or Ishwar.

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