Talk 9 by Prabhuji
Let us contemplate on the ‘Creation’. What is Creation?
Supreme Reality is Pure Consciousness. Consciousness alone is the ultimate reality. But we see this Consciousness and physical world which is nothing but matter. Both have different characteristics. Matter is ‘Jada’, insentient, whereas the Consciousness is ‘Chaitanya’ has the property of knowing, sentience. So how the insentinent come from the sentinent? Are there two different materials, one is Consciousness and matter which is insentinent? In the beginning there is Consciousness now also there is Consciousness and in the end also there will be Consciousness only. The Consciousness alone is the reality and is called Brahman.
Now how does the material universe appear?
Material universe appears by the power of Consciousness. The power of Consciousness is called Maya. The power of Consciousness creates this universe. The closest example that can be given is when you enter into a dream, you see many dream objects, a tiger, an elephant, a forest, a mountain, a river, all these are made up of nothing but mental stuff called mind. There is no real elephant, tiger or mountain, none is there. Everything is just a projection of the mental stuff you have in your mind, otherwise how can you fit an elephant into your head when you are dreaming? You cannot. But in that mental space the Elephant appears. Similarly in the space of Consciousness the creation appears. The power of doing this is called Maya.
How a spider generates a web out of its own body, it doesn’t bring any material from outside. Yet the web looks different from the spider. Similarly even though the universe is created by the Consciousness it appears to be different from the Consciousness. And the power of creating the universe by Consciousness is called Maya. Even though the spider creates the web it doesn’t get trapped in the web, spider is the master of the web. Similarly when the Consciousness projects this universe, it doesn’t get trapped in its creation. But the creation which consist of lots of beings, they become subject of Maya. They can only see the world but they cannot see the Consciousness.
The power of Maya creates the universe and the beings in this universe are trapped by the Maya. And the living beings get trapped by Maya which is called ‘Avidya’. The living beings get trapped in the universe by Maya, but the Brahman never gets trapped in the universe, just like the spider is never caught in its own web. The Supreme Consciousness Brahman for the purpose of maintenance of the universe takes the lordship, ownership of the creation and he is called Ishwara.
For any creation two things are required, matter (object) and a creator. For example to make a pot, two things are required, the pot maker and the mud. The pot is called ‘material cause’ and the pot maker is called ‘efficient cause’. But for the creation of the world the ‘material cause’ and ‘efficient cause’ are same, there are no two different things. The matter is not different from the Consciousness. They are all appearance in Consciousness.
Transcription by Atmajyothi Satyavathi
Light of The Self Foundation 