20 Oct 2022
[Shri Phani asked: Swami, You told that God is telling that He is the seed of all souls (Aham bija pradah pitaa - Gita). When God told that He is only the seed (Biija), it means that God represents the part of the Father only and not the part of the mother (Kshetra). God also said that the creation is the Mother and He is the Father (Mayaa’dhyakshena Prakrutih, Suuyate… – Gita). In such case, how can You say that God alone is the single cause (intellectual cause as well as material cause) for creation or souls?]
Swami replied: The seed giving rise to the tree is a simile, in which, earth is also participating in the generation of the body of the tree. If you take the case of parents, the cause for the birth of a child is both father (sperm) and mother (ovum). After the fertilization, the body of the child is built by the body of the mother only since the fertilized ovum develops body in the womb of the mother only. In such a case, why did God call Himself as the Father and call the creation as the mother? The reason is that we say that God has created the creation also. The father has not created the mother. The father is a limited human being and the mother is another limited human being. There is no cause–effect relationship between the father and the mother. In such a case, why has God mentioned Himself as the Father or seed only? The answer for this is that you must understand a basic point, which is that a simile is selected to explain a concept even if there is single similarity. All the similarities need not be present in the concept. Hence, God generating the creation is compared to the simile of the seed generating the tree. By this one similarity, God can use this simile even though the other points may differ. In this simile, the earth, which is not created by the seed is also equally participating and this point is neglected in the concept. Generally, the seed is more important than the common earth. Any seed sowed in the earth gives its specific tree even though earth is common to all the seeds. Based on this importance of the seed, God is told as the seed for the creation and the earth like nature or Prakruti of the simile is neglected in the concept. In the concept, the single seed or Father of the creation is able to give rise to all types of trees and also created the entire earth. Hence, when you understand the verse of Gita, which says that God is the seed, you have to understand that the seed as a specific seed having the unimaginable power giving rise to all types of trees and also the earth.
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