Posted on: 23 Apr 2023
[Prof Dr. JSR Prasad asked: In one of Your discourses, You told that from the ocean of Maayaa, inert items are generated like ice-blocks and when some ice-crystals were filled with water, living beings were created. What is the essence of this description? -At Your holy lotus divine feet]
Swami replied:- This description means that by unimaginable power, both inert items and living beings were created. The simile shows homogeneity between inert and non-inert items. From inert energy only, inert matter and non-inert awareness were generated. Inert energy on entering a functioning brain-nervous system gets transformed into non-inert awareness so that awareness is also a specific work form of inert energy only. The first element created by God is inert energy (Tattejo'sṛjata) and this first item is called as Muula Prakriti or Muula Maayaa. The entire creation is also one single item, which is the basic inert energy. The creator is also a single item called as Brahman or Parabrahman. Since the creator is one person, and the creation is essentially one item (energy is modified into several items of the creation), the Veda says that one creator created one item which is the second item (Sa dvitīyamaicchat). This second item (inert energy) is modified into several inert items and several non-inert living beings.
How did this creation come out of the creator while the creator is not reduced in His quantity? If a pot is prepared from a lump of mud, some quantity of the mud gets reduced. God is said to be both the intellectual cause (like pot maker) and the material cause (mud). In such a case, the quantity of God must be reduced but God is not at all reduced. This means that there is unimaginable power with God. God is also unimaginable. Two unimaginable items always result in one unimaginable item only because the boundaries of the two unimaginable items are not distinguishable. Hence, unimaginable God and His unimaginable power are one unimaginable item only, which can be called as unimaginable God or unimaginable power. This unimaginable God or unimaginable power has the power of omnipotence, which means any impossible activity is possible for that unimaginable God or unimaginable power. Therefore, in the philosophy of unimaginable God, Who is beyond worldly logic and is capable of doing any impossible work, there is no need of much discussion since unimaginable God (or power) can do anything. If it is the case of an imaginable worldly item, it shall follow worldly logic and its rules so that you cannot say that any worldly imaginable item can do any unimaginable activity. Worldly imaginable items have logical restrictions and so we have to do a lot of logical discussions to decide whether a worldly imaginable item has done a specific work or not. It means that the discussion is about the capability of that imaginable worldly item to do some impossible work. But in the case of the omnipotent God, such discussion is useless because God can do any possible or impossible work. The only restriction in the case of God is that He will not do an improper thing. If you say to God that He can destroy anybody and hence, let Him destroy His own son. God will not destroy His son even though He is capable of destroying His son since destruction of one’s son with one’s own hands is an improper thing. Therefore, the only objection in the case of God in not doing a type of work is the improperness existing in that work and not incapability of doing that work. Hence, there is no need of discussions through worldly logic about the omnipotent God as in the case of a worldly item that is active within the rules of worldly logic only. Hence, you need not doubt God in asking for any impossible work, provided that impossible work is proper and justified.