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shrI hanumAna
manojavaM mArutatulya vegaM, jitendriyaM buddhimatAM varishThaM,
vAtAtmajaM
vAnarayuth mukhyaM, shri rAm dutaM sharaNaM prapadye.
I seek refuge in Shri Ram's envoy, leader
of the apes, who, born of wind, roves at the speed of wind, guided by his mind, who has control over his sense organs and
who excels in intelligence.
Here is one way to understand
the universe. If we assume that our personality is helpfully modeled by the theory of koshas, as I do, that is a good place to start. We can start with this model
of us and "build" the entire universe based on it. In other words, I am proposing to build an universe in our own image. Once
we construct our universe, we can compare it with the world we live in and see if the model fits reality and vice versa. In
the vedic lore, it is said that the creator, brahmA, had his divine architect,
vishvakarmA (Universe-maker), design the world for him. Let us see if we can come up with a design similar
to his.
In figure 2, starting with me as an "onion", I make a cut from an extremity of my personality to its center. I then
move the two edges away from each other as shown by arrows till the heads of both arrows are pointing straight up. I will
then move the two arrows sideways away from each other to arrive at a "universe" shown in figure 3. This universe is like
a coin with two faces and some "filling" between the two faces.
One
face, the upper face, corresponds to annamaya kosha or the sheath of food. It is the material
or physical plane. It is the gross body of the universe. In vedanta it is called virAT which simply means vast. It is the world we live in and see in everyday
life.
The other face, the lower face, is the stretched out core consciousness. It's known in vedanta
as (the plane of) sat-chit-ananda (being- consciousness-joy).
Upanishads also describe it as the basis or foundation (AyatanaM) of what rests on it. Stretching
of the center of personality or core consciousness is what imparts immanance to chit or
consciousness and universality to Eternal Law.
The space between the two planes corresponds to the four sheaths of
the individual personality between core consciousness and the gross body. In Vedanta, the upper three layers are known as
the (world of) hiraNyagarbha (golden seed or germ or fetus) and
corresponds to the subtle body in an individual. Thus it forms the subtle body of the universe. Finally, the lowest layer
makes up the causal body of the universe and is called AkAsha.
This is my blueprint
for reconstruction of the universe, about which is said:
sarvaM khalv
idaM brahman
All this is verily brahman.
(Chandogya Upanisad, 3.14.1.)
The word brahman derives from the root bR
to spread out, to extend or to occupy.
Figure 2. onion" at the start of folding and stretching to "construct" a universe.
Figure 3. Universe as a "coin" with two faces and a connecting tissue between the faces. The three upper layers here make
up the subtle body of the universe and are referred to in Vedanta as (the world of) hiraNyagarbha (literally golden
fetus, but usually rendered as golden germ or the golden seed). The lowest layer forms the causal body of the universe and
is called the AkAsha.
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Inspite of all my fanciful talk of reconstructing the universe, we should
realize that figure 3 is merely a redrawn version of figure 1. In this figure, the core consciousness is spread along
the base BC / foundation / substratum of the universe whereas in figure 1 it was the (unseen) center of all the circles. This
leap from the personhood of figure 1 to the universehood of figure 3 is based on the essential and inherent immanance of conscioussness.
One must realize that creation is possible because of the immanance of consciousness. It is this immanance that maintains
order in the creation and is the basis of Rta.
The outer most solid circle (gross body) of figure 1 is now stretched out to form the "physical universe", AD, in figure 3.
The dotted circles of figure 1 become the dotted straight lines in figure 3. The sheaths of figure 1 are now layers of figure
3.
Ancients have used two interesting terms while discussing the nature of creation and
our place in it. These are lIlA usually written
as leela and mAyA. I understand leela
as the process of creation. My exercise of going from figure 1 to figure 3 is an exercise in leela
or the big bang of the ancients. mAyA, on the other hand, is simply the reverse process,
i.e., the process by which the universe goes back from figure 3 to figure 1.
Uncannily, the reverse process goes from figure 3 to a whole lot of figure 1's.
Ancients have used the term gaNa to describe the entities represented by figure 1. The
term gaNa represents members of a set. Implicit in the use of this term is the idea
that many sets, or gaNas, of the type represented by figure 1 result from creation
and that each is a set since it has many individual members and since each set is distinguishable from other sets. (Two attributes
of a set are quality and quantity. Quality differentiates one set from another; quantity is the number of members in the set.)
Creation is thus seen as resulting from differentiation and multiplication, i.e. formation of sets from the One.
This process is mAyA.
mAyA, thus, is the process that creates individuals
from the universe or the process of going from figure 3 to figures 1 or going from One to many. leela
is the prerogative of thr creator; mAyA is our doing or undoing. The One
who creates gaNas or sets is hence known as gaNapati (lord
of the sets) or gaNesha (the controller of the sets), or more
commonly as the lord of categories.
I often resort to descriptive terms, shallow and deep, in reference to personality
as it appears in the universe of figure 3. Thus shallow implies closer to material plane, AD, and deeper indicates depth within
the subtle layers of our personalities.
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