DESCRIPTION OF CREATION AS AN EMANATION FROM BRAHMA.
Argument:—Brahma existing without attributes and functions, and
the inexistence of the world at anytime or any where beside him.
Bhusunda continued:—Know O Vidyádhara! the world as an evolution of
Divine intelligence, and not as an inert mass and distinct from that
intelligence as it appears to be. And as the reflexion of fire (or fiery
sunbeams) in water, is nothing different from the nature of the cold
water; so the reflexion of the world in the Divine intelligence, is not
at all distinct from the substance of that Intelligence itself.
2. Therefore remain at rest without making any distinction, between your
knowledge of the world or its absence; (because the refutation of the
existence of gross matter altogether, refutes the existence of the gross
world also); and because a picture drawn only on the tablet of the
painter’s mind, and not painted on an outward plate, is as false as the
knowledge of the fairy land in the empty air or vacuum.
3. The omnipotence of Brahma contains also the insensible (or gross)
matter in his intelligence; as the calm and clear water of the sea
contains the matter of the future froth and foam within itself.
4. As the froth is not produced in the water, without some cause or
other; so the creation never proceeds from the essence of Brahma,
without its particular cause also. (This cause is said to be Máyá).
5. But the uncaused and causeless Brahma, can have no cause whatever for
his creation of the world; nor is any thing at this world or other, ever
born or destroyed in himself. (No material substance is ever born or
lost in the spiritual essence of God).
6. The entire want of a cause (either material or formal), makes the
growth and formation of the world an utter impossibility, it is as
impossible as the growth of a forest or the sight of a sea in the mirage
of a desert as it appears to be.
7. The nature of Brahma is being the same as infinity and eternity, it
is tranquil and immutable at all times; and is not therefore liable to
entertain a thought or will of the creation at anytime. Thus there
being no temporary cause for such, the world itself must be identic with
Brahma himself.
8. Therefore the nature of Brahma is both as empty as the hollow vacuity
of air, as also as dense as the density of a rock; so it is the solidity
of Brahma that represents the solid cosmos, as his tenuity displays the
inane atmosphere.
9. Whether you can understand anything or nothing, regarding the
mysterious nature of the Deity, remain quite unconcerned about it; and
rest your soul in that Supreme spirit, wherein all intelligence and its
absence are both alike. (To him no great or small but are all alike).
10. The everlasting bliss of the uncreated God, has no cause for his
creation of the world, which cannot augment his bliss; therefore know
all that is and exists to the increate God himself, from the
improbability of his making a creation to no purpose whatsoever.
11. Of what use is it to reason with the ignorant, concerning the
production and destruction of creation (_i.e._ about the existence or
inexistence of the objective world); when they have not the Divine
Intellect in their view (as all in all or as both the subjective and
objective in itself).
12. Wherever there is the Supreme being, there is the same accompanied
with the worlds also (as it is impossible to have the idea of God,
without the association of the world); because the meaning of the word
world, conveys the sense of their variety.
13. The supreme Brahma is present in everything in all places, such as
in the woods and grass, in the habitable earth and in the waters
likewise. So the creatures of God teem in every part of creation
together with the all-creative power.
14. It is improper to ask, what is the nature and constitution of
Brahma; because there is no possibility of ascertaining the essence and
absence of the properties of that infinite and transcendental entity.
15. All want—_abháva_ being wanting in him, who is full—_púrna_ in
himself; and any particular nature—_bháva_ being inapplicable to the
infinite One, who comprehends all nature in him; all words significant
of his nature are mere paralogism.
16. Inexistence and non-entity being altogether impossible, of the
everlasting and self-existent being; who is always existent in his own
essence, any word descriptive of his nature, is but a misrepresentation
of his true nature and quality.
17. He is neither I nor thou (the subjective or the objective); who is
unknowable to the understanding, and invisible to the people in all the
worlds; and yet He is represented as such and such, as false phantoms of
the brain which presents themselves as ghosts to boys.
18. That which is free from or beyond the sense of I and thou—the
subject and object, is known as the truly Supreme; but what is seen
under the sense of I and thou, proves to be null and void.
19. The distinction of the world from the essence of Brahma, is entirely
lost in the sight of them, that have unity of Brahma only before their
view. The subjective and objective are of equal import to them, who
believe all sensible objects as mere productions of fancy from the very
substance of Brahma, as the various ornaments are but transformations of
the same material of gold &c.