Vedic Literature | Ekamsat | Uddhava-Gita | The Philosophy of Creation and Dissolution
2. This world of multiplicity with its basic differences of the seer and the seen, the subject and the object, etc is one with Pure Consciousness. In pralaya, at the early stage of the creative cycle, and in the consciousness of men of spiritual enlightenment, the unitary Consciousness alone abides.
3. That Pure Consciousness, unmodified and beyond the comprehension of thought and speech, becomes two as the seer and the seen, the subject and the object, as the consequence of the operation of My mysterious power Maya, whose ways baffle thought and description.
4. Of these two, one is Prakrti, the object, with its manifest and un-manifest states; and the other is Purusa, the Consciousness or the subject.
5. Out of Prakrti agitated by Me, because of the urge of the karma tendencies of the Jiva submerged in Prakrti, came its three gunas or aspects of sattva, rajas and tamas.
6. Out of the three gunas arose the Sutratman, the Pervading Self and from That the Mahatattva. But the Mahatattva is one with the Sutratman and both can be considered identical. From the transformation of Mahatattva has evolved the ego-sense (ahamkara), which causes delusion.
The Pervading Self is called the Sutratman when IT is considered the power of action (kriya-sakti). IT is called the Mahatattva when IT is considered the power of knowledge (jnana-sakti).
7. Ahamkara (ego-sense), which is a complex of consciousness and unconsciousness, has three aspects dominated by sattva, rajas and tamas respectively. From ahamkara have arisen the tanmatras (subtle elements), the indriyas (senses), manas (mind) and the deities presiding over the senses.
8. The bhutas or gross elements have evolved from the tamas aspect of ego-sense, passing through their causal condition as subtle elements or tanmatras. From the rajas aspect of ego-sense have arisen the ten deities presiding over the indriyas, and also the mind.
9. All these categories, on being activated by Me, combined into the all-inclusive Cosmic Shell, which became the noble abode of My all-pervading Self.
10. In that Cosmic Shell, I manifested as Narayana, and out of My navel came the World-lotus within which the self-born Brahma, the creator, arose.
11. Endowed with rajas, and blessed by Me, Brahma, who is the embodiment of the universe, created, by the power he got through austerity, all the worlds included in Bhur-loka, Bhuvar-loka and Swar-loka, and the presiding deities of the worlds.
12. The Swar-loka (heaven) is the abode of the Devas; the Bhuvar-loka (space) is the habitation of the spirits (bhutas); Bhur-loka (earth) belongs to the humans; the worlds superior to these three are for the siddhas (highly evolved souls).
13. Brahma created separate habitations for asuras and nagas regions like Atala, Vitala and others at levels inferior to the earth. The reason for this arrangement is that the attainment of the worlds of Swar, Bhuvar and Bhur is the fruit of actions based on the three qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas.
14. By yoga, austerity and sannyasa, the Jiva attain to higher regions than the three lokas, these being Mahar-loka, Jana-loka, Tapo-loka and Satya-loka. By the practice of bhakti, one reaches My abode (Vaikuntha).
15. All the beings in the worlds up to the Bhrahma-loka, bound by their karma, are moved by Me as Time, to regions high and low, submerging and re-emerging in the current of the gunas of Prakrti.
16. All objects, big or small, bulky or thin, are permeated by their cause, the Purusa and the Prakrti, from whom they have sprung.
17. The substance which was at the beginning and is present in the same way after the intervening series of changes have ended must have been there in the middle also. Therefore, that substance alone is real, and not the changing conditions which have only an empirical value for the time being, just like ornaments and pot with reference to their particular causal substances.
18. The reality is the causal substance which forms the stuff or material of the effects following, and which continues to be the same at the beginning and at the end of the series of changes producing effects. Thus the effects have no substantiality apart from the causal substance which is the ultimate reality.
19. Prakrti is the substance or the material cause of this universe. The Purusa is the adhara – the inner Controller and Master – of Prakrti. Time is the factor that manifests the effect – the universe out of its causal condition. All these three are Me, the Supreme Brahman.
20. As long as the creative will of the Lord operates sustaining this continuous flow of material energy as a succession of causes and effects, that flow persists, providing scope for the Jiva to enjoy or suffer on account of their karma.
21. When the creative will subsides and the Pralaya or the process of dissolution sets in, this Cosmic shell in which innumerable universes arise and decay is invaded and overcast by Me as Time, bringing about the dissolution of all things into their elemental condition.
22-25. The body dissolves into food; food into seed; seed into earth, earth into smell; smell into water; water into taste; taste into fire; fire into form; form into air; air into touch; touch into sky; sky into sound; the senses into their presiding deities; the deities into the mind which is a product of sattva and the controller of all; sound or sabda into the tamas aspect of ahamkara (ego-sense); and ahamkara, which infatuates all, into the Mahatattva.
26. That superior category Mahatattva dissolves into its cause, the three gunas of Prakrti; and these into Prakrti, which is the state of equilibrium of its constituents, the gunas. Prakrti dissolves in Time which is now without any movement; Prakrti and Time become one.
27. Time dissolves in the Creative Spirit, which is My power of Maya, and that Power in Me the Eternal and Unborn Being. I, the Pure Spirit, forming the basic substance on which creation manifests and the residuary substratum in which it dissolves, remain, without the limitation of any adjunct.
28. How does there occur the delusion of difference or multiplicity in the mind of one who constantly thinks over this process? It will take to wings as darkness before the sun. Even if it comes occasionally, how can it take any firm root in the heart?
29. This philosophy of the Sankhya, which can cut all knotty doubts, has been thus taught by Me, the Knower of everything, gross and subtle, in the form of a discourse on creation and dissolution, on how categories evolve and dissolve.