Saturday, September 21, 2013

The Ajativada doctrine of creation - Swami Sivananda



The Ajativada doctrine of creation

Sri Gaudapadacharya
The Ajativada propounded by Sri Gaudapadacharya completely denies the creation of the world. According to him there is no creation at all. There is no world in the three periods of time, past, present and future. Brahman alone exists. There is not even a trace of diversity in it. God, man and the world of diverse names and forms are the mere creation of ignorance. He asserts and proves beyond all doubt refuting all counter-suggestions, that there is no creation at all in the three periods of time. This is the culmination of Vedanta philosophy which stands unrefuted to this very day. 

Only when you suppose creation to be a reality, the questions who created it and how it was created and so on arise. People who are not endowed with a sharp and discriminative intelligence, who cannot understand the true import of the Vedantic Truths and who cannot live in the spirit of those teachings, struggle themselves with these knotty problems. But the moment they realise the underlying Reality, all doubts vanish like darkness before bright light. 

Because the world was never created at all, the points who created the world, how and why it was created etc., still remain unanswered to our entire satisfaction. How can a thing which has no existence be described? Why should anyone discuss such points like How many teeth does a crow have? How many eggs does an elephant lay? How deep is the water of the desert? How many horns has a hare got? How many children did a barren woman give birth to? These are useless and irrelevant questions. 

In reality the Jiva or the individual soul creates this world of names and forms on account of his own ignorance and delusion. When he attains knowledge of the Self by the Grace of his spiritual preceptor, he dissolves the external world into himself and sees his own Self everywhere. He sees oneness everywhere. He becomes struck with wonder when he thinks of the world of duality. The world of diversity appears to him like a mere dream and he exclaims in surprise, Where has this world full of the charms of Maya disappeared now which was glaring before my very eyes till this very moment! 
 
 
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