Only God

The Vedic dharma looks upon Isvara (the Lord) as not one or many;
it looks upon Isvara as the only entity that is in the world.

Jagat (the world) was there even before I was born.  I was given a body at the time of birth.  All that was necessary for my survival and protection was given.  If all these are given, then there should be a Giver.  The normal conclusion is that yes, there is a giver and He is God, but He is not to be seen locally.  Assuming that He must be somewhere within space, people invariably come to the conclusion that he must be in Heaven. 

Unless the concept of God is fully and logically understood, we will be left with a host of unanswered questions such as,
                                   "If God is in heaven, who created heaven?",
                                   "Where was God before he created heaven?",
                                   "Who created God?",
and so on.

In order to create something, we must have not only the material but also the intelligence.  Pot and the pot-maker are two distinct entities, different from each other.  We tend to extend this concept to God as a creator and get into trouble.

The entire universe is the manifestation of God, whom we call Isvara. He is both the maker and the material. All there is, is only God.

The scriptures present a model to enable us to assimilate this knowledge.  The model is our own dream.  In sleep you lose the concept of time and space totally.  When you dream you see a whole new   world, a world created by your own unconscious mind.  Where did you go for the material to create this world of yours?  It is all from yourself. Also all the things you see in this dream -world were previously known to you.  For the people you created in the dream, you are a sarvajna, all-knowing and sarvavyapi, all pervasive.   There is no part of the dream where your presence is not.  The whole dream is you and only you.  All that appears in your dream - mountains, sky etc.- was created as you thought of them.  In fact, you do not 'create a dream', it is the manifestation of yourself.

If Isvara is the fundamental cause for the entire world, that cause, being independent, would be satyam and the world, being the created object would be mithya.   A created object cannot exist independent of is material cause.  This is what is meant by the word mithya.  Mithya does not mean illusion.   The clothes you wear are not illusion, they are real clothes.  At the same time their reality is not independent of the fabric.  The weight of the shirt is the weight of the fabric.  If you touch the shirt, you are touching the fabric. Mithya is a technical term to point out the reality of a thing which depends entirely on something else. 

Since God is both the maker and material for the jagat, can He be away from the jagat? When cloth is the material cause for the shirt, can the shirt be away from the cloth?  Shirt is only a name and form of the cloth.  Anything that appears as name and form, nama-rupa, is sustained by its own material as its cause.   It is therefore obvious that jagat cannot be away from God who is its cause.   He pervades every aspect of the jagat - physical, biological, psychological, just to name a few. This Isvara is jagat and also, being its efficient cause , or the maker, is conscious. All that is known and unknown, this entire universe is Isvara.  All beings are included in this order.

Isvara is not a matter of belief.  The Vedic tradition is not a faith.  The goal of the Vedic tradition is to know that you are indeed that Isvara, 'tat tvam asi' (You Are That), a goal to be achieved here and in this birth, while you are alive.   This is the vision of the Vedas.

In any religion, you have to have some form, either a symbol or an action, in order to pray.  In the Vedic vision, however, the whole world , which is full of forms, is Isvara, the Lord.   Therefore, invoking the Lord in any form is recognizing Him to be everything.   That I can invoke the Lord in any form is a privilege granted by Vedic scriptures through the understanding of Isvara. 

Excerpted from a talk given by Swami Dayananda Saraswati
at Ahmedabad, India in December 1996.

Published: 09/18/98