Shatashloki – XIX (Shloka – 25)

Maya and the World

Meaning:  Before the creation (at the end of the dissolution of the universe of the previous cycle) only Maya (the Power of Brahman) existed as deep darkness of ‘Ignorance’ (Avidya).  As water is hidden in the milk, the universe was hidden in the Maya.  

Then, the will of the Creator was prompted by the unfulfilled desires of all the individual souls produced by their actions in the previous cycles to create a new cycle of the universe. Because of that will, this universe consists of names and forms that have been created by Maya in conformity with the past karmas of the individual souls. 

Reflection: 

Three things have been described here: (i) Dissolution of the universe, (ii) Creation of a new cycle, and (iii) The cause of the births of individual souls.

Let us reflect on each of these three parts.

(i) The dissolution of the universe:

According to Vedanta, the process of creation, preservation, and dissolution of the universe is not linear, but it is cyclical. This shloka of Shatashloki mentions that at the end of a cycle, the universe merges into Maya or Prakriti, which is the power of Brahman, the Ultimate Reality. As water is hidden in the milk, the universe hides in Maya. Brahman and its power Maya are inseparable.

Sri Ramakrishna having direct experiences of Samadhi in which a person becomes one with the Ultimate Reality (Brahman) explains the nature of Brahman and Maya as follows:

Sri Ramakrishna says, “The Jnanis, who adhere to the non-dualistic philosophy of Vedanta, say that the acts of creation, preservation, and destruction, the universe itself and all its living beings, are the manifestations of Shakti, the Divine Power (Maya or Prakriti).  If you reason it out, you will realize that all these are as illusory as a dream. Brahman alone is the Reality and all else is unreal. Even this very Shakti is unsubstantial, like a dream.

“But, though you reason all your life, unless you are established in Samadhi, you cannot go beyond the jurisdiction of Shakti, Even when you say, ‘I am meditating’, or ‘I am contemplating’, still you are moving in the realm of Shakti, within Its power.

“Thus Brahman and Shakti are identical. If you accept the one, you must accept the other. It is like fire and its power to burn. If you see the fire, you must recognize its power to burn also. You cannot think of fire without its power to burn, nor can you think of the power to burn without fire. You cannot conceive of the sun’s ray without the sun, nor can you conceive of the sun without its rays….

“Thus, one cannot think of Brahman without Shakti, or Shakti without Brahman. One cannot think of the Absolute without the Relative, or of the Relative without the Absolute.”

During the period of dissolution, the universe is hidden in the Maya (which is inseparable from Brahman) and not completely dissolved. Those individual souls who have realized Brahman had no desires left and therefore they do not born again. But, such souls are few in number. Most of the individual souls had lots of desires left to enjoy the world and therefore this shloka says that they prompt Brahman to create a new cycle.  

(ii)  The creation of a new cycle:

Brahma Sutras logically establishes that Brahman is the cause of the universe.

Brahma Sutra (1.1.2) says:

“Brahman is the cause of the creation, preservation, and dissolution of the universe.”

Aittareya Upanishad (1.1.1) describes how the new cycle comes into existence.

Aitareya Upanishad (1.1.1) says:

“At the beginning (all) this was verily Atman (Brahman) only, one and without a second. There was nothing else that winked. The Atman thought, “Let me now create the worlds.”

Sri Ramakrishna said that when Brahman is engaged in the activity of creation, preservation, and dissolution of the universe, we refer to It as Shakti. Thus, Shakti thought to create a new cycle.

At this point, it is interesting to read a portion of Swami Vivekananda’s thoughts presented in his lecture “The Real and the Apparent Man”, delivered in New York on February 16, 1896. Explaining the origin of the universe he said the following:

“….Every manifestation of energy, therefore, according to the Hindus, is prana. Every manifestation of the matter is akasha.

“When this cycle (of the universe) ends, all that we call solid will melt away into the next finer or the liquid form, that will melt away into finer and more uniform heat vibrations, and all will melt back into the original akasha.  And what we now call attraction, repulsion, and motion will slowly resolve into the original prana.  Then this prana, it is said, will sleep for a period, again to emerge and throw out all these forms; and when this period ends, then the whole thing will subside again…. At one time it remains potential, and in the next period, it becomes active….

“Yet this analysis is only partial….. We have not yet found that one thing knowing which everything else is known. We have resolved the whole universe into two components, what are called matter and energy, or what the ancient philosophers of India called akasha and prana. The next step is to resolve akasha and prana into their origin.  Both can be resolved into a still higher entity called the mind. It is out of mind, mahat, the universally existing thought-power, that these two have been produced. Thought is a finer manifestation than either akasha or prana.  It is thought that splits itself into these two. The universal thought existed in the beginning, and that manifested, changed, and evolved itself into these two: akasha and prana.  By the combination of these two, the whole universe has been produced.”  – Swami Vivekananda

The Aitareya Upanishad (1.1.1) says, “The Atman (or Brahman) thought, “Let me now create the worlds.”   Thus, this thought created the whole universe. We know that everything happens first in the mind and then it manifests itself in action. For example, at first, a thought or an idea of a chair comes into the mind of a human being, and then the physical chair comes into existence.

We find a similar expression in the Chhandogya Upanishad (6.2.3). It says,

 “Brahman thought: ‘May I be many. May I grow forth.”

Shri Krishna, identifying Himself with Brahman, reiterates in the Bhagavad Gita, the message of the Brahma Sutras that Brahman is the cause of the universe.

Shri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita (9.7) says,

“O Arjuna! At the end of the cycle, all beings enter into My (Brahman’s) Prakriti (Maya), and at the beginning of a cycle I create them again.”

(iii) The cause of the births of individual souls:

We know that the physical configuration comes from parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. But, Swami Vivekananda (in his ‘Paper on Hinduism’) says, “There are other tendencies peculiar to a soul caused by its past actions. And a soul with certain tendencies would by the law of affinity take birth in a body which is the fittest instrument for the display of that tendency. This is in accord with science, for science wants to explain everything by habit, and habit is got through repetitions. So repetitions are necessary to explain the natural habits of a newborn soul. And since they were not obtained in this present life, they must have come down from past lives.”

Thus, the theory of reincarnation is the best logical explanation of the discrepancies in the births of children: some are born in a perfectly favorable environment and others are born in families or surroundings with miserable environments.  The theory of reincarnation goes hand in hand with the law of karmas. We are in the present state because of our past karmas and if we want to change our future then we have to perform appropriate karmas in the present.   

This is what the Lord Yama (the god of Death) explains in the Kathopanishad. He says that in the new cycle, the individual souls take birth in different categories according to their strong unfulfilled worldly desires.

Kathopanishad (2.2.7):

Lord Yama says, “According to their karmas and their desires created by what they had learned in their lives, the individual souls (jivas) born in the different categories, such as human beings, or animals, birds, and various species, or trees and plants, or inert things like stones.”

The past karmas are the cause and the present state is their effect. The law of karmas is the chain of cause and effect.  Swami Vivekananda explains very effectively this fact in the following quote.

Swami Vivekananda writes, “The Divine Mother (Maya or Prakriti) is the power of all causation. She energizes every cause unmistakably to produce the effect. Her will is the only law, and as She cannot make a mistake, nature’s laws–Her will–can never be changed. She is the life of the law of karma or causation. She is the fructifier of every action. Under Her guidance, we are manufacturing our lives through our deeds or karma.”

The truths of the Vedanta Philosophy are eternal and not limited to a certain group of people. They are helpful to all people at all times and at any place in the world. Realizing these truths and manifesting them in our lives bring fulfillment, inner peace, and eternal bliss.