[Advaita-l] Advaita Vedanta and Creation

[Krunal Makwana]

|| Namo Narayan ||

I have been still contemplating on Ignorance and how it had arisen. But 
slowly but surely i found for myself a clear and concise explanation, 
through the study of scriptures anD logic, i have come to a conclusion. I 
have written a small article on what i think happened, hopefully i'm correct 
but here it is:

Creation

This world (creation) is a lila of Paramatma, and is relatively real. 
Paramatma wishing to become many (ekoham bahushyaamh) decided to become 
many, but due to Paramatma being indivisible, he decided to perceive himself 
as being many. To do this he took the help of 3 gunas (qualities), Sattwa 
(quality of truth), Rajas (quality of passion) and Tamas (quality of 
ignorance).

By using this Paramatma created 3 basic by-products (of creation), atman 
(non different from Paramatma but perceived to be different), maya 
(illusion) and avidya (ignorance). Then Paramatma decided to give a form to 
the atman and did this by creating and attaching 5 organs of action 
(Karmaindriyos), 5 organs of intelligence (Jnaanaindriyos) and the 11th 
being the mind.

After having attached the 11th (Mind), Paramatma, gave the mind free-will 
(perceived free-will), through this the mind entangled itself within the 
other two by-products of creation namely, illusion and ignorance. As the 
mind lost its true identity of atman = Brahman due to avidya (ignorance), 
the mind believed that Maya is real and thus the mind fell from it’s 
brahmanical status and perceived to itself to be a jeeva, and so lost it’s 
true identity of Brahman.

Due to the above the mind ceases to believe the atman=Brahman identity and 
so creates a dualistic approach owing to a 3 fold identity,

1) Ishwar (Paramatma)

2) Prakriti (Maya)

3) Jeeva (Atma)

As the minds do not fully realise their atman to be Brahman a dualistic 
approach is needed, but oneness is the goal. The 3 fold identity (shown 
above) is only due to ignorance and illusion, as the Non-dual philosophy 
refutes the idea of duality between Brahman and Atman. Duality is only 
perceived because of ignorance and the power of maya. As the conditioned 
mind realises the atman= Brahman identity it loses all forms of dualism and 
recognises itself to be Brahman.

Please note, I have mentioned that the mind loses its brahmanical status not 
the Atman, as the Atman is only Paramatma. Only due to avidya, the mind does 
not identify himself with his atman, as well as Brahman.

The atman is only a manifestation of Brahman which the mind can accept 
rather than Brahman. The Brahman aspect for a conditioned mind is too much 
for it to handle, so instead of grasping onto Brahman, a conditioned soul 
would relate logically to the Atman. A logical example of this would that, 
when the Upanishads proclaim ‘I am All’, the mind would find it easier to 
relate to the ‘I’ rather than the ‘ALL’.

All Glories to our Rishis

All Glories to our Rishis

All Glories to our Rishis

Written By

Krunal Makwana

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