The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads -2.2. - Swami Krishnananda.

=========================================================================

Saturday, March 04,  2023. 06:30.

Chapter 2: The Atman -2.

======================================================================

The Atman alone was. “Atma va idam eka evagra asit, nanyat kin cana misat,” says the Aitareya Upanishad at the very commencement. The Atman existed as the unparalleled Being, and it became the cause of the manifested elements. We have the great division of the elements as ether, air, fire, water and earth, in all their densities or levels of expression. There is a causal condition, a subtle condition and a gross condition. This was manifested. But the Absolute is never disconnected from them at any time; it always maintains a lien over everything that it has created. It enters the great objects of a cosmical nature, and this is what we call the immanence of God.

The Creator does not stand as an extra-cosmic substance unrelated to its creation. The Upanishad rules out totally any coming of a fresh effect from the cause. The immanence of the cause in the effect is admitted. It is the immanence of the cause in the effect that creates an aspiration in us for higher values. When we ask for God, it is God speaking from within. The cause is speaking to itself from the bottom of the effect when there is an aspiration on the part of the effect to move towards the cause. This circumstance of the cause being hiddenly present in every effect is called the immanence of the cause in the effect. Then we say that God is present in the world.

The Creator is not outside the cosmos. He is not fashioning the world as a potter makes a pot or a carpenter makes a table. It is not like that. He is one with the substance of things in immanence, as clay is present in the pot out of which the pot is manufactured, or as wood is present in the table out of which it is made. So we cannot be isolated from the substance of the cause.

Thus, there was an entry of the cosmic substance into this cosmic effect. This is the first act of God—the entry of the Absolute into the relative in its universal fashion. He became the cosmic man, to speak in ordinary terms—the Maha Purusha or Purushottama. The Absolute, unrelated to the created universe, became the cosmic determining factor of the universe. This is the Great Being spoken of in the Purusha Sukta and the Satarudriya of the Veda, and the various scriptures which speak of the all-pervading or omnipresent character of God. We always speak of the omnipresent nature of God, by which we mean the cause is hidden in the effect—immanently present, and not isolated from the effect.

Now, this is a very grand concept the Upanishads are placing before us in connection with the process of the creation of the universe, and we are very happy to hear all these truths. But, we are also unhappy today; this, also, we cannot forget. Why has this sudden unhappiness come out of this great happiness of God's creation? When we hear all these great statements of cosmic manifestation, we feel elated; but we have little sorrows in our homes, and when we get out of the hall, we have to scratch our heads with our own problems. What has happened to us? How has this grief come into our hearts out of this great cosmic manifestation of God's entering into this universal effect? This also will be told to us by the Upanishad itself.

*****

To be continued

=========================================================================