In the last post we saw that īśvara, is the ultimate Giver, of this creation which includes time, space and our body-mind-sense complex.
To make a simple fruit-salad you need not only the raw-material like fruits, nuts etc, you also need the one who makes the fruit salad, who has knowledge of how to make the fruit salad. So too, to create this universe īśvara, needs both knowledge of the Universe, as well as the material to create. Since the creation is yet to manifest, the only substance which can be the material of the universe is īśvara, as īśvara, alone is existent.
Our scriptures the Veda, declares that everything comes from īśvara. In the taittirīya upaniṣad, we see īśvara defined as :-
यतो वा इमानि भूतानि जायन्ते । येन जातानि जीवन्ति ।
यत् प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्ति ।
‘That from which all these have come, that by which all these are sustained and unto whom all these go back,’ that is īśvara. The material of which this universe is made is īśvara.
Let’s look at a simple example of a clay pot. To make the clay pot, you need clay and you need the potter who shapes the clay into a pot. When we loot the pot and analyse it, we find that actually it is clay – the substance of the pot is clay. ‘Pot’ is only a name for a form of clay. Suppose you have a clay tumbler, a clay saucer, a few more different sized pots. When we analyse them, we find that as far as the substance is concerned there is only clay there. In fact, pot, tumbler, saucer are but different names for different forms of clay. If the pot is broken, what remains is clay. If the tumbler is broken what remains is clay. If the saucer is broken, what remains is clay.
In terms of our understanding of reality then, the pot is not as real as the clay, because pot is only a form of clay and when pot is broken, the pot disappears, but the clay persists. Pot is a dependent reality, whereas clay is independent of the pot. Clay is the satya, the truth, the persisting reality of the pot, which is not destroyed when the pot is destroyed. And the pot being an existent reality (till it is broken) is nevertheless a dependent reality, dependent on clay. In samskr̥t, we have a terminology for that which is a temporary, dependent reality and that is mithyā.
Coming back to our discussion on īśvara, since īśvara is the material cause of the is universe, like clay is the material cause of the pot, īśvara is satya, the independent truth of the Universe, and the universe is but name and form ( nāma rūpa ) of īśvara. The universe has a dependent, temporary existence – in terms of reality it is mithyā.
The whole universe is but nāma rūpa (names and forms) of īśvara. That is why īśvara has so many different names as we see in the Viśṇu ṣahasranāma.
More on īśvara’s nature in the next post.
