Supreme reality is pure Consciousness. Consciousness alone is the ultimate reality. But we see this Consciousness and matter. Consciousness and matter, the physical world consists of matter, has two different qualities. The matter is Jada, non-moving. Whereas, Consciousness has the property of knowing, sentience.
How did the insentient come from the sentient? Are there two different materials? One is Consciousness and the other is insentient, Jada? In the beginning, there is Consciousness. Now also there is Consciousness and, in the end, also there will be Consciousness. Consciousness alone is reality. That Consciousness is called Brahman.
Now, how does this material universe appear? The material universe appears by the power of Consciousness. The power of Consciousness is called Maya. Using the power of Consciousness, Brahman creates this universe. The closest example I can give is that when you enter into a dream, you have a lot of dream objects. There can be a tiger, an elephant, a forest, a building etc. All these are nothing but made up of mental stuff called the mind.
There is really no tiger. There is really no elephant. Nothing is there. Everything is made up of the projection of the mental stuff. Otherwise, how can you fit an elephant into your head when you are dreaming? You can’t. But, in the mental space, the elephant appears. Similarly, in the space of Consciousness, creation appears. The power of doing this is called Maya.
An example is A spider and the web. The spider generates the web out of its body. For the web, it doesn’t bring some other material. The web is created by the body of the spider. But the web is different from the spider. Similarly, the universe is created by Consciousness. Even though it is created by Consciousness, it appears to be different. And the power of the creation of the universe, by the Consciousness, is called Maya.
Now, when the spider creates the web, the spider itself doesn’t get trapped in the web. Spider is Master of the web. Similarly, when the Consciousness, Brahman projects this world, he doesn’t get trapped. Consciousness never gets trapped in the world. There are a lot of beings created. There are a number of beings created. There are a lot of living beings and different types of living beings are created. They become the subject of Maya. They see the world, but they can’t see Consciousness.
The power of Maya has created the world and the living beings. These living beings, who are in this world, get trapped by the power of Maya. That trapping, by the power of Maya, is called avidya, ignorance. Living beings get trapped. But Paramatma, the Supreme reality Brahman, will never get trapped. Just like a spider will never get caught in its own web.
The Supreme reality, Paramatma, Brahman, for the purpose of creation, for the purpose of maintenance of the universe, takes the Lordship, ownership of the creation and he is called Ishwara. So, for any creation, there are two things required. A matter, an object and the creator. For example, Somebody wants to make a pot. There is a pot maker required and mud is required. The pot is called material and the person who does is called efficient cause. Material cause, and efficient cause.
But for the creation of the world, only one material cause and efficient cause is there. That’s called Consciousness. They are not two different things. The objects are not different from Consciousness. They are all appearances in Consciousness.
Pranams
References:
Self Knowledge – Talk 9 _The Creation_06Apr2016