Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

The Vedas assert that Brahman is the primal cause of the cosmos (jagath). They do not posit any non-conscious (a-chetana) entity as the cause. The voice of God (the Veda) does not support the view of the non-conscious as being the origin of creation. On the other hand, the Being (Sat) is asserted to have resolved upon becoming, to have entertained a decision (sankalpa). Resolution, decision, design - these are acts of consciousness; nonconscious entities are incapable of such exercises of will. Brahman, which is all-conscious, has therefore to be accepted as the Primal Cause.

The non-conscious is called the source of primordial matter (pradhana). The Vedas do not speak about it. This is what this aphorism reveals very clearly. Primordial matter is the designation by which the “name-formflux”, namely the cosmos, is denoted by some schools of thought. Other schools refer to it as “atom composed” or “the made (prakriti)”. Others say, in terms of praise, “You are the Omniwill, the Absolute Self, the highest Atma (Paramatma). Because of you, all this diversity is protected.” Others argue that the three qualities (gunas) are the fundamental constituents that, through the preponderance of one or the other, cause diversity in nature.

These views are not supported by the Vedic authority. The Vedas maintain that Brahman willed and creation emerged. That will is the prologue, the preliminary act. The sankhya school posits the insentient source of primordial matter (pradhana) and bases creation on the three qualities of nature: serenity, activity, passivity (sathwa, rajas, thamas). When these qualities are well balanced and in equipoise, no conscious decision can arise, the sankhyans said. That state has to receive the impact of a supreme Lord, who is the Witness and who is awareness or consciousness, in other words, the impact of God’s will. That makes primordial matter knowing and knowable.

Considering each of these theories, the most correct conclusion is that Brahman is the Prime Cause. Of course, the highest accessible truth is not the attributeless, qualityless, intangible, inexplicable Brahman. It is the Brahman cognizable through the qualities that It has imposed on Itself. It has assumed this cosmos, which is composed of consciousness and non-consciousness, as Its body.

Individuals have to be endowed with consciousness (chaithanya), so that they can either commit or omit, do or desist from actions that they feel should be carried out. What has to be done today or put off till tomorrow, which crops are to be grown in the coming year - such thoughts, plans, and projects arise only in the field of consciousness, and not in non-conscious stone and wood, hill and dale. Willing is the sign of consciousness: that which does not have it cannot will at all.

When the will emerged, Brahman became God (Iswara). And by that will alone, God created the cosmos.

From the superficial view, God and cosmos strike one as distinct. But examination with subtle insight finds no fundamental distinction between the material and the Maker, the living unit (prani) and the Life Principle (Prana).

The Life Principle assumes a body on Itself and appears as the living unit, and the life force emerges from the living unit.

The Vedic scriptures deal with the Brahman principle and its manifestations. They give the treasure of spiritual wisdom (jnana) and intuitive experience of that wealth (vijnana). But with passage of time, the hymns, verses, and mantras were interpreted ritualistically. They were extolled as useful for attaining worldly and otherworldly objectives. Rites performed with the recital of these were considered as beneficial karmas. In fact, there is nothing in the cosmos apart from or distinct from Brahman. All of it emanated from Brahman, all of it is absorbed (laya) in Brahman, and all of it moves and has its being only in Brahman.

This truth is made clear by the following aphorism.

These are the four feet on which the proposition stands and is established. Birth, growth, and death form a sacrifice of the Divine Person.

The cosmos (prapancha, jagath), the five-element composite, emanated from the Omniself, Brahman. There is no spot anywhere where its manifestation is not. The cosmos is ever in movement; the Lord of the cosmos is the mover. Worldly love is not genuine love; love of the Atma is the source of all such love.

The Upanishad announces that this was the teaching imparted by Yajnavalkya to Maitreyi (in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad):

Love for the Self is primary; love for other objects is secondary. Love for another cannot be termed love. The self craves spiritual bliss (ananda) and loves because of the spiritual bliss derivable therefrom. Affection or love flows from self toward Self. So, when the Atmic Reality is understood as the source, we can know that everything happens through the Supreme consciousness.

The apparently moving (chara) and unmoving, the active and inert, are both willed by the divine. That will is a conscious (chetana) act; it is not a form of inertness (a-chetana). This truth is revealed by this aphorism:

Whatever arguments and counter-arguments are advanced by any person, the truth that Divine Will is the root of everything stands unshakable. People who argue about this either are deluded by appearances or are only trying to bolster up their pet fancies, avoiding deeper probes.

The human body is first of all a cover, a receptacle for the Atma. Elements like water and wind are intimately bound up with the body. Therefore, the Atma Principle, the Brahman Principle, which is the core, is not cognized.

People have lost awareness of this Principle (Thathwa), which is their Truth. The Atma is in the body, but not of it. The Atma Principle, though active in the body, does not belong to the body.

The capacity of the eyes to see and the ears to hear are given by the Atma. How, then, can the eyes see the Atma or the ears hear It? The eyes and ears are sustained; the Omni-Consciousness, the Brahman Principle, the Atma, is the Sustainer. That is the real “You”, the Will (Sankalpa).

The elements (ether, wind, fire, water, and earth) that constitute the cosmos operate only as prompted by the supreme wisdom. The gods (devas) or the shining ones are luminous only through that wisdom, which energizes them. The entire world of living beings is sustained by that same supreme wisdom. The fixed and the moving are both firmly based on supreme wisdom. The supreme wisdom is Atma; the supreme wisdom is Brahman. It is also the visible, objective world. The cosmos is supreme wisdom through and through; the supreme wisdom is the consciousness (chaithanya) that fills the cosmos (prapancha).

The Vedas assert that Brahman is the cause of the cosmos by using the word “Being (sat)” to denote it.

Being is the “Ever-Conscious Is”. The Vedas do not speak of anything that is “not-conscious”. All is conscious (chetana), all is, all is Brahman.