Welcome to our ongoing question and answer series.
Here's a question from Jamie in Prescott, Arizona.
He asks, "Why did God create the world?"
That's a really good question.
Many others have asked a similar question, "Why did God create the world in the first
place?"
But unlike Jamie's question, that one has a big problem.
Logically speaking, that question is defective or invalid because it contains a false assumption.
Let me explain.
Suppose you ask a happily married man, "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"
He can't answer yes or no because the question contains a wrong assumption, and that makes
the question invalid.
In the same way, the question, "Why did God create the world in the first place?" is also
invalid, because according to the rishis, the sages of ancient India, there was no first
place, that is, there was no first act of creation.
The rishis understood that the natural word is cyclical.
For example, a seed planted in the ground sprouts, then a plant grows and it produces
more seeds.
Those seeds will eventually sprout, enabling this cycle to continue after the plant dies.
Suppose someone were to think that in the beginning, there was a single, primordial
seed that gave rise to all plants.
Well, to assume the existence of a first or primordial seed seems quite naive.
The evolution of plants is much more complicated than that.
Yet, the Bible declares, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth."
If nature is truly cyclical, then this statement might also seem naive.
According to the rishis, the universe continually undergoes cycles in which it is physically
manifest for a length of time, then it undergoes a process of dissolution and becomes unmanifest.
That unmanifest universe eventually becomes manifest once again and the cycle continues.
When the universe is unmanifest, it still exists, but it exists in a subtle or non-physical
form.
This unmanifest condition is known as bija avastha or seed state.
Like a sprout emerges from a seed, the universe is said to emerge from this seed state at
the beginning of each cycle of creation.
So, just like it's naive to assume the existence of a first, primordial seed from which all
plants arose, it's equally naive to assume that the universe had a first or initial creation.
Science has discovered that our universe began with the so-called big bang about 14 billion
years ago.
Some scientists believe that, prior to the big bang, the total energy of the universe
was confined to an infinitely small point that they called a singularity.
It's interesting that their singularity resembles the seed state described by the ancient rishis.
Some scientists also believe that the singularity was produced by the collapse of a prior universe,
a universe that was squeezed into a tiny point by the force of gravity.
These ideas lead scientists to theorize that the universe could be cyclic, just like the
rishis intuited.
Now, consider this.
If the universe truly is cyclic, then our current universe has been preceded by an infinite
number of prior universes.
Not only that, our current universe will be followed by infinitely more in the future.
Many people find it difficult to grasp the idea of an infinite succession of universes
with no beginning and no end.
This difficulty is largely due to the fact that infinity lies beyond the scope of experience.
Even when you look up into the vast expanse of stars in the night sky, you see a finite
number of stars, and the light that reaches your eyes comes from a finite distance.
But some people, like mathematicians, thoroughly understand the concept of infinity.
For example, you might think this is a straight line, but a mathematician can envision it
as a tiny part of an enormous circle, a circle of infinite size.
To understand the cyclic universe, we too must learn to grasp the concept of infinity.
Ok, now that we've dealt the question, "Why did God create the world in the first place?"
let's return to Jamie's original question, "Why did God create the world?"
Based on what we've just discussed, we can rephrase his question using the Sanskrit word
for God, "Why did Ishvara cause the unmanifest universe to become manifest once again?"
This question is easy to answer through the doctrine of karma.
When the prior universe underwent dissolution and became unmanifest, countless deeds or
karmas that had already been committed had not yet produced their results.
So, to ensure that those deeds eventually bear fruit, the laws of karma cause the unmanifest
universe to become manifest once again.
But if it's simply the laws of karma that cause the universe to become manifest again
and again, then what is Ishvara's role in all this?
Well, where did those laws of karma come from?
The laws that govern the universe, including the laws of karma, can be understood as expressions
of Ishvara's limitless intelligence.
My guru called it Ishvara's intelligent order.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Ishvara is famously described as karma-phala-data, the giver or
producer of the results of each action.
For every act you commit, it is Ishvara who produces the result, according to the laws
of karma which are part of his intelligent order.
This principle applies not only to individual persons.
Due to the collective karmas of all living beings, Ishvara causes the unmanifest universe
to become manifest again so that all those karmas can eventually bear fruit.
Now, here's a related question from Gaurav who lives in Jaipur, India.
He says, "Due to our past karmas, we have all taken millions of births.
But before our first birth, we had no karma.
Then how did we get born in the first place?"
You can see the similarity of Gaurav's question to the earlier one, "Why did God create the
world in the first place?"
Both questions are invalid because they contain false assumptions about the first creation
or about your first birth.
Think about this.
In an infinite number of prior universes, how many times have you taken birth?
It's likely that you were born many times in each cycle of creation, so you've had an
infinite number of prior births.
But suppose that's not the case.
Suppose you get born only once in each million cycles of creation.
Even then, you would still have an infinite number of prior births because infinity divided
by any number is still infinite.
Once again we are faced with the challenge of grasping the vastness of infinity.
But the ancient rishis had no such difficulty.
That's one reason they're called kranta darshis, those who can see beyond, those who can understand
what others cannot, those who can grasp infinity.
The rishis even understood the difference between two kinds of infinity.
The infinite succession of cycles of creations or cycles of rebirth, they called pravaha
nityatvam which means an eternal flow.
Just like water in a river flows continually, without end or interruption, the same is true
for cycles of creation and cycles of rebirth.
The rishis considered this cyclic flow to be a relative kind eternality which they distinguished
from vastava nityatvam, true eternality.
That which is truly eternal exists outside the realm of time, that is, it's timeless.
How can we understand timelessness?
Well, time can be understood as a measure or property of change.
Suppose the universe was perfectly static, a universe in which nothing moved, a universe
in which planets, subatomic particles, and even light were all somehow frozen in place.
In such a universe, the concept of time would be meaningless.
Time and change are two sides of a coin, so to speak.
No change means no time.
So, anything that changes exists in time, and that which doesn't change at all is timeless.
But, is there really anything that never changes?
Yes.
The rishis discovered that your true self, atma, the so-called inner divinity, is pure,
unchanging consciousness.
That unchanging consciousness makes you aware of the constantly changing activities of your
mind.
In your mind right now is an ever-changing flow of thoughts, perceptions, and emotions.
You're aware or conscious of that ever-changing flow, and that's why you experience the passage
of time.
The same is true at night when you're dreaming.
But in deep, dreamless sleep, it's completely different.
Have you ever fallen asleep at midnight, and then, just a few moments later, your alarm
clock suddenly wakes you up and you see that it's already 7 o'clock in the morning.
You don't experience the passage of time in deep sleep because your mind is perfectly
still.
Nothing changes.
No change, no time.
According to the rishis, atma, your true nature which is pure, unchanging consciousness, remains
present even in deep, dreamless sleep.
In deep sleep, you remain conscious, but there's nothing to be conscious of, like in total
darkness, you can see, but there's nothing to be seen.
That consciousness is unborn, uncreated, eternal and unchanging.
That consciousness, your essential nature, is truly timeless.
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