However, what was the need for Him to create this immense universe of unimaginable complexity?
Suppose one says that God was bored by loneliness and in order to get rid of this boredom He indulged in creation. This then would imply that God is also a victim of dissatisfaction and boredom like us.
On the other hand, if it is said that there is no specific reason for creation, then this would imply an unsound mind because doing anything without a purpose is a sign of an unbalanced mind.
It is only a mad person who cries or laughs or runs without any reason (Brahma Sutras 2.1.32). Obviously, none of these would be acceptable.
What then is the way out?
We all know that no kind of dissatisfaction or boredom is possible in God because He is the nature of bliss itself (Ananda).
Further, the charge of an unsound mind also does not stick because God’s creation is unimaginably mysterious, complex and coordinated.
Therefore, His act of creation is not the result of an unsound mind, in other words, it is not without a purpose.
Question: God did not create the world for Himself; nor was this created without a reason. So, why did God create the world at all?
Answer: The Vedas answer this question by saying that the creation of the world is for the sake of the Jivas. It is similar to the father preparing a toy for his child.
Question: How can that be? According to the Vedas, creation is a process with many stages. The five elements (Sky, Air, Fire, Water and Earth) were created first and the Jivas came last. Then how do you say that this creation is for the sake of Jivas only?
Distinct from body
Answer: The Jivas existed even before creation. Just as a pregnant woman knits socks and gloves for the child to be born, so did God create the material universe for the sake of the Jivas to be born.
Question: How can we believe this when we are actually seeing new Jivas being born?
Answer: What we see is only the birth of the gross body. However, the Jiva is different and not visible.
Question: How can we say that Jiva is different from the body?
Answer: When we are awake, we say that we are moving only when our body is moving. We say we are lying down when the body is lying down. This is because we mistake the body for ourselves. However, in dreams, even though the body continues to lie on the bed, our experience is that we are wandering elsewhere.
This experience would not be possible if we were not different from the body.
Moreover, we know that today various malfunctioning organs of the body are being replaced by inert replicas or just amputated and thrown out, or even replaced by other organs.
But the individual continues to feel that he is the same.
In this way, the individual does not change even though the gross body is completely changed. All these observations confirm that the Jiva (our very own self) is different from the body.
But, when the Jiva acquires the gross body, one thinks he is born and when the Jiva leaves the body, one thinks he dies.
Question: This is a convincing proof for the separateness of the Jiva from the gross body. But still I could say that the Jiva is born with the gross body. In that case, the reason for the creation of the world remains unexplained. It could be explained only if the Jiva existed even before the birth of the gross body. How can that be proved?
Innate habits
Answer: Notice that you need practice for even simple activities like cycling, singing or swimming. No one can do anything without practicing.
But on the other hand, a newly born child successfully suckles from the breast of the mother. This action implies that the child is aware of its hunger and has the knowledge of the milk, which mitigates hunger.
It also implies knowledge of the location of the milk and the practice of suckling it. Clearly, the child did not practice the suckling now. So it must have practiced it before its birth (i.e. in its previous lives). In fact, we have a multitude of such examples, some of which are as follows:
1) During winter, birds migrate from the Polar Regions to warmer locations thousands of miles away. For example, Siberian birds fly to Bharatpur in Rajasthan, Ranganthittu in Karnataka and Vednatangal in Tamil Nadu. They fly at dizzy heights of about 30,000 feet, reach the same locations every year, and return to Siberia by summer. How do they find their way? Scientists say they are guided by the stars, a perplexing knowledge of astronomy indeed for a bird!
2) There is a sea creature living in the Japan Sea. When it becomes pregnant, it travels along the coast, crosses Indonesia, Burma and Bengal and comes to the beaches of Orissa. It waits in the sea until night. Then it enters into the beach and digs a hole and lays its eggs, covers them with sand and goes back.
When the chicks come out, they also wait until the night in their burrow. One of them then peeps out to verify that there is nobody to harm them. Then in one leap, it springs into the sea and all the other chicks follow it. These chicks go back to the Japan Sea after crossing Bengal, Burma, Indonesia and Thailand along the coast. Who has taught them the way?
3) A lizard can dexterously catch flies the moment it comes out of the egg.
4) In the case of humans, there are child prodigies in music, science, mathematics and other sectors. This would be impossible if had there been no previous life in which they would have undergone the appropriate practice.
This shows clearly that the Jiva must have existed even before the birth of the gross body and God creates the universe for the Jiva’s sake, so that the latter can reap the fruits of Karma done in his previous lives.
Nitin Kumar is the Editor of exoticindia.com. The above article has been reproduced with his permission. Exotic India 2011 ©
