PDA

View Full Version : Please help- Did "God" directly cause us to exist?



Jivattatva
10 November 2010, 05:25 AM
Hi everyone

After a long abscence, I'm back. Can anyone please help me understand the topics below.

My questions are: Did "God" directly or indirectly cause this material world to exist? Or did his laws as a subset of his energies cause for it to exist?

Does he control the material world directly or indirectly?

If he directly caused the existence of the material world, is it logical to say that he directly involved himself with the modes of the material nature (good, ignorance, passion) ?

Or if he indirectly controls it is he aloof from the goingons in the material world?

I am a Gaudiya Vaishnava so maybe I have phrased my questions in the context of a personal God, still I would really appreciate if members will give their take on these topisc based on the teachings that they follow.

Thanks a lot

saidevo
10 November 2010, 06:34 AM
namaste Jivattatva.

My offhand take on the questions you have raised is as follows:

I think our own dreams hold a clue to the answers:

• Is the Atman--Self, in us behind those dreams which have their own world of subtle matter?

• Is the Atman the material cause of those dreams?

• Or are the dreams created by the energies stored in our vAsanas--impressions?

• If the Atman is involved, is IT affected by the guNas of the material mode?

• If the Atman, on the other hand, is aloof, how does the jaDa--insentient, vAsanas activate themselves into a world of dreaming involving the jIva?

Perhaps the creation in our own dreams is the reason for the jIva-tattva--principle of an individual soul, as the chaitanya-bimba--reflected consciousness, of the Self. Just as NirguNa Brahman has manifested SaguNa Brahman and the TrimUrti out of IT, it has also manifested its tiny, saguNa aspect of an individual jIva, which in turn is triad in nature, with the Atma-Buddhi-Manas principles. This triad is responsible for our personal worlds of creation in our jAgrat--waking, and svapna--dreaming, states, just as the TrimUtri are responsible for the Creation of the world. In the praLaya--dissolution, of suShupti--deep sleep, the jIva is merged with the Atman, just as the TrimUrti and the SaguNa Brahman are merged with the NirguNa Brahman in the mahApraLaya.