Brahma Knowledge

PART I: section 9. ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE FROM BRAHMA.--I. Upanishads.--The Upanishads, being the work of Brahmans, are naturally influenced to a great extent by the naturalism of Vedic myth, especially in their conception of the origination of the universe from Brahma. As we saw ( section 4), the Veda already speaks of a primal Being that created a phenomenal world from itself and became its indwelling soul; and thus, by its empiric distinction between the first Being as cause and the wor

II. Later Vedanta.--S'ankara (on Brahma-sutra, II. iii. 1 f.) endeavours to reconcile the discrepant cosmogonic theories of Ch. VI. ii. and Taitt.II. i., by laying down that from the Self arises ether, thence wind, thence fire, thence water, thence earth, and that this process is reversed on the dissolution of the universe. With this qualification he follows the Ch. in its derivation of inorganic nature from heat (fire), water, and food (earth). These he regards as primitive subtle elements, which by being mixed together form the gross elements; a gross element is produced by the predominance of the corresponding subtle element in admixture with the other two. For his metaphysical explanation of creation, see section 12.

S'ankara does not mention the theory of quintuplication (panchikarana) adopted by the later Vedanta. This doctrine assumes that there are five elements--ether, air, fire, water, earth--in both subtle and gross forms; in order that a particular gross element, e.g. water, may arise,

it is necessary that a proportion of one-half of the corresponding subtle form of water be mixed with a proportion of one-half of the half of the other four subtle elements. These five elements, according to the same theory, arise from the union of the Cosmic Self or Is'vara with cosmic ignorance, in the order above mentioned (see further below, section 12).