(Continued from page 12)

indicative character of the taTastha-lakshaNa. He says in so many words; I see You in the universe but I don't see You who are transcending the universe.  In saying this he is echoing the sentiments expressed in the famous nAsadIya-sUkta of Rg-veda. We quote below from the corresponding portion of the yajur veda, where there is almost a repetition of the nAsadIya-sUkta:

ko addhA veda ka iha pravocat / kuta AjAtA kuta iyam visRshTiH //
arvAg devA asya visarjane na / athA ko veda yata AbabhUva //
iyam visRshTir-yata AbabhUva / yadi vAdadhe yadi vA na //
yo asyA-dhyakshaH parame vyoman / so anga veda yadi vA na veda //
Who verily knows and who can declare it?
Whence it was born ,and  whence this manifold creation sprang?
The lower gods who came later into being would not know.
Does the Creator, from whom everything came, know?
Does He know whether it was His will or not that formed it?
The Most High Seer that is in highest heaven,
He verily knows it -- or perchance  He knows  not.

So Dhruva says: This entire universe,  animate and inanimate,  the gross as well as  the subtle is pervaded by you,  but You are said to transcend everything. You are said to be beyond words.  Of the five elements, Earth, Water and fire can be visually seen - these constitute the sat; Air and Space cannot be visually seen - these constitute the asat. The entire universe is made up of the sat and the asat.  But You are beyond both. Also sat represents the concrete effect, namely the Space and the other elements. And asat represents the subtle Cause behind, like the Unmanifest.  You transcend both.  Thus You are beyond Cause and Effect. You are not comprehensible by words. You cannot  be delimited by finite expressions. Such a one as You are is beyond me. What I see is what I know.
Dhruva is only giving expression to the Rgvedic thought which has now become classical - namely, the relationship between the universe and God,  that is,  the question whether  originally there was Existence (sat) or non-Existence (asat),  is undecidable (anirvacanIyaM) because,

yukti-dRshTyA-tvanirvAcyaM nAsadAsIditi SruteH /
nAsadAsIt vibhAtatvAt nosadAsIcca-bAdhanAt ////
By human logic it is undecidable. The nAsadIya sUkta also says so.
Originally it could not have been non-existence, because now it exists; it could not have been Existence, because the universe  came  into being later and that means whatever that existed has changed.

© Copyright V. Krishnamurthy  July 15, '99               Home  Contents  NEXT