CREATION

We have seen that Dayanand gives God a hundred names, implying that there is only one God, and men call him by various names, as the Rig Veda says; ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti. God is sat-chit-ananda i.e. being-consciousness-bliss. He is formless (nirakara), and the four Vedas are his word. God taught their texts and meaning to four rishis - Agni, the Rig-Veda; Vayu, the Yajuraveda; Aditya, the Samaveda; and Angirasa, the Atharva Veda. The Vedas contain all that needs to be known. Arts, science, philosophy, the mode of government and all knowledge finds place in them. But, according to him, the Vedas include only the mantra (hymns) portion and not the Brahmana scriptures.

Further he believed - though other religionists would hardly agree with him in this, even the indigenous religions of Buddhism and Jainism refute their authority - that the Vedas were the gospel of all mankind. Sanskrit, in which the Vedas were written, he believed was chosen to reveal God's word. Dayanand discusses the world's origin and creation in the eighth chapter of Satyarthaprakash.

In the beginning, he says, the worlds were enveloped in darkness and akasharupa i.e. pervaded by space. The same is the Upanishadic concept. The world, says the Mahanarayana Upanishad, was enveloped in darkness; 'In the beginning of creation the mortal world, enveloped in gloom, received its divine brilliance from the sun shining in the glory of paramatman' So too the Bible: 'And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters'. Other Upanishads (like the Aitarya, and Brihadaranyaka) however, do not subscribe, to the darkness theory. The Rig Veda says that there was nothing 'aught nor nought' and 'gloom hid in gloom'. Maybe Dayanand got his idea from this passage of the Rig Veda.

Thereafter, says Dayananda, God, by means of his power, converted 'cause into action'. God was present and existing before the creation of the universe, and he was its Maker. That Maker or Parmatman is known as Brahman. When the questioner asks whether the universe has been produced from god or from some other, he says 'Its efficient cause (nimitta-karnaa) is God, but its material cause (Upadana-Karana) is primordial nature (prakriti)'. As we have already said, according to Dayanand's concept, prakriti is eternal. Thus according to Dayanand's theory of creation, two eternals have a hand in the fashioning of the universe - God and prakriti.

God can, therefore be only a kind of primus inter pares in regard to nature and the soul. It is as it were, the playing of an orchestra. There are the musical notes denoted by the various signs appearing in the music which the players see and are guided by - the bass, trebles and so forth. Its composer composes the music. It has to be played according to the orchestral score. The conductor only directs it. He cannot change a note, or in any way alter the music sheet. God is like the music conductor. The varous notes are as the works or deeds done by human beings. The players are the gunas of prakriti, and the orchestral score the soul (jiva). Thus God has no power to alter the notes or the karmas (deeds). All he can do is to conduct the drama of life according to the deeds of beings living in the world. He has no authority like that of the Vedantic grace which can nullify the evil influence of bad deeds.

Besides, as the music conductor, the music sheet and the players all exist as of their own right, so too God, the soul and primordial nature are eternal and unalterable. Dayanand's theory of creation has much of the samkhian element in it. The Samkhya too, does not believe in any universal destruction, or mahapralaya, which cannot occur in the sense of complete destruction of the soul and prakriti, as the two share co-eternality with God. The Samkhya Karika says: 'Once nature exhibits herself to the soul it is never joined to matter. When the linga (the soul's vehicle) dissolves at moksha, nature has no capacity to produce. The soul having got supreme knowledge looks on as spectator on an actress. All things retire into consciousness; consciousness into intellect; and intellect into prakriti. Soul and matter continue to exist, but isolated and independent of each other. But there is a difference. According to the Karika after the drama of life is thus ended, no new character can be assumed and the actors retire from the stage forever.

Dayananda mentions the cause of the creation of the universe as three, later on in the Satyarthaprakash. In essentials this does not change his stand but only elaborates it. He says; 'There are three causes, one the efficient, second the material and the third the ordinary (sadharna). That is known as the efficient cause by the making of which something is made and by its not making it is not made, but which does not itself become that which is made, only gives form to another. Second, is the material cause. This is that without which nothing can be made. It takes the required form, and also again turns the form into the original state. The third is ordinary or common cause, which assists in the making. Efficient cause is of two kinds. One is God who is the chief efficient cause. He creates creation from cause, sustains it, destroys it, and maintains order.

As stated before, this is the same concept as that of the Hindu trinity, Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh. The other efficient cause is the soul, which takes the various ingredients of God's creation and makes them active in various ways. The material cause is prakriti - the paramanus (infinitely small particles like atoms) - which is the material from which all things in the world are made. Dayanand says that 'one Arab, ninety-six crores many lakhs and many thousands of years have passed since creation began'. The basic substance, which goes to make it, is the indivisible paramanu. Sixty paramanus combine to form an anu. The gross air is made of two anus (which form one 'dvayanuka'). Fire consists of six anus, water of eight anus and ten anus from the earth [i.e. three, four and five dvayanukas respectively].

Being lifeless, creation can't make or unmake itself, but by another's making it is made, and by another's destroying it is destroyed. Sometimes a lifeless thing can also assist in making or destroying another lifeless thing, as the seeds made by God fall on the earth and on getting water, turn into trees; and by coming into contact with fire etc., are also destroyed. But their making and destruction is controlled by God according to a definite pattern.

The elements by which things are made are its ordinary cause. For example knowledge, appearance, strength, hands, and various things that help in the making like direction, time and space. As for a potter working at his wheel, the potter is the efficient cause, the clay from which the pots are made is the material cause, the wheel etc., are the common-efficient causes, and the hands, eyes etc., are also the efficient and the common-efficient causes. Nothing can be created or destroyed except by these three causes - efficient, material and common.