That definitely sounds absurd! It violates basic math and common sense. But Vedas do have such strange mathematics.
After arguing for a different way of looking at Advaita, sans Maya or theory of illusion, I am wrapping up by giving support for my arguments from some of the prominent Upanishadic sentences. There are just too many of them and I will discuss only some of the interesting ones in the episodes that follow.
Let us start with this basic elementary mathematics. Can one minus one be non zero? It cannot be. At least as long as we are talking about objects. But if talk in terms of concepts instead of objects, there is such a possibility.
Let us take, for example, the set of numbers. How many numbers are there? Obviously, there are infinite of them. You name any number, there is a number greater than that. Mathematicians call the set of numbers as infinity. Infinity is a concept which conveys that the number of objects is unlimited. Now let us do a simple exercise. Let us remove all odd numbers from this infinite set of numbers. How many numbers did we remove? Infinitely many since there are infinitely many odd numbers. How many numbers remain after we remove these infinitely many numbers? What remains is also infinite since there are infinitely many even numbers.
So, when you subtract infinity from infinity, the result need not be zero. It can be infinity as well! So, if we view infinity as a concept and not as a collection of objects, our subtracting infinity from infinity did not make any difference. Even after subtracting, what remains is also infinity.
Now let us move from our physical world to world of the Upanishads.
There is a well-known Vedic verse which says that
That is complete. This is also complete. This has emerged from That. Even after this came out of that, That remained complete!
Various interpretations are given to this seemingly paradoxical Vedic verse. Normally the word ‘That’ is interpreted as the Atma or the source of this world. And ‘this’ is interpreted as this world. This world emerged from that ‘Atma’. Even after this world emerged from that Atma, that Atma did not diminish in any way. It remained as complete as ever. It is like saying even after you remove infinitely many odd numbers from the totality of numbers, what remains is also infinitely many numbers.
But this example of infinity of numbers may not be quite apt. The infinity in this example refers to a set of objects namely numbers. So, when you remove some numbers from this set, the original set does undergo change though its measure remains the same. But in the case of Atma, it remains unchanged even after the whole universe emerges from it. It is because Atma can be in both states, as multiple things as well as a single thing simultaneously. Because Atma is beyond space and time. Because Atma is not a THING! We only use the word thing forced by our limited vocabulary!
Why am I quoting this verse?
Remember, one of the objections to interpreting the Chandogya Upanishad verse describing the emergence of the world from the one and only Atma was ‘does it not make the Atma subject to transformation?’. If Atma is subject to transformation, then it cannot be eternal. That is typical counter by the opponents of Vedic school.
But it need not be so. Atma can still remain as it is, even after the world emerged from that. That is what this Vedic verse probably implies. It says that Atma remains as it is, even after a complete world emerged from it. Emergence of the world did not make any difference to the character of the Atma.
If you go into the Chandogya Upanishadic verse carefully, at every stage of the emergence of the world, this Atma is still there guiding the further process. Even when the entire physical world has emerged, the Atma is still there and it is that which ‘willed’ to take on the forms of ‘Jeevatma’ and bring up many live entities. It continued to guide the emergence of infinitely many ‘names’ and ‘forms’ – ‘nama and roopa’.
So, there is no question of Atma diminishing from its original state. It remains the same forever, in spite of the emergence of infinitely many forms.
The Bhagavad Geetha which is based on the Upanishads also endorses this when it says
That Atma is undivided. But it exists as if it is divided into many living and nonliving entities. It is the one which is the cause of this world as well the one which finally reabsorbs this world into itself.
Bhagavad Gita 13.16
So, whatever exists in this world is just a form taken by the Atma. Irrespective of how the form appears, in the ultimate sense it is nothing but the Atma. This point is stressed by another Upanishad namely the Swetaasvatara Upanishad as follows.
Atma is the woman; Atma alone is the man, the young boy and the girl. Atma indeed is the old man who walks with a stick in his unsteady hand. In fact, all that we see in this universe are but forms taken by Atma.
Swetaasvatara Upanishad 4.3
But all the forms taken by the Atma are not equal in all respects. They are equal only as far as the fact that they are all forms taken by the Atma. They get involved in the world in various ways and suffer or rejoice accordingly. How? Let us see that in the next episode.
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