Something can’t come from nothing

No matter what science says, ancient Indians were clear that something cannot come from nothing. What was that ‘thing’ which this world came from? 

 

For want of a better word, ancient Indians called that thing as Sath – which literally means existence. This world came from Sath and not from nothing. So ‘in the beginning’ there was this Sath that created or took the form of ‘everything’ that we see around – the world, the beings in it, and so on.

How does one infer that?

We will see that in the next post.

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This is a series of posts based on the well known discussion in Chändogya Upanishad (part of Säma Veda, believed to have been recorded more than 3000 years ago) regarding ultimate truths.

Root of the mystery

In one of the well known Upanishads, namely the Chändogya Upanishad, there is a description of how this world came into existence. Let me summarize the relevant verses as follows.

 

“In the beginning, there was nothing but ‘That’ alone that existed. And ‘That’ wished to be many. It took the form of ‘Tejas’ (bright light). This ‘Tejas’ too wished to be many and it took the form of ‘Äp’ (water). This ‘Äp’ in turn took the form of ‘Anna’ (nutriment)”

What is interesting is even after taking these various forms the original ‘That’ remained as it was. Explaining the ‘creation process’ further, the Upanishad explains how each of these three forms – bright light, water and nutriment – combined among themselves and resulted in the formation of several entities each distinct in its own way. Then the Upanishad says

“Having taken so many forms, ‘That’ entered each of them in the form of ‘Jiva’ (soul) and separated ‘name’ and ‘form’”

So, in this way, the single entity that alone existed in the beginning ‘became’ many things/beings that we see around us as ‘world’.

But how is that possible? How can one entity become many and still remain as it was! We will see this in the next post.

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