Who created this world?

Who created this world?

If anyone asks this question to anybody in this world, mostly the reply will be, “This world is created by God”.  One cannot doubt this reply because there is no other answer. “Who else can create this world?” people will ask you, if one do not agree with them.  Even a watch needs a watchmaker, this world too must have been created, and somebody must be creator.

There is a story in the biography of Swami Vivekanand.  When he was in US he was staying with a American lady who was his disciple. The husband of the lady was atheist and did not appreciate the view of Swamiji. Once Swamiji painted a beautiful map of the world and kept it on the table in such a way that it will be easily seen by husband of his disciple, when he will return in the evening from his job.  When he returned to home and seen a map he asked as to who painted this map? Swamiji and his disciple replied, “We do not know; nobody was here in the house except we two; this map must have been created by nobody”.  The husband asked as to how it was possible? However, both Swamiji and his disciple reiterated that nobody did it.  Ultimately, Swamiji asked him a question, “If somebody is required to create the map of the world, somebody must be required to create this world; we call the creator of this world the God!”

This is a simple argument put forth as an evidence of existence of God. It is a deep-rooted thought in human mind that everything has a creator, and so the God is the creator of this universe. Most of the holy books in the world have made this argument and decisive human thought about creator-creation, a base of their religious theory. 

 Swami Vivekanand was surely an Advaitin, who very well knew that what we look around us and call a world was an illusion. If the above story was true, one might think that his statement about map of the world and existence of creator was against his own principles of Advaita. However, this is not wrong.  The principles or knowledge of God is very subtle and unable to be understood by common people, unless they concentrate on it.  The Hindu Shastras and great saints like Swami Vivekanand had therefore, told the knowledge of God to the people in two stages, so as to make them digest it. The first stage was to agree with the people with their natural understanding about God, like creator-creation relation and the second stage was to prove that what was agreed by all was wrong.  

The experience of birth, life and death that takes place within the world is also illusion. 

  The world is mere illusion/myth. Therefore, the birth, life and death that take place within the world, is also illusion.  The belief of god, the religion and its scriptures are reality within the illusion.  Therefore, trying to get enlightenment on the base of waking entity which is limited to the waking experience is erroneous, because the waking entity is false self within the false experience.  Therefore, it is necessary to realize the fact that the self is neither the waking entity nor dream entity but the formless knower of the coming and going of the three states.  Any type physical practice will lead one to hallucinated enlightenment, based on the imagination.

All the three states are produced by ignorance, and dissolves in the wake of non-dual wisdom. The material /cause of this the duality is the One without a second, subtle and unchanging Existence, just as the water is the material /cause of the cloud and the like.

The self is in the form of consciousness. As true self is also the One, the Subtle, the Knower, the Witness, the Ever-Existent, and the Unchanging, so there is no doubt that it is the consciousness. 

Consciousness the true self is verily one and without parts, whereas the body consists of many parts; and yet everyone confound these two as one due to ignorance.

Consciousness is the ruler of the three states and is internal; the three states are the ruled and are external.

Consciousness is permanent.  All the three states are illusion created out of consciousness. Consciousness is the Illuminator and purity itself; the three states is said to be of the nature of darkness.

Consciousness is eternal, since it is Existence itself; the three states are transient, as they are non-existence in essence.

It is very strange that a person ignorantly rests contented with the idea that self is the body and world as reality, while he knows that the body and universe exist because of the consciousness.

True Self verily consciousness, being equanimous, quiescent, and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge. True Self is neither the body nor the mind which are non-existence in their essence. This is called true Knowledge by the Gnani.

Consciousness is without any change, without any form, free from all blemish and decay. Consciousness not subjected to any disease, and it is beyond all comprehension, free from all alternatives and all-pervading.

Consciousness is without any attribute or activity, true self is eternal, ever free, and imperishable.  Consciousness is free from all diversity; true self is immovable, unlimited, undecaying, and immortal.