(Brahma Sutra 5)

Ikshateh na asabdam. The Vedas assert that Brahman is the Primal Cause of Jagat (Cosmos). They do not posit any nonconscious entity (Achetana) as the Cause. The Shabdam, or the Voice of God or Veda does not support the view of the non-conscious as being the origin of Creation. On the other hand, the Being (Sat) is asserted to have resolved upon becoming, to have entertained a Sankalpa (decision). Resolution, decision, design- these are acts of Consciousness; non-conscious entities are incapable of such exercises of will. Brahman, which is All-conscious, has therefore to be accepted as the Primal Cause. The non-conscious or nachetana is called the Pradhan. The Vedas do not speak about it. This is what this Sutra reveals very clearly. Pradhan is the designation by which the ‘Name-Form-Flux’ namely the Jagat or Cosmos is denoted by some schools of thought. Other schools refer to it as Atom composed or Prakriti (the Made); Others say, in terms of praise, ‘You are the Omni-will, the Absolute. Self, the Paramatma. Because of You, all this diversity is projected.’ Others argue that the three gunas or qualities are the fundamental constituents which through the preponderance of one or the other, cause the diversity in Nature. These views are not supported by the Vedic authority.

The Vedas maintain that Brahman willed and Creation emerged. That Will is the prologue, the preliminary act. The Samkhya school posits the Pradhan and bases Creation on the Gunas. When the three Gunas (Sattva - Serenity: Rajas - Activity: and Tamas - Passivity) are well balanced and in equipoise, no conscious decision can arise, the Samkhya said. That state has to receive the impact of a Purusha who is the Witness and who is Awareness or Consciousness: in other words, the impact of God’s will. That makes the Pradhan knowing and knowable. Considering each of these theories, the most correct conclusion is that Brahman is the Prime Cause. Of course, the highest accessible, Truth is not the Attribute-less, Qualityless, Intangible, In-explicable Brahman. It is the Saguna Brahman, the Brahman cognisable through the qualities which it has imposed on Itself. This Cosmos, which is composed of Consciousness and non-consciousness is the Body it has assumed.

There is nothing in Cosmos apart from or distinct from rahman. All of it emanated from Brahman, all of it is absorbed (laya) in Brahmananda of it moves and has its being in Brahman only.

This truth is made clear by the Sutra - ‘sarvam khaluidam brahman tajjalan iti shanta upasita.’ Tajjalaniti - Tat (from That).... Ja (born)... La (absorbed)... Aath (grows). These are the four feet on which the proposition stands and is established. Birth, growth and death form a Yajna or Sacrifice of the Purusha, the Person. The Cosmos (Prapancha the five-element composite) has emanated from Omniself, the Paramatma, Brahman. There is no spot where its manifestation is not. The Jagat is ever in movement; the Lord of the Cosmos (jagadiswara) is the mover.

Chara and Achara (the apparently moving and unmoving, active and inert) are both willed by the Divine (Daiva Sankalpa). That will is Chetana, a Conscious Act: it is not A-Chetana, a form of inertia. This is the truth revealed by this Sutra - Ikshateh na Shabdam. (Sutra Vahini, pp. 39-42)