"The Word"

The  'Word' (pada) creates the ' Objective World' (The Phenomenal Objective World)
  Initially, "The 'Word' was with the God", is a Biblical statement. The 'sound as brahmn' (shabda brahmn) is the Vedic term; and, both these are crucial in understanding creation. The single syllable (O) and a-half (m) word may be 'Om' or three syllable- 'aum' is the seed that created the universe, as stated in the Gita- "ityetad aksharam brahma| The word (pada) may also be taken as just sound ('shabda'). The Word (pada) and its meaning (artha) make the  objective world (padartha prapancha), the material or the phenomenal objective world.

     The word, including even the gods, is created from scriptural words. The scriptural words are the source for the world and the gods. If you object to this and say that this conflicts with the Brahmasu tra I-1-2, which says that Brahman is the cause of the world, the reply is: “Brahman is the Upadanakarana (material cause). The Veda is not such material cause. The creator utters the Vedic words and creates. He says earth and creates the earth, says Light and creates the Stars, says `aps’ and creates the waters, and so on. The creation of every embodied being, whether Indra or a cow proceeds from remembrance of the form and its characteristics by Lord Brahma; when he utters these words which, by association always suggest the particular form and the characteristics of that form. When a special individual of the class called Indra has perished, the creator, knowing from the Vedic word ‘Indra’ which is present in his mind as the class characteristics of the being denoted by the word, creates an other Indra possessing those very same characteristics, just as the potter fashions a new jar on the basis of the word ‘jar’ which is revolving in his mind.

    Every Vedic word always expresses a particular type form and does not express any individual. Brahman creates the world by remembering the particular type forms denoted by those words. Forms (Akritis) are eternal and exist in the archetypal plane from eternity before they become concrete in any individual form. Brahma, the creator, created the Devas by reflecting on the word ‘Ete’ (these). He created the men by the word ‘Asrigram’; the Pitris by the word ‘Indavah’ (drops); the planets by the word ‘Tiras pavitram’; the songs by the word ‘Asuva’; the Mantras by the word ‘Visvani’ and he created all other creatures by the word ‘Abhisaubhaga’. The word ‘etad’ (this) reminds Brahma the creator of the Devas presiding over the senses; the word ‘Asrigra’ meaning blood, reminds him of those creatures in which blood is the chief life- element, namely men; the word ‘Indu’ denoting moon, reminds him of the fathers, who live in the Chandraloka; the word ‘Tiras pavitram’ meaning ‘holding of the pure ambrosia’ reminds of the planets where the Soma fluid exists; the word ‘Asuva’ (flowing) reminds him of the sweet flow of music; the word ‘Visva’ reminds him of the hymns sacred to the Visvedevas; the word ‘Abhisubhaga’, meaning ‘great prosperity’, reminds him of all creatures. We read in Bri. Up. “He with his mind united himself with speech” i.e. the word of the Veda.    

    Every word has for its counterpart a form or an object which it denotes. Name and form are inseparable. Whenever you think of a form its name comes before your mind at once. Whenever you utter a name the object comes before your mind. The relation between a name or word and form (the object) is eternal. The Veda is not the material cause of the universe. If one argues that the Veda refers to Vasus, Rudras, Adityas and other gods who are born and are therefore non-eternal and, hence, the Vedas also must be non-eternal, the reply is that ‘what are born are the individual manifestations of Dravya (sub stance), Guna (quality) and Karma (actions) but not the Akritis, species’. The origination of the universe from the ‘word’ is not to be understood in the sense that the word constitutes the material cause of the world as Brahman does. 

   “The several names, actions, and conditions of all things He shaped in the beginning from the words of the Vedas” [Manu I-21]. Thought first manifests as a word and then as the more concrete form. You cannot separate the thought from name and form. If you wish to do a thing you first remember the word denoting the thing and then you start the work. The Vedic words manifested in the mind of Prajapati, the creator before the creation. After that he created the things corresponding to those words. “Uttering ‘Bhur’ he created the earth” etc. [Taittiriya Brahmana II-2-4-2].

   The uttered sounds do not perish, for at the end of their utterance we bject their identity when we utter them again. It is said that there might be a difference of intonation when uttering the same word twice; this does not negate the identity, for the difference is only a difference of the instrument of manifestation. Albeit the letters are many, their group can be the subject of a conception (e.g. ten, hundred etc).

   The Sphota theory is therefore quite unnecessary. It is therefore quite clear that the Vedic sounds are eternal and that there is no logical fallacy in the doctrine that through them has been created the entire universe including the gods.

  The Vedas were not written by anybody. They are the very breath of the Lord. They are eternal. The Rishis were not the authors of the Vedas. They only discovered them. “By means of their past good deeds the priests were able to understand the Vedas. They found them dwell ing in the Rishis.” The Mantra “By means of sacrifice they followed the trace of speech; they found it dwelling in the Rishis” in Rigveda Samhita [X-71-3] shows that the speech found by the Rishis was permanent. Veda Vyasa also says “For merly the great Rishis, being allowed to do so by Svayambhu, obtained through their penance the Vedas together with the Itihasas, which had been hidden at the end of the Yuga.” Just as a man who rises from sleep continues the same form of existence which he enjoyed previously to his sleep, so also the world is a latent or potential state (in seed form) in Pralaya or dissolution; it is again projected with all the previous variety of names and forms at the beginning of the next cycle. Therefore, the eternity of the relation between Vedic words and their objects is not at all contradicted. Consequently the authoritativeness of the Veda remains. This is supported by Sruti and Smriti.

“As for merly the Lord ordered the sun and the moon, heaven, earth, the sky etc.”(Rk Veda X-190-3).
 We read in the Smriti Texts,

   “As the same signs of seasons appear again and again in their due course, so do beings appear and reappear in successive cycles”.  Even after a great Pralaya there is no contradiction with regard to the eternity of Vedic words, because the new creation proceeds on the sameness of names and forms etc., in the preceding creation.

     In a Mahapralaya the Vedas and the types denoted by the words of the Vedas merge in the Lord and become one with Him. They remain in Him in a state of latency. When the Lord desires to create they come out from Him again and become manifest. The creation of individuals is always preceded by reflection on the words of the Vedas and the types denoted by them. This may be called shri Hari Iccha (Divine Will) or Hari Sankalpa or the Lord Parameshvara’s desire, whatever it might be,

   After the Mahapralaya the Lord recreates the Vedas in exactly the same order and arrangements as they had been before. He reflects on the words and types and projects the whole universe. A subsequent creation is similar to the past creation. The Lord creates the world just as a potter who makes a pot by remembering the word ‘pot’ and the form which the word calls up in his mind. The Lord Himself creates all elements from Mahat downwards up to Brahmanda after every mahapralaya. He projects Chaturmukha Brahma from His body and teaches him the Vedas mentally (not orally) and entrusts him with the work of further creation. In minor Pralaya Brahma does not cease to exist, nor do the elements. Brahma himself creates the world after every minor Pralaya. It may be objected that when we sleep and then wake up we can recall the already experienced external universe and that such a thing is not possible in the case of the dissolution of the world. But our answer is that by the grace of the Supreme Lord, Hiranyagarbha or Brahma can recollect the state of the world as it was before the dissolution. We read in the Svetasvatara Upanishad “During Pralaya all forms vanish but Sakti remains. The next creation takes place through it alone”. Otherwise one would have to postulate a creation out of nothing.

    Scripture declares that “The Devas are qualified”.
    “Whatever Deva was awakened so to know brahman he indeed became that” (Bri. Up. 1-4-10).