Is God formless or embodied?
Q – If God be formless, this world created by Him should also be formless, just as in the case of other living beings, such as men, – children have bodies like their parents. Had they been formless, their children would have been the same. A.- What a childish question! We have already stated that God is not the material cause of the universe. He is only its efficient cause. It is prakriti and paramanus – the premordial elementary matter and atoms, – which are less subtle than God, that are the material cause of the world. They are not altogether formless but are subtler than other material objects, while less subtle as compared to God.
11. If God be formless, this world created by Him should also be formless A.-No; because that which does not exist (in any form) cannot be called into existence. It is absolutely impossible. It is as much as impossible for an effect to be produced without its cause as the story of a man, who would brag in the following way, to be true. “I saw a man and a woman being married whose mothers never bore any children. They had boys made of human horns, and wore garlands of ethereal flowers. They bathed in the water of mirage and lived in a town of angels where it rained without clouds, and cereals and vegetables grew without any soil, etc.,” or ” I had neither father nor mother and yet came into being. I have no tongue in my mouth and lo! I can speak. There was no snake in the hole and yet one came out of it. I was nowhere, nor were these people, and yet we are all here.” Only lunatics can believe and say such things.
Cannot God create an effect without cause?
Q. If there can be no effect without a cause, what is the cause of the first cause then?
A.- Whatsoever is an absolute cause, can ever be an effect of another, but that which is the cause of one and the effect of another is called a relative cause. Take an example. The earth is the cause of a house but an effect of liquids (Liquids are the causes of solids as they precede them in the order of formation. The earth is solid), but the first cause, prakriti (matter) has no other cause, viz., it is beginningless or eternal. Says the Saankhya Darshana, 1: 67 “The first having no cause is the cause of all effects.” Every effect must have three causes before it comes into existence; just as before a piece of cloth can be made, it must have three things – the weaver, the thread and machinery, in the same way the creation of the world pre-supposes the existence of God, the prakriti, the souls, time and space which are all uncreated and eternal. There would be no world if even one ot them were absent.
The various objections of atheists are answered below:
If there can be no effect without a cause, what is the cause of the first cause then
Q- Shoonya (nought or nothing) is the one true reality. In the beginning there was nothing but nothing, and nothing will survive in the end; because whatever now exists will cease to exist and become nothing
A.- The ether, an invisible substance (such a prakriti), the space and a point are also called nothing. It is inanimate and all things invisibly exist in it. Lines are made up of points, while circle, squares, etc., are made of lines. Thus has God, by the might of His creative power, evolved the earth, mountains and objects of all other shapes and forms out of a point or nebula – nothing. Besides, He who knows nothing cannot be nothing. [Hence shoonya (nothing) does not here mean nothing put a point or a nebula.]
Can something come out of nothing?
Q. Something can come out of nothing , just as a seed does not germinate and send forth a sprout until it is split, but when you break a seed an look into it, you do not find any sprout in it. It is clear then that the sprout comes out of nothing.
A.- That which splits a seed before it germinates, must have already been present in the ee, otherwise what causes the see to split? Nor would it have come out had it not been there.
Do we sow what we reap?
Q. It is not true ‘As you sow so shall you reap,’ Many an act is seen that does not bear fruit; therefore it is right it infer that it entirely rest with God to punish or reward a man for his deeds. It absolutely depends upon His wish.
A.- If it were so, why does not God reward or punish a man for deeds he has never done? It follows, therefore, that God gives every man his due according to the nature of his deeds. God does not reward or punish men according to the caprice of his Will. On the other hand, He makes a man reap only what he has sown
Can effects can be produced without a cause?
Q. Effects can be produced without a cause just as the sharp thorns of Acacia Arabica spring out of the branches that are not at all sharp and pointed but are soft and smooth. It is clear from this illustration, therefore, that in the beginning of Creation all material objects and bodies of living beings come into being without (first) cause.
A.- Whatever a thing springs from, is its cause. Thorns do not come out of nothing. They come out of a thorny tree, therefore, that tree is their cause. Hence the world was not created without a cause.
Q. All things have been created and are liable to decay. They are all ephemeral. The Neo-Vedantis put forward objections like this, because they say, “Thousands of books support the doctrine that Brahma alone is the true reality., the world is a delusion and the soul is not distinct from Brahma (God). All else is unreal.”
A.- All can not be unreal if the fact of their being unreal is real.
Q. Even the fact of their being unreal is unreal. Just as fire not only burns other things and thus destroys them, but is itself destroyed after others have been destroyed.
A.- That which is perceptible by the senses cannot be unreal or nothing, nor can the extremely subtle matter – the material cause of the world – be unreal or perishable. The Neo-Vedantis hold Brahma as the (material) cause of the universe; He – the cause – being real, the world – the effect – cannot be unreal. If it were said that the material world is only a material conception and, therefore, unreal like the objects seen in a dream or life a piece of rope seen in the dark and mistaken for a snake, it cannot be true; because a conception or an idea is something abstract which cannot remain apart from the noumenon wherein it resides.
When one that conceives (viz., the soul) is real, the conception cannot be unreal, otherwise you will have to admit that the soul is also unreal. You cannot see a thing in a dream unless you have seen or heard of it in the wakeful state, in other words, when the various objects of this world come in contact without senses, they give rise to percepts called knowledge by direct cognition – which leave impressions on our souls, it is these impressions which are recalled by, and become vivid to the soul in dreams. If it be possible for a man to dream of things of which he has had no impressions in his mind, a man born blind, should dream of colours which is not the case. It follows, therefore, that in the mind are retained impressions and ideas of external things that exist in the outside world. And just as external things continue to exist even after a man ceases to have any consciousness of them as in sound sleep, so does prakriti- the material cause of the world – continue to exist ever after Dissolution.
Why not believe that the external things seen in the wakeful state is unreal?
Q- As the external objects pass out of our consciousness in slumber and those seen in a dream in the state of profound sleep, i.e., perish as far as we are concerned, in the same way why not believe that the external things seen in the wakeful state are also unreal?
A.- No, we cannot believe that; because both in slumber and profound sleep the external objects only pass out of our consciousness. They do not cease to exist, just as different things lying behind us are simply invisible to us but are there, and have not ceased to exist. Therefore, what we have said before, that God , the soul and the prakriti – the material cause – are real entities, is alone true.
If the five states of matter is eternal why isn’t the world eternal?
Q. The five bhuts – five states of matter as Prithivi (solids), Apah (liquid) etc., – being eternal, the whole world is eternal or imperishable.
A.- No, it is not true; because if all those objects, the cause of whose formation or disintegration is seen every day, be eternal, the whole material visible world with all such perishable things as the bodies of men and animals, houses, and their furniture and the like would be eternal, which is absurd. Therefore, the effects can never be eternal.
Are all things distinct from each other?
Q. All things are distinct from each other, There is no unity in them. Whatever we see precludes another.
A.-The whole exists in its parts. Time, ether, space, God, and Order and Genus, though separate entities, are yet common to all. There is nothing that can exist separate from or without them. Hence all these are not separate from each other, though they are different by nature. Thus there is unity in variety.
Q. All things exclude each other, and are therefore non-existent, just as a cow is not a horse, nor is a horse a cow. Therefore, both the horse and the cow are non-existent. Similarly, all things are as if non-existent.
A.- Though it is true that the ‘relation of one thing excluding others does exist in all things, but a thing does not exclude itself. For example, a cow is not a horse, nor is a horse a cow; but a cow as a cow and a horse as a horse do exist. If things were non-existent how could you ever speak of this Itretaraabhaava relation i.e., ‘the relation of one thing excluding others from itself’. [Hence the world and things contained therein do exist. They are not non-existent.
There can be no creator.
Q. The world comes into being by virtue of the fact that it is in the nature of things to combine together and produce different things. Just as maggots are produced the coming together of food, moisture and by decomposition setting in; or as vegetables begin to grow when the seed, water, and soil are brought together under favourable conditions; or as the wind blowing on the sea is the cause of waves that in turn produce merchaum, which mixed with turmeric, lime and lemon juice forms what is called concrete, so does this world come into being by virtue of the natural properties of the elements. There is no Creator.
A.-If formation be the natural property of matter, there would be no dissolution or disintegration; and if you say that disintegration is also a natural property of matter, there could then be no formation. But if you say that both formation and disintegration are the natural properties of matter, there could then be neither formation nor disintegration. If you say that an efficient agent is the cause of the creation and dissolution of the world, it must be other than and distinct from the objects that are subject to formation and disintegration.
If formation and disintegration be the natural properties of matter, they may happen at any and every moment. Besides, if there is no Maker and the world came into being by virtue of the natural properties inherent in matter, why do not other earths, suns and moons come into existence near our earth? Moreover, whatever now grows or comes into being, does so by virtue of the combination of different substances – made by God. Just as plants grow wherever the water soil and the seed come in contact under favourable conditions, and not otherwise; in the same way in the manufacture of concrete its components such as turmeric, lime, lemon juice and merchaum do not come together by themselves, but are mixed up together by some one, nor dot hey produce concrete unless mixed in their right proportion. Similarly, the prakriti and atoms, until they are properly combined by God with the requisite knowledge and skill, cannot by themselves produce anything. It follows, therefore, that the world did not come into being by itself, i.e., by virtue of the natural properties of matter, but was created by God.
It was never created nor shall it ever perish.
Q. This world has had no Creator, nor is there one at present, nor, shall there ever be one. It has been eternally existing as such. It was never created nor shall it ever perish.
A.- No action or thing – which is the product of action – can ever come into existence without an agent. All objects to this world such as the earth, are subject to the processes of formation, that is, are the product of definite combination. They can never be eternal, because a thing which is the product of combination can never exist after its component parts come as under. If you do not believe it, take the hardest rock or a diamond or a piece of steel and smash it into pieces, melt or roast it and see for yourself if it is composed of separate particles, called molecules and atoms, or not. If it is, then surely a time will come when those molecules will come apart.
Can the highly exalted soul become God?
Q. There is not Eternal God, on the other hand a highly exalted soul, that by the practice of yoga attains such power as the control of atoms, etc., and omniscience, becomes God.
A.- Had there been not Eternal God, the Creator of the universe, Who would have made the bodies, the sense organs and all objects of this world, the very support and means of subsistence of the yogi, by means of which he comes to possess such wonderful powers? Without their help no one can endeavour to accomplish anything. The endeavour being impossible how could he have acquired those wonderful powers? Whatsoever efforts a man may make, whatsoever means he may employ, whatsoever powers he may acquire, he can never equal God in His natural – in contradistinction to the soul’s acquired – Everlasting or Eternal powers which are infinite and manifold; because, the knowledge of the soul, even if it were to go on improving till eternity, will still remain finite and his powers limited. Its power and knowledge can never become infinite. Mark, no yogi has ever been able to subvert the laws of nature as ordained by God, nor ever shall. God – the Eternal Seer – possessed of wonderful powers has ordained that eyes shall be the organs of sight, and ears the organs of hearing. The human soul can never become God.
In different cycles of Creation does God make the universe of a uniform or a different
Q. In different cycles of Creation does God make the universe of a uniform or a different character?
A.- Just as it is now, so was it in the past, so will it be in the future. It is said in the Veda, “Just as God created the sun, the earth, the moon , the electricity, the atmosphere in the previous cycles, so has He done in the present and so will He do in the future.” RIG VEDA 10: 190, 3. God’s works, being free from error or flaw, are always of uniform character. It is only the works of one who is finite and whose knowledge is subject to increase or decrease that can be erroneous or faulty, not those of God.