SPIDER SPINS ITS DREAM WEB


Creation appears right from the beginning in the infinite consciousness as if in a dream.
This appearance has no cause
-Yoga Vasishtha

The way that can be told of is not an unvarying Way;
The names that can be named are not unvarying names
It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang….

-Tao Te Ching


I shall discuss here the cosmology and cosmogony on the backdrop of Vedanta Philosophy.

We have read that Vedanta proclaims from the roof tops, as it were, that there is no reality other than Brahman. While Gaudapada rejects the existence of phenomenal world altogether, Shankaracharya and other Advaita Vedanta proponents recognize the existence of the empirical universe but maintain that it has got relative or dependent existence (vyavaharika satta). We experience the universe around us containing various objects of variegated forms resplendent with different attractive colours, differing in taste, smell, and sound and differently felt when touched. Thus the world is full of multiplicity in every way. Vedanta scriptures propound that the multiplicity of form etc. that is perceived by our sense organs is but the manifestation of the limitless consciousness, named Brahman. Passage after passage in various texts brings this out as a fact. A few extracts follow: “Whatever changeable there is in this changing universe is pervaded by Ishvara”1. “Know ‘That’ to be imperishable that pervades this universe; no one has power to destroy this indestructible substance”.2. “Earth, water, fire, air, space, mind-stuff, intellect and ego; these constitute my eightfold nature; this indeed is my lower (material) nature; the other than this by which the whole universe is sustained, i.e. the life principle (Jivabhutam), is my higher (spiritual) nature Oh mighty armed Dhananjaya, know that all beings have emerged from this twofold Prakrti; I am the source of this entire creation; into me it again resolves.”.3. “Oh Arjuna all beings



1. Ish. Up
2. BG 2/17
3. BG 7/4, 5, 6; Dhananjaya is another epithet of Arjuna, the warrior.




whatsoever, inanimate as well as Animate, know them to have been emanated from the union of matter and spirit.4. “This universe is but Atma (Brahman); there is nothing other than Atma”5. “It (Brahman) exists within and without all beings, and constitutes animate and inanimate creation as well6” “All embodied beings emanate from the unmanifest at the advent of the cosmic day; at the cosmic nightfall they merge into the unmanifest”.7. The whole of Chapter 11 of the Bhagvadgita propounds this pantheistic concept – the doctrine that God is everything and everything is God. But as we have seen, God is Brahman associated with Maya as His inherent power which cannot be away from Brahman. Hence ultimately everything is only Brahman.

There is a mantra for invoking peace at the beginning of Ishavasyopanishad : “Fullness is that, Fullness is this, from fullness, fullness comes forth, when fullness is added to or taken away from fullness, fullness alone remains”.8. Any mathematically minded person would at once know that this is the description of ‘infinity’ – a mathematical concept. The concept itself is within Brahman, the universal consciousness. The mantra not only reiterates the infinitude, wholeness and eternality of Brahman but also conveys in its deeper meaning non separateness of universe from it. We shall see the full import of the mantra.

The demonstrative pronoun ‘that’ normally refers to something remote i.e. something that is not available for direct knowledge. It refers to something that has to be known but which, due to remoteness, is not available for immediate knowledge, but can be known after the remoteness is removed. However, the other pronoun, ‘this’ refers to something close by, something known directly or is knowable. In this invocation ‘this’ stands for anything that lends itself to be objectified. Thus it stands for the entire world of objects and phenomena, any and everything that is perceptible to our senses.

The first verse of Ishavasyopanishad:

“……. Idam sarvam yat kincha jagatyam jagat …..” means ‘all this whatsoever, that is subject to change in this changing world’. So when our peace invocation verse says, “this is fullness” (purnam idam) it conveys that whatever is already known or knowable is fullness. It mans that ‘this’ in the peace invocation also stands for its traditional meaning viz. the entire universe that we perceive. Another Sanskrit word for universe is ‘loka’ which means experience. World is indeed what we experience.

Having known what ‘this’ stands for, one may ask, ‘what about the other pronoun ‘adah’; ‘that’? If ‘this’ refers to the entire universe, ‘that’ should mean something else. What

4. BG 13/26
5. ‘atmaivedam jagatsarvamatmanonyanna kinchana’ AB/48
6. BG 13/15
7. BG 8/18 8. ‘om purnamadah purnamidam purnatpurnamudaahyate, purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavashishyate’

remains when we have accounted for the entire creation is the ‘I’, the life principle9 due to which the world experience happens.

It means that the word ‘that’-adah- in the mantra denotes ‘I’. Hence Purnamadah (that is fullness) means I am Fullness. Traditionally ‘that’ (tat in Sanskrit) denotes Brahman as in the pronouncement ‘That thou art’. Hence the identity of I, and the universe and Brahman is established. The deeper meaning of the invocation therefore translates into the gist of the Vedanta: “There is but one and only Brahman”.

One should not conclude from the foregoing that Brahman undergoes any modification or transformation in the creation of the universe like wood being modified to create a chair, say, or milk transformed into curds. If one were to think so one would have a totally distorted understanding of Brahman. It would be a cognitive error. We cannot directly apply the analogy of the clay pot which has pot maker as its nimitta karana or the efficient cause, and clay as upadana karana or the material cause to Brahman, which can neither be the efficient cause nor the material cause for the creation as Brahman is without action and immutable. Brahman is the substratum for the universe of objects that are subject to constant movement and change. It must be noted that the change is witnessed due to presence of Atman or Brahman that is changeless. If the Atman also were to change, then, who would know the change? Change means death of a given state of existence and the birth of a new state of existence. “No one can see one’s own death or birth since birth is the final moment of a prior non existence and death marks the initial moment of later non existence”.10. The play of the phenomenal world is like that on the screen of a cinema hall; the immovable, unchanging screen providing the base in as much as Brahman provides the substratum for the appearance of the phenomenal world of names and forms and colours and movement. Cinema as well as the universe is conscious creation. The universe is a projection of the mind even as one imagines animate and inanimate objects in a still picture drawn on a plane surface.11. The threefold power of Maya - power of knowledge, power to will and power to act and create - is at work here. The word creation is a poor substitute for the Sanskrit ‘Srshti’ which means emanation or manifestation.

The mundakopanishad likens the Ishvara to a spider spinning its web.12. The spider sends forth the thread for its web from its body and retracts it at will. Spider is thus both the material as well as the efficient cause for the web. Similarly Ishvara is both material and efficient cause of the world. Like the spider, again, Ishvara resolves the world into himself as we have seen in an earlier chapter. This analogy fits snugly the modern concept of the universe being a web, explaining the ‘Action at a distance Same analogy


9. ‘jeevanam sarvabhuteshu’ (BG/9/7)
10. AM / 15; Here the non existence means empirical non existence.
11. AM
12. “yathornanabhih srjate grhnate cha” Mu / 1.1.7

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holds for a dreamer and his dream. Dreamer is both the material and efficient cause for the dream which emanates from the dreamer and resolves into the dreamer. Further, the spider never gets caught in its own web but insects etc. foolishly get entangled into it even as Jiva gets entangled in the Maya-avidya and comes to grief. In the same Mantra the Upanishad further explains, ‘just as from the earth sprout forth herbs and plants or hairs grow on the head and body of
man so from the Universal Being (Brahman) comes out the universe’. Spider analogy is to emphasize that the universe emanates from, is sustained due to and finally resolves into Brahman. Other two examples are to emphasize the non action and disinterestedness of Brahman in creation. Brahman only is the sub stratum.

The various texts in the Upanishads are metaphors to indicate that it is Brahman alone that manifests by way of infinite objects of varied forms and names. A single cell multiplies and becomes many, then, further differentiates into stem cells that develop various functional organs with distinct functions of their own. This differentiation is within the overarching unity. This is how the various texts such as ‘ekoham bahusyama’, “I am one; I shall be many”, etc are to be understood in the light of the current scientific knowledge. Brahman is thus the homogeneous field of consciousness (prajnanaghana) of infinite possibilities, which while manifesting, yet remains immutable, unaffected by and unattached to anything. The empirical universe is thus a homogeneous web of interconnected components, a fact, which, incidentally, finds its echo in the modern quantum physics which has been led to recognize ‘action at a distance’ and the influence of the consciousness of the observer and instruments used in observation on the final results of their experiments. This has given rise to paradoxes like the well known ‘EPR paradox’ and ‘Schrödinger’s cat’ and dual wave-particle nature of the so called ‘matter’, discussed elsewhere in this book. To know the Reality which is beyond all dualities, therefore, we have to transcend the opposites, a statement that has been reiterated time and again through the Vedanta texts and to which modern physics is steadily but surely converging. We have to get used to the idea of holding two entirely opposite views as true and still be able to maintain our sanity.

Cosmogony of Advaita Vedanta

In Advaita Vedanta the creation is from the Cosmic Egg – Brahmanda – which is produced from Maya. We have noted before that Maya is the material cause and Ishvara the efficient cause for the universe. The cosmic egg comes out of the union of Ishvara and Maya the Mulaprkrti. In the 7th chapter of the Bhagvadgita the lord tells Arjuna, “Oh Parthaa! I am the seed of all creation”13. In the fourteenth chapter, again, the lord says, “My Mahatbrahma (Maya the Mulaprkrti) is the origin of the entire universe; I place the seed into it. From that is conceived the entire creation”14.
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a. another name of Arjuna
13. BG 7/10
14. BG 14/3 ( Such statements, again, have to be taken as metaphors to account for empirical creation maintaining conceptual integrity of Brahman)
This cosmic egg is the abode of Brahma, the creative principle, before the emanation of the universe. This foetus is known as ‘Hiranygarbha’, the Golden Foetus Brahma is the self born (Swayambhuh) and on emerging from the cosmic egg is named Prajapati, which literally translates as the Creator. He is the first born and protector of the universe (Brahma Devanam prathamam sambabhuva Vishvasya karta bhuvanasya gopta).15. Brahma thus is the efficient cause of the universe who as though ‘created’ the universe out of the primordial substance of the cosmic egg.

The Vedic and Puranic literature such as Brahma Purana, Vishnu Purana, Padma Purana,
etc. symbolically describe the process of creation of the universe. As explained in Chapter 1, the creation is due the disequilibrium of the three qualitative components of Maya. Brahma the first born created this disturbance in the equilibrium. We have
earlier noted the significance of the three Gunas. Preponderance of Rajas, brings about activity of creation, Satva sustains it while Tamas brings about the destruction.
Creation appears to be a coordinated, continuous process of creation, sustenance and destruction. The presiding deities for these three are Brahma for creation, Vishnu for sustenance and Mahesha or Shiva for destruction. These are merely the three aspects or functions of one and only Isvara.

Breaking of the cosmic egg was due to the preponderance of rajas. The process of creation is symbolically explained in Mundakopanishad.16. While introducing the emanation of the universe, Shankaracharya states that the universe comes into being in steps and not at once as if a handful of berries were flung about.

The cosmogony as per Vedanta can be culled from Brahma Sutra and various Upanishadic descriptions. The present description is a summary of various texts. First of all Apah, (principle of fluidity) or the primordial fluid was produced by Maya and the Ishvara put his seed into it to produce the cosmic egg. Brahma conceived Himself, being Swayambhuh as explained above, and rested inside the cosmic egg as Hiranyagarbha. On the breaking of the cosmic egg Prajapati was born marking the individuation stage. Hiranyagarbha or Prajapati is akin to the total mind or super mind. At the individual level it is the ‘creative potential’ that is within us.

The Mundaka Upanishad - further elaborated in Prashnopanishad , as well as Chandogaya Upanishad, Aiteriya Upanishad and Brahma Sutra etc. give in a figurative way the cosmogony of the universe.

Prashnopanishad explains that Prajapati, through penance, created a pair: matter (rayi) and energy (prana). The words used in the Upanishad are ‘sa tapotapyata’ which means he did concentrated thinking or penance. The word ‘tapa’ in Sanskrit has various meanings including knowledge and thinking or brood over. It also means heat. Hence what the Upanishad implies is that Prajapati engaged himself in knowledge-based innovative thinking and through planning etc. created a pair – matter and energy. Activities of thinking, planning, remembering, associating, etc.are all implied in the word

15. Mu. 1.1 16. Mu.1.1.8
‘tapa’. Through these twins, born out of Prajapati the entire universe of the perceived multiplicity came about, but not at once like a big bang but in steps as pointed out above. The Upanishad thus establishes the essential identity of matter and energy denoted by Einstein’s celebrated equation: E = mc2, which is but a quantitative expression of it. The Upanishad further states ‘Prana is verily the Sun’; ‘Rayi’ is indeed the Moon’. What better metaphor than the effulgent Sun for energy and the dead satellite of the earth, Moon, for matter! The cosmogony of the universe is described giving sequence of things and beings manifesting step by step. Prana is the subtle energy principle, the life force, reiki of the Japanese that is all pervasive and essential for all, animate and inanimate beings alike. From Prana came the five subtle elements Space, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. These five elements after Grossification described elsewhere bring about the universe of objects of names and forms etc.

Vedanta does not treat the universe as different from the self. The Purusha Sukta extols the Cosmic Spirit -the macrocosm. ‘Sukta’ means a hymn. It describes in poetic language how from the cosmic spirit all that is movable as well as immovable emanates. The description in Aiteriya and Mundaka Upanishads also gives an account of how the empirical world came about. Mundaka says ‘tapasa chiyate brahma’, while the Aiteriya says, ‘sa tapotapyata’. We have seen earlier the various meanings of the word ‘tapa’. Thus here we get a clear indication of an intelligent being behind creation. An architect has to do concentrated thinking, planning etc. to conceive and realize a piece of architecture. So it is reasonable to infer that the universe which functions according to immutable laws is intelligently put together. These laws also are a part and parcel of the universe. That intelligent being or intelligence-the creator- is the Cosmic Consciousness-Brahman. Chiyate means expands, which is an unequivocal indication to the expanding universe, a fact that is established by modern physics as well. It can also be interpreted as a metaphor. Since tapas means thinking, the universe is but a web of thoughts- a dream like substance, a mithya. It is as though the universal architect were contemplating upon and manifesting infinite possibilities

The dual nature displayed by so called matter, the identity of matter and energy, the universe being a web or a homogeneous mass of energy field, the particles ‘somehow’ displaying conscious behavior, the uncertainty principle and the inconsistency proved by Gödel’s theorem (last two having a strong aroma of vedantic maya), are the conclusions of modern science which are totally in line with Vedanta; only the semantics differ.