Here is a series of articles that I once wrote for children in the age group 5 - 10 years.
(D) What does Hinduism say about the creation of the world?
On a dark moonless night, standing in the middle of an open field, have you ever looked at the stars shining in the sky high above you? What thoughts have crossed your mind on such occasions? Perhaps you have wondered where all these stars have emerged from, who put them there and how they came to be scattered all over the sky? Well, thinkers all over the world, from ancient times to modern, have been fascinated by such questions and have put forward many interesting answers to them. Some of them have said that our world is 'created' by God, and today we shall look at some of the views of some Hindu thinkers regarding 'creation'.
Before we proceed, however, let us look at some everyday activities that look like 'creation'. How do workmen build a house? They start by gathering from different places small bits and pieces like bricks, rods of steel and beams of wood. Then they lay them on top of one another, and arrange the layers in a nice and coordinated manner till they have a beautifully formed structure in front of them. Throughout the process, they work under the guidance of an engineer who has a detailed map or a sketch of each room in the building. The engineer ensures that the finished building is just the way the map says it should look like. Another example: a sculptor stands in front of a solid block of shapeless marble. He is ready to chip away with his hammer and chisel. Somewhere inside his head he has an idea or an image of what the completed statue would look like. Over a period of time, he carves the lump carefully and patiently into a figure with a head, eyes, ears and limbs.
What is common to all these activities is that they are a combination of two things: 'matter' and 'image'. Since these are slightly complicated terms, let us spend some time understanding what they mean. Matter is the thing or the 'stuff' that you work on: whether it is the bricks and mortar, the cardboard pieces, the block of marble and the chisel. But what is it that these people are trying to do when they are working on this matter? How they do they know that they are actually getting closer to their final goal instead of wasting their time and effort? They are trying to build something new, something that did not exist earlier, by looking at a certain plan of what the finished product should look like. This plan --- whether it is the map of the architect or the idea of the sculptor --- is what we mean by the image.
If you still find this somewhat difficult, here is one more example for you. Suppose your teacher asks you to write a story about what you did during the summer holidays. What would you do? First, you would get some paper and a pen. This is your matter. Then, you might like to spend a few moments trying to think of what you will put into your story. Who are the people you will talk about and what are the activities you will describe? This mental plan that you start with it is your image. When you actually create the story, you build on this image and give it a concrete shape by using the pen and paper. So, to repeat, the types of creation that we see in our everyday life are activities in which you work on some matter, and your work is guided by the image that you have of the completed product.
You might be wondering why we are spending so much time talking about human beings creating buildings and statues when we are supposed to be discussing how God has created the world. The reason is that nobody has actually seen God creating the world. But the ways in which a sculptor carves a block of marble is similar --- in some ways --- to the way in which God creates the world. In other words, trying to understand what we human beings mean by creation can help us to understand how God created the world ---- but only up to a point. Why do we say 'but only up to a point'? Think of the differences between God and a human sculptor. The sculptor has many limitations. First, he is not all-powerful, he cannot produce just whatever he wills, and he cannot also produce the most beautiful statue ever. Second, he is dependent on the quality of the marble. If the marble is good, he is lucky, but if the marble cracks in the process, he will have to start all over again with a new block.
Now Hindu thinkers clearly state that the all-powerful and all-knowing God cannot have such limitations. So they say that when God created the world God did so out of Himself. What is the meaning of that curious phrase 'out of Himself'? Let us go back to our sculptor again. He is standing in front of a block of marble. Now this block is outside him. That's just stating the obvious, right? But in the case of God, there cannot be anything outside of God, because God is present everywhere and everything is included or contained inside God. So God does not have to work on something outside of God (like a brick or a block of marble). God simply produces the whole world out of what is already and always inside God.
All this might sound somewhat strange, but thankfully the sacred texts called the Upanishads have given us some hints to understand the meaning of 'out of Himself'. They say that the way in which God creates the world is like the way in which a spider spins its web. How does a spider do this? It sends out fine threads from its body and then draws them back into itself. It does not go around looking for thread, does it? The thread comes from inside its body. It is already and always contained there. Likewise, when God creates the world, God does not go hunting for things with which to create it, all the things that God needs are already and always inside God.
We can now understand more clearly one final difference between God and the human sculptor. In the case of the sculptor, the matter --- the block of marble ---- is standing outside him, but the form ---- his idea --- is sitting inside him, in his head. But in the case of God, both the matter and the image are inside God. God works on things that are contained inside God, and this is God's matter. God does this according to a plan that God has for the world and for us human beings, and this is the image that is once again inside God. When God's matter and God's image come together, this is the moment of creation. This is when the world that we see around us emerges.
Here is an activity that may help you to understand what it means to speak about God creating the world. What do you do when you solve a jigsaw puzzle? On the floor lie lots of pieces of cardboard paper. Initially, it looks like a total mess. But you struggle with them and try to fit them together till a beautiful picture emerges. If this is the first time you have fitted the pieces together, you are amazed with how beautiful the completed picture looks like. Now if you could think of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzles as somehow inside you and also think of yourself knowing the completed picture even before you started the puzzle, you would have some idea of what God's creation is like. Because if you could do this, you would also have some idea of what it feels like to be God!
Before we proceed, however, let us look at some everyday activities that look like 'creation'. How do workmen build a house? They start by gathering from different places small bits and pieces like bricks, rods of steel and beams of wood. Then they lay them on top of one another, and arrange the layers in a nice and coordinated manner till they have a beautifully formed structure in front of them. Throughout the process, they work under the guidance of an engineer who has a detailed map or a sketch of each room in the building. The engineer ensures that the finished building is just the way the map says it should look like. Another example: a sculptor stands in front of a solid block of shapeless marble. He is ready to chip away with his hammer and chisel. Somewhere inside his head he has an idea or an image of what the completed statue would look like. Over a period of time, he carves the lump carefully and patiently into a figure with a head, eyes, ears and limbs.
What is common to all these activities is that they are a combination of two things: 'matter' and 'image'. Since these are slightly complicated terms, let us spend some time understanding what they mean. Matter is the thing or the 'stuff' that you work on: whether it is the bricks and mortar, the cardboard pieces, the block of marble and the chisel. But what is it that these people are trying to do when they are working on this matter? How they do they know that they are actually getting closer to their final goal instead of wasting their time and effort? They are trying to build something new, something that did not exist earlier, by looking at a certain plan of what the finished product should look like. This plan --- whether it is the map of the architect or the idea of the sculptor --- is what we mean by the image.
If you still find this somewhat difficult, here is one more example for you. Suppose your teacher asks you to write a story about what you did during the summer holidays. What would you do? First, you would get some paper and a pen. This is your matter. Then, you might like to spend a few moments trying to think of what you will put into your story. Who are the people you will talk about and what are the activities you will describe? This mental plan that you start with it is your image. When you actually create the story, you build on this image and give it a concrete shape by using the pen and paper. So, to repeat, the types of creation that we see in our everyday life are activities in which you work on some matter, and your work is guided by the image that you have of the completed product.
You might be wondering why we are spending so much time talking about human beings creating buildings and statues when we are supposed to be discussing how God has created the world. The reason is that nobody has actually seen God creating the world. But the ways in which a sculptor carves a block of marble is similar --- in some ways --- to the way in which God creates the world. In other words, trying to understand what we human beings mean by creation can help us to understand how God created the world ---- but only up to a point. Why do we say 'but only up to a point'? Think of the differences between God and a human sculptor. The sculptor has many limitations. First, he is not all-powerful, he cannot produce just whatever he wills, and he cannot also produce the most beautiful statue ever. Second, he is dependent on the quality of the marble. If the marble is good, he is lucky, but if the marble cracks in the process, he will have to start all over again with a new block.
Now Hindu thinkers clearly state that the all-powerful and all-knowing God cannot have such limitations. So they say that when God created the world God did so out of Himself. What is the meaning of that curious phrase 'out of Himself'? Let us go back to our sculptor again. He is standing in front of a block of marble. Now this block is outside him. That's just stating the obvious, right? But in the case of God, there cannot be anything outside of God, because God is present everywhere and everything is included or contained inside God. So God does not have to work on something outside of God (like a brick or a block of marble). God simply produces the whole world out of what is already and always inside God.
All this might sound somewhat strange, but thankfully the sacred texts called the Upanishads have given us some hints to understand the meaning of 'out of Himself'. They say that the way in which God creates the world is like the way in which a spider spins its web. How does a spider do this? It sends out fine threads from its body and then draws them back into itself. It does not go around looking for thread, does it? The thread comes from inside its body. It is already and always contained there. Likewise, when God creates the world, God does not go hunting for things with which to create it, all the things that God needs are already and always inside God.
We can now understand more clearly one final difference between God and the human sculptor. In the case of the sculptor, the matter --- the block of marble ---- is standing outside him, but the form ---- his idea --- is sitting inside him, in his head. But in the case of God, both the matter and the image are inside God. God works on things that are contained inside God, and this is God's matter. God does this according to a plan that God has for the world and for us human beings, and this is the image that is once again inside God. When God's matter and God's image come together, this is the moment of creation. This is when the world that we see around us emerges.
Here is an activity that may help you to understand what it means to speak about God creating the world. What do you do when you solve a jigsaw puzzle? On the floor lie lots of pieces of cardboard paper. Initially, it looks like a total mess. But you struggle with them and try to fit them together till a beautiful picture emerges. If this is the first time you have fitted the pieces together, you are amazed with how beautiful the completed picture looks like. Now if you could think of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzles as somehow inside you and also think of yourself knowing the completed picture even before you started the puzzle, you would have some idea of what God's creation is like. Because if you could do this, you would also have some idea of what it feels like to be God!
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