| The Sixth Chapter of the Chhandogya
Upanishad raises the old question: Was there a First Cause? Shall we, seeing
that the search for causes takes us along an interminable chain backwards, give up the
idea of causation and believe that the world came out of nothing? This cannot be,
says the Chhandogya Rishi. Look round and see all that exists and particularly
contemplate on the mind of man, the beauty and content of which you can fully appreciate.
Could all this come out of othing?
Out of nothing, nothing can come. Non-being cannot produce being, much less could
consciousness come out of nothing. Believe, therefore, says the Rishi, that the
causeless beginning was Sat i.e., being with consciousness.
And that the Original Cause willed to
expand and multiply and became light, water, and all the living forms in the world,
serving as food for one another and growing and multiplying. It is the Sat that is
still multiplying and expanding. |
