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Brahman And Its Relation To The World In Brahmasutra

Brahmasutra is a treatise on the nature of Ultimate Reality and Truth (Brahman) as propounded by the Upanishads. Brahmasutra is traditionally ascribed to Badarayana who is identified by some scholars with Sage Vyasa.

Brahman and its relation to the world – Brahman is the cause and effect of the world. Two illustrations are given by him to show this. A piece of rolled up cloth does not disclose what is painted on it. When it is unrolled, what is painted on it is manifest. Similarly, the effect is only the cause unrolling itself. Here the cloth is one and the same but only its conditions differ.

In another illustration, Badarayana shows how, when a person holds the breath, he is not able to move his limbs and to perform actions and when the breath is released, activity starts. Though the breath is the same, activity or inactivity results when it is held or released. So also, cause and effect, though one and the same, function differently under different conditions of potentiality and actuality.

In other words, Brahman and its creation are not different just as a pot made of clay is not different from clay, its material cause.

The power to create belongs to Brahman as heat belongs to fire. Brahman, says Badarayana, creates just lila (sport) without any change in itself by his mere sankalpa (will).