Description of Multiple realities, their Gods & Time

Vasistha describes the innumerable worlds that have been created and destroyed. Past creations and objects of affection are gone; others will rise in the future only to be extinguished.

Rama said, "O venerable sage who is acquainted with all religious doctrines and is versed in all branches of the Vedas, I am set at perfect ease by your holy preaching. I never tire of hearing your speech, which is equally abundant, clear and elegant."

"Sage, you have spoken of the birth of Brahma during your lecture on the productions of sattva and rajas qualities. I want you to tell me more about that subject."

Vasishta answered:—

There have been millions of Brahmas, hundreds of Shivas and Indras, and thousands of Narayanas that have gone by. There have also been various kinds of beings in many other worlds, with manners and customs widely differing. There also will be many other productions in the world, simultaneous with others, and many to be born remotely distant from one another. Among these, the births of Brahma and the other gods in the different worlds are as wonderful as the production of many things in a magic show.

Some creations were made with Brahma as the firstborn, others with Vishnu and some with Shiva as the next created beings. Some other (minor productions) had the munis for the patriarchs.

In one age, solid earth was born, having no holes for the growth of vegetables. In another, it was overgrown with vegetation. In some, it was filled with mountains and finally covered by living creatures. The earth was gold in some places and hard ground in others. It was mud in many areas and covered with copper and other metals in some. There are some beautiful worlds in the universe and others more remarkable still than they are. Some are luminous and bright, and others whose light has never reached us. There are innumerable worlds scattered in the vacuum of Brahma's essence, all rolling up and down like waves in the ocean.

The splendours of worlds are seen in the Supreme like waves in the sea and as a mirage in the sandy desert. They abide in Him as flowers on a mango tree. Counting the particles of the solar rays may be possible, but not the number of worlds abounding in the Supreme Spirit. These multitudes of worlds rise and fall in the Universal Spirit like gnats flying and following others in swarms during the rainy season. It is unknown how long they have existed, what numbers have gone by, or how many remain at present. They have been rolling without beginning like the waves of the sea. Those that are past and gone had their previous and prior ones. They rise over and over to sink lower and lower again, just like sea waves increase aloft and fall low by turns.

There are many mundane worlds, like the egg of Brahma, which passes away in the thousands, like the hours in the year. There are many such bodies besides the Brahma (brahmanda) world system revolving in Brahma's spacious mind. Many more physical worlds will grow in the infinity of the Divine Mind and vanish over time, like the fleeting sounds in the air. Other planets will come into existence in the course of different creations, just as pots come to be formed of clay and leave grow from germs in endless succession.

The glory of the three worlds appears to sight in Consciousness just like it exists in the Divine Mind. The rising and falling of worlds are neither true nor wholly false. They are like the bragging of fools and the orchids of the air. All things are like sea waves which vanish no sooner than they appear to view. They are all like paintings impressed on the mind. The world is a perspective, and all things are paintings. Without the canvas of the mind, they are not. They are represented in it like figures on a canvas.

Those learned in divine knowledge consider creations proceeding from the Spirit of God like showers of rain falling from water contained in the clouds. The visible result is no more distinct from God than seawater exuding from the earth and the earth itself or the leaves and seeds of the simul tree from the tree itself. All created things you see in their gross or subtle forms have proceeded from the emptiness of the Divine Mind. They are strung together like a rosary of large and small gems and beads.

Sometimes the subtle air is solidified in the form of atmosphere, and from that is produced the great Brahma, called the air-born lord of creatures. Sometimes the atmospheric air is condensed into a solid state, giving birth to a Brahma under the title of the atmospheric lord of creation.

At another time, light is thickened into a luminous body and thence is born another Brahma bearing the name of the luminous lord of all creatures. Again, water condensed at another time produces another Brahma designated the watery lord of creation. Sometimes the particles of the earth take a denser form and create a Brahma known as the earthly Brahma. By extracting the essence of these four Brahmas, a fifth is formed under the name of the fivefold Brahma, which is the creation of the present world.

All these theories of creation are idle dreams, false as the dreams in our sleeping state. They are the reveries of fancy like the whirling currents of water. Tell me, what do you think of these theories in your judgment? Do they not appear as stories told to children?

Sometimes they imagine a Being produced in the pure emptiness of the Divine Mind. This they call the golden and mundane egg, which gave birth to the egg-born Brahma. It is also said that the first and Divine Male casts his seed in the waters, which grows up into a lotus flower which they call the great world. This lotus is the great womb of the birth of Brahma and at another time of the sun. Sometimes the gods Varuna and Vayu are born of it and are called egg-born.

Thus Rama is the different accounts of the production of Brahma the Creator. Equally various are the descriptions of this un-solid and unsubstantial creation. I have already told you about the result of one of these Brahmas and mentioned the production of others without specifying their several works. All that creation agrees it is only the development of the Divine Mind. However, I have described various processes of its production for your acquaintance. The pure (satwiki) and other shows, of which I told you before, have all come into existence in the manner I have described for you.

Now know the endless succession of all things in the world. Creation is followed by destruction like pleasure is followed by pain, ignorance is followed by knowledge, and bondage by liberation. Past creations and objects of affection are gone; others rise in the future as lamps at home are lit and extinguished by turns. The production and destruction of all bodies are like those of Brahma and the lamps. They assume their forms in their time but become an undistinguishable mass after death.

The four ages of the world, namely the Satya, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali Yugas (golden, silver, brass and iron ages), revolve in endless rotation, like the wheel of the potter or any other engine. The manvantaras (ages of Manu, fourteen to a day of Brahma) and kalpa cycles succeed one another like day and night, morning and evening, and the work times follow those of rest. All worlds and things are under the subjection of time. They are subject to repeated successions; nothing is possible without their rotation. They all proceed of their nature from the vacuum of Divine Consciousness, like sparks of fire flash from a red-hot iron.

All things, once manifest, are next concealed in the Divine Mind, just as a season's fruits and flowers disappear after their appearance in the season. All productions are only fluctuations of the mind of the Supreme Spirit. Their impressions of our view are like the sight of two moons to weak eyes. It is the Consciousness alone that exhibits these appearances to our view. They are always situated in Consciousness, appearing outside like beams from an inner disc.

Rama, know that the world is never in existence. It is a motionless show of the power of the Supreme Spirit. It is never as it appears to you but quite different from what it seems to be. It is a show that depends on the power of the Omnipotent. The conclusion of the learned holds good to the present time: What world has existed since the great will of God (mahakalpa)? There is no more another world to come into existence in future. All this is Brahman to the intelligent, and there is no such thing as the world, which is a mere theory of the unintelligent.

The unwise consider the world as eternal from the continued uniformity of its course. But the effect of the everlasting error raises the false supposition of the world. It is their theory of repeated reincarnation. They cannot say anything otherwise but must conclude the world as such to keep pace with their doctrine. But it is to be wondered if they see the constant perishable nature of all things all around, why do they not consider the world to be destructible? So others (the Samkhyas), seeing the continuous course of the sun and moon and the stability of mountains and seas, conclude from these false analogies that the world is indestructible.

All these appear in repetition and repeated during our births and deaths as those of pain and pleasure follows one another. Our rest and actions follow each other constantly. This same vacuum and these quarters of the sky, with all these seas and mountains, appear in the recurrent course of creation with their various colours, like sunshine seen through the chink of a wall. Gods and demigods appear repeatedly, and all people come and depart by turns. Bondage and liberation are ever recurrent, and Indras and Somas ever reappear to view.

The sun resumes its course in the maze of the sky like a lion and destroys the thick darkness with its rays, just as the lion kills a massive elephant with its beaming nails. See again the moving moon shining with her bright beams resembling the white filaments of flowers and anointing the faces of the ethereal goddesses with sweet ambrosial light borne by the air and breezes of heaven.

Again the holy tree of heaven sheds heaps of flowers on the deserts of meritorious men as rewards for their virtuous acts. Behold again the flight of time, riding like an eagle on its two wings of deeds and actions and passing with the noise of pat-pat over the vast maze of creation. See another Indra appearing after the ancient lords of gods have passed away and taking his seat on the lotus-like throne of heaven like a contemptible bee. Again the wicked age of Kali appears to soil the holy Satya Yuga like the black body of Narayana fills the clear waters of the deep or like a blast of wind sweeps the dust of the earth on its transparent surface.

Time forms the earth's plate like a potter, constantly turning his wheel to bring on the revolutions of his creations in successive kalpas. Veteran time, skilled in renovation work, withers away the freshness of the product, just like the autumn winds blast the foliage of a forest to produce them again. The dozen zodiacal suns, rising at once and burning creation, leave dead bodies like white bones scattered in a country. Again, pushkara and avartaka clouds pour down their rainwater, deluging the tops of the boundary mountains and filling the face of the earth with foaming bubbles swimming on the surface of one sheet of water. After the waters have subsided and the winds have ceased to blow, the world appears as a vast vacuum void of all beings.

Again we see living beings filling the earth and feeding for some years upon the moisture of its vegetation, leaving their decayed bodies and being mixed up with their souls in the Universal Spirit.

Again at other times, the Divine Mind stretches out other creations, which are drawn like pictures of fairylands on the canvas of a vacuum. Again design appears to view, and again it is submerged in the waters of the flood, both of which follow one another like the axles of a wheel.

Now Rama, consider whether there is any stability of anything in this revolutionary world other than a maze of persistent delusion. The revolution of the world resembles the hallucination of Dasura's mind. It is a fantasy without any solidity in it. The world appearing so extensive and thickly peopled is only a fancied unreality, like the false appearance of two moons in the sky. Though appearing as genuine by our ignorance of its nature, it is made of unreality and is not worth relying on.