यथोर्णनाभिः सृजते गृह्णते च
यथा पृथिव्यामोषधयः सम्भवन्ति ।
यथा सतः पुरुषात् केशलोमानि
तथाऽक्षरात् सम्भवतीह विश्वम् ॥ ७॥
yathorṇanābhiḥ sṛjate gṛhṇate ca
yathā pṛthivyāmoṣadhayaḥ sambhavanti .
yathā sataḥ puruṣāt keśalomāni
tathā’kṣarāt sambhavatīha viśvam .. 7..
As the spider sends forth and draws in its thread, as plants grow on the earth, as hair grows on the head and the body of a living man-so does everything in the universe arise from the Imperishable.
Commentary:
From this Eternal Being this world, this universe, has emanated. How does the world come from God? We have seen a spider spitting threads from its own body. Threads come out, and it weaves a web around itself. We have seen trees spontaneously growing from under the earth, and we have seen hair growing on the head. In some such way is the manner of the creation of this world.
Tathākṣarāt sambhavatīha viśvam. These analogies have some significance of their own. The spider does not create the web from external material. The upadana is the same as the nimitha, as they say. The instrumental cause is the same as the material cause in the case of the spider weaving a web. In the case of the potter making a pot, the instrumental cause is not the same as the material cause, and so is the case with the carpenter making furniture. That is to say, the potter does not make the pot out of a substance coming from his body, and so is the case with the carpenter. But in the case of the spider, the creation of the web materially emanates from the very body of the spider, and so here the material cause is identical with the instrumental cause. They are not two different things. God does not create the world as a carpenter or a potter does; the substance of God is verily present in the creation. That illustration is brought out by this analogy of a spider creating a web.
Yathā pṛthivayām oṣadhayas sambhavanti. Here is another analogy. Trees grow from the earth; they draw sustenance from the earth. The original support of all the trees is the substance of the earth. This analogy tells us that the world is sustained by God, and all the values of the world come from God only. God is the soul of all that He creates. There is also the analogy of hair growing. When we behold rocks, stones, inanimate matter existing in this world, we sometimes have difficulty connecting inanimate things with animate consciousness. How can animate, conscious God create inanimate stuff? This analogy brings out the possibility of inanimate things coming from animate consciousness, as hair grows from animate skin and becomes inanimate so that we can shave it off, or dead fingernails projecting themselves forth from animate roots, and the like. From consciousness, apparently unconscious things can also emanate.
These difficulties are solved by analogies of this kind—namely, the spider’s web, trees growing from the earth, and hair growing from the body. Like that, please understand that eternity produces temporality. To put it in modern scientific language, the four-dimensional reality creates the three-dimensional world of length, breath and height.
Sri Ramakrishna Says —
MASTER (with a smile): “Oh, She plays in different ways. It is She alone who is known as Maha-Kali, Nitya-Kali, Smasana-Kali, Raksha-Kali, and Syama-Kali. Maha-Kali and Nitya-Kali are mentioned in the Tantra philosophy. When there were neither the creation, nor the sun, the moon, the planets, and the earth, and when darkness was enveloped in darkness, then the Mother, the Formless One, Maha-Kali, the Great Power, was one with Maha-Kala, the Absolute.
…. “After the destruction of the universe, at the end of a great cycle, the Divine Mother garners the seeds for the next creation: She is like the elderly mistress of the house, who has a hotchpotch-pot in which she keeps different articles for household use. (All laugh.)
“Oh, yes! Housewives have pots like that, where they keep ‘sea-foam’, (The Master perhaps referred to the cuttlefish bone found on the seashore. The popular belief is that it is hardened sea-foam.) blue pills, small bundles of seeds of cucumber, pumpkin, and gourd, and so on. They take them out when they want them. In the same way, after the destruction of the universe, my Divine Mother, the Embodiment of Brahman, gathers together the seeds for the next creation. After the creation the Primal Power dwells in the universe itself. She brings forth this phenomenal world and then pervades it. In the Vedas creation is likened to the spider and its web. The spider brings the web out of itself and then remains in it. God is the container of the universe and also what is contained in it. (Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)
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- Chandogya Upanishad 1.9.1
- At the end of a cycle all beings, Ο son of Kunti, enter into My Prakriti, and at the beginning of a cycle I generate them again. (BG 9.7)