Question: Swamiji, why did God create this world?

Swamiji: What world?! What makes you think I see the same world that you do?

Q: Well, I don’t know about that. But there is a creation here. Why?

S: This is an incorrect question, yet you are not the first to ask it. Even in the Upanishads, it has been asked again and again. “Why” is never answered in scientific inquiry. Science inquires into the how and what of things and phenomena. Why gravitation force? Why electricity? Why this earth? Why the sun? These questions are never answered by science. To question “why” is to question the motive, and motive hunting is not the job of science.

My advice to you is to write this question on a piece of paper, go straight to God, and ask him why He created this world! I guarantee you that when you are there you will not remember this doubt! Any question about God and his motives assumes the existence of a questioner different from God. When the seeker reaches that state of God-consciousness, this world is no longer seen as different and separate, as something to be understood—the question and the questioner disappear along with the entire world of creation.

Q: That is very difficult to comprehend.

S: Think! It is a change of consciousness. It is like in a dream when you don’t know you are dreaming. You form your dream experiences from your mental impressions gathered in the waking world. As a dreamer, this dream world of various joys and pains is very real. Suppose the dreamer wants to know why all this variety exists in this dream world—why these misgivings, these sufferings, these confusions? The only answer to give him is: “Wake up and discover that the entire dream creation is in your mind alone. Realize that you are the waker!” Once awake, the waker realizes the total unreality of the dream world.

In the same way, this waking world of plurality is like a dream of All-Consciousness. Once you realize that you are nothing but the Supreme Consciousness, which is One-without-a-second-one, this creation with its questions and answers dissolves itself.

Since this question “why” is a most speculative region of thought, no final answer can be given. One hypothesis is that the creation is a consequence of God’s nature as love to provide a new quality of consciousness. The creative activity of God includes embryonic beings, you and I, having a simple consciousness, even though we are still infinite and eternal. The maturing of these beings, so that they come to know their inherent divinity—it is already there, but they do not know they possess it—could be the basis of the whole cycle of creation.

How can they know their Infinitude if they do not know the finitude? How can they know the meaning of Immortality if they do not know mortality? How can they know Omnipresence if they do not know limitation? This very special knowledge of their true nature has to be won by a process of descent into the prison of space and time. Then there is a gradual ascent, in which Knowledge and ultimately Omniscience, is won.

Q: But how did this creation happen?

S: When someone asks me how it happened, it clearly shows me that they are not yet fed up with life and are not ready to come out of it. There you are helplessly flogging around in a cesspool and you are wondering, “Who pushed me in?”

“How did this cesspool get here anyway?”you question me. You get out of it first! Then you won’t have to worry about how you got in.

Q: But the Hindu scriptures do explain creation, don’t they?

S: Yes, there is the explanation of the process: there occurred a grossification of elemental material from space, to air, to fire, to water, then earth. The gross only comes from the subtle as a tree comes from a seed. But the question remains: From what raw material did these five emerge?

In our scriptures, there is not just one creation story. Each sage told his bluff story in order to clear the confusion of a particular student. He pointed only to the apparent creation—the creation in the student’s mind. These explanations were to clear a particular question and for that purpose alone. That is why there are so many different theories. Adi Shankaracharya claimed that he counted eighty-two different versions in the scriptures. No theory is correct. They were a kind of lullaby to set a mood, to soothe the student’s mind. No mind—no creation.

Q: So you could say that they did not understand creation themselves?

S: It’s not a matter of understood or not understood. For the enlightened sage there is no creation. Ask a sage who is unbound how bondage came and you will never get an answer. He will reply, “What bondage? Who is in bondage?” On the other hand, ask a person who is still bound by the world and how can he answer—he isn’t out of it himself. So there you are—no answers available!

Q: You say creation is ordered by the innate desires, or vasanas, of those in the creation. I can see how one desire leads to another, but when did the first vasana appear?

S: When? That is an aspect of time. Vasanas are the footsteps of experience—in time. For example, you are walking on a beach by the sea. You place your foot on the wet sand, then you put your other foot on the sand. At this moment, there are no footprints. Only awareness is present, or a sense of “I”. Then I raise my foot up and place it down again. This action leaves the first footprint—the first impression, vasana, has manifested. As this very moment, there is something other than “I”.

Carefully now. Time has not begun. Time is the interval between two thoughts. Now there is only one footprint impression, so an interval has not yet occurred. So when I lift my other foot and leave the second footprint, time begins. That is why the first unit of time is called a “second,” not first.

Or you could put it this way. The Creative Power had an urge to create. The first thought was “I”, just as when we awake out of sleep, our first thought is “I”. Only then do the rest of our thoughts, emotions and objects of our world begin to roll out into existence. In the same way after this first thought of “I”, the Lord manifested all aspects of himself. Then He identified with these many aspects. That is the reason we each have the essential Divinity within us.

Q: So our particular creation is unique to us and created by us?

S: Your creation is a play of your mind. Roll it up, carry it under your arm and move in the world as a master.

Q: But the world is so real, I can’t understand why you call it a dream.

S: It is not a dream, but when you wake up into the higher level of consciousness, it is like a dream. Whether the world is real or not depends on your standpoint. Try to tell the dreamer in a dream that he is only dreaming. He will never understand. He has to wake up from that dream consciousness.

Q: What about dreams? Are they really helpful in getting insight into one’s mental creation?

S: Dreams are regurgitations of the mind. Why would you want to pick through that rubbish? Mahatmas never dream because they have no undigested experience! Dreams come from incomplete actions and thoughts during the day. They are suppressions and reparations that have gone into the mind undigested. There is no need to dream if you consciously and completely face each situation during the day. Neither should you sit imagining during the day, giving power to the mind. If you do something bad, don’t go around feeling guilty because of some concept of middle-class morality. Get to the source of your mental bruise and let it go. Until you have the ability to accomplish this continuous mental cleaning during the day, you can complete two rounds of the japa beads with your mantra before you go to sleep at night. This practice will bring up all the undigested thoughts of that day.

In this way, you will go directly from the waking state into deep sleep without passing through the corridor of the haunted house. The brain only rests during deep sleep, so if it spends the night roaming about from one dream to another, it never really recoups its energy to work at its full intellectual capacity. A mind working constantly day and night becomes dull, or mad.
Neither should you bring your dreams to the waking world, there’s already enough confusion in your waking life. Forget them. You must keep your mind available for the work you are doing. Have you noticed dreams are always remembered by idle people? “I dreamed I had an accident; I keep remembering it,” you tell me. You have more faith in the dream world than this waking reality. So have an accident in your dream, but don’t bring it into this level of consciousness!

Q: But life is such circus! I can’t accept that it is my creation—it really has no sense so it.

S: You only have one life. Why don’t you live it like a king? You call it a circus, but it’s all for your enjoyment. Why don’t you enter the show with a front-row ticket whenever you want? You can sit there in your cushy box seat with popcorn, cotton candy, Coca-Cola and watch the show—your creation. Then get up and walk out whenever you want! But if you are the buffoon, always going around like a clown, everywhere you go will be a circus.

Enjoy life! But step out of it to the peaceful environment of your inner Self whenever you like! You are the master.