The Radical Theory of 'Ajata Vada' on the Nature of Reality. [No God. No Universe.]

Speaker A [00:00:00]:

In this episode of the decoding reality podcast, we will be talking about is the theory of non creation. This is a radical theory, and it is mind bending. So today, let us look at what this theory tells us about the nature of reality. There is no god. There is no universe. No one has created this universe, and this universe technically does not exist at all. This sounds really strange, And this sounds like it is absolute nonsense, but this is the profound teaching of ajatawada, a radical concept in Vedanta, which is called as the theory of noncreation. This theory tells us that Universe has never been created.

Speaker A [00:00:53]:

And not only that, it says that there is nothing called as the universe. There is no god. There is no creator, there is no creation, there is no seeker, and there is nothing, says this teaching. The term ajatawada translates to no creation, No manifestation posting that the universe as we perceive it was never created. To understand this, we need to dive deep into the teachings of one of the strongest proponents of Advaita Vedanta, who is Sri Gaudapada Acharya. Gaudapada Acharya, who was a guru's guru of Sri Adi Sankaracharya was one of the strongest proponents of Advaita Vedanta, which is a school of Vedanta, which says that The true reality of the world is that it is nondual. There is just one absolute reality And everything else apart from that absolute reality is a mere illusion. Compared the universe to a dream, an idea central to ajatawada.

Speaker A [00:01:55]:

Just as a dream appears, changes, and dissolves without any substantial creation or dissolution, The universe appears to change without truly changing. Now all these teachings and concepts Might be really alien to some of you and you might be finding it really hard to digest. But bear with me here because This is a very profound teaching, and it goes into the heart of Vedantic teachings. And this explains to us clearly what this reality is about. Now we'll understand this with 2 simple examples. The first example is this. Now just assume hypothetically that this entire universe is made up of 1 substance. There is Just one thing in which this universe is made up of.

Speaker A [00:02:46]:

If this universe have to be made of Just 1 object or one substance, then there is nothing called time, space, causation. There are no different objects. There are no planets. There is nothing which is different from each other. There is just 1 pure substance with which the entire universe is made. Hypothetically, if that is the case, if that is how this universe actually is, Then there cannot be any activity. There cannot be any experience. There cannot be any movement.

Speaker A [00:03:20]:

There cannot be any activity because For an activity to happen, there needs to be a subject and an object. There needs to be different elements for an activity to take place. And there cannot be a moment because moment happens with respect to 2 objects. When there is a single object, there can be no moment or motion as such. And there can also be no experience as such because for an experience to happen, we need 3 things, the object of experience, the subject of experience, and the experiencing itself. If there is 1 single object, then an experience cannot take place. If, hypothetically, this universe was made up of 1 singular substance, Then technically the universe was never created. There was no creator.

Speaker A [00:04:13]:

There is no creation as such, and there is no object of creation, there is no subject of creation, and there is no universe itself since there is just one fundamental substance. But this is hypothetical. Of course, we have nowhere concluded that this is actually real. Now let us look at another example. This example is of a dream. Now we all dream different dreams. And within our dreams, We experience various things. We talk to different people.

Speaker A [00:04:46]:

We experience different objects within the dream. And within the dream, We experience the dream world as though it is real to us. We don't realize that it is a projection or an illusion. If a tiger appears in the dream, We run for our lives because we are trying to save ourselves. We think that it is actually happening to us. It is only when we wake up from that dream, we realize that it was a projection within our mind. Now observe this example really carefully because this Shows us the nature of reality as explained by ajatawada. When we are within the dream, we think that the people around us and the different objects within the dream have their own independent existence apart from us.

Speaker A [00:05:31]:

We think that we as the dream ego are different and the people whom we are interacting with within the dream are different. But once we wake up, we realize that both happened within our minds and both were the projection of our minds. And, hence, the substance of both of them were Actually, the same. There was no road as such. There was no sky as such. There were no different people as such. It was all an illusion within our minds, and there was 1 single substance which pervaded the entire dream experience since it was all a projection in our mind. It is not a substance as such, but it was all one reality within the mind.

Speaker A [00:06:20]:

We only experienced it at that point of time as something which was real to us. Now this is exactly how we need to understand the world around us. What ajatawada tells us is that this universe has technically never been created. It only seems to be creative from the perspective of our minds. Our mind is a consequence of maya, And our mind is a consequence of time, space, and causation. When we see this universe and when we perceive this world From the perspective of our minds, it seems like it is real to us, and it seems like a universe has been created. But technically speaking and from the perspective of that pure awareness, this universe has never been created. This universe is just a projection in that consciousness or awareness or in god.

Speaker A [00:07:17]:

So imagine that God is dreaming a dream and within his dream, this universe is projected. And that Ultimate reality or God has assumed himself the position of an individual and his experiencing various things in this world from an individual perspective. But technically, this universe has never been created. This is a dream or an illusion or a projection. In truth, God only exists without any creation. If you don't want to use the word God Because you can't relate to it, try using the word pure awareness or consciousness. So there is a pure awareness or consciousness, And this entire universe that we see all around us is a dream or a projection in that pure awareness or consciousness. That pure awareness of consciousness has assumed the position of an individual and is experiencing this world Through the instruments of body and mind, this is what we need to realize.

Speaker A [00:08:23]:

If we realize this and if we realize our bodies and our Minds are just an instrument. We will truly realize that we are that pure awareness or consciousness or god. This is the truth behind the statement aham brahmhasmi. When Vedanta says aham brahmhasmi, it is not saying that this body or this mind is god. It is saying that that fundamental reality which is the foundation for this universe is God. And I am that fundamental reality or consciousness. But right now, I have identified myself with this body and mind because of an illusion and because of ignorance. And this has happened because of maya.

Speaker A [00:09:07]:

And through meditation, through contemplation, and through the systematic study of Vedanta, We can understand who we truly are and we can realize ourselves to be pure awareness or consciousness. Now this can be a tough idea to imbibe since our sensory perception of the world is so deeply ingrained. In ajatawada, however, the world we perceive is considered as an illusion or maya, and the only reality is the unchanging, undivisible, absolute Brahman or pure awareness. Now let us look at one simple example before we close this video. This example is of a clay and a pot. If we look at a clay and a pot, both of them are fundamentally clay. A pot only appeals to exist. A pot is in and through clay.

Speaker A [00:09:59]:

There is nothing in pot apart from clay. So from the perspective of clay, Nothing has been created as such. The pot is clay alone because there is no thing called a pot apart from clay. Just like this, this universe is consciousness alone. There is nothing apart from consciousness. The world only appears to exist, but it does not. The true existence of this world is consciousness alone or pure awareness alone. And this It's the ultimate reality or Brahman.

Speaker A [00:10:35]:

Thank you for tuning in. I hope this was valuable. If you're interested to dive deep into topics like this and uncover the nature of reality and consciously create the life that you truly want to live. You can join our community cum learning platform, the Advaita Conscious Society, by visiting advaita.com. I'll see you on the next