“Why did Consciousness create the world and beings in it?” is often asked by seekers, especially in the context of suffering, the painful and unwanted aspect of duality.
A sculptor made a statue with the right arm up with a clenched fist and the left arm twisted behind its back. The statue came to life and asked, “Why did you put me in this painful posture? Why didn’t you make it more comfortable?
For the statue to understand, it would have to access the mind of the sculptor. But the statue has a limited intellect and has no access to the sculptor’s expansive creative mind. Every answer the sculptor gives causes more questions. The statue can never know why, but it can appreciate and accept its limited positive and negative characteristics, talents and abilities, knowing it is not responsible because it is an expression of a much greater intelligence. Only the limitless sculptor knows.
Us individuals live in a different dimension of existence from our Creator, Isvara/Maya. Ours is finite. Its is infinite. A finite entity can never become infinite, however much it tries. One finite, plus a second finite, plus a third finite on and on indefinitely, always remains finite.
The infinite need not become infinite because it is already and always infinite. Because we don’t know that we are inherently infinite like our Creator we identify with the material finite parts of ourselves (our bodies, minds and intellects) and live merely finite lives. If we knew that we are not separate from our Creator we could stop struggling to become perfect. Is a ray of light from the sun different from the totality of the sun’s light? So we only need to overcome our ignorance and recognise our infinite ever-present nature.
To satisfy our limited minds many answers have been proffered about the ‘why’ of the manifest creation by other limited minds. But every answer generates another question. This never-ending search for meaning is inherently frustrating and unsatisfying, a waste of time and effort.
Here are some examples:
They say Consciousness wants to experience itself because it isn’t satisfied with itself.
But why would Consciousness want to experience finitude, when it is already limitless, whole and complete?
They say that the only way Consciousness can experience itself is through a form.
But it is ever-full unborn bliss, so why would it want to experience transient bliss of human forms, not to mention that it doesn’t want anything because nothing is missing.
“Limitless Consciousness has to move away from itself and become a finite a form so that it’s form can merge back into Consciousness.”
How can it move if it is the unmoving That in which “everything lives and moves and has its being.” It can’t become a form because it can’t change. It is never an actual suffering form, only an apparent form. It is existence itself. There is only one non-dual existence.
“Consciousness is lonely because it is one without a second so it became bored and created the world to amuse itself with otherness.
Boredom is sometimes attributed to Consciousness when it is seemingly victimized by its own Maya.
“Consciousness wanted to express its nature of Love/Lovingness and so manifested the world.”
Consciousness is love itself. Why would it want to suffer human “love,” which is only attachment to the other?
These statements take the mind around and around. They are only answered when the jiva assimilates the teachings of Vedanta and discovers its identity AS limitless Consciousness.
There is no ‘why’. There is only an ‘is’. The purpose of life on earth and experiences in life is to exhaust karma, gain Self-recognition and be freed from the cycle of karma, samsara, a cycle of births and deaths.
When the physical body of the liberated being dies, prarabdha karma is exhausted, agami karma is nullified, the samcita karma is ‘burnt off’and cannot form anymore prarabdha karma. It is like a roasted seed, which cannot germinate. There is no more karma; the liberated exists AS pure Consciousness.
The cosmic irony is that as individuals we are already and always Existence shining as ever-full unborn Consciousness! We struggle because we do not know what we are. Any answer to ‘why’, including the explanation about the process of appearance of manifestation (the ‘how’), is provided by Vedanta to temporarily quieten the mind of the seeker so he or she can focus on Self-enquiry and gain Self-knowledge.
Accept your situation ‘as is’ by understanding that karma applies only to the mind-body personality, which is always an object known to you. If you know it, you can’t be it. Be grateful for a human birth, prepare the mind with Karma Yoga and listen, learn and study Jnana Yoga, which is Vedanta. Ask questions pertaining to your Self ignorance and what has been taught, then assimilate the teaching with the head and the heart until it becomes an automatic, reflexive way of living and being.
The purpose of spiritual enquiry is to remove self doubt, abide as the Consciousness which you already and always are. Then, there will be no more questions, only ever-full ISNESS shining as AWARENESS, pure being, NO BECOMING!
