From earth we came and to earth we return!

All we witness in the external world is mere illusion of the mind and not real. But, the worldly people, who are deeply engrossed in the affairs of the family and existence, will never accept this fact. Our senses and mind are always externalized and cannot look into the inner being. We all fully believe in our physical form and mind. Whatever mind conveys us, we take it to be real. In a way, we are made to believe in our physical existence as well as the world outside. We perceive the world through the five sense organs and everyone like us perceives the same. Hence, it is a sort of collective illusion. Sometimes, in a magic show, the expert magician makes the entire audience to believe in his feats. This is a kind of ‘mass hypnotism”. What is hypnotism? We are hoodwinked in believing certain things or events which is false appearance!

The mind is a great energy arising out of the self, during the so called ‘creation’. When the creation is subsumed, the mind merges back in the self. The self is just a mute witness to all this. It is unaffected and in a way indifferent to the activities of the mind. Even if the entire cosmos collapse, the self is absolutely unconcerned and unaffected. This quality of the self is compared to that of ‘pure white screen in a cinema hall. In spite of multitudes of slides projecting fire, flood, earthquake, tornadoes, and bombs hurled by rival forces, the screen remain unaffected and it remains pure white as it was before the commencement of cinema. The screen is independent of the cinema show, but the cinema needs the screen! In a similar way, the creation is fully dependent on the self and the self is fully independent of the creation. The self remains unconcerned whether there is creation or not! Irrespective of events, the self remains in Eternal Bliss!

This is the relationship with god and creation. God remain as a mere witness! Hence, the scriptures assert that god is beyond any attributes or qualities we ascribe to worldly things or persons. Since God is Pure, we cannot attribute any judgement in him, nor can we judge god with our limited intelligence! God envelopes all and hence we cannot know god by any means! The fish is surrounded by water and it owes its existence to water, but the fish cannot know about water!

Man started investigating about the superior power, ever since he started thinking about this wonderful universe, the sky and stars and the illumination of Sun in the day time and the cool moon light during night. Hills, valleys, rivers and oceans astonished him immensely. The rain, thunder and lightning frightened him. These events made him to think about the world and he intuitively felt that there must be some great force which enabled all this. Out of fear, he started respecting and honoring the sky, sun and hills. Birth and death perplexed him much. After prolonged contemplation, many wise people were engaged in deep meditation on the supreme power and after one pointed meditation, they could surmise that creation originated from the creator.

The ancient Greek and Roman people were also interested in the affairs of the world and sky. They too surmised that there must be a great power behind this! Each set of people conceived the power in different manners and some crude ways of worshipping stones and sculptures emerged from this. In certain areas, the Eagle was honored and in certain areas certain animal figures too were worshipped. Also, the ancestors were worshipped by certain rituals and rites.

The emergence of Veda and Upanishads clarified many truths in Hinduism. Hindu scriptures elaborated on the ways of life, morals, righteousness and co-operative attitude in society. Fire worship was prevalent during Vedic periods. This resulted in copious rains in every season. Grains were harvested in plenty and cattle wealth flourished resulting in milk, curd, butter and ghee which sustained all people in society!

In ancient scriptures, it is written “food is god”. There is a cycle of events culminating in the growth of food grains. In the ancient fire rituals, food, grains, fruits and certain seeds are poured. The fire god conveys the same to appropriate demigods, who are in charge of rain, winds, fire etc. After accepting the offerings in the fire rituals, the rain god pours copious rain on earth. The riot tills the soil, scatter seeds of grain and in due course, he receives harvest of several fold of the grain. Our bodies are sustained by food. Due to the sustenance, babies are born and they grow by food, and ultimately, it is through food, one meets his death too. After death, the body is consumed by fire or buried under earth. After some time, the body becomes part of the elements in earth. From the earth, again seeds sprout! This is the food cycle which creates, sustains and annihilates mankind! Hence that food is termed as God!

Hence all living beings were once earth only. This is the reason all plants shoot forth from the earth. All the grains man eat is obtained from the earth and after living in this world, he returns to the earth ultimately.