When Krishna is the source of both material and spiritual worlds which world comes first?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
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So, when Krishna says, Please be seated. Thank you. Thank you.
So, when Krishna says, I am the source of the material and spiritual worlds, is there a chronology that spiritual worlds come first and material worlds come later? See, the word source itself is used often in the scriptures more in a philosophical sense than in a chronological sense. That means that, see, he has said that sometimes the example is given, all of us are sparks of the absolute truth. Just like from the fire come sparks.
So, like that, we are all souls emanated from the absolute truth, which is like the fire. So, the absolute truth is the source of everything. In Mahagasya it is said.
At the same time, it is also said that the soul is eternal. You see, that, na jayate mriyate vahaj. There is no beginning, there is no birth, there is no death.
There is no beginning, no end. So, if the soul has no beginning and no end, then how could it have a source? Soul exists beyond the dimension of time. So, when the word source is used here, it is not used in a time-denotational sense.
It is used in the sense of ontological dependence. In terms of existence, the soul is dependent on the supreme. So, similarly, the spiritual world and the material world, they are all dependent on the absolute truth.
So, there is no, say, time as we conceive it. It does not exist in the non-material domain. Time exists, but it is of a different conception.
Say, time is a feature of the material world. Even in modern physics, the conception of space-time continuum. So, Einstein conceptualized time as one of the dimensions.
So, time is a feature of material existence. And that’s why, when we talk about non-material reality, time as we know it doesn’t apply over there. Time exists in a different sense over there.
It is not in the same sense. So, sometimes in philosophical circles, the question comes, does God create through time or does God create beyond time? Is it a particular time that creation begins or is the act of creation beyond time? So, actually that question itself has an assumption that, you know, God and time are two different entities. But time is a manifestation of God in this world.
So, therefore, when you talk about the source, Krishna is the source of the spiritual and material worlds, it is not that there is any time when Krishna existed in the material world because the spiritual world did not exist. Krishna means Krishna and his energies. So, his energies include the material and spiritual worlds.
There are times when the material world is manifested and there are times when the material world is unmanifested. But it is not that they are created. So, even matter being an energy of the Lord is eternal.
It is material forms that are temporary. When we say material things are temporary, they are often in material forms. That’s what we are attracted to in this world.
And they are temporary. So, we can’t really apply the concept of chronology to a domain which is beyond chronology. So, when we say Krishna is the source of the material and spiritual worlds, there is no chronology involved over there.
Both matter and spirit exist eternally. So, spiritual worlds always exist eternally. Material world, matter, the substratum of the material world also exists eternally.
Sometimes it is manifested, sometimes it is unmanifested. Does it answer your question?