Jagat comes from akṣara

The next mantra answers some doubts regarding the definitions of brahman in the last mantra.

yathorṇanābhiḥ sṛjate gṛhṇate ca

yathā pṛthivyāmoṣadhayaḥ sambhavanti |

yathāsataḥ puruṣāt keśalomāni

tathākṣarāt sambhavatīha viśvam ||1.1.7||

Just as a spider creates and withdraws its web, just as the plants and trees come into being from the earth, just as hair on the head and body grows from a living person, in the same manner, here, the creation (world) comes into being from the imperishable Brahman.

One may raise the objection that the world cannot come into being only from brahman without another inert material, just as a sentient pot maker, which is the intelligent cause, needs insentient clay as the material cause to make a pot. Perhaps, brahman can be intelligent cause, the maker, but it has to find the material for creation. Thus, the intelligent cause and the material cause cannot be the same entity. In this case, brahman cannot be all pervasive either, because only the material cause is pervading the products, not the intelligent cause. Just like clay is pervading the pot, but not the pot maker. Therefore, the spider example is given here to show that there is a possibility for one sentient intelligent cause as well as the material cause for the entire universe.

yathorṇanābhiḥ sṛjate gṛhṇate ca - just as a spider creates a thread and takes it back to itself. The example of the spider is given here because, in creating the thread, the spider is both the maker and the material. Similarly, the consciousness brahman is able to project the jagat with itself as the material and also withdraw back into itself. Throughout the whole process, there is no changes on the part of brahman. The initial proposition, knowing which everything is known, is possible only when the conscious brahman is the intelligent cause and also the material cause, which has not undergone any change.

If you say that brahman doesn’t undergo any change to become the jagat, thus the jagat itself is brahman, and how can brahman create itself? Thus, the next example is given here: yathā pṛthivyāmoṣadhayaḥ sambhavanti - just as the plants are born on the earth. The trees and plants are derived from the minerals. Being non-separate from earth, they have come from earth. Similarly, the jagat is not separated from brahman, yet it has come out of brahman. The example also addresses the doubt that brahman, being the cause of the jagat, stands separate from it, like the spider that converts the threads into a web, is different from the web. Brahman is not different from jagat, just as the earth is not different from the trees and plants that have come out of it.

One more objection can be raised here. How can an inert jagat manifest from conscious brahman? Between the cause and the effect, there is an identity so that the qualities of the cause are found in the effect. From cotton fabric, we cannot produce silken cloth. Thus, brahman can’t be the cause of a world full of features that are opposite to brahman. The third example answers this objection.

yathāsataḥ puruṣāt keśalomāni - just as hairs on the head and the body come out from a living person. We could include nails also in this category. They are considered inert in the sense that you can cut them without experiencing pain. There is no rule that an inert things can’t come out of a conscious entity. Realistically speaking, there is no division of sentient and insentient. If you shift your vision, then all that is here is one consciousness brahman alone. The whole world is pervaded and sustained by that consciousness alone. When names and forms resolve, they do not go anywhere, but resolve into consciousness alone. The more appropriate example for creation is our dream. The inert and sentient objects in my dream are created from me, the conscious being. They are sustained by me and also resolved back into me. Thus, the entire dream world is me alone; they are as though coming, as though being there, and as though going. The reality is only me, the consciousness. Sentient and insentient are purely two points of view. There is nothing sentient or insentient in the world; there is only one consciousness, brahman that appears in the form of various things in the world.

tathākṣarāt sambhavatīha viśvam - similarly, the world comes into being from akṣara. Viśvam means everything that is understood through various cognitions, which is the world. It comes from akṣara - imperishable brahman, which is existence. Brahman lends existence to everything. When I say a flower ‘is’ that ‘is-ness’ always is. It never goes, which is why you can’t destroy it. If you destroy the flower, the flower is gone, but the petal ‘is’. If that is also destroyed, the destroyed petal ‘is’. If everything disappears and you do not see any form, the un-manifest knowledge of the form ‘is’. The ‘is-ness’ is never negated; it is the basis for any form to manifest; it is existence, brahman; the reality of everything.