Question and answer 10

If the whole world is nothing but the mind's own nature, doesn't that mean the world is false? Then why does the Veda speak of a creation of the world at all?

There's no doubt about it: the world is simply untrue. The Veda's whole aim is exactly this — to expose the false world as false, and so make the true Brahman known. That, and nothing else, is why the Vedas allow for a creation at all. To the slow-witted seeker it says Prakṛti, the cosmic intellect, the subtle elements, the elements, the world, and the body came into being one after another, in Brahman, step by step; to the sharp one it says the whole world sprang up at once, like a dream, out of his own thoughts — thoughts born only of his failing to know himself as the Self. And the very fact that creation gets explained in these different ways shows what the Veda is really after: to establish, however it must, that the universe is unreal, and so make Brahman known. That the world is illusion is something anyone can know directly, for themselves, in the very experience of the bliss of their own nature.

If the whole universe is nothing but the nature of the mind, does it not follow that the universe is false? If so, why is creation spoken of for the universe in the Veda?

There is no doubt that the universe is simply untrue. The chief intent of the Veda lies precisely in this: to make the false world false and thereby make the true Brahman known. It is for this reason alone that the Vedas admit creation for the world, and for no other. Moreover, to the dull aspirant it says, by a gradual creation, that Prakṛti, mahat, the subtle elements, the elements, the world, and the body came into being in Brahman in that order; to the keen aspirant it says, by a simultaneous creation, that this world came into being, like a dream, from that very aspirant's own thoughts, born of the defect of not knowing himself as the Self. From the very fact that the creation of the world is spoken of in these several ways, it follows that the Veda's real intent, however achieved, is to establish that the universe is false and so make Brahman known. That the world is illusion can be known directly by everyone, in the state of realisation that is the experience of the bliss of one's own nature.