Authors:
Sivaram Sivasubramanian, Jain (deemed-to-be-university), India
Rajani Jairam, Jain (deemed-to-be-university), India
Email: sivr.sss30@gmail.com
Published: December 24, 2019
https://doi.org/10.22492/ijl.8.1.08
Citation: Sivasubramanian, S., & Jairam, R. (2019). Creation, Creator and Causality: Perspectives from Purānic Genre of Hindu Literature. IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.22492/ijl.8.1.08
Abstract
Inspirited by a growing recognition of the need for an interdisciplinary approach in dealing with science and religion, this article aims to decode the nature of the causal relationship between creator and creation as epitomized in a few select scriptures of Purānic genre of Hindu Literature. The present study is part of an overarching effort to understand how ancient Indian knowledge and culture have supported profound metaphysical inquiries amidst flourishing religious practices. The nature of this work requires the utilization of a research protocol that combines the exploratory interpretation of scriptures and an explanation of causality. Notably, there is a consensus among the Purānas on the fundamental tenet that a primal creator is the eternal cause of the cycle of creation, sustenance, dissolution, and re-creation. Working from this premise, Purānas depict the primal creator as imperceptible, enigmatic, and absolute; hence, a thorough understanding is impossible. With this underlying principle, Purānas provide a metaphysical basis for the Hindu Trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra), the quintessence of Hindu Theology. This research paper concludes that the Purānas chosen for this study (a) point to a relational causality of creation of this universe that manifests from the unmanifest creator, and (b) proffer an intriguing description of how equilibrium-disequilibrium among gunas influence the cycle of cause-effect.
Keywords
primal creator, creation, relational causality, avyakta (unmanifest), brahmānda (cosmic egg), guna (attribute), Purāna