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clay as the substratum of the pot
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To: alt-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: clay as the substratum of the pot
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From: lchiluku@ucsd.edu (R. & L. Chilukuri)
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Date: 13 Mar 1995 02:05:08 GMT
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From news@network.ucsd.edu Sun Mar 12 20: 54:41 1995
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: Univ of California at San Diego
A similie that was often cited by Poojya Swami Chinamyananda is the
concept of the clay pot or gold ornament. His talks are summarized below
(subject to the limitations of my understanding):
Consider a clay pot, with moderate volume and rounded shape. The clay is
the substratum of the pot. In fact the pot is nothing more than a
modification of the clay. The pot is clay. Remove the clay and the pot
dissappears!........The clay is the cause and the pot is the effect.
Remove the cause and the effect dissappears. The effect is nothing more
than a modification of the cause. In a similar manner, Brahman is the
cause and the Jagat is the effect.... Hence all is Brahman.
A knee-jerk reaction to the above argument is that the pot is more than
just clay. The pot comprises of clay, plus an abstract form. The abstract
form is in itself an object. Remove the clay and the abstract form of the
pot remains. Hence 1) identification of the "cause" is not easy and 2) we
should not jump to the conclusion of "remove the cause and the effect
dissappears".
Is this alternat scenario feasible? ==== The universe does exist. It is
concrete, touchable, observable. We are unable to comprehend the entire
universe. Why can we not accept our limitation. Just as an ant cannot
fully appreciate the glories of a full sized cake, but can delight in a
morsel of sugar. Why do we have to postulate a substratum, a One Brahman?
Our understanding of the universe is improving day by day. Perhaps
further progress in Cosmology will bring an integrated view of time
and space, of the origin of the universe, of the Big Bang etc.
Comments and criticisms are most welcome.
Krish Chilukuri
