[Advaita-l] Which one is first in the creation sequence

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

One way to think about it is to take away the element of the arrow of time from
this altogether, taking cue from the verse avyaktAdIni bhUtAni vyaktamadhyAni
bhArata.
 
Everything that exists in the universe today already existed in an unmanifested,
potential form at the moment the universe came into being. That is, if you take
creation as an event. The other option is to view creation as not an event at all,
as already pointed out by others.
 
To really grasp what these verses are teaching us, we need to step out of our
current conditioning to view such things as events in a linear historical framework.
It doesn't help to understand the vaidika traditions at all, if we think of the Rshis
as people who existed at some definite historical time, the varNa divisions as
something that started in another specific historical era, etc. 
 
Best regards,
Vidyasankar
 
> Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:33:21 -0800
> From: badisa66 at yahoo.com
> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Which one is first in the creation sequence
> 
> Namaskaram.
> 
> At the beginning of email, I would like to seek your forgiveness for raising a silly question. I could not figure out the answer for myself. So, I am requesting all members to help me.
> 
> My confusion was related to two Bhagawad Gita slokas - 
> 
> 4/13 (chatur varnyam ...)  & 
> 10/6 (Maharsayah Sapta ..).
> 
> The first sloka talks about four varnas. So, it is obvious that it is concerned to the creation; 
> 
> The second sloka talks about creation of seven great sages by the Lord. This is also concerned to the creation.
> 
> My confusion was that which one stands first in the creation. 
> 
> If you say, "it doesn't matter", then, sorry the matter ends there. 
> 
> However, if you would like to help me, please read further.
> 
> 
> Is it 4/13 first or 10/6 first
> 
> When there is no creation, then, there are no varnas.
> Similarly, when seven great sages were born, there are no four varnas but only one varna - the first varna. 
> 
> For me, it appears that the classification of varnas by Lord came much later after the creation. Please correct me if I am wrong.
> 
> Namaskaram,
> ramesh
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