THE COSMIC VIEW IN THE UPANIShADS

 The distinction between the Upanisadic cosmism and the western conceptions of God should be noted. Brahman, in the view of the Upanisadic thinkers, is not a demiurge or a deus ex machina, standing outside the world, while creating it and making it run. There is no extraneous matter out of which Brahman creates the universe. Were God to fashion the world out of a matrix which is ‘out there’, he would necessarily be limited by that matrix ; and a limited or finite God is a contradiction in terms. The Upanisadic view is that there is nothing other than Brahman ; that the world is but the manifestation of a part of Brahman ; that Brahman is both the material and the efficient cause of the world (abhinna-nimittaupadana-karana). The Taittirlya Upanisad (III. 1.1) defines Brahman as that from which beings are born, that by which when born they live, and that into which they enter on deceasing.