The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : 16.14.

Chapter 16: The Essence of Creation is God's Glory -14.

There is no world outside God, and therefore the world does not exist outside Him. But this is a difficult concept, so we are given a more particular description which the mind is in a position to understand more conveniently than when it is presented with this stupendous reality of God being the sum and substance, the very existence of all things. We are told that He is the creator, preserver and destroyer—aham adis ca madhyam ca bhutnam anta eva ca.

So we are a little bit solaced; we are coming down to a lesser definition and a more acceptable description of creation when we are told that God is the creator, the preserver and the transformer of things than when we are told that He is the very existence of everything. In the beginning it is said that God is the soul, the sum and substance, the essence, the being, and the all-in-all of everything—that is the atmatva of all things.

It is at the same time told that He is the originator, the propeller, the sustainer and the dissolver of all things. Even this is a difficult thing for us to imagine. What this creation is, what this sustenance is and what this dissolution is, in a cosmic sense—our puny brains cannot contain these thoughts.

Swami Krishnananda
 To be continued  ...