Ajati-Vada the theory that you were never born

Ajati-Vada - Creation is not genuine, the no-creation theory

'Aja' means: not born, existing timelessly, the name of the first and original uncreated being. 'Vada' means: speaking, speaker, and therefore in this context means: something said, a proposition, a thesis, a theory. Ajati-vada literally means: the no-birth theory. Ajati-vada is said to be the paramarthika, or absolute, view of creation, in contrast to the typical vyavaharika view of creation as having a god or creator as its cause, who has “put these various beings on the top of a machine of this illusion... they are mechanically going round” and are subject to karma and transmigratory existence, involving millions of births and lives, etc. Ajati-vada is the theory of no-creation, that there is no genuine creation. Philosophically the implications of the theory are... You, the Self, were never born, nor were you ever created, since you exist timelessly. You are the one original uncreated awareness, the Parabrahman, and as the Parabrahman there is no awareness of existence, there is awareness of awareness only.

The theory first appears in advaitic literature in the Karika of Gaudapada, although Gaudapada says it is detectable in the Upanishads. In his commentary on the Mundukya Upanishad, Gaudapada states: "The highest truth is that nothing whatsoever is born." "There is no dissolution, no birth, none in bondage, and none aspiring for wisdom, no seeker of liberation and none liberated. This is the absolute truth." "From the standpoint of the Self, the world does not exist. Nor does the world exist as something independent, nor something differentiated or non-differentiated." For Gaudapada, creation, the universe, the birth, bondage and liberation of beings are only appearances.

Gaudapada examines and rejects several theories of creation current in his time, which are still widely believed today, for example: Creation is expansion (Vibhuti: ie the expansion of Brahman); The universe is a dream of Brahman (svapna); The universe is an illusion created by the power (Maya) of Brahman; Brahman creates the universe by will (ichcha); Creation is the result of time (Kala); Creation is integral with enjoyment (Bhoga). Rejecting all these theories, Gaudapada states that Brahman is purna (full) therefore there is no gain or loss, or division in him. All duality, differentiation, division, multiplicity, and origin by creation are only mere appearances. Brahman is aja (birthless). Ajati-vada denies that creation is an event that took place at a certain moment in time in the past.

Nisargadatta states that the universe is built upon imagination. We imagine that the universe, and the people in it, are in space and time, but space and time do not exist, and you and I, and all other people, are also similarly non-existent. All existence is imaginary. The mind itself is the creator, but mind and space and the universe are the same. The realization that space and mind are the same changes one's perception of the world as well as one's perception of oneself. No longer is it quite possible to believe that oneself is a separate individual. Outer space is universal mind and inner space is individual mind, the two are directly connected. Individual mind is merely a branch and terminal of universal mind. Mind, as universal and individual space is akasha, one of the five subtle elements, as which Shakti unfolds herself and enters into at every level. The illusion of creation, maintenance and dissolution occurs only in the mind in the presence of Shakti (energy) in combination with Maya (mathematical law). The Self-realized jnani explains the theory in practical language...

“The mind is obsessed with the idea of causality and invents creation, and then wonders who is the creator? What we imagine to be the universe is our own mind. The mind and the world are not separate.

Creation, maintenance, destruction, or Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, is the action and interaction of the three gunas... this is the eternal process which governs all things, but you are the One. The One includes the three. When you are the One you will be free of the world process. You are in the universe as the witness and outside the universe as the Absolute. To the Self it all happens. The Self is aware, yet unaffected.

Consciousness is pure in the beginning and pure in the end. In between it gets contaminated by imagination which is at the root of creation. To know it as it is, is realization and timeless peace. First is the stage of creation, next comes the stage of examination and reflection, and finally the stage of abandonment and forgetting. Universes come and go, but the consciousness remains, in a latent, quiet state.

Para-brahman, are the titles of my state. In that state there was nothing, and in that state I have no knowledge of anything. I have no association with anyone in that state. I am always without words. I am ever non-objective, unmanifest. Parabrahman is when the movement is frozen, there is no movement, but the potential is present.

There is a state before this knowledge ‘I am’ comes upon you. If you are satisfied with ‘I am’ then you will reach the state where you consider yourself God and Brahman. But you will not go beyond it or prior to it. In the ultimate state lies the prior state. The prior state is the highest, best and original state. It is the state before this knowledge ‘I am’ ever dawned on you. The ultimate state is that state in which nothing exists, neither I, nor you, nor manifestation.” [Nisargadatta]