|The Sixth Chapter of the Chhandogya Upanishad raises the old
question: Was there a First Cause? Shall we, seeing that the
search for causes takes us along an interminable chain
backwards, give up the idea of causation and believe that the
world came out of nothing? This cannot be, says the Chhandogya
Rishi. Look round and see all that exists and particularly
contemplate on the mind of man, the beauty and content of which
you can fully appreciate. Could all this come out of othing? Out
of nothing, nothing can come. Non-being cannot produce being,
much less could consciousness come out of nothing. Believe,
therefore, says the Rishi, that the causeless beginning was Sat
i.e., being with consciousness. And that the Original Cause
willed to expand and multiply and became light, water, and all
the living forms in the world, serving as food for one another
and growing and multiplying. It is the Sat that is still
multiplying and expanding.