||शवेताश्वतरोपनिषत्||

Shvetashvatara Upanishads- The triad of Brahman......
Chapter 4:The One God of the Manifold World
Mantra 1:THE ONE AND THE MANY

य एकोऽवर्णो बहुधा शक्तियोगाद् वरणाननेकान् निहितार्थो दधाति ।
विचैति चान्ते विश्वमादौ च देवः स नो बुद्ध्या शुभया संयुनक्तु ॥१॥

He, the One and Undifferentiated, who by the manifold application of His powers produces, in the beginning, different objects for a hidden purpose and, in the end, withdraws the universe into Himself, is indeed the self-luminous. May He endow us with clear intellect!

The world was inactive and unmanifest before creation. The Paramatman in His formless aspect is devoid of form and color, yet, in the beginning of creation for some unknown reasons assumes various forms and colors through His various powers (of maya) which are non-different from Him. In the end, this universe of all forms and colors merge in Him. He initiates this cycle of creation, maintenance and dissolution without any selfish purpose but for the ultimate good of the Jivas . That Supreme Lord is really one without the second. Apart from Him, there is nothing. May that Lord of self-luminosity, bestow auspicious intellect upon us? The purpose of creation is stated to be hidden meaning that we, the finite, cannot understand the reasons behind the creation by The Lord, The Infinite.
The gist of this Mantra is that the beginning and the end is unmanifest and only the middle state represents the manifest. The basic nature of things is the Unmanifest and the manifest is only a condition which appears for the time being in between the two states of the unmanifest. The grace and modesty of the manifest lies in not clinging to its existence and where it makes no effort to prolong its continuity. The manifest is only a passage from the unmanifest to the unmanifest.. In the passage one must move on and not settle down. Life is a bridge, pass over it, but do not build upon it. The inspiring teaching of this Upanishad is “The beginning and the end reside in Brahman, the world is only a passing phase of the Manifest