By Victor M Fontane
Cosmology In Vedanta
To an enlightened person this universe exists and functions meticulously and purposefully in strict obedience to some laws of Nature and in full coordination with others. Everything is well organized, well integrated and well related with everything. There is unity in the midst of diversity. The cosmos is an unending song of harmony. In spite of chaos, we find harmony in the well-designed and well-planned Creative principle. Scientific researches in astrophysics and cosmological studies cannot unravel the secrets. This wondrous mystery seems to remain ever incomprehensible. Vedic mystics understood this difficulty and turned their pure mind to God from Whom this creation starts. To their enlightened mind it was revealed that the knowledge of the source, i.e., God, is more important than the understanding of the universe. Vedanta is not interested to inquire about the origination and its process, but to know the ground of existence and to experience it. Plato once declared, "The true lover of knowledge is always striving after being. . . . He will not rest at those multitudinous phenomena whose existence is appearance only." When we realize the truth of Divine Reality we become absolutely fulfilled. Vedanta exhorts us to know the Truth of all truths, which enables us to be free from all deficiencies and bondage, for it consummates all other knowledge. Highest Truth, which can be found in Vedanta, was revealed in the pure hearts of the mystics. These sages do acknowledge that the world is rooted in God, it emerges from God, it is sustained by It and it is ultimately dissolved in It—to rise again. By realizing God we realize the true nature of the universe, and this experience makes us free from bondage. Apart from God the universe is unimportant, as it fails to give us insight about the goal of life as well as knowledge of the world. Therefore, the universe is not the outcome of meaningless chance or accident or naturalism.
Vedanta upholds the idea that creation is timeless, having no beginning in time. Each creation is preceded by dissolution and each dissolution is followed by creation. The whole cosmos exists in two states—the unmanifested or undifferentiated state and the manifested or differentiated state. This has been going on eternally. There are many universes—all follow the same rhythm, creation and dissolution (the systole and diastole of the cosmic heart). According to the Bhagavad Gita this srishti (creation) and pralaya (dissolution) recur at a period of 1,000 Mahayugas or 4.32 billion years or 4,320 million years.
Indian tradition differentiates between terrestrial and celestial time. We have got four yugas—Krta or Satya (1,728,000 years) [Satya means "truth"; the age is also known as Krta, "action," i.e., the age in which the people did unquestioningly what their benevolent elders told them ]; Treta (1,296,000 years) [Treta means "three," the third age, counting backwards from the present: also the age in which the feelings and forces of good are as three parts, and those of evil as one; also the age in which people were specially "protected," trayate, by their elders ]; Dva-para (864,000 years) [Dva-para means "two- sided," hence doubt also ]; and Kali (432,000 years) which rotates in succession [Kali means "discord," "struggle" ], and all of these come to 4,320,000 years. Now, these four yugas, taken together, constitute one Mahayuga. One thousand Mahayugas are one day of Brahma. Brahma's one day is one Kalpa. So one day of Brahma will be 432 crores or 4,320 million years or 4.32 billion years. A similar expanse of time will make His one night, and that is another Kalpa. Our wildest imagination staggers in conceiving Brahma's life-span. This is the expansive view of time. No other culture had this unique vision of the infinity of time as well as the infinity of space.
In the European world, until a little more than a century and a half ago, men's ideas of the time things had lasted were astonishingly brief. In the Universal History published by a syndicate of booksellers in London in 1799, it is stated that the world "was created in 4004 B. C. and (with a pleasant exactitude) at the autumnal equinox, and that the making of man crowned the work of creation at Eden, upon the Euphrates, exactly two days' journey above Basra." And in contrast to this, the same author admires the Indian thinkers, stating: "Among the ancient people, the Indian philosopher alone seems to have had any perception of the vast ages through which existence has passed."
The universe was present in the causal form before its emergence, as something cannot come out of nothing. Vedanta does not accept the idea of creation out of nothing, or the separation of the Creator from His creation. The principle of something coming out of nothing does not explain the reason for the organic growth, sustenance and development of the world.
Creation, its perpetuation, and dissolution—these three make one complete cyclical process that repeats itself indefinitely. The beginning of the universe means the beginning of a cycle. The universe is believed to have a life cycle of its own spread over billions of years. It originates, grows and expands and ultimately dissolves into its subtle causal form. After some period, the universe surfaces again and the cosmic process continues ceaselessly. Individuals may enjoy emancipation.
One of the greatest hymns of the Rg-Veda is "Nasadiya Sukta." It is deeply mystical, poetical and wonderful. One of the advanced theories of creation and dissolution has been symbolically presented in this Hymn. The first three stanzas of the Hymn are given below from Swami Vivekananda's translation, "The Hymn of Creation":
Existence was not then, nor non-existence,
The world was not, the sky beyond was neither. What covered the mist? Of whom was that? What was in the depths of darkness thick?
Death was not then, nor immortality, The night was neither separate from day, But motionless did That vibrate Alone, with Its own glory one— Beyond That nothing did exist.
At first in darkness hidden darkness lay, Undistinguished as one mass of water, Than That which lay in void thus covered A glory did put forth by Tapah!
- Swami Tathagatananda, Vedanta Society of New York
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