Creation of Universe According to Hinduism
As there are estimated 4,200 religions in the world, each has different concept of how universe was created. Hinduism, the oldest and third big religion of world after Christianity and Islam describes the creation of universe in the unique way.
According to Hinduism the universe is the result of manifestation of God, the supreme consciousness. Before the universe as we now know it existed, there was neither matter nor energy, even the space and time was the result of creation. There was totally emptiness alone the one breath, the God. There was neither existence nor nonexistence, neither death nor immortality. There was neither the sign of night nor the day, it was totally darkness. There was no one to know anything till the God created universe. Then in the beginning God created everything with one word “Om”. Word “Om” in Hindu cosmology is considered as the first sound of universe. From the Om five elements came into exist. The first was space, the shelter of billions of heavenly bodies. From space it came gas, ranging from the light to heavy. From gas came fire (plasma). From fire came liquid. And at the end numbers of heavenly bodies was created. In the tenth book (Mandala) of Rig Veda, 129th Hymn deals with the origin of the universe and creation:
“Neither existence nor nonexistence was there. There was neither the realm of space nor the sky beyond.” [Rig Veda 8:129.1]
“But for that breathless one breathing on its own. There was nothing else, surely nothing” [Rig Veda 8:129.2]
“Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning, with no distinguishing.” [Rig Veda 8:129.3]
“In the beginning all this verily was Atman (Supreme Being) only” [Aitareya Upanishad 1.1.1]
“For Om the five elements came to be; space, air (gas), fire (plasma) , water (liquid) and earth (Solid).” [Veda]
The leading modern theory of universe “Big Bang Theory” tries to explain the creation of universe, it also states that there was nothing at the beginning and not a single being existed. All that we now know was compressed into a single dense point known as Singularity. After the big bang the universe started to expend from that singularity and space came into exist. It is said that during the starting minutes, the light elements were born like Deuterium and Hydrogen. From these light elements many heavy elements like lithium, potassium and rubidium etc.
In Hindu cosmology the process of creation and destruction of universe has no limit, universe has a specified lifetime and at the end of that time destruction occurs. There is a term “Yuga”, in Hindu cosmology, which means the “Ages”. Four ages are described in scriptures, each age possess fixed number of years.
- Satya or Krta Yuga: Satya means “truth”. The span of the Satya Yuga is 1,728,000 human years,
- Treta Yuga: Treta means “three”. The span of Treta yuga is 1,296,000 human years.
- Dwapara Yuga: Dwapara means “two-sided”. The span of Dwapara yuga is 864,000 human years.
- Kali Yuga: Kali means “struggle”. The span of Kali Yuga is 432,000 human years.
And all of these add to 4,320,000 years (4.32 Million 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 4.32 billion human years. A similar expanse of time will make His one night, and that is another Kalpa. After one complete day of Brahma is the age of universe having the lifetime of 8.64 billion human years.
“By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together form the duration of Brahma’s one day. And such also is the duration of his night” [Bhagavat Gita 8.17]
According to Physical Cosmology, after observing the number of facts, universe is about 13.7 billion years. As quoted by the great astronomer of late 1900’s, Carl Sagan in his TV show, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage:
“The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long, longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang.”
By: Mr Pawan Kumar
He can be reached on:
pawanakhani97@gmail.com
