Wednesday 28 January 2009

Beginning of Universe - A Vedic alternative?

It started with the Big Bang, the scientists say. This was preceded by the Big Crunch, the scientists also say. And there are black holes and dark energy. Both are concepts that are in the process of being investigated further, esp. the latter. Its their features that make me think that there's some link to ancient cosmologies. Black holes have immense force-field (i.e. power) that even light cannot escape. Whatever enters it - matter or energy is consumed by it (reverts back into a state of 'one-ness' with it) - and all the information about that object or energy is lost (the 'information paradox). Black holes are super-heavy, electrically charged (i.e polarized into positive and negative), and in rotation. They are surprisingly a lot smaller than all the galaxies, stars and other space debris that they constantly consume, i.e. their size does not increase although their mass does. With all that gravity, one would expect that one day a black hole, any black hole for that matter, would collapse in on itself - ?the big-crunch, the state that existed Before Big Bang? Now consider dark energy. It is anti-gravitational ( the best way probably to understand the concept) and pushes objects apart. An analogy would be raisins in a cake. As the cake rises, the raisins are pushed further apart. Dark energy has been pushing galaxies apart and we only learnt this about 10 years ago. Thus, it is now being thought responsible for the rapid exapansion of the universe more recently discovered, as well as potentially the instantaneous expansion of the universe just after the big-bang. The origin of anything involves two things - creation , which is often and euphemism for some sort of explosion (of energy, mass or both) and expansion (of that energy or energetic mass ) into various forms and (which experience) immanent phenomena. This notion might fit the beginning of universe too. Certain ancient description of the beginning of universe appear to consist of darkness and void such as the Vedic texts from around 1500 BC, Rg Veda, verse 10.129, which states: There was no non-existent, and there was no existent at that time There was neither mid-space nor Heaven beyond. What stirred? and whose control? Was there water? The abyss was deep. Neither death nor deathlessness was there then. There was no sign of night or day That One breathed without wind through its independent power. There was nothing other than it. Darkenss was there, hidden by more darkness in the beginning. The rest of the verses follow in the next post. YOu make up your own mind as to how loinclothed sadhus and seers would have contemplated this reality at the time spacetime and the universe was created.

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