A Brief History of Time – The Real One

[Guest guest]

A Brief History of Time – The Real One

======================================

 

Modern man is in a dire predicament. Living a day-to-day

existence, he always thinks about the `now', the `today' and

perhaps the `tomorrow' – but can hardly bring himself upto

anything in the distant future or the distant past. Living in tiny

cocoons of time, he has little knowledge or appreciation of recent

history, not to speak of ancient history. Tightening his time-

cocoon is the present-day European-influenced notion that human

civilization itself is worth studying only after it got `modernized'

in the last 4 centuries. And the Semitic religions (Judaism,

Christianity and Islam) have added their part by treating the advent

of their masters as the worthy beginning of any serious study of the

world. (One Christian saint went as far as to mention that Creation

itself happened only recently in 4004 BC.) Thus man tightens his

time cocoons and suffocates himself.

 

In contrast to this normal view of humanity, is the modern view of

scientists (such as Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan and many others)

in which the universe is conjectured to have passed through many

millions, perhaps billions of years in existence. This brings in a

tiny ray of light into the otherwise narrow notions of Time held by

contemporary man.

 

In striking contrast to both the above groups of people are the

Bhagavathothamas who incessantly serve the lotus feet of Lakshmi

and Narayana. In them there arises a Total Illumination, called

para-gnana, by which the Truth of the Totality of Existence is

revealed as a fruit in one's own palm. One such Bhagavathothama,

who intimately knew Time as well as its Master, is the sage Vyasa,

to whom all of us owe our very breath. He too has written a "Brief

History of Time" – but this one, unlike its secular counterpart, is

supremely Real and has the sole intention of generating in the

hearts of listeners, parama-bhakti, supreme devotion to

Mahavishnu. The merciful sage has written about Time and its

Ruler in many of his Sookthis, one of which is Srimad Bhagavatha

Purana. Here is a brief summary of Vyasa's wisdom on Time

culled from that delightful text. adiyen would beg the pardon of all

vaishnavas for any mistakes in the narration.

-----

1) We are currently living in Kali Yuga, the fourth of Yugas,

which is constituted of 4,32,000 years.

2) Twice the duration of Kali Yuga, that is, 8,64,000 years

make up the third Yuga, Dwapara Yuga.

3) Thrice the duration of Kali, that is, 12,96,000 years form

the second Yuga, Threta Yuga.

4) Four times the duration of Kali, that is, 17,28,000 years

go into the first Yuga, Sathya Yuga or Kritha Yuga.

5) These four Yugas put together constitute one Chathur Yuga,

which is 43,20,000 years (43.2 lakh years or 4.32 million years).

6) One thousand such Chathur Yugas constitute one day for

Brahma which is 4,32,00,00,000 years (432 crore years or 4.32

billion years). A day of Brahma is called a Kalpa.

 

7) At the end of a day of Brahma, there is a Pralaya called

Naimittika Pralaya meaning Occassional Dissolution, in which the

whole universe is dissolved into the elemental condition and

Narayana reclines on Adi Sesha. This Yoganidhra of Ranganatha is

considered the night-time of Brahma, who is said to sleep or take

rest in Emberumaan.

8) The night-time of Brahma, that is, Perumal's Yoganidhra,

continues for the same duration as a day-time of Brahma, i.e., for

4.32 billion years.

9) One full day of Brahma (day-time + night-time) therefore comes

to 8.64 billion years.

 

10) At the close of Brahma's night, Padmanabha rises from Adi

Sesha and recreates the universe (Shristi) starting with the same

Brahma and thus another Kalpa follows.

11) One year of Brahma is constituted of 360 Brahma days (or 360

Kalpas) which totals up to 3,110,400,000,000 years (3.11 trillion

years).

12) 50 such years of Brahma constitute a Parardha (half-life) for

Brahma which boggles the mind at 155,520,000,000,000 human

years (155.5 trillion years).

13) 2 such Parardhas constitute a lifetime for Brahma and

comprises 311,040,000,000,000 human years (311 trillion human

years). A lifetime of Brahma is called a Maha Kalpa.

 

14) At the end of a Maha Kalpa, that is, at the end of Brahma's

lifetime, Narayana, the Kaalaswarupi, engages in Prakritha Pralaya,

Total Cosmic Dissolution, in which the whole universe including the

elements are dissolved in Vasudeva.

15) At the close of this Cosmic Night, Sriman Narayana initiates a

new Maha Kalpa by recreating the universe along with a new

Brahma.

 

16) The Supreme Being, Narayana, has created an INFINITE

number of such Maha Kalpas in the past. Hence there is no

absolute beginning for creation.

-----

The Maha Kalpa is the highest unit of time for even Brahma. It

comes to 311 trillion human years. To give an idea about how this

stupendous amount of time relates to the Supreme Being

Vasudeva, sage Vyasa, at first, remarks that it is the time that

"Mahavishnu takes to wink His eyes". But he quickly admits that

even this analogy is imperfect, for Narayana is the Eternal Being,

Narayana is that Infinity in whose fear even Time functions.

 

Such, then, is Time. Such, then, is Time's Master. Thus ends

Vyasa's Brief History of Time.

-----

There are also accounts of Sandhis or intermediate periods mentioned

in some texts. Already blown out by the stupendosity of Time, I have

not included them here.

 

Alright, where are we now in this mind-boggling maze of Time? – we

will see in the next post.

-----

As an aside, it is a soul-stirring wonder that this same Narayana,

for whom 311 trillion human years is less than an eye-wink, was

tied to a mortar-stone by an innocent rural lady - an incident that

melted Nammalvar's soul so much that he could not come out of

his supremely ecstatic Samadhi for as long as 6 months.

 

To add just one more: It was this same Narayana, whose eye-wink

creates and dissolves universes, who voluntarily took up "washing

the feet of the guests" as his duty during Yudhistira's Rajasuya

sacrifice, impelled by His unquenchable love for His bhaktas.

 

One can keep enjoying millions of such anubhavams for endless

time.

 

Glory to Narayana !

Glory to Lakshmi !

Glory to Vyasa !

Glory to Nammalvar !

Glory to Ramanuja !

Glory to all Servants of Vishnu !

 

dasan,

P.Srinivasan