NASA and the Hindu concept of Time

[Guest guest]

NASA and the Hindu concept of Time

Kerala Online

Nov. 6, 2007

 

[Arguably off-topic, but I think this will amuse some

of our regulars.]

 

A couple of years ago, two NASA scientists put forward a

new model to explain how the cosmos is and where it might

be going. They say it is necessary to take account of

startling recent discoveries such as the observation that

everything in the Universe is moving apart at an

accelerating rate.

 

Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok propose that the cosmos

goes through an endless cycle - of Big Bang, expansion and

stagnation - driven by an as yet unexplained " dark energy " .

 

According to them, the current model of the Universe starts

with a Big Bang, a mighty explosion of space, matter and

time about 14 billion years ago.

 

What they are proposing in this new picture is that the Big

Bang is not a beginning of time but really just the latest in

an infinite series of cycles.

 

This model accounts for several important features we see in

the Universe - such as why everything looks the same in all

directions and the fact that the cosmos appears " flat "

(parallel lines would never meet however long).

 

But the model has several shortcomings, Steinhardt and

Turok admit.

 

It cannot tell us what happened before the Big Bang or

explain the eventual fate of the Universe. Will it expand

forever or stop and contract?

 

Problems with these futures became apparent in 1998, when

studies of distant, exploding stars showed the Universe was

expanding at an accelerating rate. It was a big surprise for

some astronomers who thought everything might eventually

come back together in a " Big Crunch " .

 

Empty and flat

 

The apparent acceleration has since been checked and

shown to be real. It led cosmologists to revive an old idea

that some " dark energy " is at work in the cosmos, pushing

everything apart.

 

Steinhardt and Turok put this energy - a scalar field as they

mathematically describe it - right at the centre of their new

model.

 

They think the dark energy drives a cycle of activity that

includes a big bang and a subsequent period of expansion

that leaves the Universe smooth, empty and flat.

 

" The scalar field changes its character over time, " says Paul

Steinhardt . " Finally, the field begins to build up energy to a

point where it suddenly becomes unstable and bursts into

matter and radiation, filling the Universe, and driving the

next period of expansion. "

 

" In the standard picture, it's presumed that the Big Bang is

actually a beginning of space and time; that there was

nothingness, and then suddenly out of nothingness there

sprang space, time, matter, radiation, etcetera, " he adds.

 

The history of cosmology is the history of us being

completely wrong, says Cosmology writer Marcus Chown.

" What we're proposing in this new picture is that the Big

Bang is not a beginning of time but really just the latest in

an infinite series of cycles, in which the Universe has gone

through periods of heating, expanding, cooling, stagnating,

emptying, and then re-expanding again, " says he.

 

Though Steinhardt and Turok have discussed their ideas

with peers, they have so far received only a positive, but

" cautious " , response. " The ultimate arbiter will be Nature, "

they write in the journal 'Science'.

 

The Hindu Concept

 

But Steinhardt and Turok would have been more than

surprised if they had actually referred to some books on

Hindu concept of Time and Universe. And perhaps would

have realized that they are treading the right path, but still

far from unraveling the ultimate 'Cosmic truth.'

 

In Hindu cosmology and metaphysics it is not accepted that

the universe was created from out of nothing at a particular

point of time. For if something is created or born, it has to

be dissolved, has to die. Strictly the conservation principle

applies here. The universe was created according to

Hinduism only by transformation of something, which was

latent before that. Creation is just a manifestation of what

was 'unmanifested' before.

 

'sRSTi' and 'samhAra', creation and dissolution, are only

two events in a long cyclic succession of events. There is no

beginning or end. This alternation between manifestation

and non-manifestation is what appears as the passage of

time.

 

Manifestation is when the universe of names and forms

appears and non-manifestation is when it disappears. The

only Ultimate Reality is Brahman. Even Brahma, the

Creator (mark the distinction between this word in the

masculine gender and the word Brahman, in the neuter

gender) is only a manifestation of Brahman at one point of

time.

 

He is the womb from which the entire universe becomes

manifest and He is the One into which the entire universe

dissolves.

 

The Hindu View of Time

 

Most of us are accustomed to living life according to linear

beliefs and patterns of existence. We believe everything has

a beginning, middle and an end. But Hinduism has little to

do with the linear nature of history, the linear concept of

time or the linear pattern of life.

 

Cyclical Time

 

The passage of 'linear' time has brought us where we are

today - at the dawn of a new century and a new millennium.

But Hinduism views the concept of time in a much different

manner, and there is a cosmic perspective to it.

 

Hindus believe the process of creation moves in cycles and

that each cycle has four great epochs of time, namely Satya

Yug, Treta Yug, Dwapar Yug and Kali Yug. And because

the process of creation is cyclical and never ending, it

" begins to end and ends to begin " .

 

Time is God

 

According to the Hindu theory of creation, time (Sanskrit

'kal') is a manifestation of God. Creation begins when God

makes his energies active and ends when he withdraws all

his energies into a state of inactivity. God is timeless, for

time is relative and ceases to exist in the Absolute. The past,

the present and the future coexist in him simultaneously.

 

Kalchakra

 

God creates the cycle of time, called Kalchakra, in order to

create divisions and movements of life and sustain the

worlds in periodic timeframes. God also uses time to create

the 'illusions' of life and death. It is time, which is

accountable for old age. When we overcome time, we

become immortal. Death is not the end of the line, but a

gateway to the next cycle, to birth.

 

This is also true of the universe itself and akin to the cyclic

patterns in the rhythms of nature.

 

What Happens Next?

 

It is predicted that at the end of this age comes a great

destruction, during which the physical body is completely

destroyed or would undergo a great transformation losing

much of its grossness.

 

Then probably starts the period of evolution during which

men may slowly regain in phases awareness of their

remaining four bodies and become Truth Beings.

 

Don't you think that NASA should really consult an Indian

guru before probing into the Cosmic truth further?

 

compiled by Rajesh Pillai for Kerala Online

 

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