Science in Hinduism-Big bang,Creation & destruction of universe
This is in continuation with the rest of the series SCIENCE IN HINDUISM. Till previous article, we saw creation of this universe, various living and non-living entities, types of lord Vishnu, structure of universe, and description of various planetary systems. If you haven’t gone through these articles, then please find the link below for the respective articles.
Science in hinduism-Extraction-Contraction and creation of universe
Science in Hinduism-Creation of universe and its being
Science in Hinduism-Creation of Humans and third type of lord vishnu
Science in Hinduism-Structure of universe and various planets
Science in Hinduism-Lokas, Black Holes, milky way
Science in Hinduism-Atmostpheric bands,earth,Heaven,hell
Till now, we have seen planets with extraordinary beings like having multiple limbs that can travel across planets in a fraction of a second (Vaikunth-Loka). We also saw planets where the inhabitants travels using their large wings or on space-crafts and airplanes rather than ground-cars (Swarga-Loka). We also went through the planets deficient of sunlight i.e. planet where inhabitants survive without the sun (Bila-Swarga)
In the last article, we discussed about the billa swarga where the demons and the ghost resides. Thus, Billa swarga can easily be misinterpreted as the biblical hell because of the scary wrong-doers inhabitants residing there. However, in reality it is not so.
Beneath all the planets discussed before, and slightly above the Garbhodak Ocean, are the Naraklokas, or the biblical hellish planets.
NARAK-LOKA or The Hellish Planets
Narak (Sanskrit for hell) is the Hindu terminology of Christian Hell and Islamic Dozakh.
This is the purgatory place for the souls who have performed the most abominable sins on the earthly planets. However when compared to western concept, there is one major difference. Narak-loka is a temporary place for impure souls where they are punished for their bad sins and once the soul has learnt its lesson and all the impurities of the souls are removed; souls are free to move back into the regular dimension of this universe.
Inhabitants of naraka loka cooking nar pakoda (Food made from human flesh)
28 different types of hells described in the Vedic literature are:
Raurav, Mahajwal, Sukar, Rodha, Tal, Vishsan, Vilohit, Asipatravana, Krishna, Taptakumbh, Lavan, Lalabhaksha, Rudhiramabh, Krimibhojan, Darun, Puyuvah, Pap, Vahnijwal, Vaitarni, Krimish, Adhahshira, Tamas, Avichi, Sandansh, Kalsutra, Swabhojan, Apratishthit and Aprachi.
Image below shows different types of karmic reactions in hell. In the left-top, humans involved in illicit sex are burned in fire. Humans who enjoyed killing animals /eating meat are burned in oil to become meat for hell inhabitants. Similarly there are different punishments for different types of bad deeds performed by humans in the earthly plane.
Different hells with different types of punishment
All these hells are under the jurisdiction of Surya-putra(Sun god sun) Yamaraj where he delivers the punishment according to the record maintained by his assistant Chitra-gupta.
Punishment given by yamraaj is final and binding however ancient sages have made provisions of propitiation for those wrong doers who feel guilty after committing their sins and looks for penance. That sinner who does not propitiate for their sins or don’t feel guilty in their conscience comes into one of these hells. Although it looks like that punishment for sinners goes on for an eternity, but in reality, the duration of one's Karmic punishment may be few moments or few seconds.
Yamraj in his Court of Justice
Thus, we saw that Indian scriptures differ a lot when compared to western scriptures. Compared to only hell and heaven in bible and Quran, Indian ancient scriptures differ far in definition to split the universe in various groups where the good-doers or bad-doers stays depending upon the type of karma they do in their life.
i.e According to bible, If a person does good karma, then he will go to heaven or he will go to hell. But according to Indian scriptures, there are further divisions. If a person does extraordinary karma, then he reaches vaikuntha(Abode of lord Vishnu). If a person does very good karma, then he reaches tapoloka, janaloka or maharloka depending upon the level of his very good karma. If a person does good karma, then he may reach swarga loka, bhuvar-loka or dhruv-loka again depending upon the level of his good karma.
Good-Karmic humans in heaven (Swarga loka)
Similarly, if a person does fair amount of sin, then he may be born as lower species like plants or animals on earth. If a person does very bad deeds for material enjoyment like rape, murder etc, then his soul moves to one of the hellish planets, depending upon the level of sins they did in their life. In this hellish planet, they have to pay for their sin partially (Remaining is carry-forwarded in their next birth).
This also means that even if you are a Deva or a great Rishi, there's no guarantee that you won't be born as a Rakshas or a cow to be slaughtered in your next birth. Now spiritual texts are full of incidents where the divine being was cursed to be born as an animal or humans because of his bad Karma. For Ex: Gatekeeper of vaikuntha(lord Vishnu abode) was cursed to be born as a demon on earth by four sanatan kumars
This is the end of all the planets in our universe. Below all these planets lies the Garbhodak Ocean which forms the bottom of the Brahmand (Universal Egg). Since this universe is the creation of Lord Brahma, this universe is called as Brahmand in sanskrit.
So, the final arrangements of our lokas can be arranged as shown below:
Final arrangement of the Lokas
Foundation of Our Universe
As said before, at the bottom of our Universe is the immense Garbhodak Ocean. Shri Garbhodakshayi Vishnu- the second form of Lord Vishnu resides on this Garbhodak Ocean, on the Eternal serpent, Ananta-Shesha.
Eternal serpent Anant-Shesh also plays an important role in creation and destruction process of this universe. Anant-Shesh has thousands of hoods and each of the hoods contains a bright gemstone that illuminates the azimuths. As discussed before Brahma goes to sleep and rests for the night at the end of every Kalpa. This is the time of destruction (Maha-pralaya) when Ananta's thousands of hoods emanate fiery poison to destroy all Creation.
Lord Sankarshan destroys the creation while brahma sleeps
Then from the eyebrows of the lord appears the three-eyed Rudra(Lord shiva) who destroys the entire universe and dances the dance of destruction known as the Tandav. This form of lord Vishnu is known as the Sankarshan form of the Lord
Shri Garbhodakshayi Vishnu is the preserver of our universe and keeps a watch on the activities happening in all the lokas. But he never interferes in any of the activities (Good or bad) since he has already delegated the task to the demi-gods. It is only when the demi-gods are not doing their task honestly or the demi-gods /spiritual sages are not able to solve any problem and comes for help to lord Vishnu; he interferes either by giving the solution or by creating an avatar out of his body to become the solutionJ. For Example, when the demi-gods were not able to defeat demon hirankashyap, they came to lord Vishnu for help and then only lord Vishnu took varaha avatar to kill hirankashyap and restored the earth back to his place.
One Year of Brahma is just 1/100th of his LIFETIME; and the lifetime of One Brahma and his Universe is just a SINGLE BREATH of Lord Maha-Vishnu.
Our Universe is just a single Breath of Shri Maha Vishnu
Indeed our entire Universe (which is about 13.7 Billion years old according to our scriptures and scientific estimates), was born with a single exhalation of Shri Maha Vishnu and will merge back to him on his inhalation.
The concept also validates the Big Bang Theory. The moment the lord starts exhaling, various universes emerging from Lord Vishnu's body pores is the moment of Big Bang for each Universe
Big bang theory. Notice the time span (13.7 billion years matches exactly with our scriptures)
After exploding from the pores of Sri Maha Vishnu, each Universe goes on expanding, and after attaining a critical threshold, starts contracting until it assimilates back in the body of the Lord
This life is not even a fraction of a second of Lord Maha-Vishnu's Breath yet we keep fighting over silly issues all our life. So, it is very important to understand the reason behind our existence and strive to get out of this Material Creation.
Universe assimilating back to lord body pores.
According to the scriptures, more than one universe exists and the same has been the topic of hot discussion by modern Scientists. Though various scientific study and analysis, a large body of scientific intelligentsia perhaps believes in multiple Universes co-existing in parallel dimensions.
Even Stephen Hawking one of the most brilliant mind of our times has given a detailed description on multiple universes through his phenomenal work - A Brief History of Time, the most amazing book written on Space Science ever.
In his book, Mr. Hawking talks about Anthropic Theory and Chaotic Boundary Condition. He states that-
‘According to the Strong Anthropic Principle, there are either MANY different Universes or MANY different regions of a single universe, each with its own initial configuration and, perhaps, with its own set of laws of science.’
Multiple Universes emerging from the Big Bang
In simple words it can be said that the likelihood of the Single Universe emerging from the big-bang is much less than the likelihood of Multiple Universes emerging out of it!!
The notion of Alternate/Parallel Universes has been widely used in many Hollywood movies such as the Jet-Li movie The One(2001) ), FAQ (2004), and the latest one being Star-Trek (2009)
However the interesting point to note here is that the mention of Multiple Universes comes in the scriptures long before the first concept of modern Science came into existence. Ancient Yogis/Sages could have grasped this phenomenal existence of our Universe through their rigorous penance, meditation and inter-planet travel.
Even when science is able to predict the existence of our universe through the big bang theory but still, many of the questions related to big bang is unanswered by science.
Some of the questions are:
What existed before the Big Bang?
If there was nothing before then where did the explosion exactly take place?
What caused the explosion in the first place?
If there was nothing then from where the energy for the big bang process to happen came from?
Science is not able to tell us, but our scripture does. It’s a different fact that some scientists term these as mythology. Still, many of the scientists consider some extra ordinary source behind the big bang process.
Now if we believe in the concepts of Srimad Bhagvatam then we can understand the Science as well as faith behind this. It will not be wrong to say that the sages who used to meditate in jungles were the first and greatest scientists of all times. I will be writing more than 50 articles showing different scientific concepts mentioned by such sages thousands of year ago.
Ancient Yogis (Scientists) decoding the Universe creation process through meditation
I would like to end by saying that our ancient beliefs are not just Myths, but Parables for explaining profound scientific theories and principles to the common man in a simple way. So, it’s up to the individual on how well they research /decode their scriptures and then validate those with modern science. This also gives us a different perspective on thinking about this universe and other worldly concepts instead of blindly believing in science alone.
Below small poem to conclude and summarise
Narak-loka is purgatory for impure soul
Punishing and purifying is yamraaj role
Impure souls face karmic reactions in hell
After which they are purified & bid farewell
Soul goes loka according to their karma
May reach vaikuntha or may reach narka
Level of karma decides your next birth
May attain salvation or reborn on earth
Below all planets lies Garbhodak Ocean
Lord residing there arises all creation
On brahma night,sheshnag emanates poison
shiva starts then dance of destruction
Our universe is just lord single breath
When lord exhales, many universes spread
This concept fits big bang theory I read
Making me believe what ancient Yogis said
Our ancient beliefs are more than just Myths
Scientific theories validates our ancient scripts
Don't belief in such scientific theories alone
Do your research well before your soul is gone
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