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Whether we worship God with a form (e.g. Radha, Krishna, Rama, Narasimha, Shiva,Varaha, Kachchap, Durga, Ganesha, etc. - the scriptures say God has infinite descensions) or without a form ( Brahm, Parmatma, Niranjana, Shoonya etc. where we do not associate any form to God and consider God as an infinite source of energy) or whether we are an atheist ( where we neither consider "God with a form" nor "God without a form" as the cause of the creation and we simply call the undefined mysteries of the universe as "nature"), we cannot stop marveling at the vastness and variegetedness of the universe in which we live.
A visit to a bird park or a zoo and observing those fascinating birds or the butterflies in an amazing array of colours or watching the creatures and fishes in the sea in a TV channel such as Discovery or Animal Planet, takes the atheism out of us and we can easily catch ourselves wondering how and when and where did these all originate. We notice that each one of us out of the 7 billion or so on this planet has a different face, a different voice, a different palm, a different fingerprint but we have no material clue about the mystery behind its root cause. The world of animals and the plants is no less fascinating. It appears that no two leaves on a tree are 100% similar. The patterns found in the nature are also unbelievably amazing. The sunflower faces the sun, the "touch me not plant" wilts when approached and the pinepapple fruit has combs which I believe, follow the likes of Fibonacci number.Equally intriguing is the thought about our own origin. We have seen our father, grandfather and some may even have seen their greatgrandfather but to keep going backward and finding out who was the greatgrandfather of our greatgrandfather and so on and so forth leaves us frustrated with no human explanation and research appearing to be anywhere near fool-proof. All the theories such as "Big Bang" and "Darwin's" prove to be futile in unraveling the ultimate truth. Thus, the concept of time and the questions as when did the creation start and when it will finish has remained an enigma to date.As George Darwin, son of Charles Darwin, whose famous book "Origin of Species" makes fascinating reading, in 1905, admitted that the truth about the universe has remained as mysterious now as it always was. From the books such as "A brief history of time" by Stephen Hawking and numerous sites on Internet, we learn that the universe is indeed infinite,it has no boundary and the more we explore it the more we discover. The best of the telescopes do give us an insight of the incredible size of the universe but fail to define its extent. As per the astronomers and scientists, the observable universe appears endless. Though, we find the facts about our earth itself to be unfathomable to our intellect, what to speak of the solar system consisiting of the sun and its nine planets ( Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune , Pluto), we conclude that our solar system is like a mere speck in our galaxy, called Milky Way,whose diameter is measured to be 1000 light years and which contains 200 to 400 billion stars. However, what completely pulverizes our intellect is the fact that the "Milky Way" is just one of the billions of galaxies in the observable universe whose size is estimated as at least 93 billion light years. We all know that 1 light year is the distance traversed by light in one year which is equal to 300,000 x60x60x24x365 = 946,080,000,000 kilometres. This article, briefly attempts to describe the scale of time as revealed in Vedas which is as follows: As per the Vedic calender, we are currently in the 1st day of the 51st year of Lord Brahma. The day of Brahma is called "Kalp". The current "Kalp" is known as Shwet Varah Kalp. Our Brahma is 4 headed and and that is why he is called Chaturmukhi Brahma. Ever wondered how long is Brahma's day. Well, each day of Brahma comprises of 14 Manvantars ( Manvantar is the time when the Manu alongwith Indra, Saptrishis and other celestial Gods change). Our current Manu is called Vaivasvat Manu and he has already completed 27 Chaturyugis. Each Chaturyugi is made of a Satya Yuga ( 4x432,000 years), a Treta Yuga (3x432,000 years), a Dwapar Yuga (2x432,000 years) and a Kali Yuga ( 432,000 years). We are in the Kaliyuga of the current chaturyugi,in which about 5000 years have already passed. Brahma's one day as per this calculation adds upto 14x71x10x432,000 = 429,40,80,000 years. After this, the creation is destroyed and Brahma goes to sleep for the same duration. Now, Brahma lives for 100 years and so the life of Brahma is equal to 100x365x2x429,40,80,000 which is 31,34,67,84,00,00,000 days. Only at the end of this period, the "Mahapralaya" ofr our Brahmand takes place.However, the Mahapralaya does not mean that our souls will vanish for ever.They will reappear in the next cycle of creation which will keep happening eternally. On the other end, the smallest unit of time in the Vedic scriptures is also infinitesimally small. A "Truti" is defined as the time taken for light to traverse the distance covered by three "Trasrenus". A "Trasrenu" is made of 3 "Anu", while an "Anu" is equal to 2 "Paramanus", the smallest particle in the creation, which cannot be divided further. It appears that a "Trasrenu" is visible to the eye as in a beam of light from a ventilator in a dusty atmosphere. Let us see from the table below how Trutis add up to the Bodh and Luv and so on. 300 Truti = 1 Bodh
3 Bodh = 1 Luv
3 Luv = 1 Nimesh
3 Nimesh = 1 Kshan
5 Kshan = 1 Kastha
5 Kastha = 1 Laghu
15 Laghu = 1 Ghari
2 Ghadi = 1 Muhurt ( 30 minutes)
6 Muhurt = 1 Prahar
8 Prahar = 1 Din
7 Din = 1 Saptah
2 Saptah = 1 Paksh ( Shukla and Krishna)
2 Paksh = 1 Mas
2 Mas = 1 Ritu (There are six seasons)
3 Ritu = 1 Ayan (Uttarayan and Dakhshinayan)
2 Ayan = 1 Varsh |
