The Universe Through Vedas

In the early part of this century, two opposing theories about the origin of the universe were postulated. (1) The Steady State theory, which says the universe is never born, never dies, and is always like what it is. (2) The Big bang theory, which says the universe began with a point of energy exploding in a "big-bang". All the matter came into being from energy continuously expanding and changing form. Ultimately the expansion will stop and it will start contracting, ending into nothingness with a "big-crunch". What is before big-bang or after big crunch, the theory doesn’t know.

In reality, both the theories are correct. The universe begins from a point with a bang and ends in a point with a crunch. This duration we call one Kalpa (cosmos) or Brahma Diwas (eternal day). It is preceded and succeeded by an equal period during which matter lies in a dormant, inert state and that is called a Brahma Ratri i.e. a divine night (for the nature that sleeps as it were). All the souls also remain in a dormant state, a sort of hibernation, during this period. The evolution of cosmos from dormant state may be called a ‘creation’ or ‘srishti’, and its involution back into inert state is called dissolution (pralaya). As days and nights succeed each other, so do cosmos and divine nights in this eternal sinusoidal cycle of evolutions and involutions 3 (Figure 1).

All matter, i.e. nature, has three basic attributes/forces – satva, rajasa and tamasa. During brahma ratri, these forces remain in a balanced state. After the big bang, the three forces get realigned to form elementary particles called Mahat or Aapah, which combine further to form other basic particles, atoms and so on. 4

Figure 1

A – "Big Bang"

B – "Big Crunch"

A to B – One "Kalpa"

Age of the Universe

The age of each Kalpa (eternal day) is 4.32 billion years (4,320,000,000 years). According to Hindu scriptures this is further subdivided as below:

1 Kalpa	=	1000 Chaturyugis
	=	14 Manvantars + Buffer Periods of 6 Chaturyugis
1 Manvantar	=	71 Chaturyugis
1 Chaturyugi	=	4,320,000 years

Of the 14 manvantars, the universe expands for the first seven, and contracts for the next seven.

Each chaturyugi is subdivided into four Yugas:

1. Krit yuga = 1,728,000 years
2. Treta yuga = 1,296,000 years
3. Dwapar yuga = 864,000 years
4. Kali yuga = 432,000 years

At present, kaliyuga of the 28th chaturyugi of the 7th manvantar is in progress. According to this calculation, 1,972,949,100 years have elapsed since the evolution of present cosmos began, and it has 2,347,050,900 years still to go before the "big-crunch". 5