Dialogues Of Self And Soul-4
‘Origin of the universe’.
“Listen carefully”. The soul said.
We were sitting by the side of a beautiful pond and she was absent mindedly playing with a blue colored lotus flower with her fingers.
I had been persistently asking her to tell me about the origin of the universe.
She was unwilling at first, however, she had given into my perseverance at last.
I slowed my breathing further to dig deeper in to Samadhi and expand my awareness.
After a long moment I was ready and I told her so.
She spoke gently,
“This is going to be a bit difficult to grasp but I will try to elaborate in between”.
A slight nod from me assured her and she started to speak…
They were seven in number — the great primordial Rishis/Seers known as Saptarishis. Thousands of years ago, I heard them discussing the origin of the universe, when they were conferring inside the temple of Viraj.
And this is what they chanted,
In the beginning, even nothingness was not, nor existence,
There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?
Then there was neither death nor immortality
nor was there then the torch of night and day.
The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining.
There was that One then, and there was no other.
At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.
All this was only unillumined water.
That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,
arose at last, born of the power of heat.
My dear self — I heard them chanting in unison and understood — they were talking about the beginning of this creation — A point in the ever recurring cycle of creation and annihilation, when there was just the eternally existent, superfluid reality!
There was no concept of time yet, when there was this primary substance, that tenuity beyond conception — the primordial energy only! The vacuity so dense that no light could penetrate through its depths.
In that ocean of dark energy ‘THE ONE’ ‘THE CREATOR’ existed as an embryo exists inside the mother’s womb. And from this vacuity or nothingness came out the creation — born out of the mind of the creator.
She looked up and I felt her eyes searching my face for a sign of comprehension.
“It is really difficult to understand. How can something like universe can come out of nothingness?” I said honestly.
“Let me try once again, this time I will use modern terms to make it understandable to you!” She smiled at last.
Like an eager child, I smiled back in anticipation.
“Imagine a place where purest form of energy exists alone without any matter, creating an immensely powerful Zero point energy field — a singularity where the laws of physics and materialistic science simply do not work- this is Nothing!”
She said matter of factly as my eyes widened in surprise.
I knew what she was talking about — Quantum mechanics, it was something that was taught in modern schools!
Her smile deepened as she comprehended the look of recognition on my face.
I was also surprised, but it is the truth — I have already described Akasha — the fifth element, to you. This dense fluid of Akasha continued to contract on its own— then suddenly — BIG BANG, and it changed into the matter and antimatter from which this universe gets created, taking billions of years to reach its present state.
“B… but, how could the ancients know that?” I stammered.
“They knew!” She smiled at last.
She spoke again and I listened with rapt attention, A vision of seven wise men in a mysterious temple forming in my conscience.
They chanted further…
That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,
arose at last, born of the power of heat.
The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom
know that which is kin to that which is no
But, after all, who knows, and who can say
Whence it all came, and how creation happened?
the gods themselves are later than creation,
so who knows truly whence it has arisen?
Whence all creation had its origin,
he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,
he, who surveys it all from highest heaven,
he knows — or maybe even he does not know!
They said — All perceptible matter comes from that filling what appears as vacuity to you. With the intent of the creator, this Akasha was acted upon by the life giving ‘Prana’ — the life force or heat, creating all things and phenomena of the physical and metaphysical worlds.
But wait! That, He created this universe is a fact but how and why…may be even He does not know. Because The creator is also but a part of the unending cycle of creation!
Finally the Sages declared — Who will know and who can explain when and where from it all started, since we, the Seers were not there and also all the causative forces came into existence later, when even the Gods were created after the Srishti, then who can be sure of its origin!
She concluded.
I was spellbound by the sheer genius of the brilliant minds of the Saptarishis. I opened my eyes and I was all alone — as always she was gone!
However, I knew, no matter how difficult to grasp- this was the eternal truth, as described in the ‘hymn of creation’ in Rig Veda, who knows, how many thousands of years ago.
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