Hindu Cosmology Made Simple

By Keith Sherwood

Hindu cosmology doesn’t rest on dogma or a rigid set of beliefs. Unlike Islam or Christianity, it doesn’t have a single creation myth or even a creator that is agreed upon by all of its various schools and sects. It has evolved over the centuries and has received input from various sources including the Rig Veda, Vedas, Brahmanas, and Puranas. To understand it – a difficult undertaking at best – I will compare the earliest shruti, including the Rig Veda and Vedas with later sacred literature such as the Puranas. Adding to the complexity of my task is the fact that some of the shruti explain how cosmic relationships have influenced the evolution and involution of the multiverse; some provide a timetable for cosmic and Earthly events, while others are allegorical stories about celestial being that provide us with concepts, such as consciousness, bliss, and Self-realization.

To make sense of it all, I will begin with the Rig Veda, the earliest extant work of Indian sacred literature. From this ancient text, we learn that the cosmos exists in two states – unmanifested and manifested – and that the divine word birthed the universe into existence from a Golden Egg, which was its original cause.

Beyond that, the Rig Veda remains rather vague about how the multiverse originated. It does, however, imply that it is part of an eternal cycle, which has no beginning or end. In Rig Veda 10:129, we’re told, “None can know from where creation has arisen, and whether he has or has not produced it. He who surveys it in the highest heavens, He alone knows – or perhaps does not know.”

As Hindu cosmology evolved, it determined that the universe is created, preserved, and destroyed in established cycles regulated by the three members of the Godhead: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Brahma, the creator or the multiverse, has a life span equal to 311,040,000,000,000 human years. This span of time is known as a Maha Kalpa.

Within the Maha Kalpa, there are other cycles, including a day and night of Brahma, which last 8.64 billion years. Within this 8.64-billion-year cycle, there are shorter cycles including the 14 Manvantaras, each lasting for 306.72 million years.

A Manu rules over each Manvanatara. The first Manu was the precursor of humanity and also the very first king to rule Gaia. It was Manu who saved mankind from the devastation of the flood. The name of the present Manu, the seventh in the current cycle, is Vaivasvata.

When Vaivasvata dies at the end of his lifecycle, Brahma will create a new Manu. In all, there will be fourteen Manus. When the fourteenth Manu dies, a day of Brahma will end, and the physical-material universe will be destroyed.

Within the life of each Manu (Manvantara), there are 71 cycles known as yugas, including the Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and the Kali Yuga. The cycle of yugas will repeat a thousand times. After the thousandth cycle is complete, Vishnu who preserves the universe, will transfer his authority to Shiva, who will destroy it. After a long period of rest, which lasts 4.32 billion years, a new Brahma well be created, and the Maha Kalpa will repeat itself.

According to the Rig Veda, Brahma may be the creator of the universe, but he is not regarded as the supreme being or source of everything that exists. That’s because he, along with the rest of the Godhead, owe their existence to the Supreme God or Para Brahman.

Make Room for Time-Space

It’s important to note that the cycles contained within each Maha Kalpa are manifest within a field of time-space that extends beyond Earth to an infinite number of physical-material universes. The dimensions of the non-physical universe, however, are excluded from these cycles.

Since human beings, are interdimensional beings, humanity will continue to evolve on the non-physical dimensions of consciousness, energy, and etheric matter throughout all fourteen Manvantaras.

Although it’s generally accepted that there are four yugas – the Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga – there is disagreement about the length attributed to each yuga. One Indian tradition declares that the length of the Satya Yuga is 1,728,000 human years; the Treta Yuga is 1,296,000 human years; the Dvapara Yuga is 864,000 human years, and the Kali Yuga is 432,000 human years. Other schools of thought suggest that the length of time attributed to each yuga is substantially shorter.

Notwithstanding these divergent views, all traditional schools of thought agree that the human condition in these yugas gets progressively worse as consciousness diminishes, energy becomes more distorted, and virtue declines.

The Kali Yuga

It’s widely accepted nowadays that the Kali Yuga, known as the age of Iron, began in 3102 BC, at the end of the Dvapara Yuga. The transition was marked by the apparent death of Krishna, the avatar of the age.

The beginning of the Kali Yuga coincided with an infusion of distorted consciousness, energy, and etheric matter into humanity’s collective field, which made it increasingly challenging for people to communicate honestly or empathize with one another. It also made it difficult for people to develop the character they need to participate in long-term, intimate relationships.

The Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic, described what life would be like during the Kali Yuga. According to this ancient text, avarice and wrath would become more common and people would openly display animosity towards one another. It goes on to declare that men (and women) with false reputation of learning will teach the truth and that the old will betray the innocence of the young, and the young will betray the dotage of the old. Many other unwanted changes will occur as well. Trust will be in short supply… and even family members will have contempt for one another. Many people will take vows only to break them… and both men and women will have lustful thoughts that will disrupt the bonds of love and family. Source: Mahabharata, Vana Parva, Section CLXXXIX [3].

It doesn’t take a sage to recognize that the Kali Yuga became the new normal centuries ago and that more and more people have been become trapped in an unreal matrix of negative thoughts and emotions created by the distorted fields and non-physical beings that have intruded into humanities collective field.

Fortunately, the Kali Yuga is about to end, and – after a transition period – the Dvapara Yuga will begin once again. The civilization that emerges, after the demise of the Kali Yuga, will be guided by people who carry within themselves the spiritual knowledge and the technical skills to give birth to a new epoch in human history.

During the transition period, that will last between two and three centuries, movements to transcend self-limiting political, social, and spiritual institutions will become stronger. There will be an ever-growing desire to honor Gaia and enhance the health of the planet. People will demand greater respect for diversity and for humanitarian solutions to social problems. Religion based on sin and salvation and the patriarchal hierarchies that support them will be abandoned by people in ever increasing numbers.

Much of the initial change will take place within the non-physical fields of consciousness, energy, and etheric matter that interpenetrate the human family and the living Earth.

As these non-physical fields become less dense, non-physical beings will lose their power, and attachments will fall away. The strength of the ‘I’ will diminish, and the individual mind and ego will lose control of the organs of perception and expression. These changes will allow people to substitute life-affirming core values for core values that are self-limiting. People en masse will look inward to the Self for spiritual guidance and knowledge rather than slavishly accepting the doctrines of patriarchs. Intuition and discernment will be enhanced, enabling people to make appropriate decisions that support their dharma.

The transition to the Dvapara Yuga will take place in in both linear sequential time and linear tine. That’s because, like the other cycles in a day of Brahma, changes in the physical-material universe are mirror images of changes that take place within the dimensions of consciousness, energy, and etheric matter. According to the Bhagavata Purana, “The countless universes, each enveloped in its shell, are compelled by the wheel of time to wander within You, like particles of dust blowing about in the sky.” (Bhagavata Purana 10.87.41).

In both the multiverse and your subtle field of consciousness, energy, and etheric matter, the wheel of time is manifest in three different ways: linear sequential time, linear time, and eternal time. Linear Sequential time is the time we’re all familiar with. It moves in one direction, and the duration is equal in all Earthly locations. This is not the same for either linear time or eternal time.

Within non-physical dimensions, time is linear. This means that time can move in two directions, from the present to the past and from the present to the future. It also means that, in the non-physical universe, there is time dilation, which means that time can speed up and slow down in either direction.

While the flow of time connects cause and effect in the manifest universe (Loka), there is no flow in the unmanifest universe (Aloka). In the unmanifest universe, time is eternal. There is no past or future – only the ever-present Now. The endless moment of stasis and balance lasts from everlasting to everlasting. Since the universe exists within your perception, all three forms of time exist within you as well as every other sentient being.

Energy and matter emerged in sequence from the mind of Brahma when Loka, the manifest universe, emerged and began to expand. Pradhana, source of energy in both the physical and non-physical universe, emerged first. Chi, jing, prana, and the kundalini-sakti emerged later along with space, which is intimately connected to both energy and matter. After the grosser forms of energy emerged, the basic elements of the physical-material universe were created by quantum interactions in the field of time-space. The subtlest forms emerged first; then they combined to create more complex forms.

Although most sacred Sanskrit texts agree that Brahma created our current universe, there are contrasting views on what happens after it has matured. One view suggests that, after trillions of years, the universe will have expanded to a point where all matter and energy has been pulled apart, and only a thin plasma remains. An alternate view is that the universe will begin to contract after reaching its maximum size until it finally disappears into the Bindu, a point of energy and matter that has no dimensions. The good news is that the end of the universe won’t last forever. A new birth and expansion of the universe will begin with the rebirth of Brahma after billions of years of non-existence.

The End