Om Asato Maa Sad-Gamaya
|
Tamaso Maa Jyotir-Gamaya |
Mrtyor-Maa Amrtam Gamaya |
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||
Om, Lead us from Unreality (of Transitory Existence) to the Reality (of Self),:
Lead us from the Darkness (of Ignorance) to the Light (Knowledge),
Lead us from the Fear of Death to the Knowledge of Immortality.
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.
Tamaso Maa Jyotir-Gamaya |
Mrtyor-Maa Amrtam Gamaya |
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||
Om, Lead us from Unreality (of Transitory Existence) to the Reality (of Self),:
Lead us from the Darkness (of Ignorance) to the Light (Knowledge),
Lead us from the Fear of Death to the Knowledge of Immortality.
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.
INTRODUCTION:
If
teacher says something is “Right”, she meant “correct”.
If
a bus conductor shouts “Right”, He meant “to move on.”
If
a person showing you some direction says “Right”, He meant “the Right side.”
The
word Right has so many meanings based on the Person who used it.
Perception
of a person is as important as his words.
Hindu mythology is given by the Yogis who lived thousands of
years before. If we look at those myths from their perspective, we can
understand the actual meaning they conveyed .
Before that we should know about
some concepts in Hinduism.
No
Creator God : According to some schools of Hinduism, God is
not a separate entity who created universe rather God or Brahman himself
transformed into the Universe. Universe is the materialistic form of God or
Prakruthi. Brahman is the consciousness that controls the universe.
Multiple
Universe: Hinduism believes in multiple
Universe. “This is not the first world,
nor is it the first universe. There have been and will be many more worlds and
universes than there are drops of water in the holy river Ganges. “
Multiple
Planes: Hinduism believes in multiple
planes. According to Vishnu Purana there are seven planes in each Universe.
Multiple
cycles: Hinduism believes that there is
no starting or ending of the universe, but it undergoes repeated cycles of
creation and destruction.
Many
stories: Hinduism has dozens of creation
myths based upon the schools. The one
which is discussed here is the most famous amongst the myths.
Concept
of Day and Night of Brahma: Here this
concept is not taken into account. The night is taken as “The absence of light”
and Dawn is taken as “ The presence of light”.
Hindu creation story:
“ Before this time began, there was no heaven, no
earth and no space between. A vast dark ocean washed upon the shores of
nothingness and licked the edges of the night. A giant cobra floated on the
waters. Asleep within its endless coils lay the Lord Vishnu.
Everything was so peaceful and silent that
Vishnu slept undisturbed by dreams or motion. From the depths a humming sound
began to tremble, Aum. It grew and spread, filling the emptiness and throbbing
with energy.
The night had ended, Vishnu awoke. As the
dawn began to break, from Vishnu’s navel grew a magnificent lotus flower. In
the middle of the blossom sat Vishnu’s servant, Brahma. He awaited the Lord’s
command. Vishnu spoke to his servant: ‘It is time to begin.’ Brahma bowed.
Vishnu commanded: ‘Create the World.’ A wind swept up the waters. Vishnu and
the serpent Vanished.
Brahma remained in the lotus flower, floating
and tossing on the sea. He lifted up his arms and calmed the wind and the
ocean. Then Brahma split the lotus flower into three. He stretched one part
into the heavens. He made another part into the earth. With the third part of
the flower he created the skies.
The earth was bare. Brahma set to work. He
created grass, flowers, trees and plants of all kinds. To these he gave
feeling. Next he created the animals and the insects to live on the land. He
made birds to fly in the air and many fish to swim in the sea. To all these
creatures, he gave the senses of touch and smell. He gave them power to see,
hear and move.”
The world was soon bristling with life and
the air was filled with the sounds of Brahma’s creation.”
It looks like a fairy tale.
Is’nt it? Here the picture shows the
commonly accepted imagination.
Let us start looking at this story from the perspective
of Yogis.
“Before this time began, there was
no heaven, no earth and no space between”.
“A vast dark ocean washed upon the shores
of nothingness and licked the edges of the night”
Description: It is clearly mentioned that it was ocean of darkness, not a blue
ocean as we imagine. There is no sky and clouds as shown in the figure. It will
be completely dark because of the
absence of light and there is no goddess Lakshmi in the story. So the real
picture will be as shown below
.
. “A giant cobra floated on the
waters. Asleep within its endless coils lay the Lord Vishnu.”
Description: When we read this sentence we immediately imagine a thousand
headed snake or Adhi Sesha. But
according to the Yoga context the coiled snake refers to kundalini chakra, which refers to shakthi or corporeal
energy(bodily energy or physical matter)or sleeping,
dormant potential force.
waters refer to the waters of darkness. Which means there is entire
darkness, though Vishnu had physical matter within him, he remained without any
action.
“Everything was so peaceful and silent that
Vishnu slept undisturbed by dreams or motion.”
“ From the depths a humming sound began to tremble, Aum. It
grew and spread, filling the emptiness and throbbing with energy. The night had
ended, Vishnu awoke”.
Description: A sound of Aum originated and the Light has originated. Vishnu
awoke refers that Vishnu involves into action , leaves inaction.
“As the dawn begin, from Vishnu’s navel grew a magnificent lotus flower. In the middle of the blossom sat Vishnu’s servant, Brahma.”
Description: Navel is the
center of the body, referring to the center of the universe. Brahma was born at
the center of universe in a lotus. Brahma in Sanskrit means “to expand” &
the lotus chakra in Yoga symbolize the “pure consciousness”. Which means after
the light originated, Vishnu with his pure consciousness. Vishnu made his
physical form to expand.
“’ A wind
swept up the waters, Vishnu and the serpent vanished.”
Description: Here wind refers to Vayu in
Sanskrit, which means “blown” or “ to blow”, not the wind(of air) we know. It
refers to the disappearance of Vishnu, yeah he is now Brahma. [note: there is only one supreme reality
called Para-Brahman, Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva are his attributes. Vishnu in
Sanskrit means “"to pervade". Thus it is
referring to the supreme reality”]. The coil of the Serpent indicates his
inactiveness, Now, he is active. So, no longer the serpent exists.
“Then Brahma split the lotus flower into three. He stretched
one part into the heavens. He made another part into the earth. With the third
part of the flower he created the skies.”
Description: Which means the physical
form of god started expanding into heavans[stars, meteors etc.,], the sky
[empty space between] and The earth by the consciousness of the Brahman or
supreme God
Now the story from yogic perspective will be like this “before the beginning of this universe, there was No
time, No space, No stars, etc., Universe was completely dark. Though physical
matter was present at the center of Universe, but it remained in an inactive
state. At the beginning of the universe, the sound “Aum” and “the light” was
produced, The physical matter started expanding into stars, planets, space,
earth by the consciousness of the God from an unity. Then the life forms on the
earth were created”
\
COMPARISION WITH THE SCIENTIFIC THEORIES OF CREATION:
Conclusion :The myth which was thought to be a fairy tale from our perspective turned out into a scientifically compatible creation theory when we saw it from the perspective of the yogis. Ancient scripture has to be deciphered carefully. Thanks for reading.
