Exopolitics Journal
3:4 (June, 2011). ISSN 1938-1719
www.exopoliticsjournal.com
Come Carpentier de Gourdon,
“
Indian Cosmology Revisited in the Light of Current Facts
”
270
Therefore the orders of magnitudes of
yugas, devavatsaras, caturyugas,devavatsaras, mahayugas,
manvantaras and kalpas of Indian Scriptures, encompassing trillions of solar years remained
practically beyond their intellectual grasp until the advances made in telescopy and astrophysical
observation in the first half of the twentieth century gradually reconciled them with the fact that the
universe is not only larger than we imagine but also possibly larger than we can imagine or
measure.
In the light of science the Biblical record about the cosmos being made in six days by God a few
thousand years ago appears comparatively primitive and, contrary to the theory of linear human
progress, ancient civilizations founded on cosmological myths similar to those of India, China,
Africa or the Americas may be said to have regressed intellectually when they adopted the
“science” that came together with Christianity. There is evidence that many of the texts compiled
and assembled in the Torah or Old Testament are derived from much older sources and held a
symbolic meaning which was mostly lost when a literal interpretation was promoted.
The estimates provided by contemporary astronomy for the age and size of the cosmos and of its
galaxies and stars are now broadly congruent with the numbers found in Indian scriptures. On the
other hand the theories of creation and matter expounded in them are still outside the pale of the
current scientific worldview which describes them as “mystical visions” or unproven speculations
though it cannot actually disprove them. Yet the fact that some “mythological” annals are uncannily
accurate or at least plausible in their mathematical evaluations should prompt physicists to take a
closer look at the “Indic” descriptions of the structure of reality.
It can be said in a few lines that the various schools of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain physics teach that
there are several parallel fields of reality within our universe, made up of different substances; or,
more accurately, of the same substance at different density levels. The underlying stuff, from where
all originates, is undefinable, but is generally called Brahman or Prakrti, that can be defined as the
original ground of consciousness. We may detect it in what contemporary astrophysics calls the
dark matter of the cosmos which seems to make up some 96% of the total.
Exopolitics Journal
3:4 (June, 2011). ISSN 1938-1719
www.exopoliticsjournal.com
Come Carpentier de Gourdon,
“
Indian Cosmology Revisited in the Light of Current Facts
”
271
From that initial substrate a number of realms emerge, first the causal (
karana), then the subtle
(suksma) and finally the physical or gross (sthula) field of matter, made up of the combinations of
the five basic elements –actually “states of the energy field” that we define as ether, fire, air, water
and earth - in varying degrees. Therefore, what we can experience and observe according to our
scientific methods is all or mostly in this particular world of matter, called Bhu which is surrounded
and pervaded by thirteen other lokas (the greek word logos is derived from the same root, as is the
latin locus: place), in descending order six higher planes: Satya, Jana, Mahar, Svara (the heaven of
the devas or shining ones), Bhuva and seven lower ones, netherworlds, sometimes improperly
described as hells: Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Rasatala, Mahatala and Patala.
Those “concentric” spheres may be regarded as geographic locations situated above or below the
surface of Earth or even as physical continents; but these names generally seem to other levels of
existence, not topographically removed from ours, but parallel to it, deployed in extra-sensory
dimensions that exist beyond the three and half we live in (with time as a half-dimension since we
cannot physically reverse it at our level of reality). Some Buddhist Scriptures, based on the same
cosmological system, refer to countless worlds that compose the “chiliocosms” or galaxies spread
throughout space. Man is said to have come into the flesh in this world (the kamadhatu or realm of
desire) from the higher sphere of the Abhasvara devas (pure light gods). All those planes many of
which are invisible and imperceptible to “ordinary humans” are held to be as thriving with life as
our own. They contain their own elements, plants and animals, including some similar in shape and
behaviour to humans.
The parallel worlds are in constant contact with
ours because, unlike us, most of their denizens
are aware of our existence, can observe us and
indeed intrude into our space-time, usually
“below the radar” of our conscious awareness.
Naturally, especially as long as they remain in
their respective spheres, they escape all criteria
of scientific detection since the latter are
formulated on the assumption that only