Big Bang, Brahmanda and more...

What is the origin of the universe? according to Sanatan Dharma?

Big Bang or Big Scam?

Ever since the Big Bang Theory’s first publication, it has been the biggest mystery in the field of astronomy, everyone knows what happened during the big bang, but no one knows what was before the Big Bang…as such, many questions have arisen time to time regarding the existence of a mysterious phenomenon that suddenly let to the rapid expansion of the universe roughly 14 billion years ago. in simple words, the universe before the big bang was a hot dense region having having potentially infinite mass (which makes no sense). this was observed by the patterns of red shifts of galaxies, and some other observations regarding cosmic radiation. suddenly in some millionth of a second the “Big Bang” happened and the universe was born. The reason why the theory sounds like a fantasy is because physics is not that developed to explain the exact phenomena or reason of the initial expansion of space! and the normal laws of physics breaks down in extremely hot and dense regions, with added immense gravitational influence.

fast forward to today, the universe is ever expanding, and new conspiracies regarding the existence of a Multiverse of or an unknown force before the universe, that led to the Big Bang is slowly coming into light. The paradoxes regarding the existence of Time before Big Bang, The Paradox regarding the ending of the universe, The paradoxes regarding existence of multiple big bangs that happened linearly in other planes, are all somehow correlated to the birth of the universe. but somehow we lack the evidence to prove how the universe can form such a dense region , and maintain its integrity and somehow rapidly expand when it wants to.

Brahmanda and The Observable Universe

Brahmanda, or in simple words, Brahma’s egg (No, not those eggs lol) is on one of the most popular terms used to signify the universe or the observable universe in Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism). There are many reasons as to why it is called ‘egg’. Scientifically, The Observable Universe is shaped like an egg, and logically, egg is the holder of new life. both signifies, containment of some kind of creation! Now there are many stories regarding creation of the universe, but one thing is common, Sanatan Dharma believes that the creation of the universe, is a cycle. a cycle that has happened, is happening, and will happen for eternity.

Now if you do not know about the various traditions of Sanatan Dharma let me give you a small info. there are three main traditions in Sanatan Dharma: Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava. Shaiva, are the worshippers of Shiva, One of the three gods in Hindu Trinity. he is termed as Mahadev, The God of gods and is one of the most worshipped deities in the culture. Shakta, are the worshippers of Shakti, The Divine Goddess, the source of all energy in the universe, also termed as ‘Devi’. She is not part of the actual trinity, but let’s just say that the co-existence of the other gods are complementary to The Devi’s Existence. lastly, The Vaishnavas, are the worshippers of Vishnu, The Supreme Manager of the Universe, The Second God of the Hindu Trinity. He is the supreme upholder of laws of the Universe and manages the phenomena of everything.

Each of these traditions have their own conclusions to the beginning of the universe. let’s begin with the Shakta conclusion.

In Shakta Tradition, before all of existence, there was one singular being…known as Devi Adi-Maya-Shakti. This being, was the source of everything, literally…and through her, three separate entities were born. they later on became Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwar, The known Hindu Trinity of Sanatan Dharma. Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva later on took their roles as instructed my their supposed “Mother”, Devi Adi-Maya-Shakti. Brahma, as the Creator…Vishnu, as the Upholder…and Shiva, as the Destroyer of the Universe… and hence the universe was born, eventually. Here, we can see that the main reason why the universe was born, was purely because of the Devi.

let us see what the Vaishnava Tradition says, generally the time period between the birth and the death of the Universe in Sanatan Dharma, is divided into four yugas, and after the fourth yuga passes, pralay comes. Pralay is the imminent destruction of all existence, just like the concept of Armageddon. Vishnu as Narayan, lays dormant on the coiled Adi-Ananta-Sesha, The Serpent of Time, floating on the Kshir-sagar, the ocean of milk, after the death of the universe. When he opens his eyes, The birth of the universe is initiated. Brahma, The Creator emerges from his navel in a lotus, and gets horrified after seeing the Eternal Abyss and the absence of existence itself. He thereby initiates creation. in the Vaishnava Tradition, Vishnu is the sole reason for the birth, death and management of the universe, during the yugas, he takes forms as avatars, comes down to Earth, or Bhu-Loka from his abode Vaikuntha, and does the necessary actions required to properly manage the flow of the universe. we will go through each avatar in the upcoming entries in this diary, and understand why the concept of ‘avataran’ is so important in Vaishnavism.

The Shaiva tradition does not have any concrete story, however there is a common lore that goes like this -

“Before anything and everything, there existed a being of absolute power and energy, Brahman. this being had no thought, no desire, no emotion, no intellect and was embedded deep into its own self-bliss state. this being had no specific gender, but one can vaguely say that it looked half-woman, half-man (no this is not ardhanareshwar). For whatever reason, a stimulus arose deep within this being’s self… tearing through its self-bliss, like a drop of rain raging across the forest cover to reach the dry earth. this stimulus was so malevolent and aberrant that it forced the being to develop two separate consciousness.

These consciousness, slowly tried to move apart from each other, disturbed by the sudden stimulus that arose within the self. they wanted to attain self-bliss once again, as soon as possible. this act was so violent and swift, that it gave birth to ‘desire’ and the being split into two, namely Purusha and Prakriti. often recognized as masculine and feminine respectively, these two entities however, signified inter-dependence and a cycle, something that is completely opposite to the absolute truth and reality that the Brahman was. it was unresponsive, blissful and indifferent. Purusha, was more like the verb and Prakriti was like the noun. if Purusha was the container, then Prakriti was the content. if Purusha was the Earth, then Prakriti was Life. these terms went beyond something as vague or simple as masculine or feminine. these terms are used to simplify and make the common people understand or at least comprehend some of the impossible phenomena of this universe.

There are many local tales also regarding the birth of the Universe and existence of multiple parallel universes on other planes in Sanatan Dharma, however we must understand the significance and the art through which these concepts and stories are narrated! There are also various stories related to the Zodiac, or Rashis in Sanatan Dharma, there is a whole field of studies related to the position of planets, constellation and Zodiacs, that is commonly known to all as Astrology. or Jyotish-shastra in Sanatan Dharma. There are many untold stories and misconceptions regarding this 5000+ year old culture of ours. I am no savior or preacher, but my love to this culture will force me to bring out the Satya (Truth) regarding various tales and the reason behind them in this substack of mine.

I am Ayush Banerjee, a boy in his late-teens living in India and i will continue to share my knowledge and wisdom that has been passed onto me and many others living and thriving in this culture, whether it may be my ancestors or friends alike. it would be my humble request to not take anything as propaganda, nationalist sentiment in this substack of mine, just see these entries as any ordinary ones just like ordinary people and let me know your thoughts.

Har Har Mahadev…