Hindu cosmology


Hindu cosmology is the description of the universe and its states of matter, cycles within time, physical structure, and effects on living entities according to Hindu texts. Time is infinite with a cyclic universe, where the current universe was preceded and will be followed by an infinite number of universes.
Each universe lasts for 4.32 billion years in a time period called a Kalpa or day of Brahma, where the universe is created at the start and destroyed at the end, only to be recreated at the start of the next Kalpa. A Kalpa is followed by an equal period of partial dissolution, when Brahma takes rest from his creative duties and the universe remains in an unmanifest state. Further divisions of time are a Manvantara, each with Chatur Yuga, each with four yugas: Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga.

Matter

All matter is based on three inert gunas :
There are three states of the gunas that make up all matter in the universe:
Pradhana, which has no consciousness or will to act on its own, is initially agitated by a primal desire to create. The different schools of thought differ in understanding about the ultimate source of that desire and what the gunas are mixed with.
The manifest material elements range from the most subtle to the most physical. These material elements cover the individual, spiritual jiva-atmas, allowing them to interact with the material sense objects, such as their temporary material bodies, other conscious bodies, and unconscious objects.
Manifested subtle elements:
Manifested physical elements and their associated senses and sense organs that manifest:
The different states of matter are guided by eternal kala, which repeats general events ranging from a moment to the lifespan of the universe, which is cyclically created and destroyed.
Prakriti remains mixed for a maha-kalpa of 311.04 trillion years, and is followed by a maha-pralaya of equal length. The universe remains manifested for a kalpa of 4.32 billion years, and is followed by a pralaya of equal length. Each kalpa has 15 sandhya and 14 manvantara, each manvantara lasting 306.72 million years. Each kalpa has 1,000 and each manvantara has 71 chatur-yuga, each lasting 4.32 million years and divided into four yugas : satya-yuga, treta-yuga, dvapara-yuga and kali-yuga, of which we are currently in kali-yuga lasting 432,000 years.

Life

The individual, spiritual jiva-atma is the life force or consciousness within a living entity. The jivas are not created, and are distinctly different from the created unconscious matter. The gunas in their manifest state of matter, cover the jivas in various ways based on each jiva's karma and impressions. This material covering of matter allows the jivas to interact with the material sense objects that make up the material universe, such as their temporary material bodies, other conscious bodies, and unconscious objects.
The material creation is called maya due to its impermanent, temporary nature of sometimes being manifest and sometimes not. It has been compared to a dream or virtual reality, where the viewer has real experiences with objects that will eventually become unreal.
Through these interactions, a jiva starts to identify the temporary material body as the true self, and in this way becomes influenced and bound by maya perpetually in a conscious state of nescience. This conscious state of nescience leads to samsara, only to end for a jiva when moksha is achieved through self-realization or remembrance of one's true spiritual self/nature.
The different schools of thought differ in understanding about the initial event that led to the jivas entering the material creation and the ultimate state of moksha.

Creation and structure

, the first born and secondary creator, during the start of his kalpa, divides the universe, first into three, later into fourteen lokas —sometimes grouped into heavenly, earthly and hellish planes—and creates the first living entities to multiply and fill the universe. Some Puranas describe innumerable universes existing simultaneously with different sizes and Brahmas, each manifesting and unmanifesting at the same time.

Rigveda on creation

The Rigveda presents many speculative theories of cosmology. For example:
According to Henry White Wallis, the Rigveda and other Vedic texts are full of alternative cosmological theories and curiosity questions. For example, the hymn 1.24 of the Rigveda asks, "these stars, which are set on high, and appear at night, whither do they go in the daytime?" and hymn 10.88 wonders, "how many fires are there, how many suns, how many dawns, how many waters? I am not posing an awkward question for you fathers; I ask you, poets, only to find out?" To its numerous open-ended questions, the Vedic texts present a diversity of thought, in verses imbued with symbols and allegory, where in some cases forces and agencies are clothed with a distinct personality, while in other cases as nature with or without anthropomorphic activity such as forms of mythical sacrifices.
The Rigveda contains the Nasadiya sukta hymn which does not offer a cosmological theory, but asks cosmological questions about the nature of the universe and how it began:

Three lokas

Deborah Soifer describes the development of the concept of lokas as follows:

Fourteen lokas

In the Brahmanda Purana, as well as Bhagavata Purana, fourteen lokas are described, consist of seven higher and seven lower lokas.
  1. Satya-loka
  2. Tapa-loka
  3. Jana-loka
  4. Mahar-loka
  5. Svar-loka
  6. Bhuvar-loka
  7. Bhu-loka
  8. Atala-loka
  9. Vitala-loka
  10. Sutala-loka
  11. Talatala-loka
  12. Mahatala-loka
  13. Rasatala-loka
  14. Patala-loka
However, other Puranas give different version of this cosmology and associated myths. The Puranas genre of Indian literature, found in Hinduism and Jainism, contain a section on cosmology and cosmogony as a requirement. There are dozens of different Mahapuranas and Upapuranas, each with its own theory integrated into a proposed human history consisting of solar and lunar dynasties. Some are similar to Indo-European creation myths, while others are novel. One cosmology, shared by Hindu, Buddhist and Jain texts involves Mount Meru, with stars and sun moving around it using Dhruva as the focal reference. According to Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, the diversity of cosmology theories in Hinduism may reflect its tendency to not reject new ideas and empirical observations as they became available, but to adapt and integrate them creatively.

Multiverse

The Hindu texts describe innumerable universes existing all at the same time, some larger than others, each with its own Brahma administrator with a comparable number of heads. Our universe is described as the smallest with a Brahma of only four heads. The Hindu concept of innumerable universes is comparable to the multiverse theory, except nonparallel where individual jiva-atmas exist in exactly one universe at a time. All universes manifest from the same matter, and so they all follow parallel time cycles, manifesting and unmanifesting at the same time.

Bibliographies