Big Bang vs Advaita Vedanta – Ancient & Cutting-Edge Cosmology

Thousands of years before modern scientific discoveries led to the big bang theory, how could the rishis, the sages of ancient India, possibly know that the universe had a beginning? Do their mystical insights agree with the findings of cutting-edge astrophysics?

0:00 Beginnings: The Cyclic Universe
10:40 Why does Anything Exist?
20:14 Where did Everything Come From?
30:30 The Origins of Life

Links referred to in video:
The Mystery of MAYA: Nasadiya Suktam - Vedic Hymn of Creation    • The Mystery of MAYA: Nasadiya Suktam ...  
Ishvara: The Fabric of Creation - Intro to Advaita Vedanta - Part 6    • Ishvara: The Fabric of Creation - Int...  
Why Did God Create the World in the First Place? WRONG!! The Beginningless CYCLE of Creation    • Why Did God Create the World in the F...  

Until the 20th century, scientists thought that the universe is static, beginningless and endless. But, when astronomers finally learned how to measure the distance and speed of far off galaxies, they discovered that the universe is constantly expanding. Based on its rate of expansion, they calculated that the universe began about 14 billion years ago, starting the big bang, before which all the matter and energy of the universe was confined to an infinitely small point of infinite density - a singularity.

The rishis of ancient India understood the universe very differently. Their spiritual wisdom is found in the Upanishads, Sanskrit scriptures on which the nondual teachings of Advaita Vedanta are based. In the Chandogya Upanishad, the great rishi Uddalaka already understood that the universe has a beginning. He thought that the universe goes through cycles of creation and dissolution, cycles in which the universe alternates between states of being manifest and unmanifest.

Hindu scriptures say that, before the universe existed, God (Ishwara) alone existed. Nothing else. According to logic, something cannot come from nothing. That's why most philosophers reject the Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, creation from nothing. This logical problem doesn't arise in a cyclic universe because each cycle is the result of the preceding cycle, so something comes from something.

But, if the universe has always been alternating between the states of manifestation and dissolution, in cycle after cycle, then what is God's role in creating the universe? According to Advaita Vedanta, God or Ishvara is an all-powerful intelligent being who causes the unmanifest universe to become manifest in cycle after cycle. It is Ishvara who keeps the wheel of time spinning.

Science holds that the universe is self-existent, as the philosophy of materialism asserts. The ancient rishis held that the universe exists because of an underlying substratum, the fabric of existence they called brahman. Brahman is satyam (pure existence), jnanam (consciousness), and anantam (limitless).

Science holds that the universe is made of matter and energy, whereas the ancient rishis said the universe is composed of three gunas or properties, sattva, rajas and tamas. When these gunas are intermixed or undifferentiated, the universe remains unmanifest. But when the gunas become differentiated, the universe becomes manifest. From the gunas come five subtle elements (sukshma bhutas), and from those elements come five physical elements (sthula bhutas).

Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: https://www.arshabodha.org/