THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 08
AKSHARA BRAHMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN:
VERSE NUMBER 17
Text in Transliteration:
Sahasrayugaparyantam ahar yad brahmano viduh
Raatrim yugasahasraantaam te ‘horaatravido janah
Text in English:
Those who know that the day of Brahma lasts a thousand Yugas and that his night lasts a thousand Yugas, they are the knowers of day and night.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:
The part that time plays in the lives of beings is a factor worth studying. There are creatures within our ken, that complete their career and fulfil themselves in the course of a few days or weeks. The question of want of time does not arise in their cases.
Brahma, the Creator is also a Jivatman(being) having cosmic function to fulfil and wending his way towards mukti (emancipation). That Purusha who attains Prakriti-laya or the universal power and efficiency in a previous kalpa or cycle, becomes Brahma in a succeeding cycle. Countless eons of ours put together form a day to Brahma and a similar expanse of time his night. That way Brahma has his day and night, his own months and years and his own full span of life. Our understanding staggers in conceiving his life time. It expands into infinity, so to say. Still Brahma, the Creator also has his wheel of birth and death and emancipation too from that wheel. He gets into krama-mukti(gradual liberation) after his span of life, vacating his place for the succeeding Brahma. Those of us who understand this consmic design, understand what is meant by the wheel of time, the wheel of birth and death and emancipation from this relativity. This intellectual grasp is an aid for our seeking mukti(emancipation) from the wheel of birth and death.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
Day is the period of cosmic manifestation and night of non-manifestation. These are of equal length of time and alternate.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Day means evolution or projection or manifestation of the universe. Night means involution of the universe or Pralaya. The worlds are limited or conditioned in time. Therefore they return again. The world of Brahma (Brahmaloka or Satyaloka) is also transient, although it lasts for a thousand ages. When the four great Yugas have gone round a thousand times, it makes a daytime of Brahma and when an equal number of Yugas pass again it makes a night. Those who can see and live through the day and night of Brahma can really know what is a day and what is a night.
The Suryasiddhanta speaks of the same division of time. According to it:
Years
Kaliyuga (with Sandhya and Sandhyamsa)consists of 432000
Dvaparayuga (do) 864000
Tretayuga (do) 1296000 1728000
Kritayuga (do)
Thus a Mahayuga consisting of these four Yugas comprises 4,320,000
71 such Mahayugas with an additional Sandhya, at the close 1,728,000
of makes one Manvantra of 308,448,000
14 such Manvantras with another Sandhya, at the close of 4,320,000000
years constitute one kalpa of
Two Kalpas make a day and night of Brahma of 8,640,000,000
360 such days and nights make one year of Brahma of 3,110,400,000,000
100 such years constitute His lifetime of 311,040,000,000,000
The world is absorbed in the Avyaktam or the Unmanifested or Mulaprakriti during the cosmic Pralaya (involution of the world). Just as the tree remains in a latent state in the seed, so also this whole universe remains in a latent state in a seed-form in the Mulaprakriti during Pralaya. This is the night of Brahma. This is the cosmic night. Again the world is projected at the beginning of the Mahakalpa (evolution and involution) is kept up in the macrocosm.
Nothing that comes under this ever-revolving wheel of cosmic day and night lasts forever. That is the reason why the seers of the Upanishads, the sages of yore lived in the transcendental Supreme Being, the imperishable Self, the indestructible Purusha, the supreme goal of life, the highest end of man, which is beyond the cosmic day and night. Just as the seeds that are fried can hardly germinate, so also those who have attained to the imperishable Brahman, the Absolute, the Eternal, cannot return to this world of sorrow, pain and misery. They know neither day nor night. They are one with Existence Absolute.
The manifested and the unmanifested dwell in Brahman. Brahman is beyond the manifested and unmanifested. When the world and the body are destroyed Brahman is not destroyed. The waves come out and subside, but the ocean remains unaffected. So long the worlds come and subside, but Brahman the source of everything, the source of Mulaprakriti, ever remains unaffected. Just as ornaments come out of gold and then go back to gold when they are melted, so also all the worlds come out of Brahman and go back to Brahman. Gold is in no way affected by the various forms such as earrings, bracelets, anklets, etc., that have been made of it. Even so, Brahman is not in the least affected by the projection and destruction (dissolution) of the worlds and the bodies of beings. It remains always as it is.
Comments by the blogger:
The calculation given in the Suryasiddhanta as mentioned by Swami Sivananda in his commentary is simply mind-boggling. Though it is mind-boggling, it should not be discarded as the idle thoughts and ruminations of the Seers several thousand years ago. In astronomy and agriculture, in astrology and cloth-making and in several fields including the rarefied field of Philosophy and Science India was the number one country four thousand years ago according to the European scholars and nine thousand years ago according to Swami Vivekananda. Till India came under the foreign yoke like the Moguls and then the English and others, India and China produced three fourth of the wealth of the world. India was a forerunner in many more fields than mentioned above. Vedic Mathematics is a celebrated branch of study. The paths of the sun and the moon were charted with great accuracy that the modern science cannot brush aside. Only the foreign rule made our intellectuality stop growing at a certain point. Even then great men like Ramanuja the mathematician came to the firmament. But the steady growth had been arrested by the foreign invasions.
Though our own people following the Western culture would laugh it off, they would readily accept the modern scientists’ opinions about the Universe and its age. For example, the Big Bang is said to have happened some 4,320,000,000 years ago, if I am right about the number of years. Anyhow, it is a ‘proved’ fact that the big bang happened several billion years ago. What do we know about the state of the universe before the big bang? Carbon dating could hardly help a geologist in this matter, no?
But what I am striving here is both the modern day scientists and the Vedopanishadic Seers speak in similar language about the age of the universe.
The day and night of Brahma have been calculated with precision. Here we should not confuse Brahma and Brahman. Brahma is the god of creation. Brahman is the Ultimate Reality. Brahma also goes through life and death wheel and Brahman knows no such things, He being the Lord exalted by all the Religions as God, the Almighty.
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