Has Creation Evolved At All?

When dharma declines and evil predominates, I shall reincarnate again and again in every age to protect the meek, punish the evil, and to re-establish dharma.

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Krishna in The Bhagavad Gita 4.7

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Vedic philosophy and mythology looked at the creation of the universe and the evolution of species very differently and more scientifically from many other cultures. Vedic theory of creation was that the universe always existed. There was no big bang. Even with minimal intelligence, one should ask, if there was a big bang what created it? No scientist has an answer, not even a plausible theory.

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Vedic story of creation was not about a bearded old man in a garden creating a woman out of a man's rib and banishing both after they ate an apple that a snake provided, all in a week, after which the creator went to sleep.

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In Vedic mythology, which is a metaphor, the great god Vishnu who was created by the supreme energy, slept on a thousand-headed serpent in the ocean of milk. Vishnu's thoughts created Brahma, creator of species, rising from his navel on a lotus. Every time Brahma blinked a universe emerged. In this universe, of which the Earth is a tiny planet, Brahma created species. Vishnu kept watch. When the creatures became evil they appeared as incarnations to restore the cosmic order. In each universe, there are 10 incarnations, each representing the state of the evolution of the Universe. 9 have appeared and gone. The 10th is yet to appear. The universes keep getting created and recreated. So do the species.

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The first incarnation of Vishnu is a fish in the sea. Darwin would have felt relief. An amphibian tortoise followed the fish when the first created world disappeared as Brahma blinked again. With each blink emerged a world and new creatures. A mammalian boar followed the tortoise. A half-lion-half-man humanoid followed the boar. Then emerged a child-man, the first human, as the fifth incarnation. Four more human incarnations evolved after that, the first three as warriors and the last as a warrior sage king, Krishna. Each age that followed was worse than the previous age in spiritual intelligence and wisdom. This meant Vishnu had to appear more frequently to restore order. This meant more frequent regenerative destruction. On our planet Earth, one more incarnation is yet to emerge to destroy the world we know as a sword-wielding horse rider. This will be our last age within a larger cycle.

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Vedic creation is about birth, growth, death and regeneration. This cyclical logic applies to creatures as well as the world the creatures live in as satellites, planets, stars, galaxies and multiverses. The blink of the creator lasts through 4 ages lasting 4,320,000 human years, divided into 4 parts in the ratio of 4:3:2:1. We now live in the worst and the last stage Kali Yuga of 432,000 years, which started about 5000 years ago. The good news is that the world as is before it goes up in smoke or floods, has over 427,000 years to go. The not-so-good news is that it's all downhill.

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The best news is that the Vedic seers were a cheery lot, very optimistic. They left the future of the world to the free will of those who live in it. It's up to them to evolve it or destroy it. Right now, we are busy destroying it. Perhaps, with spiritual intelligence, we can recreate it in holistic wellness.

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Within this destructive spiral wrought by the human mind, there have been brilliant advances, which may still help us evolve as better selves in greater consciousness, spiritual intelligence and empowerment. The process started 5000 years ago when the Vedic Upanishad scriptures spoke of human beings as energy beings. 5000 years later, Einstein affirmed this with his Theory of Relativity. I am told that only 4 out of the 7 billion people on this planet understand this theory. I am not one of them. Almost everyone else with a modicum of any intelligence, cognitive, emotional or spiritual believes this theory, simply because thousands if not millions of applications have arisen from this theory in every field of human endeavour, including nuclear devices, lasers, computers and AI as derivatives.

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We are now in a generation of technology and quantum natives. Gen A and breathing hard behind them, Gen Alpha, can use the science and spiritual intelligence underlying the science to redeem and recreate this rapidly regenerating world of ours.

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What the younger generation needs is faith. They need to believe themselves as energy beings encased in a perishable material body. The energy can achieve the seemingly impossible. All that their elders need to do is to step aside. They have made this planet nearly impossible to live in for future generations, for the most part. It's time they exited the stage.

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Reflection

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Whether you are 25 or 65, whether you are a youth, a father or a grandfather, reflect on what you and your generation have done to evolve yourself into your better Self. That's the only way that as creatures of this planet, we may allow it to survive for the next generations. Most of what we do now is for personal survival, thinking if we survive that's enough. It's not. Everyone on this planet has to survive together in collaboration.

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Ram is a co-founder and mentor at Coacharya . Ram's focus is the integration of Eastern wisdom with modern science, spiritually, systemically and sustainably. Visit Coacharya.

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