Two Cosmological Models

A non-theistic school, called Mīmāmā, takes ‘Anădi’ to mean simply ‘beginningless’. This school maintains that the world-process has no absolute beginning but repudiates the more commonly held view that it is interrupted by periodic states of dissolution. The well-known phrase that highlights the Mīmāmā model of cosmology is that “this world has never been quite otherwise.”

However, schools such as Vaiśesika or Sānkhya have adopted the second meaning of the word ‘Ādi’ and advocate a cosmological idea that every creation is a subsequent creation - not first. In other words, they employ the cosmological model that operates with the notion of repeated creation and dissolution. A perusal of Indian literature shows that many schools - theistic as well as non-theistic - have argued for and accepted this model. There is support for this view in the Ŗgveda Samhitā itself in the statement that “The Lord created the sun and the moon like before....” A world-cycle is said to consist of billions of human years. The epic Mahābhārata makes much use of this notion and in the Bhagavad Gītā, we find that a Kalpa i.e. a world-cycle is described as ‘a day of Brahma’, the creator, the night that follows is also said to be of equal length.

In other words, the alternatives that are before us are not whether the universe has a beginning or not but rather whether it is to be taken as beginninglessly ongoing process or that this specific world-cycle has a beginning, but it can by no means be held to be the first creation, i.e., this present world was preceded by a state of dissolution of a prior world, so on and on. This latter position, serially viewed is also a beginningless process, which is intermittently intercepted by states of collapse. In some sense, this latter model can be said to be the predominant cosmological model that wielded strongest influence on the Indian cultural soil.

The impact of this cosmological idea on the Indian mind is also to a large extent due to the Purānas - a body of mythological literature. Drawing on philosophical and astronomical sources, the Purānas make most of these ideas in the construction of numerous myths and narratives that constantly inform one about the vastness of time, the immensity of the cosmos and of our place in it. These colorful stories, woven in the backdrop of a grandiose cosmological model where each world-cycle (Kalpa) is calculated in terms of billions of human years, tell us about the characteristics of the world in which we live. It is designated as ‘Martya-loka’ in sanskrit i.e. the mortal world, where all the inhabitants, without any exception, are subject to death. These stories seek to instill in us certain ethico-religious attitudes that can be used as guide-lines during out transitory stay, while incessantly reminding us that this death-bound existence is, nevertheless, not without purpose and meaning.

Contributed by: Dr. Anindita Balslev