More Scriptural Evidence Regarding Time

On my previous post, titled “Some Scriptural Evidence Regarding Time,” I presented a story from Bhagavata Purana that clearly implies the ancient Hindus were all familiar with the relativity of space and time... hundreds, probably thousands of years before it was formulated by Einstein!

While curiously inverse, a similar story from the Islamic tradition adds force to our case: Muhammad visits the seventh heaven riding the resplendent mare Alburak. At the moment that the mare takes flight, she overturns a jar filled with water. On Muhammad’s return after countless eons, the Prophet reaches down to lift the jar from the ground... and lo, not a single drop has been spilt!

In another passage from Bhagavata Purana (3, 29:43) is stated, with astounding ease, that the complete universal body is expanding. This fact, only in recent times confirmed by astronomical observation supporting the ‘Big–Bang’ theory, could hardly be described as a product of either chance or imagination even by the most obstinate skeptics; and on the other hand, such theory does not exclude the possibility of a recurring expansion – contraction of the universe through immense periods of time, a derivation that in turn perfectly fits with the framework of the Hindu doctrine of cosmic cycles and many other similar concepts. In effect, this idea is found in the majority of the traditional doctrines. In Taoism, for example, the Tao has a reverting motion of withdrawal and return to the origin (See Tao The Ching of Lao Tzu, particularly Chapters XXV and XL). Hermetism, in turn, asserts that the world “begins from where it ceases.” (Corpus Hermeticum I, 11, 10.7). Again, according to the Neo-Platonist Proclus: “...Everything moves on and returns, has a cyclical activity... unites the end with the principle.” And also the Stoicism attributes this motion to its Logos.

We can see the list is lengthy. But let us now focus on history, where modern archaeology has repeatedly confirmed information from the Bible and other Western texts. For example, Assyrian king Sargon II was for long known only from the narration in Isaiah 8:1 and the critics rejected this reference as devoid of any historical value. Later on, archaeological excavations shed light on the magnificent palace of Sargon at Korsabad and on numerous inscriptions alluding to his reign, such as the siege and conquer of Samaria and the subsequent exile of the Israelite people. Similarly, not long ago was confirmed Sennacherib’s expedition to Israel which, according to the Old Testament version (2 Kings 6:13 ff, 7:36; Isaiah 36: 1, 37: 37), ended in failure and the subsequent return of the Assyrian king to his own country. (While this piece of information is not found on the mural inscriptions within the royal palace, such exclusion is perfectly understandable from a natural reluctance to admit one’s own defeats.)

A special mention deserve, for their great significance, the dramatic discoveries made by the amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1870. As is widely known, this remarkable German archaeologist, defying the general view that would see in the Iliad but an imaginary story, started excavations at the site designated by the poem as the seat of the old Troy and found not one, but nine superimposed cities, with the sixth, counted from below, being the one sung by the epics; and then in Mycenae, described by the same poem as “most superior materially to Troy,” brought to light huge stone walls, carved lions and the fabulous treasure of Atraeus – all of them wonders which, were it not for him, would most likely be regarded as legendary until our days.

From these examples, it would seem that where it comes to science, and to a certain extent history, the great scriptures and sacred texts of the world are indeed reliable; in this sense, not only can we conclude that “the Bible was right”, as was the title of a famous book, but also that other writings of the world were right as well; similarly, based on the same examples, it might be inferred that the Hindu texts appear to be valid for the longer periods of time, of millions and trillions of years, while the Bible and other Western texts would be valid for the “shorter” periods of thousands or, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of years. Of course this is not accurate as, for one thing, some passages of the Bible, notably the first verses of Genesis, obviously cover immense periods of time; but at least for the purposes of our present query, we can very well afford this generalization.

As to the Hindu texts, we will have many an opportunity to learn the intricacies of their elaborate doctrine. I will just say right now that, as occurs with many other traditions, the word millennium – as well as other similar terms like “great year,” century, etc – is synonymous with any great cosmic cycle and not only one thousand years, as might be thought, and is usually applied to them by properly using it in the sense of any “indefinite” length of time. This should be stressed out not only by reason of the fact itself, essential to the study of the doctrine, but because it is in some way consubstantial with the existence of all sorts of correspondences and assimilations between cycles of various orders and magnitudes, so that such expressions as “day” and “night,” where it comes to immense periods of time, sound perfectly natural.

A question naturally arises from the above: if it was not purely and simply invented, or was not the result of mere fortunate speculation, where did the compilers of these Scriptures obtain such information, whose origin vanishes back into the night of time? That the various cultures were spontaneously and simultaneously born around the world, all sharing a strangely similar lore, is hard to accept; the numerous analogies rather suggest an unknown common origin and, in fact, it would appear to be more logical, or at least more plausible, that there previously existed an older civilization that was the depository of the knowledge based on such information, and that all other cultures received from it such knowledge, which was then modified and, for the most part, distorted by the particular circumstances of time and place. This notion of a common ancestral culture, which would account for the universality of a certain “hidden” lore, has been widely supported and developed by renowned researchers such as René Guénon and others, according to whom, in the apparently chaotic assortment of most ancient myths and legends that describe the nature and origin of the universe, traditionally handed down by societies throughout the world, there is evidence of such primeval civilization. This archaic society would be prior to all ancient known civilizations, including those from Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and India, not to mention the American continent; and so, stories whose original meaning has been lost, but have otherwise been preserved in a fragmentary and distorted form, might provide genuine, essential information about the great mysteries of the universe.

By way of example, I shall quote but one of such stories: The Sioux Nation in North America talk about a cycle of four eras; there is a buffalo that loses one leg at every era; now we are in the last era, which is of great degradation, and the buffalo has but one leg left. In Bhagavata Purana (1, 16: 18 ff) the same story is told about the bull Dharma (“Religion”). We are currently in the last age – the Age of Kali, an era of quarrel and hypocrisy – and Dharma is supported by only one leg...

(First published Qassia Jan 28, 2008)