One recent article examines if the universe existed for ever or took birth some billion years ago – ‘Before the big bang: something or nothing’ in New Scientist (3 Dec 2012). Modern cosmology attempts to explain the ever expanding universes through many hypotheses, some among them are:

 

1. Big Bang: Traversing backward in time, the universe must had been in a small space. But that would require density and temperature to reach infinity – singularity is a mathematical concept than a reality. Also, questions arise: what existed before big bang and why big bang took place.

 

2. Inflation: If pressure is allowed to be negative then vacuum repulsive gravity causes ever production of universe and there is never an end to them though there must have been a beginning.

 

3. Cyclic Universe: Collision of two universes gives rise to another universe that would appear as a big bang to an observer on the colliding universes. It is of a cyclic nature that the universes get formed for eternity.

 
 

Even in the modern scientific world, people sometimes get carried away by unfounded claims as if the world will be doomed on 21st December 2012, which essentially is the annual astronomical event of winter solstice and has been confirmed by NASA too. Vedas state that the universe has around 2.6 billion years more to live. Furthermore, in the context of cosmology, Vedas say that our universe came into existence a couple of billion years ago the way that had been happening for ever and will continue to happen for ever (RgVeda X.190.1-3). Indeed, natural events are cyclic in nature. Day and night are followed by another cycle of day and night that is due to the spin of the earth about its own axis in 24 hours. A lunar month has about 28 such days that moon completes its revolution around earth, one after another. A solar year corresponds to earth’s revolution around sun in 365 days, again one after another. These astronomical events are cyclic in nature leading to a grand cycle of Brahma-Divasa (also, called Kalpa) and Brahma-Ratri – Cosmic Day and Cosmic Night. Similar to the cycle of day and night we are familiar with, there exists the grand cycle of Cosmic Day and Cosmic Night. Second Law of Thermodynamics states that entropy (disorder and chaos at the microscopic level) in universe must grow with time. Hence, at the conclusion of a Cosmic Day, matter must be ‘reset’ and brought in equilibrium during the Cosmic Night, ready for the next Cosmic Day. Thus, according to the Vedas, the present universe has a beginning and an end too, but it is  a part of the grand unending cyclic event, from eternity to eternity.

 
 

- Dr Harish Chandra
B. Tech. (IIT Kanpur )
Ph. D. ( Princeton , USA )

Picture courtesy: Luiza Vizoli

Most of the events in the nature are cyclic. We are familiar with water cycle and oxygen cycle pertaining to two most essential life support substances. We use water and it ends up in oceans where it is evaporated in the presence of sunlight. Water vapor forms clouds that disperse and bring precipitation back to the earth in the form of clean filtered water. In the context of oxygen, it is produced by plants from carbon dioxide in the presence of sunlight, called photosynthesis. Vedic terminology sees every event as cyclic such as day and night, birth and death, and so on. What goes around returns around is a statement of the Law of Karma. Hence, it makes sense for humans to take greater responsibility and fit properly in the Mother Nature’s cycles; we said ‘being in sync with nature’ in a recent podcast.

In steady state, a sensible approach should be that the rate of consumption is broadly equal to its rate of production. For example, our water consumption should correlate with the amount of renewable water resource available in a particular location. Likewise, had we been in sync with nature, we would have consumed oil in a more sensible manner. Rough estimates indicate that out of about 2 trillion barrels of oil available to us, we have consumed almost half of it in the last 125 years since internal combustion engine was invented. At the current rate of production/consumption of 74 million barrels per day, oil supplies will last roughly 75 years more. With regard to oil formation, it is formed out of living things in a complex process taking millions of years. Hence, its consumption rate has surpassed its rate of production in alarming proportions. Besides its availability at an affordable price, there are serious consequences with ecology such as greenhouse effect and global warming. The message is loud and clear that we must be in sync with nature. We must become a part and parcel of the natural cycles. We are bound to reap what we sow, another statement of the Law of Karma – a corollary of the law of Cause and Effect.

- Dr Harish Chandra
B. Tech. (IIT Kanpur )
Ph. D. ( Princeton , USA )

Photo courtesy: Taylor Arbolante

Be Happy

Neuroscience studies such as ‘Towards a functional neuroanatomy of pleasure and happiness’ by Kringelbach and Berridge point that evidence so far available suggests that brain mechanisms involved in fundamental pleasures (food and sexual pleasures) overlap with those for higher-order pleasures (for example, monetary, artistic, musical, altruistic and transcendent pleasures).

 
 
David Linden, professor at the Johns Hopkins Medical School reports some interesting experiments that happiness could be simulated through electrodes implanted in key regions of brains of rats and also in that of a man and a woman to the extent that subjects would seek this sort of pleasure even neglecting food, water, personal hygiene and family commitment.
 
 
Patanjali, the author of the original treatise on Yoga, tells us to traverse deep within us in search of happiness for we are a bundle of body, mind and soul. The soul is truly the ‘me’ – my consciousness; the body and mind are my instruments. If I function through both the instruments of body and mind such as when I eat or drink something then my possible states are in a wide spectrum that has one extreme of pleasure and another of pain. If I delink myself from the body and function through mind such as getting lost in thoughts of past events then again the possibilities are in a wide spectrum that I may feel peaceful or disturbed. The question arises, can I take control of my mind and mould it in such a way that I am always happy in either of the two states – functioning with body and mind or with mind alone – without adopting artificial simulation though drugs or electrodes.
 
 

We are aware of the third state of deep sound sleep void of dreams that is enjoyed by everybody and is a unique ‘universally pleasant’ experience though we do not quite feel it in real time mode as we lack awareness during this state yet we invariably emerge from it ‘feeling light and good’ – there is no subjectivity in it. Furthermore, Patanjali says that when we are delinked from both body and mind deep in meditation – all by me, the soul resting in my innermost cave – the fourth state, then there is no possibility of duality of pleasure or pain. I am simply happy, a ‘universally pleasant’ experience as in deep sleep albeit in conscious mode that I can feel it then and there. This is the immediate reward of meditation but it has additional far reaching consequences. Having learnt meditation which is nothing but bringing mind to an absolute calm state, I can now control it better that it can synthesize happiness even in adverse conditions. Thus, Patanjali Meditation has two-fold benefits:

1.      An ‘out of the world’ pleasant experience in conscious mode as opposed to that in deep sleep when we are unconscious

2.      I emerge from meditation empowered with better mind control that I can generate happiness even in adverse conditions

Beyond Sleep

Everybody enjoys sleep. There must be something special with it for there are not too many things that are universally enjoyed; indeed, there is none besides ‘true deep sleep void of dreams’. Scientists are working hard to understand what sleep is all about. Even though we may feel that we had one long sleep the fact is that our sleep went through some number of sleep cycles, each cycle of about 90-100 minutes. Even one sleep cycle constitutes four distinct phases – NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement)–I, II and III and REM-I, each phase lasting 20-30 minutes. Mostly, a person wakes up at the end of REM phase when one is able to recollect the dream. But, the best (and deepest) sleep is during NREM-III when there are absolutely no dreams; this phase is also called Delta Phase and the corresponding sleep is Delta Sleep.

If we are lucky then our first sleep cycle may include Delta Sleep but the later cycles are less likely to include it. Sometimes our sleep is disturbed a couple of hours after we went to bed and we felt that it was very deep sleep though the later part of sleep wasn’t as good because the first part included the Delta Sleep which didn’t show up in the later cycles. Sometimes we suddenly fall into sleep when we are travelling or one afternoon when it was a very hectic day. It was a ‘power nap’ of just 5-10 minutes but we got supercharged!

Imagine if we can have sleep that is almost in its entirety Delta Sleep. Even a six hour sleep of this type will transform your life. Your entire day will be energetic as if you are on Cloud Nine. That’s what happens if you learn Patanjali Meditation. Meditation will help you minimize the mental clutter that dreams will vanish during sleep. Imagine if sleep is so sweet and enjoyable then what will meditation be when one is truly void of anything happening in mind, almost enjoying mindlessness! Patanjali’s predecessor Kapila, the author of Samkhya, reminds us that humans are unique that we can enjoy the deepest state of meditation; no animal will ever venture beyond sleep. That is to say, if deep sleep is a unique experience then humans are unique too that we can enjoy something beyond deep sleep in real time conscious mode, deep inside the clutter of our mind – the real ME!

-         Dr Harish Chandra

B. Tech. (IIT Kanpur )

Ph. D. ( Princeton , USA )