Big bangs and yogic lore

SADHGURU LOOKS AT THE SACRED UNIVERSE THAT WE LIVE IN TODAY

RECENTLY, I happened to be in a presentation by a popular scien­tist. He has written a book called Endless Universe. It has become very popular in scientific circles.

He called this particular session Beyond the Big Bang, because until recently the scientific community be­lieved that everything has happened because of the Big Bang. But now some are saying: “It was not just one, many bangs must have happened.”

It has been held that some billions of years ago, this particular Bang happened, which has resulted in all these planets and this universe. But now they are saying this Bang is not the only one.

I will not go into the whole science of it, but it was amusing for me be­cause these theories are beginning to sound just like yogic lore. This is something that we have always known from within. But slowly they are not only beginning to talk like yogic lore, they are beginning to de­scribe the same forms and shapes that we have always held as sacred and have always worshipped.

In the yogic system, we do not believe that you can ever go out into the existence and find out every­thing that is there – a belief which scientists have also come to. When the scientist says it is an endless uni­verse, he is obviously saying you can never find out what it is.

You can never travel from end to end and say: “Okay, this is existence.” We recognise that there is no way to travel from one end to the other and know it, because by the time you travel across, it would have expand­ed. For everything in this universe, the basic law is that the speed of light is the top speed you can attain. So if you travel at a speed below the speed of light, by the time you go from one end of the universe to the other, it would have grown much faster.

There is no way you can ever travel the whole distance. That is the rea­son why we are saying it is an endless universe. This is something that has been said thousands of years ago.

And so, the best way to know this existence is by turning inward. Whatever has happened in the exist­ence, all of it is in some way recorded in this mini-universe, the body. It is because of this recording, because of this reflection of the existence, that we said that the human being is cre­ated in the image of God.

This expression that was uttered way back (thousands of years ago) in the yogic realm has found reflection in every religion in a misinterpreted way. We just said: “Everything that happened in existence has hap­pened in a small way here inside you.” If you know this one, you know everything that is happening out there. We cannot separate the crea­tion and the creator. In the same image as the creation is the creator.

Let me tell you how yoga explains creation from within. This is a dia­lectical culture. I can make it all ABC if you want, but let’s enjoy the cul­ture. There is a certain beauty to the terminology. Because it is speaking about a dimension which is not in our logical perception, it is best to speak in dialectical ways.

The story goes like this: Shiva is sleeping. When we say “Shiva” here, we are not talking about a person or the yogi. “Shiva” here refers to “that which is not”; that which is nascent. “That which is not” can only sleep. And he has always been referred to as the “Dark One.”

As Shiva sleeps, Shakti comes looking for him. She wants him to come awake because she wants to dance and play with him, she wants to woo him. Initially, he does not wake up. After some time, he does. Anyone who is in deep slumber, if you wake him up, will get a little an­gry. So he gets angry, roars and rises. That is why his first form and his first name is Rudra. The word “Rudra” means one who roars.

I asked the scientist: “If there is a series of bangs, could it be a roar? Was it just one bang or was it a con­tinuous thing?” He thought about it, and then he said: “It cannot be just one, it must have been longer than just one moment.”

And I said “Why are you calling it a bang? It is a roar, isn’t it?” If you ever drive a motorcycle or car with­out the silencer, you will see it will go “bang, bang, bang,” but if you throt­tle up, it will roar. A roar is a compos­ite expression of many bangs.

What is being perceived now in a phenomenally roundabout way was perceived a long time ago. Every hu­man being can perceive this if they look deep enough.

• Ranked amongst the fifty most in­fluential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestsell­ing author. Sadhguru has been con­ferred the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017, one of the highest annual civilian awards, accorded for exceptional and distin­guished service.