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The mythology of the story proceeds as follows. In the beginning there
was nothing, but the undifferentiated and unmanifested. Everything was
in perfect harmony. Lord Vishnu lay on his serpent, Shesha, his eyes
were closed as he rested. When Lord Vishnu opened his eyes, the
creation began. A lotus stock emerged from his navel and blossomed into
a beautiful lotus. From the lotus was born Brahma. Brahma is the
creator, in Hindu mythology. Brahma then proceeded to create the
universe. Brahma created the entire universe in a little golden egg
called the Hiranyaagarbha (the golden womb). Brahma created the heaven
and the earth, the gods and the demons, the gandharvas and the humans,
the plants and the animals, the stars and the planets and everything
else.
The reason I explain the mythology is because I think it bring up
several interesting points in science, which I will address since you
expressed interest at the common ground between science and religion.
First point is that the universe it said to be entirely located inside
the golden egg. This says that the universe is finite. Today we
believe that the universe is after all finite, but ever-expanding. The
universe doesn't go on forever, as we had once perceived. It is
expanding into emptiness and taking over. Since today we believe that
the Big Bang occured some 14 billion years ago, the universe can only be
14 billion light years in radius. What lays outside? In this
mythology, what lays outside is nothingness. The universe is expanding
into nothingness. Also I think it is quite interesting that the
universe is contained in an egg because that may signify the infintesmal
size of the universe. We see the same principle in the electron that
revolves around the atomic nucleus as we do with planets revolving
around stars and the stars themselves revolve around something bigger.
Who is to say that the universe isn't doing the same thing. The
universe may be big to our proportions, but it may in reality be like an
electron that revolves around something, in a yet bigger universe. The
final point that I would like to bring up is the serpent in the
mythology. The serpent is named Shesha, which literally means the
"remains." What eventually happens when the univese gets too big? The
gravity pulls back upon itself and the universe begins to collapse into
what is termed the "big crunch." I am sure you are familiar that it is
theorized that the universe will collapse into a single point, ever so
dense, which accounts for the remnents, the "remains."
I know that doesn't really answer your question. I will try to look up
the answer to your question, if possible and get back to you.
Please post responses to the newsgroup.
Gautham.
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