Evolution and Hinduism
The Incredible Similarities Between Myth and Science
Hinduism, like most religions, has a creation myth. Its similarity to what happens in Evolution is remarkable along with other Hindu concepts about things like time.
"In the beginning there was only the great self," says the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. "Reflecting, it found nothing but itself. Then its first word was 'This am I.'" Finding nothing but itself, the Upanishad continues, the Great Self divided into two halves, male and female. These two halves divided into the various animals and plants and things that make up our world.
Sound familiar? The general agreement of how life began is eerily similar. In the beginning there was the great cell, which divided into two, four, eight and so on. Eventually some of them bundled together to create multi-celled organisms like plants, animals and fungi.
The creation story found in the Upanishad (there are other stories in Hindu literature that tell very different accounts of how the world was created) is remarkable in its similarity to the theory of how life began, especially since the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad was written in the 8th or 7th century BC, while the cell was only discovered in the 17th century, and cellular theory was established in the 19th. The Hindus had a basic handle on the idea 25 or 26 centuries earlier.
Also, the age of the Earth is estimated to be approximately 4.54 billion years. In Hindu scripture, time is divided into four epochs (Yugas):
- Satya Yuga
- Treta Yuga
- Dwapar Yuga
- Kali Yuga
One Day of Brahma is divided into 10,000 parts called charanas. One Charana is 432,000 years. The Satya Yuga is 4 chanaras long (1,728,000 years), the Treta Yuga is 3 (1,296,000), the Dwapar is 2 (864,000) and the Kali is 1 (432,000). The number of chanaras in each cycle is equivalent to the number of legs the Dharma bull stands on, so in Satya Yuga, he stands on four legs, Treta Yuga, three and so on.
One cycle of these four is called one Mahayuga. There are 1,000 Mahayugas in 1 day of Brahma. So, adding up the number of years in one Mahayuga:
1,728,000
1,296,000
864,000
+ 432,000
= 4,320,000
And since there are 1,000 of these in 1 day of Brahma, times that by 1,000
=4,320,000,000
4.32 billion years in 1 day of Brahma. Compared to 4.54 billion for the age of the Earth. That is quite an impressive calculation.
Of course, this is just one day of Brahma. According to the Mahabharata, 30 days is 1 month of Brahma, 12 months is one year of Brahma, and 100 years is 1 Mahakalpa, or the lifespan of Brahma (311 trillion years).
Right now, the current Brahma is in his 51st year as Brahma (155 trillion solar years) and in the Kali Yuga, which began in 3102 BC. At the end of each Mahayuga, the world is annihilated.
(For those of you who love eerie coincidences, the Mesoamerican longcount calendar began 12 years before the Kali Yuga began, in 3114 BC. According to ancient texts, the creation of the world began on the start of the 13th cycle of the long calendar, which is scheduled to happen again on December 21st, 2012).
