How the cosmic dates given in the Vedas match modern science (The Intriguing Vedic Universe, ch.14)
Dates of the creation of our planet and other cosmic events given in the Puranas are quite close to the dates given in modern science, but the numbers are always about half. Why?
'The Intriguing Vedic Universe' was my first book on Vedic cosmology, explaining the mysterious universe described in the Srimad Bhagavatam. It describes not just the physical aspects, in a level of detail that rivals modern science, but also the metaphysical aspects, the missing aspect that is missing in the modern perspective.
Chapter 14: How the cosmic dates given in the Vedas match modern science
One question I always had about the dates of the creation of our planet and other cosmic dates given in the Puranas is that they are quite close to the dates given in modern science, but the numbers are always about half of the results found by modern methods.
To put it in context, we should keep in mind that except for the Vedas, all the dates for the creation of the cosmos from ancient civilizations are radically different from modern science. Or no specific dates are given (like in Greek Mythology), or the creation of the Universe is dated to just a few thousand years back. Orthodox Christians in Russia believed the world was created in 5508 B.C., the Hebrew Calendar starts at 3760 B.C. (the date they believe the world was created), while the Mayas believed the world was created in 3641 B.C. As far as I know, the Vedas are the only ancient branch of knowledge that offers dates for the creation of the solar system, as well as dates for mass extinction events that are on the same scale of time as modern calculations.
Nowadays different scientific dating methods are used, such as radiometric dating with potassium-argon, rubidium-strontium, and uranium, sclerochronometry, cosmic background radiation, baryon acoustic oscillations, and so on. These different methods give slightly different dates for the creation of the Solar System and other events, but the dates are all close together. They all put the date of the creation of the Solar System at about 4.5 billion years ago. Similarly, different dating methods put the Permian–Triassic extinction at about 251.9 million years ago.
Although all scientific methods based on sense perception are fallible, when radically different methods lead to very similar results, the chance of all being completely wrong simultaneously becomes quite small. Science should not be followed blindly, but it can't be completely dismissed either.
The interesting point is that the Puranas mention both events. The creation of the solar system equals the creation at the beginning of the day of Brahma, while the Permian–Triassic extinction matches the description of the extinction that happened at the end of the reign of the last Manu (which led to the pastime of Matsya Avatara). However, the dates given by the Puranas to both are about half of the dates given by modern studies, at respectively 2.281 billion years and 125.576 million years. We can see that the numbers diverge by a factor of two.
The key to solving this mystery came with the work of Madhavendra Puri das and Siddharth Chhabra, published in the book "The Big Bang and The Sages". In their research, they discovered a commentary by Sridhar Swami (the original commentator of Srimad Bhagavatam) on Vishnu Purana (1.3.7) which led to the conclusion that a day in Bhu-Mandala equals two days of our time. This discovery was named “Sridhara Swami’s factor of two”.
All the dates given in the Puranas are given in accordance with the time in Bhu-Mandala, but time in other parts of the cosmos goes at different rates. What is one year for us, is just one day in Swargaloka, and, conversely, 360,000 years in the hellish planets, for example. Historically, Puranic scholars believe that time on our planet flows at the same rate as time in Bhu-Mandala, but the discovery that time here actually goes faster has several implications.
The first implication is that since two years here equals one year in Bhu-Mandala, we need to multiply all the cosmic dates given in the Puranas by two to get the actual dates of events according to the time on our planet. With this adjustment, we come to the staggering realization that the dates given in the Puranas almost exactly match the dates given in modern science.
The date of the creation of the solar system given in the Puranas is thus 4.562 billion earthly years ago (2.281 billion x 2), and the date for the great mass extinction at the end of the reign of the last Manu began 251.15 million earthly years ago (107.575 million x 2). These numbers almost exactly match the 4.567 billion years and 251.9 million years given by modern studies.
As the dating processes used by modern researchers are not 100% accurate (especially in such large scales of time) and the methods and techniques can still be refined, it’s quite possible that in the future they will come to numbers that will be even closer to the numbers given in the Puranas, proving that the knowledge of the Puranas is correct.
What is even more interesting is that when Sridhara Swami’s factor of two is taken into account, the Puranas give a date for the beginning of the universe that is very close to modern studies.
It's mentioned that we are living on the first day of the second half of the life of Brahma. In other words, Brahma already completed 50 years of his life and we are precisely on the first day after that. As mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam 3.11.34, as well as in other references, the life of Brahma is divided into two parardhas, each corresponding to 50 years of his life. What is more interesting, however, is that the Vayu Purana (2.38.240) mentions that all the constituents of the Universe last for a single parardha, and at the end of this period, they are completely dissolved.
At the end of each day of Brahma, the universe is partially destroyed, but all the material elements, as well as the higher planets of the universe, remain. However, at the end of the first half of his life complete destruction takes place, and all the planets, as well as the material elements, are fully disintegrated and the universe is created anew.
This is confirmed in the commentary of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura on SB 3.11.37, where he mentions that all the high planetary systems, including Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapaloka, and Satyaloka were dissolved at the end of the first half of Brahma’s life, and all the sages living in these planetary systems entered the body of Maha-Vishnu and had to wait until the next creation at the beginning of the current day of Brahma. Still according to Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, the current Kalpa is called Padma-kalpa, which indicates that in this Kalpa all the planetary systems are created anew from the material elements deposited in the steam of Brahma’s lotus flower.
By this description, we can understand that such complete devastation happened at the end of the previous day of Brahma. After this event, there were 8.64 billion years (4.32 billion x 2) of the night of Brahma. After this, there were 616.896 million years of the Pratisamdhi and the Manvantara Sandhya (308.448 million x 2), plus 4.562 billion years (2.281 x 2) since the creation of our solar system. This brings the total since the total annihilation to 13.819 billion years of the time on our planet.
It happens that the most widespread estimation of the date of the beginning of the universe in scientific circles is 13.801 billion years ago. Again, we can see that the modern date almost perfectly matches the date given in the Puranas.
It's also important to keep in mind that modern theories, as well as the calculations for cosmic events given by modern studies are constantly being refined. In 1929, for example, Hubble calculated the age of the Universe at about 2 billion years. Later, in 1958, Sandage calculated that the Universe is much older, calculating that the correct age of the Universe should be somewhere between 4 and 18 billion years. In 2003, a study conducted by Spergel put it at around 13.7 billion years. The number was raised to 13.75 in 2011 in a study by Komatsu, 13.772 in 2013 (Bennet et al.), 13.799 in 2015 (Lawrence), and finally 13.801 in 2018 (Aghanim et al.). The difference to the Vedas in the last number is already less than 0.15%.
You may have become confused about the number of 616.896 million years corresponding to the Pratisamdhi and the Manvantara Sandhya that I added to the time of the night of Brahma. We saw previously that a Manvantara Sandhya lasts for just 3.456 million years (1.728 x 2), and this number is already included in the calculation of the time of the current day of Brahma (as part of the Manvantaras we already went through), so what is this number?
A Pratisamdhi is a period of 85,200 years of the Devas between two consecutive Kalpas (days of Brahma). It has the same duration as a Manvantara. Just like a Manvantara, it also has its Manvantara Sandhya (that just like a normal Manvantara Sandya, lasts for 1.728 x 2 million years). The total duration of the Pratisamdhi, combined with its Manvantara Sandhya is thus calculated as 616.896 million of our current years (613.44 million x 2 + 1.728 million x 2). This is explained in detail in the Vayu Purana (1.7.4-9). To calculate the total age of the Universe, according to the Vedas, we should add three numbers: the time of the night of Brahma (4.32 billion x 2), the Pratisamdhi plus its Manvantara Sandhya (308.448 million x 2), and the time we already went through in the current day of Brahma (2.281 billion x 2). This brings the total to the 13.819 billion years previously mentioned.
It's important to note that Brahma is not the direct creator of everything we see in the sky. It's mentioned that Brahma creates the solar system as well as a number of stars and planets. Considering the multidimensional nature of our Universe, it’s difficult to understand how exactly the creation of Brahma matches what we see when we look into the sky, but taking into consideration the staggering dimensions of the observable Universe, it would not be a huge leap of faith to speculate that most of our galaxy, as well as other galaxies we see in the sky, are other features of our universe created by material nature. If it's so, it’s not strange that this work could go on while the Brahma of our universe was sleeping.
In the description given in the Puranas, the creation of Brahma is relatively small. Bhu-Mandala, which spreads horizontally inside the shell of the universe, has just 500 million yojanas (4 billion miles) in diameter, which roughly corresponds to the size of the solar system. The vertical dimension is more difficult to measure because there is the possibility that the length of the yojana may change as we go higher (following the change in the perception of distance of the inhabitants of higher planets) but if we would not take this into consideration, then the universe would also measure roughly 4 billion miles in the vertical dimension.
Outside of Brahma's creation, there are the seven coverings of the universe, composed of primordial matter. The first covering is composed of primordial earth, and is 10 times bigger than the universe itself, with a diameter of 5 billion yojanas. The second covering is composed of primordial water and extends for 10 times the length of the first covering, a total of 50 billion yojanas. In this way, each of the other coverings (fire, air, sky, the total material energy, and false ego) is 10 times larger than the previous. According to the Brhad Bhagavatamrta, not only all these coverings are inhabited, but souls living there have access to a level of sense enjoyment that we can’t even conceive. It’s described that elevated souls have the opportunity to stop on these different coverings and satisfy any remaining material desires before leaving for the transcendental realm.
When taking into account all the coverings, the size of the Vedic Universe is on a similar scale to what modern scientists believe to be the size of our Milky Way Galaxy. Apart from our tiny universe, there are other universes created by other Brahmas, as well as the vastness of the causal ocean, and all of this combined corresponds to just one-quarter of the total creation (the other three-quarters being the spiritual planets).
One may be inclined to conclude that the solar system is the creation of Brahma, the rest of the Milky Way galaxy corresponds to the seven coverings of the universe and other galaxies correspond to the creation of other Brahmas. While this would be a logical conclusion, it’s probably not correct. Sadaputa Prabhu, for example, argues that we are not supposed to be able to see outside of the seven coverings, and that’s also the conclusion of Srila Prabhupada on his purport to SB 5.21.11.
It could very well be that the length of the yojana changes as we go up in the vertical dimension and thus our universe is practically infinite. In this case, it would not be very difficult to imagine that everything we see in the sky is part of our own universe, and the universes created by other Brahmas are completely separated from ours. The image below may help to understand this concept:
This image is an artistic representation of the modern understanding of the observable universe with our solar system in the middle and the rest of the structures of our Milky Way galaxy, as well as other galaxies positioned around it, with the distances increasing at a logarithmic scale. This means that everything becomes exponentially smaller as we move away from the center of the image. In this way, we have our solar system in the center, surrounded by the other stars of the Milky Way galaxy and by other galaxies.
We can notice that it’s actually very similar to artistic representations of the Vedic Universe where the seven coverings are also depicted on a logarithmic scale. In reality, each one of the coverings is 10 times the circumference of the previous, with the first covering being 10 times the circumference of the Universe itself. However, to keep things in a manageable size, these illustrations depict a big Universe and narrow coverings around it, similar to the previous illustration. When we see from this perspective, these two views of the Universe are actually not so different:
Goloka Chart
Another point to consider is that in modern astronomy it’s believed that all stars we see in the sky are similar in nature to our sun, emitting enormous quantities of light. All the distances are thus calculated under this assumption, which leads to the gigantic distances mentioned in modern observations.
The Vedas, however, insist that the stars we see in the sky are fundamentally different in nature from our sun, emitting rather modest amounts of light. For someone observing from Earth, it’s very difficult to understand if it’s one or the other because all stars appear as just small dots of light in the sky. There is thus the possibility that our Universe may actually be much smaller than believed by modern science, with the stars being much smaller and much closer together. Even if it would not be the case in our gross dimension, we can’t tell how things work in higher dimensions.
In the end, we just need to accept that the material cosmos is much more complex than we can conceive and there are many structures that we just don't understand. The knowledge given in the Vedas helps us to understand the general structure of the Universe and presents us with an opportunity to find our way out of it, but we should not expect that we will ever be able to fully understand everything we can see in the sky.
In any case, the current cycle of creation of the universe started when Brahma went to sleep at the end of his previous day, a date that almost exactly matches the estimates of modern studies.
The Puranas also describe the process of destruction of our solar system, which will happen in a little over 4 billion years. One can try to calculate the exact number based on the information given, but I prefer to give an approximate number since we don’t understand exactly for how long different phases of these events will go on. In any case, however, the destruction starts some time before the end of the day of Brahma and is concluded by the time he goes to sleep).
It's described (Vayu Purana 2.38) that the sun will become red, like an incandescent ball of iron, and its size will increase seven times, scorching Bhu-Mandala and the heavenly planetary systems, destroying all forms of life in these places. Only great sages living in the planetary systems of Maharloka and upwards will survive this devastation and continue living during the night of Brahma.
This description also matches the current theory that our sun will become a red giant in the future, destroying most of the planets in our solar system. Modern estimates calculate that this process will start between 3.5 and 5 billion years. Again, we can see that the date given in the Puranas fits this range given by modern studies.
The Vayu Purana also mentions that after this process the sun will disintegrate, ejecting gigantic luminous clouds in all directions. This also matches the modern theory that after about 150 million years of the red giant phase, the sun will explode into a large planetary nebula, ejecting clouds of hot plasma in all directions and becoming a white dwarf. Again, this matches the description of darkness during the night of Brahma.
The main difference between modern theories and the Puranas is that modern theories predict that the universe will continue indefinitely until the sun and all stars exhaust their fuel and the universe just becomes a dark and cold wasteland. The Puranas give a more optimistic revelation, showing how not only the stars will continue shining for a much longer period (311,032 trillion earthly years, until the next complete devastation), but our solar system will be re-created at the start of the next day of Brahma.
All these numbers and details are very strong proof of the superior nature of the knowledge of the Vedas. How could it be that sages living in the forest could come to numbers so close to modern estimates without access to any kind of modern equipment? The only possible explanation is that the knowledge of the Puranas was received from superior sources.