Five dates in modern science that prove the authenticity of the Vedas
When we come to properly understand the knowledge of the Vedas, we can see that as science evolves, it is actually coming to support what the Vedas say, proving their authenticity.
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We accept the knowledge of the Vedas as divinely revealed, coming from Kṛṣṇa Himself. That’s a point Prabhupāda insisted upon: the Vedas, and especially the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, shouldn’t be accepted as merely symbolic of mythological, but as concrete fact. This, however, may sound difficult or even impossible when confronted with modern scientific discoveries that appear to offer an entirely different view of the universe. It is, however, not like that.
The big problem is that we don’t yet properly understand the model of the universe given in the Vedas. We can just observe the polemic around what should be displayed on the Vedic planetarium. Although Prabhupāda gave the correct conclusions in his books, we are still digesting them.
When we come to properly understand the knowledge of the Vedas, however, we can see that as science evolves, it is actually coming to support what the Vedas say, proving their authenticity.
For example, the Vedas insist that the universe we live in is just one in millions of other universes created by the breath of Mahā-Viṣnu. Not only that, but these universes are repeatedly created and destroyed. Until just a few decades ago, this was considered only in science fiction, but advancements in the fields of quantum mechanics and other areas in the last three or four decades are showing this is a fact. Science is catching up.
Here are five other points in which modern science supports the view of the Vedas.
For understanding these four points, it’s essential to understand one important detail in Vedic cosmology, that is Sridhara’s factor of two. This is a point we already discussed in other articles. It comes from the work of Mādhavendra Puri das and Siddhartha Chhabra, published in the book “The Big Bang and The Sages”. In their research, they discovered a commentary by Sridhara Swami (the original commentator of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam) on the Viṣnu Purāna (1.3.7), which leads to the conclusion that a day in Bhū-Mandala equals two days of our time.
We need, thus, to multiply all the cosmic dates given in the Purāṇas 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 Purāṇas almost exactly match the dates given in modern science.
Here are five examples:
1) The date of creation of the universe
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 Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.11.34, as well as in other references, the life of Brahma is divided into two parārdhas, each corresponding to 50 years of his life. The Vāyu Purana (2.38.240) mentions that all the constituents of the universe last for a single parārdha, and at the end of this period, they are completely dissolved.
Normally, 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, a 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 Śrila Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura on SB 3.11.37, where he mentions that all the high planetary systems, including Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka, 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 Mahā-Viṣnu and had to wait until the next creation at the beginning of the current day of Brahma. Still according to Śrila Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura, 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 Purāṇas. The difference to the Vedas in recent scientific studies is less than 0.15%.
2) The creation of our solar system
Isn’t Brahmā supposed to create the material universe from scratch? How can we thus accept that the process of creation started at the end of his previous days, and continued for more than nine billion years before he awakened at the beginning of the current day?
If we study the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam attentively, we will see that it is described that the process of creation of the material elements was performed before the appearance of Brahmā. The Lord created the five material elements and then entered into them as Paramātma. Only after that, Brahmā appeared from the lotus flower. It is described that when he woke up, there was a strong cosmic wind and other disturbances, which he had to stop before starting his process of creation. It is also described that he used the material elements contained on the lotus flower from where he was born, a cosmic lotus that spread all over the universe. In other words, he created our solar system and other universal structures from material elements that were already available.
The process of creation at the beginning of the day of Brahmā happened, according to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 4.562 billion earthly years ago (2,281,000 x 2). According to recent studies, the sun was formed 4.567 billion years ago.
3) The formation of the solar system
The predominant scientific theory is that the elements that constitute our sun and planets were created through a long process that happened inside ancient stars spreaded throughout the galaxy. According to these theories, our sun was created 4.567 billion years ago from existing material elements that existed in a cosmic cloud, followed (100 million years or so) by the earth and the other planets. The Vedas give the account that Brahmā started his work of creation 4.562 billion years ago, and Priyavrata divided Bhū-mandala into seven islands in the first manvantara. Each Manvantara lasts for 306.72 million years, which puts the beginning of the reign on Priyavrata at about 4.5 billion years ago. In modern astrophysics, it is believed that the planets of our solar system were formed about 4.5 billion years ago, within the first 100 million years after the sun was formed. This corresponds precisely to the period of the first Manvantara, the period during which Priyavrata reigned.
4) The Permian-Triassic extinction
According to the description of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the date for the great mass extinction at the end of the reign of the last Manu began 251.15 million earthly years ago (107,575,000 x 2). This date matches a very important event in the story of our planet, that is the Permian-Triassic extinction (“the Great Dying”), that, according to modern studies started at about 252 million years ago.
According to modern researchers, this was the most severe mass extinction in the history of our planet, where an estimated ~90% of marine species and ~70% of terrestrial vertebrate species disappeared, along with major losses among insects and plants. According to them, the recovery took millions of years. According to the description of the Vedas, this period of recovery happened at the beginning of the reign of the current Manu. The two descriptions are thus very similar, and the dates match almost exactly.
5) The Red Giant phase of the sun
Modern studies believe that the sun will become a red giant in about 3.5 to 5 billion years from now, drastically expanding in size and destroying the planets of our solar system. Even before this this dramatic process, they believe, the sun will increase in luminosity, making the earth uninhabitable. At that point, they foresee that our planet will become just a scorched rock, almost completely devoid of life. From the point of view of someone observing the process from earth, there would be a great drought, followed by the expansion of the sun, which will destroy whatever life is left, and the planet itself.
This resembles another description from the Vāyu Purana (book 2, chapter 38), which describes a great drought, followed by the sun growing in size, becoming red, and destroying our planet.
This description of the process of destruction has many similarities with what is believed will happen during the process of the sun transforming into a red giant, dramatically increasing and destroying our planet, and at the end ejecting vast clouds (nebulae) of hot plasma all around. After that, it’s believed the sun will become a white dwarf, emitting only very modest amounts of light. This matches the descriptions of the fire of the expanded sun being extinguished by the cosmic clouds, leading to the darkness of Brahma’s night that is described in SB 3.11.29.
In modern science, it’s believed the sun will become a red giant at around 3.5 to 5 billion years from now, with different studies giving different numbers. This is a specific topic in which there is a greater divergence between researchers. The Vedas, however, give a precise figure: this process of destruction will start at 4.078 billion years from now, at the end of the current day of Brahma.
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