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Hindus are great mathematicians. If one reads the Rig Veda, the oldest book in the world, one could see No.1000 in hundreds of Mantras. One would see incredible numbers everywhere. Adi Snakara in Viveka Chudamani (adi=aadi; chudamani= choodaamani) also gives big numbers. In 60,000 Sumerian inscriptions we see only small numbers.
वदन्तु शास्त्राणि यजन्तु देवान्
कुर्वन्तु कर्माणि भजन्तु देवताः ।
आत्मैक्यबोधेन विनापि मुक्तिः
न सिध्यति ब्रह्मशतान्तरेऽपि ॥ ६ ॥
vadantu śāstrāṇi yajantu devān
kurvantu karmāṇi bhajantu devatāḥ |
ātmaikyabodhena vināpi muktiḥ
na sidhyati brahmaśatāntare’pi || 6 ||- Viveka Chudamani (VC)
6. Let people quote the Scriptures and sacrifice to the gods, let them perform rituals and worship the deities, but there is no Liberation without the realisation of one’s identity with the Ātman, no, not even in the lifetime of a hundred Brahmas put together. Viveka Chudamani (VC)
Notes:
[Lifetime &c.—i. e., an indefinite length of time. One day of Brahma (the Creator) is equivalent to 432 million years of human computation, which is supposed to be the duration of the world. ]
https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/vivekachudamani/d/doc144454.html
(Please go to wisdomlib.org for anything in Sanskrit)
My Comments
Even if one believes that Sankara lived in 732 CE, this calculation will amaze any one in any part of the world. One day of Brahma (the Creator) is equivalent to 432 million years of human computation, which is supposed to be the duration of the world. ]
Hindus only can think of high numbers. They know what time is. Even before modern astronomers wrote about billion galaxies, our Puranas said it. Manikka vasagar and Tirumular said it in Tamil hymns 1500 years ago.
(please see the details in my research articles on Age of Adi Sankara and Age of Manikkavasagar (maanikkavaasagar))
When they say some numbers, they mean it. Tamil poet Tiru Valluvar used the expression “it is like counting the dead-on earth” to mean incredible number. Purananuru poet says that we know “Seven Kings in one day”. It actually happened in Egypt. So they know history of the world and history of the earth. You don’t need to read voluminous
The Story of Civilization by C E M Joad
Or
The Story of Civilization (1935–1975), by husband and wife Will and Ariel Durant, is an 11-volume set of books.
Our Puranas has a compulsory section on history and geography. It is one of the Five Definitions of a Purana. No where in the world you see such mandatory rule for a mythology.
I wanted to remind you at this stage we are talking about religious books. What we wrote on History and Geography were lost during Muslim Invasions. Fortunately , we have a few books written by research scholars such as the The Geography of Puranas, The History of Puranas.
English authors credited history to Egyptians, Babylonians, even Mayans and said they all ruled from 3000 BCE. When it came to Hindus they said Nandas in 600 BCE were the first known kings . They rejected 140 kings in the Puranas.
Thanks to Adi Sankara and Tamil poets we know that we had thousands of kings. Tamil and Sanskrit use two similes:
As many as the sand particles on the river bank
As many as the stars in the sky.
A man can see only 6000 stars with the naked eye. But without binoculars and telescopes they knew that there were billions of stars. The proof for this is in Manikavasagar’s Tiruvasagam (tiru vaasagam). Even Bharatiyar who died in 1921 sang about it.
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Now coming back to VC sloka 6, my marginal note says,
100 Brahma’s life time:
432 million years X365 days X100 X1 00= 157680000 crore years
One crore is ten million in English language.
Crore is a Sanskrit word; derived from KOTI.
Swmi Chinmayananda says
It is 311,040,000, 000, 000, 000 years.
Let us forget the huge numbers and read it between the lines.
Hindus say two things here:
1.There are billions of galaxies where the TIME is different. Even before Einstein said Time is fourth dimension and you can’t separate it from other three dimensions, we said it.
2.The second thing Hindus said even before NASA and others is, there are alien worlds where the time is different.
In 2000 year old Sangam Tamil literature we read the life of a fly is one day; Let us imagine two ants discussed about it. Mother ant said to its baby ant, Hey! look at the man we are sitting on now. They live 365 X 100 times of our life. If we understand this, then we will understand our puranas saying. One day of Brahma (the Creator) is equivalent to 432 million years of human computation, which is supposed to be the duration of the world.
Simple illustration
- In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets. says NASA
- This means it is one day for us, but 16 days for space station crew
- Imagine we live on Pluto, it will be very different when you compare it with a day on earth.
My articles are about the secular matter in VC and not philosophy of Adi Sankara.
To be continued……………………………..
Tags- incredible number, Brahma, My Research Notes on VC 4, Viveka Chudamani, Sankara, Brahma’s Age, Day
Tamil and Vedas 