Origin of Universe According to Vishnu tatva

By J.K. Sivan

OM is the complete description of the four dimensional Universe and the "noise" pervading it. The three limbs of the Devanagari OM stand for the curved three-dimensional space or the material part of the Universe. The crescent represents the time component of the space time continuum. It is a continuum and not a continuity because the relationship between the components is not obvious. The dot is the humming “noise” corresponding to few degrees, which scientists experimentally observed to permeate outer space uniformly. It is an energy dimension not yet understood. OM represents all the observed attributes of the manifest Universe: The three dimensions of space, the time and the humming “noise”.

Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, (XIV,3):

Sri Krishna instructs Arjuna

“The total material substance, called Brahman, is the source of birth, and it is that Brahman I impregnate, making possible the births of all lilving beings, O son of Bharata”.(Purport to Bhagavad Gita As It Is by Srila Prabhupada – page 605)

The Taittiriya Upanishad echoes the same:

The Brahman “desired ‘May I Procreate the many.’ He performed penance and created everything whatsoever. Having created them He entered them. Having entered He became pairs of opposites”.

Purusha Sukta looks upon creation in more prosaic terms as a yagna or ritual sacrifice by the Gods. From out of the five dimensional being came the four dimensional one or the Space - Time. This was a lower order of reality represented by Brahma, the four-headed progenitor or the Prajapati. His four heads represent the four dimensions of Space–Time.

Vishnu is the tribhuvanapurusha, the celestial God with three worlds as his body. The three worlds are the three dimensions of space or the x, y, z, axes of co-ordinate geometry. He is coloured blue black combining the blueness of the terrestrial sky with the blackness of the outer space. He represents the regal authority of the divinity with magisterial powers on earth and regulates the evolution of life on earth.

The story of Vamana Avataar is the demonstration of Vishnu’s three dimensionality contrasted to the two dimensionality of the asura regions. Vishnu lives in the milky ocean which is the star studded milkyway. He lies on the coiled five headed snake Anantha, literally meaning endless. The coiled snake stands for the helical form of the DNA and the protein builder RNA, the two templates of life. Though the molecules have several billion repetitive units, they are made up of five organic bases, three of which are common to both DNA and RNA and one is exclusive to each. The five heads of Anantha stand for the five bases.

The Padmanabha icon gives the whole picture. Vishnu reclining on the bed formed by the coiled snake Anantha stands for the DNA-RNA template-based life floating in three-dimensional space. The lotus rising from His navel is the umbilical connection life on earth has to the Universal reality. The lotus stands for the three-dimensional space, which, according to Einstein’s ideas, is curved like a saddle due to gravity. The lotus petal is the equivalent of the saddle. The Brahma on the lotus is the anthropomorphic formalization of the ultimate. The Chaturbhuja (four armed) Vishnu with six limbs and a human form is the fusion of the two dominant forms of life on earth: the vertebrate and the invertebrate. The former are four-limbed whist the latter have a multiplicity of limbs. The most common invertebrates, like the ant and the cockroach, are six-limbed.

The genesis according to the Vedic scriptures therefore is : Life originates in deep Space–Time represented anthropomorphically as the four-headed Brahma and develops as the foetus of Vishnu representing the three dimensional Space (supported by the DNA-RNA templates shown as the coiled snake Anantha) and the living beings therein.

It evolves through the intermediacy of the bisexual ardhanariswara into the glorious form of Chaturbhuja Vishnu representing the fusion of the vertebrate and the invertebrate forms of life.

The writer can be reached at jksivan@gmail.com