Across cultures and centuries, the skies full of celestial bodies have captivated humans, compelling them to ask the most fundamental questions: Where did all this come from? On a deeper level, where did the universe itself originate? Will it last forever, or does it move in a rhythm beyond our current grasp?
This timeless curiosity is beautifully articulated in the earliest human texts. In the Rigveda, composed over 3,000 years ago, the creation hymn Nasadiya Sukta (Mandala10) begins not with certainty, but with wonder:
नास॑दासी॒न्नो सदा॑सीत्त॒दानीं॒ नासी॒द्रजो॒ नो व्यो॑मा प॒रो यत् ।
िकमाव॑रीवः॒ कह कस्य॒ शमर्॒न्नम्भः॒ िकमा॑सी॒द्गह॑नं गभी॒रम् ॥10.129.01॥
THEN was not non-existent nor existent : there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?++
तम॑ आसी॒त्तम॑सा गूळ्हमग्रे ॑ऽप्रके ॒तं स॑िल॒लं सवर् ॑मा इ॒दम् ।
तुच्छ्येना॒भ्विपिहतं॒ यदासी॒त्तप॑स॒स्तन्म॑िहनाजा॑य॒तैक॑म् ॥10.129.03॥
Darkness there was : at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and formless : by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.++
This Sukta dares to contemplate the unthinkable-a time before time, before even being and non-being.
Fast forward thousands of years, and we find a strikingly similar cosmological vision in the Bhagavad Gita. While often seen as a spiritual guide, the Gita also reflects a sophisticated metaphysical framework about the nature of time and existence.
In Chapter 8, Verse 17, Krishna reveals to Arjuna:
सहस्रयुगपयर्ंतमहयर्द्ब्रह्मणो िवदः |
राित्र युगसहस्रांतां तेऽहोरात्रिवदो जनाः || 8.17||
Those who know the nature of day and night understand that the day of Brahma lasts for a thousand yugas, and his night also extends for a thousand yugas.
One yuga cycle-Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali-spans 4.32 million years. A thousand of these cycles make up a day of Brahma: 4.32 billion years. His night spans another 4.32 billion years. In total, a full day-night cycle of Brahma lasts 8.64 billion years.This is intriguingly close to the modern estimate of approximately 13.8 billion years.
The Gita continues in the next verse:
अव्यक्तादव्यक्तयः सवार्ः प्रभवन्त्यहरागमे |
रात्र्यागमे प्रलीयन्ते तत्रैवाव्यक्तसञ्ज्ञके || 8.18||
At the dawn of Brahma’s day, all living beings emerge from the unmanifest; at the arrival of night, they dissolve into the unmanifest again.
In Chapter 9, Krishna elaborates further to Arjuna:
सवर्भूतािन कौन्तेय प्रकृ ित यािन्त मािमकाम् |
कल्पक्षये पुनस्तािन कल्पादौ िवसृजाम्यहम् || 9.7||
O son of Kunti (Arjuna), at the end of a cosmic cycle (Kalpa*), all beings merge into My material nature (Prakriti), and at the beginning of the next cycle, I manifest them again.
These verses are clear articulations of a cyclical universe: creation, dissolution, and rebirth.
This vision is not isolated. The Puranas, particularly the Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana, describe cosmic time in terms of Yugas, Manvantaras, and Kalpas-nested cycles spanning millions to billions of years.
In the 20th century, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity enabled cosmologists to model a dynamic universe. In 1929, Edwin Hubble’s observation that galaxies are receding confirmed that the universe is expanding.
But again, the question remains: What comes next?
Current models propose several possibilities:
Big Freeze: The universe expands forever and cools.
Big Crunch: The expansion halts and reverses.
Big Bounce: A collapsed universe gives rise to a new expansion-similar to the Gita’s
cycles.
One modern initiative, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), has recently added new fuel to the cyclical fire. Based in Arizona, DESI is mapping the expansion history of the universe using Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), and its findings are often combined with supernova and CMB data for cosmological analyses. A brief detail about them is provided in the following table:
Recent combined results from DESI suggest a possible slowing of cosmic expansion, with early hints that contraction may be on the horizon. Though preliminary, this f inding could mark a turning point-the beginning of an inward journey of the universe.
Is it a coincidence that we are currently in the last phase of the Yuga cycle (Kali Yuga), and an inward cosmic journey has now been hinted?
ConclusioModern instruments like DESI, Euclid, and the James Webb Space Telescope are helping us understand the cosmos with unmatched clarity. Yet it is both humbling and profound to realize that many of these ideas-cyclical time, cosmic rebirth, nested epochs-were conceived thousands of years ago in India.
What science begins to measure, the sages of the past dared to imagine. The universe, according to both, may not be a straight line but a circle. A rhythm. A breath.n: Eternal Rhythms
And we, too, are part of that eternal rhythm.
- Kalpa: Refers to an immense span of time-the duration between the creation and dissolution of the universe.
** The image used in this article was generated using the OpenAI image model.
++ Translation by Ralph T. H. Griffith
