Science does not yet know the size of our universe. The new James Webb telescope has found galaxies older than the current Big Bang model for the age of our universe.
Science is limited by what it can observe. The instruments are gradually upgraded, but there are significant limits on taking a purely materialist approach to exploration.
Sages of yore have recognized that our universe is egg-shaped, an effect of its origins. The term is hiranya garbha, the golden egg, because sattva guna is dominant on that level. This seed form interacts with the causal ocean, creating the appearance of our world.
Our universe is teaming with life. Not just physical life, but life on every level of being, even beyond the universe itself. Yet we’re still just discovering new physical forms of life here on our planet.
Our universe is one of many, each with their own variations in laws of nature to create different fields of experience. There are an uncountable number of experiencers (beings) in our creation.
Even our own body is made up of trillions of life forms, experiencing their way of being, largely as part of a larger group – as a liver cell or a skin cell, for example. We also host trillions more lives in the body’s inner environment (biome).
Our point of experience (jiva) rides on top of all that. We depend on the functioning of myriad groups of cells. And we’re part of a collective of humans that could be described as an organism within a still greater whole.
Our creation is also one of many, although apparently a more complex one than most. Each is like an idea in the mind of God. All of creation is a way for consciousness to know itself more completely to emulate Divinity.
The vastness of all this is beyond the comprehension of any local mind. As Buckminster Fuller put it, we are “special case” experiencers, designed to know one thing at a time. This allows us to function in the specific environment we live in.
Refined perception can open up new vistas and new understanding. Yet most of us have to ignore most of that, most of the time, so we can do what needs doing in our life.
Yet we are it so can get a sense of all this through direct experience of our deeper nature. Big picture and specific details. Each of us with our own specifics is how the whole comes to know all the details. We’re all in this together.
Davidya
Beautiful!
It is, Warren. Creation that is. 🙂
Very nice post. Definitely couldn’t have said it better myself.
Thanks, Rick. That’s high praise. 🙂
Always wondered if hiranya garbha consists of just the physical universe or all of the universes beyond including the astral, causal planets and absolute worlds as well ….. Places like Brahma Loka (supposedly close to absolute) or even Viakuntha and the lokas of Rama, Krishna, Shiva,Vishnu and the Gods. Is it everything other than the void or Parabrahman? Somehow they must be connected…. There are those who are becoming awake now, as you have pointed out…. But there have been luminaries who seem to have come directly from Parabrahman or reached very high levels of consciousness such as Guru Dev, Anandamayi Ma, Bhagavan Nityananda, Ramana Maharshi etc. and are able to “work” from even higher levels of Brahman than many who are newly awake…. The depth of experience seems to be very deep and expansive…. even for the enlightened…. and how does worship of the God heads, the high level enlightened beings, and Avatars fit into the equation of elevating consciousness individually and collectively? OK, there’s a lot here but your thoughts…
Hi Lewis
Yes, big questions. Hiranya garbha or the golden egg can be described as the seed form of our universe. It interacts with the causal ocean to create the world appearance, as outlined above.
It is one of a number of universes/ golden eggs that exist in the arena I call creation. That’s the first expression of self-aware consciousness and the unmanifest structures that give rise to the distinct universes.
Terminology is tricky here because some use words loosely or to mean different things. Everything in our universe from causal up to the physical is part of that universe. This includes various heavens or lokas.
The higher gods like Vishnu can be experienced on a number of levels. Their formative structures are in the field of creation, their essence arises prior in Brahman, and they can be experienced in various styles of form on various manifest levels.
Krishna and Rama are avatars or expressions of Vishnu. They take a manifest form for a time to aid in smoothing transitions between yugas, especially descending. They continue to exist later as cosmic memory in the field of creation. Before also – Kalki (the avatar yet to come) resides there too.
Brahman and ParaBrahman are beyond but also infusing all of creation and the universes. Void is a tricky word. Technically it refers to empty space and thus in the field of creation plus.
The difference in various sages is partly stage of development, but also need of the time, dharma, and their laws of nature. I know people in ParaBrahman who live quiet lives. They support the collective but not on the surface.
But yes, someone newly awake is quite different from someone post-Unity and awake for a long time. However, there is also style of experience. Someone visual like myself can go into great detail on their area of knowing. Someone who’s more feeling-based has a deeper richness but one not as easily put into words. Poetry sometimes works. They tend to be more devotional.
In my case, I’m in a kind of long-term training, so the high end of creation was revealed decades ago. I’ve gradually been learning more. Others know more practical arenas better. 🙂
Devotion is another large subject. That’s mainly related to the feminine side of unfolding, the refinement of perception and awakening heart. I introduce the topic here:
https://davidya.ca/2017/06/20/atman-and-sattva/