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Dear reader, my name is Luis
Miguel Goitizolo. In this page I present an article
inspired in my book The Wheel of Time - A Study in the
Doctrine
of Cosmic Cycles and in other, similar interests.
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The Mystery of Time
(Part 2)
In
my previous article, dedicated to a great extent to reviewing the scriptural
evidence regarding time, I presented a story that clearly implies the ancient
Hindus were all familiar with the relativity of space and time... hundreds,
probably thousands of years before it was enunciated by Einstein!
Now, complementing the account of
King Kakudmi's interestelar journey at close-to-light speed
in that precious Hindu scripture, Bhagavata
Purana (9, 3:30-34),
here is a similar story
from the Islamic tradition which, while curiously
inverse, adds force to our case.
Muhammad visits the seventh heaven riding the
resplendent mare Alburak. At the moment the
mare takes flight, she overturns a jar filled with
water. On Muhammad's return after countless eons,
the Prophet reaches down to lift the jar from the
ground... and lo, not a single drop has been spilt!
In another passage from Bhagavata Purana (3,
29:43) is stated, with astounding ease, that the
complete universal body is expanding. This fact,
only in recent times corroborated by astronomical
observation supporting the 'Big-Bang' theory, could
hardly be described as a product of either chance or
imagination even by the most obstinate skeptics; and
on the other hand, such theory does not exclude the
possibility of a recurring expansion - contraction
of the universe through immense periods of time, a
derivation that in turn perfectly fits within the
framework of the Hindu doctrine of cosmic cycles and
many other similar concepts.
In effect, this idea is
found in the majority of the traditional doctrines.
In Taoism, for example, the Tao has a reverting
motion of withdrawal and return to the origin (See
Tao The Ching of Lao Tzu, particularly Chapters
XXV and XL). Hermetism, in turn, asserts that the
world "begins from where it ceases." (Corpus
Hermeticum I, 11, 10.7). Again, according to the
Neo-Platonist Proclus: "...Everything moves on and
returns, has a cyclical activity... unites the end
with the principle." And also the Stoicism
attributes this motion to its Logos.
We can see the list is lengthy. But let us now focus
on history, where modern archaeology has repeatedly
confirmed information from the Bible and other
Western texts. For example, Assyrian king Sargon II
was for long known only from the narration in Isaiah
8:1 and the critics rejected this reference as
devoid of any historical value. Later on,
archaeological excavations shed light on the
magnificent palace of Sargon at Korsabad and on
numerous inscriptions alluding to his reign, such as
the siege and conquer of Samaria and the subsequent
exile of the Israelite people.
Similarly, not long
ago was confirmed Sennacherib's expedition to Israel
which, according to the Old Testament version (2
Kings 6:13 ff, 7:36; Isaiah 36: 1, 37: 37), ended in
failure and the subsequent return of the Assyrian
king to his own country. (While this piece of
information is not found on the mural inscriptions
within the royal palace, such exclusion is perfectly
understandable from a natural reluctance to admit
one's own defeats.)
A special mention deserve, for their great
significance, the dramatic discoveries made by the
amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann from 1870
onwards.
As is widely known, this remarkable German
archaeologist, challenging the general view that would
see in the Iliad but an imaginary story, started
excavations at the site designated by the poem as
the seat of the old Troy and found not one, but nine
superimposed cities, with the sixth, counted from
below, being the one sung by the epics; and then in
Mycenae, described by the same poem as "most
superior materially to Troy," brought to light huge
stone walls, carved lions and the fabulous treasure
of Atraeus - all of them wonders which, were it not for
him, would most likely be regarded as
legendary until our days.
From these examples, it would seem that where it
comes to science, and to a certain extent history,
the great scriptures and sacred texts of the world
are indeed reliable; in this sense, not only can we
conclude that "the Bible was right", as was the
title of a famous book, but also that other writings
of the world were right as well; similarly, based on
the same examples, it might be inferred that the
Hindu texts appear to be valid for the longer
periods of time, of millions and trillions of years,
while the Bible and other Western texts would be
valid for the "shorter" periods of thousands or,
perhaps, hundreds of thousands of years. Of course
this is not accurate as, for one thing, some
passages of the Bible, notably the first verses of
Genesis, obviously cover immense periods of time;
but at least for the purposes of our present query,
we can very well afford this generalization.
As to the Hindu texts, we will have many an
opportunity to learn the intricacies of their
elaborate doctrine. I will just say right now that,
as occurs with many other traditions, the word
millennium - as well as other similar terms like
"great year", century, etc - is synonymous with any
great cosmic cycle and not only one thousand years,
as might be thought, and is usually applied to them
by properly using it in the sense of any
"indefinite" length of time. This should be stressed
out not only by reason of the fact itself, essential
to the study of the doctrine, but because it is somehow consubstantial with the existence of all
sorts of correspondences and assimilations between
cycles of various orders and magnitudes, so that
such expressions as "day" and "night", where it
comes to immense periods of time, sound perfectly
natural.
An Unknown
Common Origin?
A
question naturally arises from the above: if it
was not purely and simply invented, or was not the
result of mere fortunate speculation, where did the
compilers of these Scriptures obtain such
information, whose origin is lost in the
pages of time? That the various cultures were
spontaneously and simultaneously born around the
world, all sharing a strangely similar lore, is hard
to accept; the numerous analogies rather suggest an
unknown common origin and, in fact, it would appear
to be more logical, or at least more plausible, that
there previously existed an older civilization that
was the depository of the knowledge based on such
information, and that all other cultures received
from it such knowledge, which was then modified and,
for the most part, distorted by the particular
circumstances of time and place.
This notion of a common ancestral culture, which
would account for the universality of a certain
"hidden" lore, has been widely supported and
developed by renowned researchers such as René
Guénon and others, according to whom, in the
apparently chaotic assortment of most ancient myths
and legends that describe the nature and origin of
the universe, traditionally handed down by societies
throughout the world, there is evidence of such
primeval civilization. This archaic society would be
prior to all ancient known civilizations, including
those from Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and India, not
to mention the American continent; and so, stories
whose original meaning has been lost, but have
otherwise been preserved in a fragmentary and
distorted form, might provide genuine, essential
information about the great mysteries of the
universe.
By way of example, I will quote but one of such
stories: The Sioux Nation in North America talk
about a cycle of four eras; there is a buffalo that
loses one leg at every era; now we are in the last
era, which is of great degradation, and the buffalo
has but one leg left. In Bhagavata Purana (1,
16: 18 ff) the same story is told about the bull
Dharma ("Religion"). We are currently in the last
age - the Age of Kali, an era of quarrel and
hypocrisy - and Dharma is supported by only one
leg...
Lima, November
2010
View previous:
The Mystery of Time - 1
View next: The Four Ages of Mankind
A Message from The Author
Dear Friend,
Ever since I was
a youth I was fascinated by Oriental wisdom and particularly by the Hindu
doctrines. However, it was not until a few years ago that I undertook the task
of studying the ancient doctrine of cosmic cycles from different perspectives,
though mainly using the most relevant sacred texts from all around the world. In
time, I felt the urge to write a book about my studies in that matter in my
mother tongue, Spanish, which I titled "La rueda del tiempo" (in English, "The
Wheel of Time"). It is excerpts of that book and other original articles dealing
with similar topics which I will start publishing through this medium as of
today.
More recently, after some years as a networker promoting a variety of programs, I
decided to translate my book into English, a task that was successfully
completed a few month ago. And over the past weeks and months I have been
publishing excerpts of this translation, as well as other original articles in
English that also deal with similar topics, on various online media of the
United States and other countries.
Thank You,
Luis Miguel Goitizolo
Lima - Perú
miguelgoitizolo@gmail.com
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