Post by Rishi on Dec 9, 2008 0:05:42 GMT 12
One of the most fascinating phenomena described in mythologies of great antiquity is that time appears to flow more slowly or more quickly on worlds other than our own. These myths originated thousands of years before Albert Einstein was even born and, therefore, they appear to foreshadow Einstein's general theory of relativity. In retrospect, it seems quite incredible that our ancient ancestors had some awareness of the relative (and indeed, illusory) nature of time. Time dilation seems to be a highly prominent theme in both Indian and Celtic mythologies. I'll be mentioning three tales in this thread that relate to the issue of time dilation. The first will be a Vedic/Indian one; the second, Celtic and the third, Chinese.
Brahmaloka's Scale Of Time
In the ancient Sanskrit writings known as Srimad-Bhagavatam, there is a story about a King who was once a righteous ruler on Earth. His name was Kakudmi and he travelled in a vimana (celestial aeroplane) to Brahmaloka, a subtle higher-dimensional world. Brahmaloka is described as the planet on which Lord Brahma lives, the creator or manifestor of our universe. It is said to be the topmost planet in a precise cosmic hierarchy of worlds. Returning to this story, Kakudmi took his daughter Revati to Brahmaloka to ask Brahma who would be a worthy and ideal husband for her to marry. When Kakudmi made his way to Brahmaloka, Brahma was engrossed in a musical concert being performed for him by gandharvas (a species of angelic singers) and told him to patiently wait for a while. Thus, Kakudmi waited and at the end of the musical performances, he bowed to Brahma and submitted his request to him. "What may I do for you?", Brahma inquired. Upon hearing Kakudmi's request, Brahma roared with laughter. "O King, all those whom you have decided within the core of your heart to accept as your son-in-law have passed away in the course of time. Twenty seven chatur-yugas have already elapsed. Those upon whom you desired as your daughter's husband are now gone, and so are their sons, grandsons, great-grandsons and other descendants. Even their names have been forgotten".
One chatur-yuga lasts 4.32 million Earth years. With this information, the rate of time dilation on Brahmaloka can be roughly estimated. If the concert given by the gandharvas took about one hour according to Brahma's time scale, then that hour must correspond to 27 times 4.32 million years. Thus, a total of 116,640,000 Earth years had passed! It is interesting to note that this estimate closely matches one for time dilation in another account involving Brahma and his scale of time, thus providing additional consistency to these so-called 'myths'. In Brahma's scale of time, King Kakudmi's visit lasted a mere 3,456 seconds (or just under an hour). Indeed, to King Kakudmi, it felt as though merely an hour had gone by. This suggests that not only is the supposedly 'objective' reality of time completely relative, but that our subjective EXPERIENCE of time is completely relative as well.
The Land Of Youthfulness
In Celtic mythology, there is a tale of a man known as Ossian who was enticed into Tir Na Nog (Land Of Youthfulness) by a beautiful Sidhe princess (a type of fairy). They fell in love with each other, got married and lived together for 300 years in her world. Finally, however, Ossian felt an overwhelming desire to return to Ireland again and participate in the counsels of the Fenian Brotherhood.
He set out on the same white horse that had taken him to that otherworld and his fairy wife warned him not to lay his foot on the level ground (of Earth, which was at a greatly accelerated time stream because of its greater gravity and thus faster time).
On reaching Ireland, he searched for the Brotherhood but found that all of his old companions had passed away and the country was quite changed. Only then did he realise how long he had truly been away. Unfortunately, at a certain point some incident caused him to dismount and on touching Earth's surface, he immediately turned into a feeble, blind old man.
Chinese Cave Heavens
If we turn our attention to Chinese folklore, tales involving time lapses of hundreds of years can be found. There is a book entitled 'The Report Concerning The Cave Heavens And Lands Of Happiness In Famous Mountains' by Tu Kuang-t'ing, who lived from 850 to 933 AD. This book lists ten 'cave heavens' and thirty-six 'small cave heavens' that were supposed to exist beneath the mountains in China.
Here are the reported experiences of a man who entered a passageway leading to one of these cave heavens:
"After walking ten miles, he suddenly found himself in a beautiful land 'with a clear blue sky, shining pinkish clouds, fragrant flowers, densely growing willows, towers the color of cinnabar, pavilions of red jade, and far flung palaces'. He was met by a group of lovely, seductive women, who brought him to a house of jasper, and played him beautiful music while he drank 'a ruby-red drink and a jade-colored
juice.' Just as he felt the urge to let himself be seduced, he remembered his family and returned to the passageway. Led by a strange light that danced before him, he walked back through the cave to the outer world; but when he reached his home village, he did not recognise anyone he saw, and when he arrived at his house, he met his own descendants of nine generations hence. They told him that one of their ancestors had disappeared into a cavern three hundred years before and had never been seen again."
How can a physics concept as advanced and seemingly modern as the relativity of time be grasped by our distant ancestors if they didn't have an adequate grasp of scientific knowledge pertaining not only to physical worlds, but also to purely spiritual worlds as well?
Brahmaloka's Scale Of Time
In the ancient Sanskrit writings known as Srimad-Bhagavatam, there is a story about a King who was once a righteous ruler on Earth. His name was Kakudmi and he travelled in a vimana (celestial aeroplane) to Brahmaloka, a subtle higher-dimensional world. Brahmaloka is described as the planet on which Lord Brahma lives, the creator or manifestor of our universe. It is said to be the topmost planet in a precise cosmic hierarchy of worlds. Returning to this story, Kakudmi took his daughter Revati to Brahmaloka to ask Brahma who would be a worthy and ideal husband for her to marry. When Kakudmi made his way to Brahmaloka, Brahma was engrossed in a musical concert being performed for him by gandharvas (a species of angelic singers) and told him to patiently wait for a while. Thus, Kakudmi waited and at the end of the musical performances, he bowed to Brahma and submitted his request to him. "What may I do for you?", Brahma inquired. Upon hearing Kakudmi's request, Brahma roared with laughter. "O King, all those whom you have decided within the core of your heart to accept as your son-in-law have passed away in the course of time. Twenty seven chatur-yugas have already elapsed. Those upon whom you desired as your daughter's husband are now gone, and so are their sons, grandsons, great-grandsons and other descendants. Even their names have been forgotten".
One chatur-yuga lasts 4.32 million Earth years. With this information, the rate of time dilation on Brahmaloka can be roughly estimated. If the concert given by the gandharvas took about one hour according to Brahma's time scale, then that hour must correspond to 27 times 4.32 million years. Thus, a total of 116,640,000 Earth years had passed! It is interesting to note that this estimate closely matches one for time dilation in another account involving Brahma and his scale of time, thus providing additional consistency to these so-called 'myths'. In Brahma's scale of time, King Kakudmi's visit lasted a mere 3,456 seconds (or just under an hour). Indeed, to King Kakudmi, it felt as though merely an hour had gone by. This suggests that not only is the supposedly 'objective' reality of time completely relative, but that our subjective EXPERIENCE of time is completely relative as well.
The Land Of Youthfulness
In Celtic mythology, there is a tale of a man known as Ossian who was enticed into Tir Na Nog (Land Of Youthfulness) by a beautiful Sidhe princess (a type of fairy). They fell in love with each other, got married and lived together for 300 years in her world. Finally, however, Ossian felt an overwhelming desire to return to Ireland again and participate in the counsels of the Fenian Brotherhood.
He set out on the same white horse that had taken him to that otherworld and his fairy wife warned him not to lay his foot on the level ground (of Earth, which was at a greatly accelerated time stream because of its greater gravity and thus faster time).
On reaching Ireland, he searched for the Brotherhood but found that all of his old companions had passed away and the country was quite changed. Only then did he realise how long he had truly been away. Unfortunately, at a certain point some incident caused him to dismount and on touching Earth's surface, he immediately turned into a feeble, blind old man.
Chinese Cave Heavens
If we turn our attention to Chinese folklore, tales involving time lapses of hundreds of years can be found. There is a book entitled 'The Report Concerning The Cave Heavens And Lands Of Happiness In Famous Mountains' by Tu Kuang-t'ing, who lived from 850 to 933 AD. This book lists ten 'cave heavens' and thirty-six 'small cave heavens' that were supposed to exist beneath the mountains in China.
Here are the reported experiences of a man who entered a passageway leading to one of these cave heavens:
"After walking ten miles, he suddenly found himself in a beautiful land 'with a clear blue sky, shining pinkish clouds, fragrant flowers, densely growing willows, towers the color of cinnabar, pavilions of red jade, and far flung palaces'. He was met by a group of lovely, seductive women, who brought him to a house of jasper, and played him beautiful music while he drank 'a ruby-red drink and a jade-colored
juice.' Just as he felt the urge to let himself be seduced, he remembered his family and returned to the passageway. Led by a strange light that danced before him, he walked back through the cave to the outer world; but when he reached his home village, he did not recognise anyone he saw, and when he arrived at his house, he met his own descendants of nine generations hence. They told him that one of their ancestors had disappeared into a cavern three hundred years before and had never been seen again."
How can a physics concept as advanced and seemingly modern as the relativity of time be grasped by our distant ancestors if they didn't have an adequate grasp of scientific knowledge pertaining not only to physical worlds, but also to purely spiritual worlds as well?
