Let there be light ...

The young God started the year with a mixture of excitement and also slight trepidation.  

He had just come back from a vacation with his parents, which, he wished, had lasted longer. But as his Mom reminded the second year in the school was the most fun. It is here that they would learn the universal alphabets of creation, matter generation, lighting of life spark and all the other things.  If he wanted to grow up to be a important God, this was vital skill that he had to acquire early on.

The first day back at school was quite nice. Our young Hero spent fun time with all the other little Gods talking about the Divine vacations each had spent.  The more studious ones, spent their time studying, some created their own Time or Space or both with their parents. Some took a summer class on the principles energy flow.

Our little God, however, spent a lazy vacations in the shores of eternity creating castles using the sands of time. Sometimes he would just float about in the pool of Infinity that they had at the beach hotel where he was staying.

One time, during the vacation itself his Parents took him to a Universe Factory as a learning trip. He spent aeons watching universes form and disappear like soap bubbles, each a unique creation with its own size, colour and lifetime. His father explained that he himself had started his career at a Universe Factory and worked his way up in the divine corporate ladder. While at the factory, Father had told our young hero that he expected him, our hero, to follow in his footsteps.  Mother had chimed in saying becoming a successful God wasn't so easy and took many years of hard work at the school. Why did a God have to work hard in school and factory, he had wondered. Should Gods not remain on perpetual vacations? What was the fun of being a God then? He however decided not to voice his questions and hazard a long lecture from Mom...

***

"Being able to Create, is what makes you God", our hero was brought out his reverie by the booming voice of his teacher who made his dramatic entrance into the class.   To create an effect he lowered the window blinds with a flick of his hand and as the Godly children were adjusting their eyes to the darkness, manifested a few shiny new universes from his sleeve. In front of the wonder stuck eyes of the little Gods, a series of big bangs lit up the darkened class.

As they watched, the big bangs manifested, followed by the appearance of matter and antimatter, clumps formed inside the ever expanding bubbles, stars, star clusters and eventually galaxies formed.  At every milestone the children cried out in unison for the changes were wonderful to behold.  Every single universe was unique, if one was comprised of matter, another was of anti-matter, some other was entirely made of notions, yet other of certainties.  Some existed in a substratum of space, while others in imagination. Some started from a bang and expanded away, while others started as a all encompassing reality that slowly converged towards a central point.  As each universe was about to be born, the teacher infused each with a measure of energy, the essence of Shakti, the cosmic energy personified as Divine Mother. This energy enabled the birthing of the universe and once the universe was born, it was this very Shakti that would flow through the universe throughout its lifetime.  This Shakti was the soul of the Universe and as long as an Universe was able to support the flow of Shakti through it, it would remain in existence. At the point the flow of Shakti would no longer be possible, Shakti would exit the universe to merge with the Cosmic Shakti and the universe and all that it contained would come to an end.

As the last of Universes emerged from his sleeve, the teacher held it in suspension in front of him. The rest of the universes, created earlier, has already risen to the ceiling where a big pipe guided their path to a lab where they would play out their lifetimes.

He held his hand up signalling the class to quiet down. In a hushed tone he said - "I am going to give this one here, the biggest gift that a universe can have."

A long pause for effect.

"I am going to give this one the gift of Life."   With a special prayer to cosmic Shakti, he infused into the universe a special life creating energy.  Lo Behold, planets in different corners, in diverse galaxies, that could conduct this special energy came alive with life.  With life came a dynamism within the universe which the other lifeless ones could never match.  The universe itself became self aware, conscious of its existence, and began it own search for bliss.

As the universe slowly floated around the class humming softly.  It continually changed hues, as civilisations formed and decayed away, various lifeforms and belief systems came and went. Art and Science were discovered, as was Spirituality.  The class followed the universe's wake with mesmerised eyes.  At long last the teacher waved this spectacular universe away to a special section in the lab where living universes lived out their lives.

"What you saw today, is the entire syllabus of what you will learn through your stay in this School," said the teacher.  "The interplay of the Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti is the platform upon which existence of these universes, of our own universe and the universe that views ours as bubbles, ad infinitum, rest".  The kids coughed uncomfortably. Being omniscient, they no doubt understood what the teacher was saying, but as children the concept of infinity when extended to their plain of existence sounded little scary.  

"This year, we shall learn the Brahma principle of creation along with using the essence of Shakti.  Depending on how you all progress, we shall also work with the life giving aspect of Shakti"

And finally, "Class dismissed.  Review what we did today and I will see all of you here tomorrow".

*** 

Through the year our hero worked hard in class.  He was among the first to manifest an universe and send energising Shakti coursing through its veins.  The first few he created were incredible explosions, while some just disappeared with a whimper.  But before long he had perfected his skill of determining what was the right amount of energy for each kind of universe that he created.  Some of the specimen that he created drew appreciation from is class and teacher as well.  Before long, the universes that he created started turning out to be the most extraordinary ones in the class.

Finally the day came when the class had create their first living Universes.  As the teacher entered the class there was some last minute nervous laughter.  This was the first test they would have to pass as Gods.  Clearing this level would take them to the next classes where there would understand the ways of Shakti at a deeper level, advance to Vishnu and Shiva levels.  Those who wanted to continue studying further would specialise in master level study of the Brahman and the complete manifestation of Brahman- Krishna.  

But before any of that happened, this class had to be passed.

The first two children came back dejected, they had created beautiful universes for sure, but these proved to be bad conductor for Life Energy.  The teacher kindly asked them to repeat the class. Time, of course, was no object.

Then came the turn of our hero.  Nervously, with a prayer to Krishna, he came up to the class podium where he was to manifest his universe. 

Slowly, with his entire concentration, he created a beautiful big bang using Shakti energy from which emanated a neat universe.  Not too crowded nor too sparse.  He created time and space for matter to form and exist. In a short time there were beautiful galaxies that studded the whole universal space. 

It was finally time for Prana Prathista, to give the universe Life.  Invoking Goddess Shakti, he passed in a bolt of Consciousness giving Life Energy, the Prana Shakti into it.  But with increasing dismay, he realised that this Energy was not flowing through his creation.  In one or two planets it did show some movement, but before the life could grow beyond single celled organism, some asteroid or supernova would snuff Life out of existence.  Was he destined to create a lifeless universe too? 

When all seemed lost and he had all but hung his head in defeat, these was a collective gasp from the class.  He looked up to see that in a minor peripheral galaxy, there was a dwarf yellow star around which eight or nine planets circled.  In the third planet, Life had all of a sudden established hold ...

Even as he looked down at the planet, he saw that Life Energy had truly found a conductor and the planet and the universe itself, came alive.  At the touch of Life the planet itself turned a beautiful shade of blue and from a distance appeared as a pale blue dot.

Our hero, who was also named Brahma, after the creation principle, smiled and murmured, "Let there be light ..."

The Beginning 

Today is my Rudraditya's birthday and I did want to write something to celebrate the day. Hence this story about a young God.  As I wrote about the young God, I am sure you know whose face I visualised in my mind :)

This story is result of mixing of multiple thought process in my mind - Vedanta and Fermi Paradox, Love of Krishna and Advaita, Creationism and Evolution and many many others.  I have tried to provide a few layers to this story, I hope I infused some sense as well....  

The Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan has been an inspiration for me and many others for long. I couldn't resist coming back and adding a reference to it  as an inside out view.  Please do take a few minutes to watch it, it is just amazing.