What do the Big Bang, the Vedic Hymn of Creation, and Blavatsky’s Cosmogenesis have in common?
Before Plunging into the Unfathomable Abyss of the Waters…
From my point of view, the teaching of The Secret Doctrine requires, above all, tranquility and composure: reading small, significant fragments, commenting on them, expressing one's own doubts, and intuitively finding the answers or solutions to the enigmas it proposes.
For we must not forget that it is not the text itself that is difficult; rather, it is that our mind is limited and needs to exercise, grow, and expand. It is not about accumulating data, but about expanding its capacity to "see." As the ancients used to say, the human being is born with certain limitations: physical, sensory, mental, and intuitive. We need time, but not in the habitual sense of "assimilating"—that is, of digesting more knowledge or more data—but because, through this exercise, what matters is to set in motion aspects of our mind and our intuition that remain dormant.
We likely know someone around us who, despite possessing several university degrees, is absolutely blind to the reality of life. Conversely, we sometimes find people who, lacking any advanced studies, nevertheless possess a certain wisdom and penetration. This is what the ancient Hindus called Vidya, which is the correct understanding of knowledge. Its opposite was Avidya, which is often translated as ignorance—the ignorance of one who, even with knowledge within reach of the mind, cannot see it, cannot integrate it. To undertake this study is to practice Vidya; it is to open the Inner Eye to other perceptions.
Consider just one thing: the day death reaches us, when we return to the cycle of terrestrial life, we will have forgotten everything: the data, the language we used, our titles, etc. We will have also forgotten the sacred books, the great philosophies, and even religions. Then, what remains of all our efforts and learning? What stays beyond death? Our Essence, our capacities—if we have developed them—our mental ability and, above all, our Intuition, which will serve us to open doors that are beyond this world. And this is what is truly important: not the accumulation of data. Because this accumulation, these reasonings, and this mental and intuitive effort, when we study the concepts proposed by The Secret Doctrine, do not aim to increase our "storage" capacity, nor to adopt a belief, but to transmute our mind and give birth to our transcendental intuition.
So, gymnast of the spirit, try to dedicate some time to the health of your mind and your intuition, feeding them with elevated and healthy content that, little by little, results in the awakening of our true Spirit, which, after all, is what this is all about.
And now, without further ado, let us begin with a very ancient text, perhaps the oldest in any Indo-European language, which is preserved practically unaltered—an authentic living monument. It speaks to us of a moment before creation, before the Big Bang, before the existence of the world:
Hymn of Creation (Nasadiya Sukta)
Nor Aught nor Naught existed; The shining sky did not exist; Nor the immense over-arching vault spread out above. What covered all? What sheltered? What concealed? Was it the unfathomable abyss of the waters?
Death was not; but there was nothing immortal. There were no limits between day and night. Only the One breathed breathless by Itself, For any other than It there has never been.
Darkness reigned, and the whole beginning was veiled In deep obscurity; an ocean without light; The germ until then hidden in the enclosure Causes a nature to burst forth from the fervid heat. — Who knows the secret? Who has revealed it? Whence, whence has surged this multiform creation? The Gods themselves came later into existence. Who knows whence this great creation came?
That from which all this immense creation has proceeded, whether its will created, or whether it was mute, The Highest Seer, in the highest heavens, Knows it, or perhaps not even He knows.
Gazing upon eternity … (Rig Veda Book 10, Hymn 129)
Fundamental Ideas of the Rig Veda Hymn
There are a series of fundamental ideas that are worth unfolding:
The Absence of Being Nothing existed; nothing "was." Attributes did not exist, for they would be forms of Being (high, wide, cold, red, green, etc.). Despite this, the text speaks of an Abyss unfathomable to our consciousness, an unfathomable Abyss of Water. Why? Because Water is situated at the origin of all things. Here, "Water" possesses a poetic sense: it is inert life, as unmanifested possibility, but called to give origin to everything.
The "One" A unique and undefined entity, breathing by itself; in other words, breathing without depending on anything, because everything was contained within itself. We can imagine it as the state of dreamless sleep that we sometimes experience: a state without relation to the external world that leaves no memory behind.
Darkness and Water The beginning was veiled by a profound darkness, for the light we know is, in reality, an infinitesimal part, almost an illusion. However, here we are dealing with Primordial Darkness only from the human point of view, conditioned by our limitations and ignorance. In essence, it is an ocean of potentiality (Bythos).
Emergence of Creation A "germ" or "seed" sprouts thanks to the "fervent heat" or "power of heat": the first vital manifestation, which gives rise to the first movements of existence and the emergence of desire.
The Mystery The hymn concludes by asking who truly knows the secret of creation. It suggests that even the gods arose later and that the ultimate source remains unknown, perhaps only known by the Supreme Being, or perhaps not even by Him.
Stanza I of The Secret Doctrine
The First Stanza of The Secret Doctrine begins by developing ideas analogous to the previous text. It is a meditation on the ineffable and the unmanifested, which prepares the stage for the following stanzas, where the process of differentiation and manifestation of the cosmos is described.
Stanza I describes a state prior to all manifestation, just like the Hymn of Creation from the Rig Veda:
Time does not exist.
There is no perceived space.
There is no differentiation.
It concerns the Absolute, in which everything exists solely as potentiality. However, the beginning of Creation implies the start of differentiation, of the time and space in which it unfolds.
We can imagine a circle without a defined circumference: the idea of the circle without any manifestation. Like every ideal circle, it also possesses an "ideal" central point, unmanifested. This state can be represented as a primary Darkness, unreachable for our human understanding.
This Absolute Darkness is beyond the dual concept of light and darkness. It is a darkness without forms or attributes, yet the origin of everything that exists. There are, therefore, no dualities; no phenomena, neither day nor night, nor life nor death, nor form, nor polarities. This state of non-manifestation is the "Cosmic Night," the Pralaya: the Absolute Repose, the Cosmic Silence prior to the appearance of Sound, of the creative Word.
Comparison between the Big Bang of Modern Physics and the Cosmogony of The Secret Doctrine and the Rig Veda
A comparison can be established, but with very important nuances. The comparison is symbolic and analogical; it is not literal or scientific in a strict sense. Both descriptions speak of the origin of the cosmos, but they operate on different planes of knowledge. But let us see:
Big Bang (Scientific Cosmology):
Describes an initial state of extreme density and temperature.
Time and space begin with the Big Bang; there is no physical "before" in the classical sense.
Science knows nothing about the origin of the Big Bang; it only describes its evolution from the moment time begins to run and space is manifested.
Cosmogonic Text (Rig Veda / The Secret Doctrine):
Starts from an unmanifested state, prior to time and space.
There is no differentiation, nor phenomena, nor dualities.
The "before" is not merely temporal, but ontological: it is a state of absolute Being.
How are they alike? Both agree that time and space did not exist as we know them before the origin of the cosmos.
THE "INITIAL NOTHINGNESS"
Big Bang: It is not an "absolute nothingness," but a limiting state where physical laws are not applicable.
Cosmogonic Texts: "Nothingness" is an unmanifested fullness that contains everything in potential. Darkness and Water symbolize that pure potentiality, not non-existence.
How are they alike?: In both cases, "nothingness" is not absence, but latent potentiality.
THE GENERATING PRINCIPLE
Big Bang: It involves an initial, extremely rapid expansion of the universe (inflation). Energy is progressively transformed into particles, forces, and structures.
Cosmogonic Texts: The "fervent heat" or "power of heat" acts, as the Rig Veda describes; it is the activating principle—in other words, accelerated movement and energy. The "germ" emerges, the first manifestation of life and movement. The first expansive nucleus.
How are they alike?: Symbolic "heat" can be compared to the primordial energy that drives the expansion and differentiation of the universe.
DIFFERENTIATION AND PROGRESSIVE ORDER
Big Bang: After the expansion, particles, atoms, stars, and galaxies appear progressively. The universe passes from the homogeneous to the structured.
Cosmogonic Texts: Creation is a process of progressive differentiation from the One toward the manifold. Polarities, forms, and cycles appear.
How are they alike?: Creation is not instantaneous, but a gradual process of manifestation.
The Ultimate Mystery
Science: It cannot answer what originated the Big Bang or why physical laws exist. It recognizes a limit to knowledge.
Cosmogonic Texts: It concludes by stating that perhaps no one knows the origin, not even the gods. The mystery is an essential part of reality; it does not stand apart but coexists with it.
Profound Convergence: Both accept that the ultimate origin of the cosmos remains unknown.
CONCLUSION:
The comparison is valid as a profound analogy, not as a literal equivalence. Both visions coincide surprisingly on essential points:
A non-ordinary origin beyond human perception.
The initial non-existence of time and space.
The emergence from an undifferentiated potentiality.
The recognition of an irreducible mystery.
It could be said that the Big Bang is the modern scientific translation of a very ancient metaphysical intuition, expressed in symbols because the mathematical language to describe it did not yet exist.
Of course, we do not claim they are the same, but that there are parallels between the physical and metaphysical levels, which in some way correspond to similar patterns across different levels.
As a final note, it is interesting to highlight that, contrary to what some think, in the analysis of H. P. Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine, we find elements that respond to ancestral ideas, such as those of the Vedas, as well as very interesting parallels with modern Science.
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