Two kinds of inquiry
Astronomical observations help us reconstruct the history of the physical universe. This article asks whether a philosophical account of experience, causality and Consciousness opens another dimension of inquiry.
Who Banged the Big Bang! develops Prabha's Vedantic interpretation of two phases of manifestation: a subtle phase and a gross phase. The account below presents that interpretation for study and reflection. Its subtle bodies, elemental principles and karmic causality are philosophical concepts, rather than experimentally established components of cosmology.
The invitation to scientific thinkers is to examine the model thoughtfully while retaining the standards of evidence that belong to science. Hubble and Webb observations inform physical cosmic history; they do not by themselves demonstrate this philosophical model.
Creation as manifestation
This article questions the word 'creation'. It prefers to think in terms of a movement from potential to manifestation, followed by dissolution and a return to potential.
In this account, the causal universe contains the potential for a manifest universe. It is discussed alongside the idea of a singularity, although a singularity in physical theory and the philosophical causal universe have different meanings.
The author proposes a cyclic sequence in which the dissolution of one manifest universe precedes another manifestation. Big Crunch and Big Rip scenarios provide imagery in this discussion, but neither establishes this cycle. The philosophical argument should be evaluated as an argument.
Before the two phases
The causal universe is described as an unmanifest condition in which the powers of knowledge, action and inertia are in equilibrium. These qualities are the framework through which the author explains subsequent manifestation.
This account identifies karmic causality, the combined resultant tendencies of subtle bodies from a prior manifestation, as the principle disturbing that equilibrium. The subtle phase then unfolds before the tangible phase.
This is the setting for the article's use of 'Subtle Big Bang' and 'Gross Big Bang'. The names give a familiar image to a Vedantic sequence and should be understood within that sequence.
The five elemental principles
The subtle phase begins, in this account, with five pure elemental principles. The article relates them to space, gas, plasma, liquid and solid, and describes an order from the most rarefied to the least.
These are the author's analogies for a traditional elemental account. They should not be treated as a classification of the states of matter used in modern physics.
| Elemental principle | Sensory qualities in this model |
|---|---|
| Space | Sound |
| Air | Touch and sound |
| Fire | Sight, touch and sound |
| Water | Taste, sight, touch and sound |
| Earth | Smell, taste, sight, touch and sound |
Each succeeding principle is described as including the qualities of those that preceded it. The three intrinsic qualities, knowledge, action and inertia, are then used to explain different aspects of manifestation.
Knowledge and the powers of experience
The quality of knowledge first acts through the five principles individually, giving rise to five powers of perception: hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell.
Acting through them collectively, it gives rise to the inner personality: Mind, gross Intellect, subtle Intellect, Memory and Ego. These philosophical categories distinguish the stream of experience from the faculties that interpret, retain and identify with it.
The YOU in ME, Forever… carries that framework into relationships. What we hear is shaped by what we expect, remember and identify with. Understanding those movements can change the way we meet one another.
Action and the powers of embodied life
The quality of action then gives rise to five powers of action: speech, manipulation, locomotion, excretion and reproduction. Its collective expression gives rise to the five vital functions that support embodied life.
Together, the five perceptual powers, five active powers, five vital functions and five inner components make the twenty components of the subtle body in Prabha's presentation.
This teaching extends comparable sequences to animals and plants. It describes inert objects as lacking a subtle body while participating in a power of existence or inertia. These distinctions belong to the model's philosophical account of living and inert matter.
The gross phase
The Gross Big Bang follows the subtle phase in the author's sequence. Here, inertia acts through the elemental principles to produce the tangible world.
The argument says that no tangible element exists in complete isolation from the others. Water occupies space, has a temperature and can change condition. This observation is used to illustrate a traditional doctrine of elemental combination, often discussed as quintuplication.
The article assigns one half of a gross element to its corresponding pure principle and one eighth to each of the other four. The example is retained below as a conceptual proportion within that doctrine, rather than a laboratory measurement of water's composition.
| Illustrative gross water in the author's model | Proportion |
|---|---|
| Water principle | 50% |
| Space principle | 12.5% |
| Air principle | 12.5% |
| Fire principle | 12.5% |
| Earth principle | 12.5% |
Following this phase, this article places the development of the physical world: elements, stars, galaxies, planets and living organisms. Modern scientific accounts investigate those processes with observations and physical models. The Vedantic scheme asks a different set of questions about their philosophical foundation.
Study, reflect and contemplate
The article invites sustained reflection on the relation between the causal, subtle and gross. In its teaching context, the movement from understanding to steady contemplation is associated with nididhyasana, Vedantic meditation.
Cherish or Perish adds the need for an Intellect capable of examining terms, following an argument and resisting the appeal of a conclusion merely because it is striking. The same intellectual care that begins an inquiry should accompany it throughout.
Keep the inquiry open
This article hopes that dialogue between scientific and Vedantic perspectives can lead to further insight. That hope is best served by clear definitions, openness to questions and honesty about what each approach establishes.
Read the book for the fuller sequence, explore the Causal Body and Creation video lessons, and return to the question of the investigator. A thoughtful inquiry is strengthened when both wonder and discernment have a place.
Visual explorations
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