Gita Rahasya -Tilak
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CHAPTER VIII
THE CONSTRUCTIN AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE COSMOS
This does not mean that the Vedantists or the writers of the Puranas have copied this knowledge from the Kapila Samhkhya philosophy; but only that everywhere the conception of the order in which the Cosmos was created is the same. Nay, it may even be said that the word 'Samhkhya' has been used here in the comprehensive meaning of ' Knowledge '. Nevertheless, Kapilacarya has explained the order of the creation of the Cosmos in a particularly systematic manner from the point of view of a science, and as the Samkhya theory has been principally accepted in the Bhagavadgita, I have dealt with it at length in this chapter. Not only have modern "Western materialistic philosophers accepted the Samkhya doctrine that the entire perceptible Cosmos has come out of one avyakta (imperceptible to the organs), subtle, homogeneous, unorganised, fundamental substance, which completely pervades everything on all sides, but they have come to the further conclusions that the energy in this fundamental substance has grown only gradually, and that nothing has come into existence suddenly and like a spout, giving the go-bye to the previous and continuous order of creation of the universe. This theory is called the Theory of Evolution. When this theory was first enunciated in the Western countries in the last century, it caused there a great commotion. In the Christian Scriptures, it is stated that the Creator of the world created the five primordial elements and every living being which fell into the category of moveables one by one at different times, and this genesis was believed in by all Christians before the advent of the Evolution Theory. Therefore, when this doctrine ran the risk of being refuted by the Theory of Evolution, that theory was attacked on all sides, and that opposition is still more or less going on in those countries. Nevertheless, in as much as the strength of a scientific truth must always prevail, the Evolution Theory of the creation of the Cosmos is now becoming more and more acceptable to all learned scholars. According to this theory, there was originally one subtle, homogeneous substance in the Solar system, and as the original motion or heat of that substance gradually became less and less, it got more and more condensed, and the Earth and, the other planets gradually came into existence, and the Sun is the final portion of it which has now remained. The Earth was originally a very hot ball, same as the Sun, but as it gradually lost its heat, some portion of the original substance remained in the liquid from, while other portions became solidified, and the air and water which surround the earth and the gross, material earth under themi 'Came gradually into existence; and later on, all the living and non-living creation came into existence as the result of the union, of these three. |
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