"In his landmark TV series Cosmos, Carl Sagan called Hinduism the only religion whose time-scale for the universe matches the billions of years documented by modern science. Sagan filmed that segment in a Hindu temple featuring a statue of the god Shiva as the cosmic dancer, an image that now stands in the plaza of the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva."
Carl Edward Sagan (Born November 9, 1934) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, poet, and science communicator.
Many scholars, scientists, philosophers, noble laureates, and famous people have studied and appreciated the scientific, philosophical, spiritual nature of Hindu Dharma. Let us commit ourselves to appreciate by diving deep into the ocean of Hindu scriptures and spread its fragrance to the world.
Carl Sagan is one such scientist who was attracted to Hinduism and spent many years in India studying the richness of our heritage. Following are a few examples:
“The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths.
It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang.”
The most elegant and sublime of these bronzes is a representation of the creation of the Universe at the beginning of each cosmic cycle – a motif known as the cosmic dance of Shiva. The god has four hands. In the upper right hand is the drum whose sound is the sound of creation. And in the upper left hand is a tongue of flame… a reminder that the universe now newly created… will billion of years from now will be utterly destroyed. Creation. Destruction.
“In his landmark TV series Cosmos, Carl Sagan called Hinduism the only religion whose time-scale for the universe matches the billions of years documented by modern science. Sagan filmed that segment in a Hindu temple featuring a statue of the god Shiva as the cosmic dancer, an image that now stands in the plaza of the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva.”
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It would be helpful to use the term “Sanatana Dharma” instead of “Hinduism”.
Lets look at the word “Shivoham” – composed of two words “Shiva” and “Aham” – “that which is not” Aham.
So, essentially, when you’re uttering the word Shivoham several times, you’re consciously moving away from the Aham and saying that you are not the Aham. (The Identity).
Now, the “that which is not” indicates “Nothing”. The vast Nothingness in the Cosmos. Yatha Pinda Tatha Brahmaanda. Vast Nothingness in the Cosmos and Vast Nothingness in the Atom. That is Shiva.
The rest (however insignificant it may be) is Shakti. Even though Shiva is Vast, he is Nothing. Even though Shakti is insignificant, she is something.
This is probably what the scientists at CERN realized and kept a small statue for.
Please let us know how –
1. The Hindu religion is a Faith
2. Shiva is a God
3. What is a God