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Man Developed from Cosmic Consciousness Brahman, Not an Evolution of Apes, Part I, by professor Dr. R. Brahmachari

Sacrificer           professor Dr. R. Brahmachari
Sacrifice code       wfor0457
Sacrifice date       May 10, 2008


It is observed that the eminent Hindus have started thingking seriously the Western interpretation of Evaluation of Man. But they seem to be least interested to know the Vedic conception of Evolution of Man. Recently the Western conception that humans evolved in Africa has become an widely debated topic. I therefore like to circulate my two part article,

"Man Developed from Cosmic Consciousness-not an evalution of Apes' among the readers and hope that you will cooperate.
Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari,
May 10, 2008

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Man Developed from
Cosmic Consciousness Brahman,
Not an Evolution of Apes-Part I

Dr. R. Brahmachari*



Where from man has come? According to the Western scholars, man has evolved from a special type of monkey. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher said, "man is a social animal". So, it is quite natural for the Western scholars that, following the Greek tradition, they would discover animals to be forefathers of the humankind. Scientists, who believe in Darwin's Theory of Evolution, are convinced that man has ascended from apes, most probably from chimpanzees that they consider closest to human beings. According to their conviction men and chimpanzees had a common ancestor and at a certain stage evolution they got separated from each other. These scientists are trying hard to ascertain the date when man and chimpanzee began to split as separate species by examining the fossils and skeletal remains of man like apes.

Previously these scientists were convinced that, nearly 1 million years ago, primates started to walk on two legs and after several processes of evolution ultimately, about 100,000 years ago, turned into human beings. This view has gained so much publicity that any other alternative to it is instantly rejected by the modern scientific community. So, it only remains to pin point the date when those primates or hominids started to become man.

According to a recent press release (Times of India-27.02.2007), man appeared on earth nearly 4.1 million years ago. Even a couple of years ago, the most accurate estimates were nearly 2.8 to 3.0 million years. Recently Mr. Asger Hobolth, a researcher of North Carolina State University, has claimed that the separation began nearly 4.1 million years ago, much earlier than previous estimates. Mr. Hobolth came to the above conclusion after studying the DNA of man, chimpanzee and gorilla.

In the present context, it should be pointed that by examining the images of the Ramsetu (or Adam's Bridge that connects India and Sri Lanka), taken with the help of remote sensing technology from the Gemini-XI and Gemini-XII satellites, the scientists of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has come to two revolutionary conclusions- firstly, it is a man-made structure and secondly, it is 1.75 million years old. Or in other words, they have accepted that there were intelligent humans on earth as early as 1.75 million years ago. It is needless to say that these conclusions have served a jolt to the Darwin's view of evolution of man.

Hindu tradition, on the contrary, says that man lived on earth much earlier than all the above mentioned estimates. It also discards the view that man has ascended from apes. According to the Hindu system of time reckoning, 4.32 million years make one Mahayuga and thousand Mahayugas, or 4.32 billion years make one Kalpa. One Kalpa is the day of Creator Brahmaa and the following Kalpa is his night. During the day of Brahmaa, the formless unmanifest Brahman assumes form and the Universe with its contingent beings manifests itself. In short, the cosmic consciousness Brahman, which was so far beyond the perception of our senses, becomes perceptible. The period is therefore called Sristi or Creation. During the night of Brahmaa, the entire Universe returns to the subtle and non-perceptible state again and the period is therefore called Pralaya or dissolution. So the Bhagavadgita says,

For a thousand ages lasts
One day of (creator) Brahmaa,
And for a thousand ages one such night;
This knowing, men will know (what is meant by) day and night. (8,17)

At the day's dawning all things manifest
Spring forth from the Unmanifest;
And at nightfall they dissolve again
In (that same mystery) surnamed 'Unmanifest'.(8, 18)

Yea, this whole host of beings
Comes ever anew to be; at the fall of night
It dissolves away all helpless;
At dawn of day it rises up (again).(8, 19)



Furthermore, the Hindu system of time reckoning divides a Kalpa of 4.32 billion years into 14 Manvantaras and hence one Manvantara becomes 308448000 years or 308.448 million years. Hindu tradition also says that we are now passing through the Svetavaraha Kalpa and after the beginning of this Svetavaraha Kalpa, six Manvantaras have gone and the seventh Vaivasvata Manvantara is in currency. The name of the first Manvantara, after the beginning of the Svetavaraha Kalpa, is called the Svayambhuva Manvantara and our Bhagavat Purana says that Maharaja Uttanapada, the father Bhaktaraj Dhruva, used to rule the earth in the said Svayambhuva Manvantara. A simple calculation leads us to the conclusion that, the reign of Maharaja Uttanapata occurred 1971221106 years or nearly 1.97122 billion years ago.

So, one is convinced that the Hindu concept of origin of the Universe, origin of life and, most importantly, the origin of man differs drastically from the conclusions of the present Darwinian scientists. And hence it becomes necessary to delve into these matters a bit. Lord Krishna in Bhagavadgita says,

In the world of living things a (minute) part of Me,
Eternal (still), becomes a living (self),
Drawing to itself the five senses and the mind
Which have their roots in Nature.

When (this) sovereign (self) takes on a body
And when he rises up therefrom,
He takes them (with him), moving on,
As the wind (wafts) scents away from their proper home.

Ear, eye, touch, taste and smell,
He returns to due account,
So too the mind; (With these) he moves
Aamong the things of sense.(XV,7-9)


In the verse (XV,7), the Blessed Lord says that a fragment of His eternal Self becomes living being and with the help of the five senses and mind, born of the Nature (Prakriti), attract him (to take rebirth). To get into the inner meaning of these verses, one has to have a preliminary idea about the fundamentals of Hindu theology. A Hindu believes that the subtle body, called Atma or Self, is his real identity, not this mortal body. This Atma, entering into the material body with five senses, arising out of the Prakriti, makes him to move eternal cycles of birth and rebirth. This cycle of birth and rebirth continues until it attains Moksha through the realization of the Cosmic Self or Brahman. The mundane physical body undergoes changes and ultimately perishes, but the Atma or Self is unchangeable, imperishable and eternal.

According to the Samkhya school of Indian philosophy, Prakriti or Mulaprakriti is the raw material of the physical body and three attributes, sattva, rajas and tamas are the constituents of the Prakriti. This Prakriti is inert while the Purusha or Atma is conscious. So, Atma provides the consciousness of the contingent beings arising out of the inert Prakriti. So the conscious Purusha of Samkhya is identical with the Brahman or the Self of Vedanta. That is the why, the Blessed Lord has described Himself as the conscious Purusha and the nature with the contingent beings as the Prakriti in Bhagavad-Gita. And Paramatman or God Almighty make the living beings, arising out of the inert Prakriti, to undergo infinite cycles of birth and rebirth. To explain this, the Blessed Lord in Bhagavat-Gita, says,

As a man casts off his worn-out clothes
And takes on other new ones (in their place),
So does the embodied soul cast off his worn-out
Bodies and enters others new.(II,22)


To explain the same, the Blessed Lord says in the verse (XV,8), that as the wind carry fragrance of a flower from one place to the other, Atman or God Almighty carries the soul, along with the five senses and the mind, from one body to the other. And resting the five senses and the mind in the new body, Paramatman with the help of vision, smell, touch, ear and mind, continue to enjoy the creation (XV,9).

So, according to the Hindu theology, the origin of the material body is not important. Hindu scriptures do not say that, now there are men roaming on the earth and once upon a time they were non-existent. On the contrary, it says that man and the entirety of the contingent beings are continuing there march of birth and rebirth from the infinite past and this march will continue in infinite future. This procession from birth and rebirth continues through one kalpa to the next kalpa, and goes on repeating through eternal time. During the day of Brahmaa, or in the beginning of every kalpa, contingent beings teeming with life springs forth automatically as it took place in past kalpas.

So far, the scientists of the Darwinian school used to pooh-pooh all these conclusions of our history as written in our 18 Puranas and turn everything down declaring them myths. But very recently an American researcher has conclusively proved that the narrations of our Puranas are true. Shri Michael Cremo, who is a devotee of Lord Krishna and a member of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), being inspired by the descriptions of the Bhagvat Purana, started investigating these matters and unearthed a deep conspiracy of the Western scientists. In fact archaeologists had discovered fossilized human remains of much older date and many of them were more than a billion year old. But the scientists intentionally suppressed all these discoveries as they could not be explained by the Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Michael Cremo has compiled all these discoveries in his book his Forbidden Archaeology. Later on he wrote another book Devolution of Man. In this later work, he conclusively proved that, man lived on the earth nearly 2 billion years ago. He also discarded the notion of the Darwin's Theory that man is an ascended ape. Or rather, he believes that the ancestors of today's man were angels and hence man is a fallen angel, not an ascended ape.

It should not escape one's notice that the discrepancy between the narration of the Bhagvat Purana and the conclusion of Michael Cermo are very close. While the Bhagvat Purana tells that man existed 1.97 billion years ago and Dr. Cremo's estimate is 2 billion years. And hence the difference between these two conclusions is 0.03 billion (or the error is only 1.5 per cent). So in the introduction of his later work, Michael Cremo writes, "My book Forbidden Archaeology, co-authored with Richard L. Thompson, documents archaeological evidence for extreme human antiquity, consistent with the Puranas, the historical writings of ancient India. The evidence places a human presence so far back in time as to call into question the Darwinian account of human beings".

During the Vietnam War, the young Cremo became dissatisfied with life and started travelling and reading various texts and during his wild travels, he happened to be got in touch with the Vedas and it was the Vedic philosophy that changed his life. In 1984, he began to study the correlation between modern science and the narration in ancient Hindu texts and in mid-1990s, he wrote his first book, Forbidden Archaeology. In October, last year, Dr. Cremo came to Calcutta to initiate a campaign for his books and delivered a lecture at the Anthropology Department of the University of Calcutta. While speaking about his work, Dr. Cremo said, "I had no idea that there was so much evidence. That's one of the reasons it took me a long time to write the book". He also said, "Humans did not evolve up from matter; instead we have devolved, or came down, from the realm of pure consciousness spirit". But the book received bitter criticism from the scientific community in the West. So, Dr. Cremo said, "The book had to face a storm scathing criticism from the scientific community". He is now working hard for his third book. "The extra evidence I have gathered is sufficient for a third book. It will take another two years to finish the book", said Dr Cremo told the audience.
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*Professor,
Department of Applied Physics,
University of Calcutta,
Edited:October 8, 2007.

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