[Advaita-l] On evidence for and against Yugas of Indian chronology

[Aditya Kumar]

    On Tuesday 14 November 2017, 4:14:38 PM IST, Venkatraghavan S <agnimile at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 Interesting. The idea of shrAddha karma conducted every one earth year being equivalent to one day of the pitrloka, or brahma's lifespan of 100 years being equivalent to c.300 trillion earth years is a variant of the time dilation concept. According to a common sankalpam (used in many religious functions, including upAkarma), since the current Brahma's birth, 155 trillion years have passed. Interestingly modern science estimates the time elapsed since the big bang to be about 13.8 billion years, which is roughly equivalent to 1.5 days of Brahma. 
One potential way to explain the difference in scale between the two is to postulate several expansions of the universe from a singularity and contraction back into a singularity. That is, the age of the universe postulated by science refers to only the current phase of expansion, and there have been infinite number of such expansions and contractions of the universe before the current big bang. Anyway, we are digressing from the topic.

A : Perhaps. But a more common explanation would be Gravitational Time Dilation. Link : Gravitational time dilationTime dilation occurs due to gravity of the planet, orbiting speed of the planet and it's proximity to other heavy objects. 


The specific story of King Revata / Raivata going to brahmaloka with his daughter Revati and being told that several millennia have passed during their time in brahmaloka is in the viShNnu purANa (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp093.htm) and devI bhAgavatam (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch08.htm). Maybe it is in the Mahabharata too, but I am not able to locate it at the present.
A : Yes, they are in other Puranas too. It is in Mahabharatha as well because Balarama is an important character in the epic. 

Regards,Venkatraghavan