How Sri Hari Created the Universe
HOW DID HE CREATE THE UNIVERSE?
The Lord Maha Vishnu had a long sleep, one lasting one thousand Chaturyugas. One Chaturyuga, as per human time, is 4.32 million years — four lakh thirty-two thousand years. So the Lord slept for 4320 million years.
At the end of the previous Maha Pralaya, after withdrawing the whole creation back into Himself, everything became homogeneous — the state where everything looks alike. Take a glass of water — every drop is like the other. You can't differentiate one from the other. This is called homogeneous state.
Compare this with a bowl of fruit salad — it is differentiated. You can tell pieces of apple from grapes and grapes from orange and the cream. They are all not the same. This is heterogeneous state. Before creation is homogeneous. After creation is heterogeneous.
You stare into pitch darkness on a night of Amavasya — you can't make out anything. That state is called homogeneous. Nothing is there in that state — trees, plants, mountains, men, animals, ocean, stars, planets, clouds, sky — nothing is there.
Maha Vishnu, Sri Hari, remained in that state for 4320 million years, in what is called Yoganidra.
This is always in cycles — creation, sustenance, and dissolution. This keeps on repeating.
He was asleep on Pralaya waters. This water is not the physical water we drink and take bath in. The homogeneous substance before creation and after dissolution is called Pralaya water. It is called Udaka.
There are three Avataras of Vishnu called the Purushavataras:
Karnodakashayee Vishnu,
Garbhodakashayee Vishnu, and
Ksheerodakashayee Vishnu.
There is another thing to be understood here — something called Mahat Tatva. As far as the material world is concerned, this is the start point and endpoint. Everything evolves out of Mahat Tatva — the material world — and everything goes back into Mahat Tatva. This is a closed unit in itself.
During the Yuganta Pralaya — the Pralaya at the end of four Yugas, that is, after every 4.32 million years — the entire creation dissolves back into Mahat Tatva. Then, at the beginning of the next Chaturyuga, that is, at the beginning of the next Satya Yuga or Krita Yuga, the material world comes out of this Mahat Tatva.
At the end of the Kalpa — the Kalpa Pralaya or Maha Pralaya — even the Mahat Tatva ceases to exist. It dissolves back into the homogeneous matter or the Karnodaka. What happens at the ends of Chaturyuga and Kalpa are different. At the end of Chaturyuga, everything just goes back into Mahat Tatva. At the end of Kalpa, everything becomes homogeneous.
The Mahat Tatva can be perceived as a hub to take care of the needs of the material world during a Chaturyuga.
In schools, there is a storeroom where all the items required for art, dance, and drama are kept — like the fancy ornaments, dress, necklace, bangles and all. During the annual function, they are all given out to the children, who wear them and use them. Once the annual function is over, they are all brought back and kept in the storeroom. Next year, again they are taken out.
Mahat Tatva is like that storeroom. It contains everything that is required to create the material universe in their basic form. It is like a warehouse where cement, bricks, sand, stones, granite — materials required for making a building — are kept. You take them out and build the building as and when required.
One difference is that once the building is demolished, all the materials go back to the warehouse — Mahat Tatva — only to be taken out again to build another building after some time.
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Vishnu Sahasranama
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