Exopolitics Journal
3:4 (June, 2011). ISSN 1938-1719
www.exopoliticsjournal.com
Come Carpentier de Gourdon,
“
Indian Cosmology Revisited in the Light of Current Facts
”
272
perceptible and quantifiable creation exists. However, certain humans can also accede to those other
worlds, either due to special gifts and powers or through intensive psychic and spiritual training or
magical practices but they thereby automatically violate the rules of the scientific game, set in the
age of Enlightenment, so that their experiences are ignored as being invalid by definition.
Revealingly, the criteria of proof that are generally upheld by scientific methodology are not
deemed sufficient in cases which violate the laws of nature as defined by “science”. In this attitude,
the “knowledge establishment” remains faithful to the dogma: Non potest sicut non est: it can’t be,
therefore it is not, or in a milder version “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof”.
The spatial map of the cosmos we have just outlined is reflected in a chronological order that we
have already alluded. Each cycle of life is said to be divided into four ages of decreasing duration
and virtue: the Satya or Kriti, Treta, Dwapara and Kali yugas. As Creation drifts or outflows farther
away from its source, its purity decreases and its light wanes. The actual duration of the yugas,
which it interpreted diversely depending upon the sources being consulted, is less important than the
notion that as the age declines, spiritual power fades and technology becomes increasingly prevalent
and sophisticated. Since we are in the age of Kali that we entered more than five thousand years
ago, our spiritual and psychic faculties are said to have dwindled to a mere shadow of their original
power, we are witnessing the rise of advanced technologies that enable us to venture always deeper
into outer space and visit other planetary bodies.
The Puranic scriptures say that while in the Satya Yuga, humans had all the gifts that we now regard
as supernatural. In the
Treta Yuga they had to use
mantras (or verbal formulas) to access those
powers, or control their vimanas (flying vehicles) and also their weapons (astras and shastras)
because war had become a fact of life then. In the Dvapara Yuga, they needed yantras (magical
signs and drawings). Science and technology are mentioned and even described but they are
regarded as crutches built by degenerating mankind in order to make up for the loss of natural
faculties.
In the Kali Yuga, predictably machines (kritakas) must be built and operated with metals and other
material substances and propelled by physical energy generated by burning or otherwise harnessing
Exopolitics Journal
3:4 (June, 2011). ISSN 1938-1719
www.exopoliticsjournal.com
Come Carpentier de Gourdon,
“
Indian Cosmology Revisited in the Light of Current Facts
”
273
material substances.
Mantras, Tantras and
Yantras do still exist, although many were reportedly
lost, but since their power lies at the invisible or at least mathematically unquantifiable levels of
spiritual and psychic existence, they are not deemed relevant by our technocratic and intellectual
leaderships. The power of our technologies is hence, paradoxically, rooted in our limitations as a
species which is described as being a shadow of its glorious original self.
After reporting uncritically what is alleged in those
scriptures, we may point out that similar accounts of
evolution are found in many other sacred and
ancient texts throughout the world. There is a hoary,
quasi-universal tradition behind the belief that
modern mankind is the descending incarnation of
much higher life forms, not the result of a long and
gradual linear progression as the modern Theory of
Evolution (TOE) holds.
Other major implications of the Indian traditional
history of the world are that the material means for
conveying knowledge and for record keeping, such
as writing and, more recently, taping or filming
were not needed in earlier times since oral or
telepathic communication and memorization were
far superior methods for the acquisition and preservation of information and above all wisdom.
Thus the progress made in those areas does not denote a rise from barbarity to true humanity but
constitutes instead an imperfect substitute for the lost powers and abilities of our remote ancestors
or predecessors on this planet. The extraordinary quality and depth of the remaining Vedic texts,
apparently consigned to memory in an oral form for untold centuries, seem to confirm the
refinement and elevation of the civilization which preserved them with flawless precision down to
our days. The contention that they originated in a highly evolved culture endowed with now lost
spiritual and cognitive techniques is hence plausible and it finds an echo in Plato’s doctrine who
describes the invention of writing as an effect of the loss of primeval wisdom.