Vedas says that before the creation of the universe Lord Vishnu was sleeping in the ocean of all causes. His bed is a giant serpent with thousands of cobra like hoods. By the way, in the trinity of Creator, Maintainer, and Destroyer as mentioned in the Vedas, Lord Vishnu is the maintainer. Brahma is the Creator and Shiva the Destroyer. While Vishnu is asleep, a lotus sprouts of his navel (note that navel is Symbolized as the root of creation). Inside this lotus, Brahma resides. Brahma represents the universe which we all live in, and it is the Brahma who creates life forms. Now take a break here. Vishnu is the personification of the eternal multiverse that exists forever without any beginning or end. Brahma is the personification of our temporary physical universe that was created in the big bang. Brahma is said to have been created from the navel (which is a single point) of Vishnu, described as a lotus blooming out of the navel, much like our big bang universe. Now, this universe represented by Brahma is not a permanent universe, it is temporary, Brahma lives for 100 years the Vedas says and then dies and then a new universe (Brahma) is born. So as per Vedas, our universe lives for 100 years. Later we shall see how long each year of Brahma is. For now, Brahma represents out universe which has birth and death, a big bang and a big crush, from a navel singularity. Vishnu represents the eternity that lies beyond our universe which has no birth or death and that which is eternal. Many such universes like ours exist in Vishnu. Vedas says that thousands of Brahmas have passed away. In other words, this is not the first time universe has been created. Let us come back to the time measurements now. Brahma lives for 100 years say Vedas and we are on the first day of the 51st year of the Brahma.
A year of Brahma
By the way, each year of Brahma has 360 days. And are on the 1st day of the 51st year of our current Brahma. Coming back to the day of the Brahma. Well, there is day and night. Vedas say that during the day Brahma is busy in creation of life and during the night all life he created is absorbed back into him. So we will be there only for this day of Brahma, which is the first day of his 51st year. But don’t feel sad, let me promise you, this is a pretty long day.
A Day of Brahma
Each day of Brahma is called a Kalpa and this itself is very huge a number. No wonder, ancient Indians had to be perfect in mathematics, before going into all these things. A Kalpa is made up of Brahma’s one day and one night.
Manvantaras
The day has 14 Manvantaras. Similarly, the night has equal 14 Manvantras. But then Brahma is resting in the night, so let’s get back to the day again.
Maha Yuga
Each Manvantara is made up of 17 Mahayuga. We are in the 28th Mahayuga of this Manvantara the Vedas says. A Mahayuga is a collection of 4 Yugas. Maha means giant or huge. The 4 yugas are Satya Yuga (also called Krita Yuga), Treata Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, Kali Yuga. We are in Kali Yuga of our current Mahayuga the Vedas says.
Satya Yuga
It lasts for 40% of its Mahayuga of divine where humans need no physical means to exist and are in direct contact with the God.
Treta Yuga
It lasts for 30% of its Mahayuga – Age where bad deeds start appearing, still there is a lot of truth, and in fact, ¾ of this age still has goodness.
Dwapara Yuga
It lasts for 20% of its Mahayuga-Dwapara means after the second, where there is the almost equal amount of good and bad.
Kali Yuga
It lasts for 10% of its Mahayuga – Kali means Darkness in Sanskrit (not to be confused with kaali which goddess), no wonder we are in this age.
Now finally we have reached to a timescale which we can relate to our own years.
1 Kaliyuga = 432000 solar years
A Kaliyuga had the length of one Yuga. So one Mahayuga has 10 Yugas of which 4 are in Satya Yuga, 3 in Treta Yuga, 2 in Dwapara and 1 in Kali Yuga.
So a Mahayuga = 10 times the Kaliyuga i.e. 4,320,000 solar years.
Calculations
Let us do some reverse calculations now to find out the age of the universe as per the Vedas.
1 Mahayuga = 4,320,000 years
1 Manvantara = 71 Mahayugas
1 day of Brahma = 14 Manvantara = 994 Mahayugas
Now a small addition here, Vedas also say that before and after each Manvantara there is a gap equivalent to 4 yugas (Not MahaYugas).
So, Now 1 day of Brahma = 14 Manvantaras + (15 * 4 Yugas)
= 994 Mahayugas +60 Yugas
= 994 Mahayugas + 6 Mahayugas
= 1000 Mahayugas
So, 1 day of Brahma = 1000 MahaYugas = 4,320,000,000 years
1 night I again 1000 MahaYuags = 4,320,000,000 years
1 Complete day = day + night = 8,640,000,000 years = 8.64 billion years
Note that we are in the 7th Manvantara of this day. So let us calculate how many years have passed since today started for Brahma.
Step 1: For 6 Manvantaras we have 71 * 6 = 426 Mahayugas
Step 2: Then we have the gaps between each Manvantara which are 7 * 4 Yugas = 2.8 MahaYugas
Step 3: Then we have the current Mahayuga in our Manvantara which is 28th, we are the last 1/10 of it (Remember Kaliyuga is the last of 4 yugas and span 1/10 of a Mahayuga). So, it is 27.9 Mahayugas.
So all put together we have 426+2.8+27.9=456.7 Mahayugas have been already spent in the current day of Brahma. Approximately 543 more to go before we all are absorbed back into the Brahma. Okay so 456.7 in terms of years is 456.7 * 4,320,000 = 1,972,944,456 which is about 2 billion years. Somewhat close to what evolution proposes for life on earth.
Age of the Universe
Now let’s find out the age of our universe as per the Vedas. Let us consider the age of the Brahma to be the age of the universe. This is one number which no modern theory can even come anywhere near to it. As we saw earlier a day of Brahma has 2000 Mahayugas (Day + Night). There are 360 days in a year for Brahma and we are on the first day of the 51st year. So far 350 * 50 = 18000 days have passed for Brahma. This is equivalent to 18000 * 2000 * 4320000 Human Years. In other words 135,520,000,000,000 Human years. Add the current day of Brahma which is 1,972,944,456 Human years. So, as per the Vedas, the current age of the universe is 155,521,992,944,456 years which is about 155,522 billion years. Modern day Science has been able to predict the age of our universe to be only about 15-20 billion years. Moreover, since we are on the first day of a 51st year of Brahma almost equal amount of time has to pass before this universe ends. So, either modern science still has a long way to go in estimation the age of our universe or the universe mentioned in Vedas is the mother of all universe (a multiverse probably) including our own universe.
More interesting: Vedas also says that the average human life span in each yuga as follows:
Kali Yuga = 100 years
Dwapara Yuga = 200 years
Treta Yuga = 300 years
Satya Yuga = 400 years
We observed another interesting fact here. Vedas are also implying by this that humans are not limited to planet earth nor to this universe alone. We belong to other Yugas as well where we live a longer life. More than the length of the life, a greater depth as well.