Clearly, it is a play on A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
What triggered this post – bringing out The Vedic in Me as I glided back home in my Lucid – was watching Dune: Part Two (where events are occurring in Imperium Calendar) and is set in the Far Future:
Dune: Part Two is a 2024 American epic science fiction film produced by Legendary Pictures, directed by Denis Villeneuve (who co-produced and co-wrote the screenplay with Jon Spaihts), and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The sequel to Dune (2021), it is the adaptation of the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Released just last week in the US, it has already grossed over $180 million.
So, I figured, why not write about something Maximally Inverse, from the Ancient Past, from the perspective of my own ancestral bloodline (My History of Eternity), gathered from our Family Book (Mandala 7 of Rigveda, credited to Vasiṣṭha, lit. ’most excellent’):
The Rigveda is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text. The sounds and texts of the Rigveda have been orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE. The text is layered, consisting of the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. The Rigveda is far more archaic than any other Indo-Aryan text. For this reason, it was in the center of attention of Western scholarship from the times of Max Müller and Rudolf Roth onwards. The Rigveda records an early stage of Vedic religion. The “family books” (2–7) are associated with various clans and chieftains, containing hymns by members of the same clan in each book; but other clans are also represented in the Rigveda.
The Rigveda hymns were revealed (“sruti“) to earthly bards (around 1500 BCE), and are not recollections of memory (“smriti‘), who then faithfully transmitted it orally – The Frog Hymn 7.103, is a tour de force, a sui generis, as every verse applies simultaneously to both frogs and Brahmins👌, a most elaborate and playful pun – for several centuries, before it got written down, after some re-arrangements and such, by Vyasa (who also compiled the other Vedas, at the end of the Vedic Period, known as the Vedanta, around 800 BC) in The Language of The Gods in the World of Men, that is Sanskrit.
Watching Dune with many feuding Noble (“Arya“🤔) Houses instantly reminded me of:
The Battle of the Ten Kings (Sanskrit: दाशराज्ञ युद्ध, IAST: Dāśarājñá yuddhá) first alluded to in the 7th Mandala of the Rigveda, took place between a king of the Bharatas and a confederation of tribes. It resulted in a decisive victory for the Bharatas and subsequent formation of the Kuru polity.
How is time represented in Vedic Religion? As ChatGPT helpfully states:
Time is divided into four great epochs or Yugas, collectively forming a cycle known as a Mahayuga (that repeats indefinitely). These four Yugas are:
- Satya Yuga (also known as Krita Yuga):
- Duration: 1,728,000 years
- Characteristics: It’s the age of truth and perfection. Virtue reigns supreme, and humans are spiritually evolved.
- Treta Yuga:
- Duration: 1,296,000 years
- Characteristics: Virtue begins to decline slightly. It is the era of the Ramayana, when Lord Rama is said to have lived.
- Dvapara Yuga:
- Duration: 864,000 years
- Characteristics: Further decline in virtue and morality. It’s known for the Mahabharata and the life of Krishna.
- Kali Yuga:
- Duration: 432,000 years
- Characteristics: The age of darkness and ignorance. Virtue is at its lowest, and human morality is greatly diminished.
So, when did Vasistha actually live? Let us anchor on:
Vasishta Yoga Samhita (Sanskrit: योगवासिष्ठम्, IAST: yoga-vāsiṣṭham) is a historically popular and influential syncretic philosophical text of Hinduism, dated to the 6th CE or 7th CE — 14th CE or 15th CE. It is attributed to Valmiki. The complete text contains over 29,000 verses. The text is named after sage Vasistha who is mentioned and revered in the seventh book of the Rigveda, and who was called as the first sage of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy by Adi Shankara. The text is structured as a discourse of sage Vasistha to Prince Rama.
By the way, I really like its opening where Agastya (the twin brother of Vasistha) is asked:
O sage, kindly enlighten me on the problem of liberation – which one of the two is conducive to liberation, work or knowledge?
Agastya replied:
Verily, birds are able to fly with their two wings: even so both work and knowledge together lead to the supreme goal of liberation. Not indeed work alone nor indeed knowledge alone can lead to liberation: but, both of them together form the means to liberation.
When did Rama (an incarnation of Vishnu) live? In Treta Yuga, which is before Dwapara Yuga (when the Mahabharata occurred, when Krishna, a later incarnation of Vishnu, illuminated Arjuna, in what we know as Bhagavad Gita). So, Vasistha was likely born in Krita Yuga.
His father was:
Varuna is an ancient Vedic deity in Hinduism, initially one of the most important gods who presided over the sky, water, celestial ocean, law, and the underworld. In early Vedic texts, Varuna is depicted as the upholder of cosmic and moral law (Rta), a guardian of the order of the universe, overseeing the world and human deeds with his omniscient knowledge. He was considered a king of the gods before the prominence of Indra in the later Vedic period.
That is, Varuna and Indra and Agni were 😉:
Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol.1, Vol.2 and Vol. 3) are 2014, 2017, and 2023 American superhero films based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. They were commercial successes, grossing $773 million, $869 million and $845 million worldwide.
