Cynosure of our eyes

For millennia the cynosure of our eyes is the Sun whom we worshiped and considered as the light of the universe. However, heliocentrism is relatively new in the world steeped in religious dogma. Only in the 17th century Copernicus convinced everyone that earth is a planet of the Sun. If that is so, what else are we wrong about?

In the ageing, yet crisp, voice of Sir David Attenborough (1926-), we learn that the James Webb telescope orbiting the earth proved that astronomers who based their calculations on big-bang were wrong! Webb found a galaxy that had formed 200-300 million years after big-bang, which was unexpected. It's not that they were completely wrong about big-bang, but only those conclusions based on the observations of the Hubble telescope need revision. In simple terms the space is expanding so fast that the light from some galaxies will never make it to us. So what does it imply?

The Vasishta Gita in Ramayana mentions two concepts in terms of frequency of appearance: consciousness and kaakataaliyam. The latter means as a crow alights a coconut tree, a coconut drops to the ground without a cause-effect relationship. For instance if we make an amateur remark that "as astronomers peer through Webb in a particular angle, the universe is too shy to reveal itself" it will be a kaakataaliyam. Coming to consciousness we can approximate it to the visible universe or "bubble" as David Attenborough says.

The astronomers say we are at the peak of universal consciousness with so many observable parameters made possible by technological advancements. That means, one day in the future our consciousness will shrink so much that even Sage Vyasa will be naught. People in the 22nd century will have to launch a search to find out just what the group of letters v-y-a-s-a, spelled in whatever ways, mean because their consciousness would be shrunk a little bit.

Linguists for centuries had a solution for that. They made a dictionary entry expecting people to refer to it or create a stotra for daily recitation as in the case of hindus. The Oxford English Dictionary has just 21,730 pages in 20 volumes! While it is commendable that they keep adding new words, that won't do. Because in 2025, the Oxford English Dictionary has added nearly 600 new words, including terms like "alamak," "bachata," and "bed-hopper," reflecting cultural and linguistic trends. Even search engines couldn't catch up because like light from the stars is always from the past, there is a lag between updates to a dictionary and the updates by the search engine.

If astronomers were correct, from now on our consciousness will keep shrinking which is in agreement with vedas. As many know vedas had 1132 branches barely 1000 years ago based on Adi Sankara's writings and now there are only 7. So what happened to the wisdom in the 1125 branches? In simple terms it went past our visible universe, even the most powerful telescopes would be of no help.

Coming back to heliocentric theory, is there a single source of light, let's call him Aditya, who lights all of the visible universe including our Sun? Are the non-visible universes stacked like a deck of cards or the layers of earth which can be accessed by simply "digging" or "tunnelling"? Are there several Adityas among the invisible universes? Given that our Sun is 4.6 billion years old with a 10 billion year life-span, what will be the life-span of an Aditya?

A more pertinent question is who lights up all the Adityas? The vedas say it is Brahman. Because we are still conscious of vedas, we are able to answer. How about the future generations? Already those of us who didn't have the fortune to visit the Sun Temple at Konark or Arasavilli in Andhra Pradesh, think there is no such thing as a precise sundial. A century from now, the pilgrimage sites will quietly slip out of consciousness just as the galaxies are drifting away from our visible universe.

David Attenborough draws a nihilistic conclusion that as the visible universe shrinks there will be a denouement, because he, like many of us, thinks the big-bang is the beginning of reckoning of time. The skeptics can subscribe to it. But those merging their consciousness with that of our rishis who said the creation is "anaadi" wouldn't have any trouble.

As the year is coming to an end, given that the cynosure of 2025 is Maha Kumbh Mela, what will be the cynosure in 2026? Let's hope Isro will launch a telescope that will find the krishnabhila that leads us to the invisible universes, just as Bhagavata Skandha 10 says:

"Sri Krishna's chariot crossed seven mountains, seven oceans, seven islands and entered a pitch black region. The horses were unable to see anything. Then Sri Krishna released his Sudarshana disc to light the path. They reached a city studded with diamonds called Mahakala. There they saw Adisesha with thousand gem studded hoods. On the hoods was seated the paramatma. Sri Krishna and Arjuna saluted the paramatma."

Regards