STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE (Vedic) Viswaroopa

The Universe if perceived as the totality of existence including planets, stars, galaxies, intergalactic space, and all life, matter and energy. The part of the universe that can be studied by humans may be called the observable universe. The words 'Cosmos' and the 'World(s)' are used in a similar sense. The story of the universe and its beginning or creation has fascinated the human mind from ancient times. The observable universe is the part of the universe that can be observed from the Earth. This is possible because light from those objects had time to reach the Earth since the beginning event of the cosmological expansion, which is assumed to be the Big-Bang. Assuming the universe is isotropic; we may infer that the observable universe is a spherical volume centred on the observer, regardless of the whole. The author, Dr. Sivananda Murty, describes the Vedic conception of Brahmanda with the background of the Milky Way galaxy and presents a unified picture of the structure of the universe in a manner appealing to the modern scientific mind. Material found in several scriptures is presented at one place together with a rare insight resulting from his yogic background. This book provides a backdrop for his exposition of the Kathopanishad in his classic work Katha-Yoga. Several lokas are talked about, which do not find a place in the list of fourteen worlds. They are the Yamaloka, Narakas, Pitruloka, and Pretaloka, Gandharvaloka, Apsaraloka, Vasuloka, Yakshaloka, the places of Rudras and Adityas, and many such realms. The picture given by the author for these lokas nearer to earth is not found in Puranic literature. For most of the souls caught in the cycle of births and deaths, the nearby realms are the obvious destination. The discussion and the insight provided on these lokas is the main contribution of the monograph. The fact that the information comes through yogic insight and meditation makes it very authentic.