The bizarre implications of the Big Bang: A subjective analysis

The phrase "I was born on my birthday" encapsulates the modern world's ignorance. We act as if life was granted to us the day we were born. I argue that such a materialistic worldview limits, dwarfs, and stultifies us.

Every scientist will agree with the following. The zygote comes into existence at the moment of fertilization. But this is not where your life originates. The zygote is one step in a seemingly infinite procession of life. The zygote derives its life equally from parental male and female germ cells. The parental cells source their life from their parents, and this chain goes all the way back. The chain passes through primates, rodents, dinosaurs, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, comb jellies, eukaryotic multicellular beings and bacteria. It does not stop at bacteria. It goes further to the hallowed and little-understood First Universal Common Ancestor (FUCA). At that point, the difference between life and non-life breaks down. Organisms like viruses and prions have existed since those times. Weirdly, as per scientists, these are alive and not alive simultaneously. Scientists are divided on how to classify viruses. Most take the lazy way out and say they are not alive. What they do not realize is that if viruses were dead, FUCA was dead. If FUCA was dead, you, having inherited life from it, are also dead.

Our life came into existence not from our parents or grandparents but from FUCA. The answer to "when you were born" is to be answered by dating FUCA. We have been alive for 4.3 billion years. Just because our mind sees none of these connections does not prevent science from showing us the unvarnished truths. Life has remained constant while bodies keep changing. The sense of I, the consciousness, was constant while the bodies kept changing from parent to child. All of life becomes an interconnected family, with all beings having the same sense of "I" and the same consciousness.

Hindus tackle this problem head-on. They say that all living and non-living beings are the same. All have the spark of the universal consciousness (Brahman) inside them. That Brahman is nothing supernatural; it is the same stuff as your inner consciousness (Atman). Whether FUCA is alive or dead has no difference for a Hindu. Life is an illusory concept created by Maya, the gigantic illusion that clouds our world. The characteristic of Maya is that it is seemingly like the absolute truth. However, the more you attain the final goal, the further it recedes. The more you try to understand life, the further and farther away you seem. With more information, Maya never gets easier to understand. It looks less understandable the closer you are. From both a Hindu and Buddhist perspective, life is an illusion created by your mind, an artificial distinction to rationalize your separation from the environment around you.

Scientists should consider carefully the ultimate meaning of their materialistic outlook. Do not get me wrong; I always think science is the best tool for studying the external objective universe. However, scientists often fail to understand the poetry of their own teaching. 

Now I make a case that science has itself made a strong case for the Brahman without realizing it. If life is nothing but matter, you and I are nothing but matter, and all matter originated from the Big Bang, the obvious scientific extrapolation is that you and I emerged from the Big Bang. When space and time emerged, you and I were present. It may not be in our current form but in an ancestral, primordial form. It may be quarks or energy fields. Whatever came into existence then has never disappeared. It is still inside you today. Hence, my birthday is at least 13.8 billion years old, if not more. It does not matter whether you talk from a materialistic or spiritual perspective; you and I are at least as old as the universe.

Okay, let's stop talking about the traps that scientists lay for themselves and talk about deeper mathematical and spiritual truths that are profoundly mystical in nature. Caution that you are now trying to understand the highest levels of Advaita. You have to reflect way more than you read.

Taking the Big Bang idea forward, you, I and every part of the universe was packed into a singularity or quantum fluctuation, the size of a Planck's length (1.6 * 10^-35 m). All the universe was inside an infinitesimal dot. At this point, a Buddhist would say that infinity was packed into a singularity. A Hindu would say that infinity was packed into another infinity. For a mathematician, thoughts of singularity, void, unity and infinity do not matter; they are all the same at this point.

Science tells you that your material existence comes from the Big Bang but cannot tell you which form you were in. It gives a clue - you were beyond space and time. Hindus say that at the highest truth, you are the Brahman - pure existence. No label that applies to time or space applies to the Brahman.

In this singularity of the Big Bang, infinity, singularity, unity, you and I were freely interchangeable with each other. To say that you emerged from the universe is not in any way more correct or incorrect than saying that the universe emerged out of you. You were the subject, object and knowledge all rolled into one - the one called the Brahman. For both scientists and Hindus, the only thing that ever existed was existence itself. It does not matter what path you take; the undeniable truths are exactly the same.

If you and I were around from the time of the Big Bang, then other logical extrapolations follow. We were never born and, therefore, by consequence, never die. This entire train of thoughts emerges from just two words that Advaita Hindu thought relies on. I exist. Not the small "i" but the big "I." When you realize that i = I, that is the purpose of life. 

Coming back to the birthday answer, Buddhists will say you were never born, and Hindus will say that you were ever born. Either way, there are no birthdays in India.