~ Mangalyaan : India Successfully Launched Mars Mission…

~ Universe Creation: Similarity Between Indian Mythological Story of “Samudra Manthan” and “Big Bang Theory”

As a science student,  when our teacher was teaching concept of Big Bang Theory in middle school, I got a feeling that I was not learning this concept first time and actually heard similar things earlier! That strange feeling of “I heard this before” forced me to give stress to my brain. After lots of introspection, I was surprised to recollect my memories regarding Indian (Hindu) mythological stories my mother used to tell me when I was a kid!

Yes, the Samudra Manthan and Vishnu Avatar stories from vedas and Puranas…..how Lord Brahma created the world and how Samudra Manthan formed some important universal things like The Moon, Wealth , The Poison , Plants, Medicines, animals, etc ….and how Lord Vishnu along with Lord Shiva helped in this process.

Since long I was thinking to relate or compare both ancient mythology and modern scientific concepts. Here I have tried to relate some of the things that Samudra Manthan (roughly means “Turbulence/Churing activity”) mentioned in vedas and Puranas to modern days knowledge of Universal creation. This is my limited understanding of Hindu mythology and scientific theories. I believe, since ancient time scholars/rishis were trying to tell you all complex scientific things in life as Mythological stories or Sanskrit philosophical texts – Upanishadas. Probalby , it is a simple way of telling  common people about such hi-fi scientific concepts!

Samudra/Sagar Manthan (Ocean Churning for Universe creation) Activity as mentioned in Hindu Mythology,where you can see Moon/Water/Life/Plants/Animal/Metals/Laxmi/Fire, etc were created

This is just an attempt to relate mythology with scientific proofs available now. My interpretation may be true, partially true or may be completely wrong. But, I am here just trying to see mythological concepts from Science student’s perspective! See chart below:

Indian Mythological story of “Samudra Manthan” Vs Big Bang Theory of universe formation

Substance formed as per “Samudra Manthan “		Scientific proofs from Big Bang Theory /Universe formation
Things formed	What it represents/Meaning	Things formed
Chandra	The Moon (Stars and planets)	The Moon (Stars and planets)
Airavat /Uchchaihshravas	Elephant / Horse (Animals)	Animals/ Life on the earth
Halahala/ Vish / Jahar	The poison taken by Lord Shiva to protect universe	Poisonous gases and particles in universe
Wealth	Gold	Gold (Au)
	Silver	Silver (Ag)
	Diamonds	Carbon/Graphite (C)
	Gems	Silica (Si), Carbon, etc
	Other precious metals	Brass,Ferrous,Nickel, etc.See complete periodic table
Kalpavriksha (Wish fulfilling tree)	Useful Tree / Plants	Trees/Plant life on the earth
Kamadhenu ( Wish fulfilling cow)	Cow/Animals	Animals on the earth
Sura ( Wine)	Alcohol/Chemicals	Chemicals/Biochemical formation
Parijat (The divine tree)	Tree / Plants	Trees/Plant i.e life on the earth

Samudra Manthan sculpture at Thailand’s Airport (posted by a user on Youtube)

Samudra Manthan : See Hindu mythological story in which Gods or Positivity (Devas) and Demons or Negativity (Asuras) were churning the ocean of milk to get various important things to distribute among them later. Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva helped them.

Big Bang Theory: See National Geographic clip on youTube regarding Solar System Structure and Formation.  They described how the earth /planet/ metal was formed from protons ,electrons , hydrogen and helium followed by all  gases, metals and the earth.

Also see, Prof Stephen Hawking’s explanation on how solar system and earth is formed

Professor Stephen Hawking demonstrating how stars and chemicals formed due to big bang theory and then created our human body/ life on the earth.

I wonder whether we are just “Rediscovering” what was already known to mankind in ancient Vedic age! Hindus/Indians might have lost this knowledge due to lack of transmission to next generation somewhere in the past or may be due to natural calamity/deaths/tsunamis, migrations, wars, foreign invasion, bad kings/rulers, etc.

Good part , now  we can read Vedas and Puranas easily from  free English translated version here  ( see also link 2, link 3 ,and link 4) or in any other language. Also, we have scientific knowledge and instruments to find proofs.

Image credit: “en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan”

Sources: YouTube, Wikipedia, Saudra Manthan ,Google search, and Other links mentioned in writing.