Cosmic Cycles

We said that the discovery of the pre-Aryan ruins was a surprise. But in another way it was not. Hindus have an unusual idea of history, as being something very long indeed. They say this universe alone lasts 4,320,000,000 years, and before this one there were other universes! You probably think that the world "began" somewhere millions of millions of years ago, as that is what you have learned in school. But Hindu boys and girls are taught that just as on our earth night follows day and day night, so the universe has its day and night. By turns it evolves, coming out as we see it, and involves, going back to seed-form in the still cold darkness. This series has no beginning; it goes on forever. Races, cities, great men and small, all flourish and die. So if one digs beneath one's feet, one may find layers of civilizations which have thrived and vanished again. "A thousand years a city, a thousand years a forest," say the Hindus.