I am scheduled to teach just three programs in 2017. One is a 50 hr Complete Bhagavat Gita program at LMU, Los Angeles, then a 15 hr Samkhya Karika program at Chicago Yoga Center and a 100 hr Vinyasakrama TT program at One Yoga, Montreal, Canada. For links to these please visit the Events page in my website www.vinyasakrama.com/Events. I may not teach these topics again in America.
Origin
Not very long ago some scientists observed that the universe was expanding, the galaxies were drifting further. This led them to work backwards in time, a rewind of the evolution movie, which resulted in the theory that the universe originated from a tiny but extremely dense and extremely hot phenomenon
a singularity. Some say that all that we have in the universe-- trillions of tons of matter trillions BTUs of energy were contained in this undifferentiated minute singularity of infinite density and unimaginably hot. Mathematicians found the limit of this to be just a dot, a point without occupying any space but existent. Then the big bang theory is explained. It is said to have started happening some 13.7 billion years ago. It started creating space, expanding and cooling from its original extremely hot conditions. Particles and atoms formed and after a very long time about 4.6 billion years ago the earth was formed, then about a billion years later life first appeared in the form of a single cell bacterium. It happened due to a unique combination atoms, matter. Then life evolved, replicated and different species came into existence. It is estimated that there are about 8.7 million different species that came about.
Then when and how consciousness came about. Did it evolve when life appeared? What is consciousness? It is the awareness of one's own existence sensations, thoughts etc. There is still a lot of study going on to find out when and where this consciousness came about. It is generally considered to be an evolute of matter an adjunct faculty of the brain and nervous system.
The Samkhyas and Yogis also consider that space was created. They also looked back in time and found that the universe evolved out of again an unmanifest non dimensional entity called pradhana or mula prakriti. Pradhana would mean principal, unique or the origin. So the origin of the universe was according to Samkhyas an unmanifest entity very much like the scientist' s singularity. Here the mulaprakriti was homogeneous (samya), still made up of tamas which can be source of matter, rajas source of energy very much like the big bang singularity. But according to Samkhyas the evolution was not chaotic or random but orderly. That order is represented by the guna called satva. So mulaprakriti or pradhana was the source of the universe in an unmanifest form containing the source for matter, energy and having cosmic order.
The Samkhyas also took care to explain the evolution taking into consideration certain important factors. They had to explain how the one prakriti split up into subject and object as we experience. They enumerated that the universe was made of 23 evolutes arising out of the one singularity the mula prakriti. They described both the microcosmic and macro cosmic evolution. The subject is made of a template of 11 indriyas along with intellect and ego known as a subtle body or sukshma sarira whereas the objective universe was made of 5 tanmatras (light particles, sound waves etc) and 5 bhutas like space etc. Thus they theorized that the evolution had two streams. Even before space was created the singular mulaprakrity changed into the 18 subtle evolutes before the 5 gross elements evolved. They considered life itself as the activity (vritti)of the subtle body
What is of interest here is that the Samkhyas even as they found the universe was subject to change-- evolving and also transforming- found that there was one aspect that does not change over time. They recognized that consciousness or awareness does not change over time and unlike the common perception that consciousness is but another aspect of life, concluded that it is not a product of the evolving and changing prakriti. They showed that the awareness in us does not change all through life, during childhood, then adulthood and old age, the same awareness experiences all the changes one goes through in life. The same consciousness is witness to the waking experiences and during dream the same consciousness experiences dreams completely disconnected the waking experiences. So is with deep sleep. So just as they went back in time for the manifest universe and the manifest individual which ended up evolving from mulaprakriti, they went back in time for consciousness. Because there is no change in it all through the life they concluded the consciousness which is the essential non changing characteristic of individual beings should be same at the origin also. So they postulated two singularities, one the mulaprakriti which would change and evolve and then the individual unchanging consciousness which essentially is the self.
Vedanta which is the subject matter of the upanishads, seems to agree with the above two in that the whole universe evolved—from a singularity but that is Brahman. Brahman is an entity of consciousness which can never undergo any change, it is like the individual atman of the samkhyas. Vedanta differs from Samkhya in that Vedanta does not subscribe to the ;dual' singularities But this is universal consciousness from which the universe evolved. While the singularity of science is matter and energy, that of Vedanta is just consciousness. The actual evolution is described variously by different upanishads but the origin is Brahman. How can ever changing matter/universe evolve out of non changing consciousness? The advaitins of Vedanta agree with this objection but say that the evolved universe is just an illusion and there has been never a real creation.