Chaitra Shukla Pratipada – The Universal Day of Creation

Was it difficult for you as a child, to memorise which month has how many days? And what is the reason behind two consecutive months, July and August to have 31 days each. And maybe you have not noticed, but the months beyond July and August have phonetics similar to the decimal numbers 7 (in Sanskrit: Sapt), 8 (in Greek: Octa), 9 (in Sankrit: Nav), 10 (in Sanskrit: Dush).

But before you get all excited about that series, you would probably correct me by saying the months are displaced by 2, which means that seven is representing September, eight is representing October, nine represents November and ten represents December.

The reason for this is two months were inserted into the Gregorian calendar, when the committee realised that the decimal system they were using wasn’t quite accurate – the months of July (named after Julius Caesar) and August (named after Saint Augustine).

Hence, what we refer to as X-mas, it nothing but the roman numeral X which means 10, and mas, in Sanskrit meaning “month”.

The origins of this confusion go back to the 16th Century, at a time when the Imperials were expanding their empire, and hoping to capture the Indian sub-continent, which was flourishing under enlightened leaders, and marked as the region of enviable prosperity – in all forms – spiritual, intellectual, material and scientific.

Being ignorant of the foundations of Vedic Mathematics, and the construct of the Universe, or how it works, the Imperial powers had devised their own system of marking dates, initially based on the decimal system, which we commonly know as the Gregorian calendar.

In an earlier post, titled Fool’s Paradise, I have talked about April Fool’s Day, and how it came about – a day that almost falls in sync, when the Hindu calendar, or the calendar marked as per calculations of Vedic Mathematics – mark as Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, The Universal Day of Creation.

Why 2078?

Around the time of the Christ, there was a rising consciousness of spiritual values in the Western World, which had been dipped in ignorance for a long time, at the hands of barbaric rulers who referred to themselves as the Imperials. As consciousness rose, King Vikramaditya in India, who was a legendary ruler, commissioned scholars to rewrite calendar dates, so it became easier for newer students, with a conscious mind, to understand the mathematics behind the calendar. Hence, the calendar was reset to 0.

However, the Imperials, who did not understand this, started counting dates as per the decimal system, and hence they had 28 days to the month, and 10 months to the year, which ended with December, the 10th month, or X-mas.

This continued for many centuries put together, until Pope Gregory who felt they were lagging behind in their calculations regarding the seasons and predictions, needed to correct their calendar. And thus, they commissioned their own set of mathematicians, who made the months 30 days long, and later, alternate months of 31 days. However, since this wasn’t enough, they inserted two more months in between, named after Julius Caesar and Saint Augustine, and thus the remaining months were pushed forward, starting from September becoming the ninth month instead of seventh. And so on.

If the calendar is counting time faster, the frame of reference moves forward faster, and hence on the Gregorian calendar, the year is marked as 2078. In Vedic calculations, where the absolute number exceeding fourteen billion in count, moves forward at the very same pace of absolution.

Why Universal Day of Creation

The rising consciousness around spiritual knowledge is what marks the second coming. When the human and society understands that the universe is slave to the command of the creator, and thus, the second coming of Christ became the embodiment of such consciousness.

As Christ said, this body is the temple of God. Destroy it, and He shall create it again within 3 days. Although this is a matter of religious debate, there is belief and faith that Christ came back to reassure followers of their faith, and his mind, that had merged with greater consciousness, recreated the temple of God.

As written, God created man in his own image. The element of life that descends into this body of creation, experiences the universe as per when it came into its own existence, and hence, when this spirit rises into the greater self, the universal state of consciousness becomes apparent. And hence, the universal day of creation.

It is the time when the soul becomes conscious of its existence, that it starts to realise the greater self, that is one with the spirit of the Almighty, has itself created this universe of existence. When one starts to realise that by delving into higher consciousness, all of nature – that constitutes the universe around us, welcomes that spirit. In our lower subsconscious, we are able to see this as the Spring season, when new leaves come up on branches that have shed during Fall. And new flowers. Hence, at Easter, when the consciousness of Christ rose, marks the day in nature with the bloom of Easter Lillys.

The Cultural Significance & the Indian New Year

This day for me, is a great day of cultural significance, for many reasons. Not just as the day that we mark as the “Indian New Year” and celebrate as <strong>Samvatsar Padvo, Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, Yugadi, Navreh, Sajibu Nongma Panba or Meitei Cheiraoba</strong>. I am probably unaware, that in our land of multi-cultural vibrance, we have named this Universal Day of Creation differently in other regions too. I have made a conscious decision to only follow the Gregorian Calendar and only refer the dates marked against it, until the scientific convention is fully adopted.

Nature as well, welcomes in this Universal Day of Creation. So, officially, starting today we are now in the Spring season. And Fall is over. If you ask for proof, well, you might want to look outside the window at a tree in the neighbourhood that has shed it’s leaves for the Fall season. Starting today, you will be able to see new ones show colour.

Another matter of significance, where nature welcomes a festival at this time of the year, is Easter. While what I have written above, would still be tough to validate, because all of us like to refer to facts from Wikipedia. The “scholars” who write Wikipedia are continually inviting “citations” to confirm the validity of a claim as per Vedic Science or Vedic Mathematics. But we do know, Easter Lillies bloom for Easter. And thereafter wilt. The days of bloom adjust according to the timing of when Easter is. And hence, there should be a natural significance that science should explain to the date.

I recently chanced upon a book by Paramhansa Yogananda titled “The Second Coming of Christ”. Paramhansa Yogananda is known to be a Hindu Monk, who realised the spirit of the Almighty within, and spread the message of peace and spirituality, through his preachings in the earlier part of the twentieth century. He is known for his literary genius, and seekers often refer to his autobiography as the cornerstone writing on the path of spirituality, titled “Autobiography of a Yogi”. His genius is expressed in the trilogy marked by “The Journey to Self Realisation”, “Man’s Eternal Quest” and “The Divine Romance”. Many seekers of truth, have delved upon these, almost as scriptures that articulate the infinite love.

But lesser known than this, are Paramhansa’s reproduction of “The Holy Bible” in English – his own journey into the truths, and thus, “The Second Coming of Christ”. From this book, I quote,

Any so-called spiritual teacher who is not a real spiritual shepherd does not know how to tune the consciousness of his devotees with the unperceived Christ Consciousness within him. All false teachers are helpless and fly away when they find their devotees attacked by the wolf of ignorance and of material and spiritual difficulties. All blind followers of ignorant spiritual teachers are caught by the wolf of ignorance and are scattered in the sphere of rebirths. The hired minister who holds the clerical position only for his living goes about preaching from one place to another as a matter of routine, not caring what happens to the souls of his followers.

As God’s consciousness is omnipresent, He knows life and death, sleep and wakefulness, of all creatures present in Him, even as we know all our thoughts within our one mind. Even as a human being with his one life is conscious of the sensations of his body or of pain that may occur in any of the twenty-seven thousand billion cells of his body, so God’s consciousness, being consciously present in all space, knows everything that happens even in any one of the tiniest atoms among all the countless creations in the cosmos.

Paramhansa Yogananda

When we realise, the spirit of truth, that Paramhansa reveals to us through his book, The Second Coming is not merely about the material resurrection of the body, that Christ referred to as the Temple of God. In effect, it is the realisation of that knowledge, and the beginning of that journey unto truth, that the seeker thus embarks upon.

Hence, this day, is also marked, as the day of new beginnings. The day, when we forget the past, and set foot towards a new future. If you’d like to go back, and now understand how the days in every month are placed in our modern calendar, it will be easier to understand than wracking your knuckles.