Re: Hinduism 101: A crash course in the ancient faith
ak47, the following is just my own theory, to address your question about where it starts.
Say, you can jump 6 feet. someone else can jump 7 and so on.
Or, you can eat 3 parattas, someone else can eat 5.
or you can run 5 miles, someone else can run only 4.
Every faculty has a limit. That limit is not universal - it is for an individual.
So what is the faculty you use to understand the concept of time? And why would we not think there is a limit to our ability to understand time? And why wouldn't that limit be individual specific also? Just like the 3 or 4 paratta appetite or the 4 or 5 mile jog?
So if your faculty to understand time is 4 era's, whether time STARTED 4 era's ago or not, you won't be able to comprehend any more. Yet, at that flicker of the starting moment when your comprehension starts, you find in amazement that something has already DEVELOPED. So you INFER that it came from BEFORE. (THIS IS THE TRICKIEST PART, LISTEN CLOSELY).
The moment you inferred of something BEFORE the 4 eras, suddenly your faculty expanded beyond 4 eras to 4-eras + 1 moment. This is very difficult to comprehend in terms of serial computing but thankfully our minds (not brains) are different. Just like running 4 miles a few times make it possible to do 5 the next time, you RECURSE between testing your limit and expanding your limit. You then discover the beaty vastness unity and patterns of the timelessness. At some point when the meaning of Ksheerasgar hits you, that's when you wake up with a jar and start wanting to be part of that unity. Because it is so vast, limitless, silent, sweet and peaceful. That then sets in motion the next iteration.....
(Except, Hindus give all these facets names, personalities, relationships and several human dimensions. That's what makes Ramayana and the Mahabharata so enchanting even as a story.)