Why did God create the universe through a very slow process of evolution?

Shri Phani asked: In discussions, one of my friends asked reason for the God to take such a long time for creation that proceeded through evolution in various stages having very long gap between any two successive stages.

Swami replied: There is an important concept in the spiritual knowledge of Hinduism. As per this religion and its scriptures, the time scale of God Brahmā, the Creator, is greatly condensed compared to the time here on Earth. A second of Brahmā is equal to millions of years on Earth. Einstein says that the length of an object moving at a very high speed shrinks. According to him, time is only the separation between two incidents taking place in this universe. The two incidents are bound by the three dimensions of space. Space is only geometrical and it only exists relatively between two existing objects A and B. If the two objects are destroyed, the distance between these two objects also gets destroyed. The destruction of space between A and B upon the disappearance of the two objects is not experienced by us because of the existence of space between two other objects C and D existing beyond A and B. In such a relative space, time is another relative dimension. Hence, we take the four dimensional space-time model to define any incident in this world. An incident can be said to have occurred at a location in space having certain values of three coordinates of space. This picture also includes the fourth relative dimension, time, which gives the exact time in terms of distance at which the accident took place.

This entire world defined by the relative four dimensional space-time can easily accommodate such wonderful concepts like the change of length with the speed of the object, the change of a span of time with the change of space and so on. Śaṅkara indicated this concept of relativity with the word mithyā. Mithyā refers to the nature of creation which appears very real to us—as if it is absolutely existent—even though it is actually non-existent. This means, creation has an undefinable nature called anirvacanīyatā khyāti or māyā. Explain this concept of Śaṅkara, correlating it with Einstein’s concepts to your friend and he will surely be convinced. Such unimaginable concepts are also called miracles.

| Shri Dattaswami | Anirvachaniiyataa khyaati Brahma Brahmaa Mithyaa Mithya Shankara Maya Maayaa