While Rama is talking to Kaikeyi, a crow sitting atop a tree is watching and closely following the conversation.
Kakabhushundi (to himself): This is the 11th time I am seeing all this. This yuga has more science than any other cycle. If human knowledge of science grows this way, humans will be able to time travel and, once that happens, it could possibly be the last kalpa. I must confirm this with my guru, Sage Lomasa.
Kakabhushundi moves his wings in a strange way and a wormhole appears before him. He enters it and travels 1000 times faster than the speed of light and reaches a mountain in a parallel universe, where Sage Lomasa lives.
Sage Lomasa: Welcome back, Kakabhushundi. Did you see anything strange this time?
Kakabhushundi: Yes, the last time I watched Lord Rama as a child, he did not have as much scientific knowledge as he did this time. His brother and he were talking about technology and controlling rockets and so much more.
Sage Lomasa: You probably visited the Treta Yuga of the last kalpa, where most students have access to all kinds of scientific knowledge but need some guidance to use them. In the same kalpa’s Kali Yuga, the children have more advanced knowledge and access to devices like cell phones, satellites, the Internet and more. They are like demi gods who have not yet realised their power.
Kakabhushundi: What? You are talking about mortals, right?
Sage Lomasa: Yes, these children will be the decision makers for the future in their period and possibly find ways to reach other worlds.
Kakabhushundi: I wanted to ask you about something. Lord Rama gave me the power to time travel to parallel universes to watch different versions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Can you tell me why?
Sage Lomasa: Because you are the messenger who is going to tell the world that the universe is not one but a multiverse where similar events happen in parallel universes several thousand light years away from each other.
Kakabhushundi: What is multiverse and parallel universe?
The Milky Way Galaxy | Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Sage Lomasa: All right. Let me start with some basics about our galaxy and universe before going to multiverse. We live in the Milky Way, which contains 200-400 billion stars and at least 100 billion planets. Many of these planets revolve around stars and may possess life. But much of it is unexplored.
Kakabhushundi: So, we are like a dust particle.
Sage Lomasa: Smaller than that when compared to the scale of the galaxy. The universe is packed with billions of galaxies. The Milky Way itself is part of a Galactic Super Cluster called Laniakea. It’s like being a single nerve among the billion nerves in the human body. According to current understanding, such multiple clusters create a huge egg-shaped structure called PerAndam or the big egg.
Laniakea Galactic Super Cluster. The red dot marks the Milky Way Galaxy | Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Kakabhushundi: Are you telling me we live in an egg?
Sage Lomasa: And there are multiple such universes.
Kakabhushundi: Wait, I have heard something similar about Brahma being born from Lord Vishnu’s dream.
Sage Lomasa: Exactly. Something like that. Basically, there are billions of such eggs (universes), each with its own laws of Physics and Science that we do not know. Our predictions and calculations are based on whatever we observe. So, some version of Rama might be very intelligent and technically superior to another. But that doesn’t mean it ends there. It keeps happening again and again. Which is why you are an immortal time-travelling being. The purpose of your life is to take this knowledge to every edge of every universe.
Kakabhushundi: Hmmmm, that is a humungous task. But, if I don’t have anything to do, this immortal life will be boring. Anyway, let me explore more about Rama before I start taking the message around.
Kakabhushundi travels back to the same spot from where he was watching Rama. Sage Lomasa smiles as he knows that Kakabhushundi will be most confused when he sees all the versions of whatever is happening.
The author is the founder and CEO of Vaayusastra Aerospace, an IIT-Madras incubated ed-tech startup that offers Air Science workshops for children between five and 14 years.
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