THE GALACTIC FIELD OF TAMASAND ITS TWENTY-THREE EVOLUTES

If the first twenty-three layers above the half measure uphold the luminous body of the galaxy, then the dark galactic halo—the galactic field of tamas—is upheld by the twenty-fourth layer.

The purpose of Samkhya was to enumerate the fundamental categories (tattvas) involved in the creation of the universe. The classical version of this system had to do with the creation of the galaxy from an underlying field of prime matter (pradhana), which was dominated by the quality of tamas—the same as the qualities of the kala-kuta poison. According to the texts, tamas represents the stupefying quality of consciousness, which has the potential to render the mortal soul (the movable point value of consciousness) ignorant and inertia-filled. Such ignorant point values correspond to the particles of matter from which are made the material bodies of all created beings. In this case, the inertia associated with such particles is none other than their mass.

The ancient theory suggests that all of the observable matter particles that compose the galactic body are but the evolutes (vikrities) of an unobservable field of prime matter—made up of particles of tamas or dark matter. The theory states that the elements of tamas themselves are unobservable by empirical means, but they can be inferred by their empirical effects. For this reason, the field of tamas was also called anumana, the inferred entity.

The classical theory enumerates twenty-four categories of matter: The field of tamas itself was counted as the twenty-fourth category, and the other twenty-three categories were viewed as the evolutes (vikrities) of the field. These categories were represented traditionally by the first twenty-four consonants of the Sanskrit alphabet, which also served to represent the first twenty-four universal gods of the Vedic pantheon—and hence, the first twenty-four layers above the half measure.

Therefore, there is a direct correspondence between the twenty-three categories of observable matter outlined in the theory of Samkhya and the twenty-three layers that serve to uphold the visible form of the galaxy. In this case, the twenty-fourth category corresponds to the twenty-fourth layer, which serves to uphold the galactic field of tamas, the dark matter halo likened to the neck of Shiva.

According to the ancient seers, this underlying field of dark matter serves as the hidden foundation (bhumi) of the galaxy and was the first product of the churning process on the basis of which the observable form of the galaxy evolved—but we can determine here whether or not this ancient galactic wisdom has any support in modern theory.