According to Hindu treatises and mythology, the present universe must go through four great eras, each of which is a complete cycle of cosmic creation and destruction. Hindu mythology deals with numbers so large that they are almost impossible to imagine.
Hindus believe that the creation process goes through a cycle, and that each cycle has four great yugas, or epochs of time. And since the process of creation is cyclical and infinite, it begins, ends and begins again.
It is said that Kalpa, or Aeon, consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas. It is believed that one cycle lasts 4.32 million years, and the duration of Kalpa is 4.32 billion years.
About the Four Yugas
There are four great eras in Hinduism. The first of these is Satya Yuga, the golden age or the age of truth. It is believed that it lasts 4000 years. The second period, the Treta Yuga, is the age of perfect morality or the silver age. Its duration is 3000 years. The third period - Dvapara-yuga - the Bronze Age. Its duration is 2000 years. And the last period is Kali-yuga, which is also called the Iron Age, lasting 1000 years.
The Hindu tradition claims that three of these great eras of the present universe have already ended. Now we live in the fourth - Kali Yuga. It is difficult to comprehend and comprehend the meaning of the huge numbers expressed by the scheme of the Hindu time, these numbers are so vast. There are various theories about the symbolic meaning of these dimensions of time.
Symbolic interpretations
Metaphorically, the four ages of yuga can symbolize the four phases of involution, during which a person gradually lost awareness of his inner “I” and subtle bodies. Hinduism believes that people have five kinds of bodies, known as annamaya-kosha, pranamaya-kosha, manomaya-kosha, vignanamaya-kosha and anandamaya-kosha, which mean “gross body”, “body of breath”, “mental body”, "Body of intelligence" and "body of bliss", respectively.
Another theory interprets these eras in terms of the degree of loss of truth in the world. This theory assumes that during Satya Yuga only truth prevailed (in Sanskrit, “satya” means “truth”). At the next stage, the universe lost one quarter of the truth, then lost half, and now, in the Iron Age, only a quarter of the truth remains. Therefore, evil and untruth have gradually replaced truth in the last three centuries.
Dasavatara: 10 Avatars
Throughout these four south, the god Vishnu is said to have been embodied ten times in ten different avatars. This principle is known as Dasavatara (Sanskrit das means ten). During the Age of Truth, people were spiritually advanced and mentally strong.
In the Treta Yuga, people still remained righteous and adhered to a moral lifestyle. God Rama from the epic "Ramayana" lived at this time.
In Dvapara-yuga, people have lost all knowledge related to intelligence and bliss. Krsna was born at this time.
The current era is said to be that Kali-yuga is the most degenerate of the Hindu eras.
Life in the Iron Age
They say that we currently live in the fourth of four yugas - in a world infected with vices. The number of people with noble virtues decreases every day. The attributes of Kali Yuga are hunger, war and crime, deception and duplicity.
It has two phases: at the first stage, people who have lost knowledge of the two higher "I" had knowledge not only of the physical body, but also of the "body of breathing." However, at the second stage even this knowledge left mankind, leaving us only with the realization of a gross physical body. This explains why people are now more concerned about the physical self than any other aspect of existence.
Due to our preoccupation with physical bodies and our lower self, and because of our emphasis on the pursuit of gross materialism, this century has been called the Age of Darkness - an era when we lost touch with our inner self, an era of deep ignorance.
What the holy books say
Both great epos - “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata” - spoke about the era of Kali-yuga. In the Ramayana there is a prediction by the sage Kakbhusundi:
In the Kali Yuga, the seat of sin, men and women are all immersed in unrighteousness and act contrary to the Vedas. Each virtue was seized by the sins of Kali Yuga; all good books have disappeared; the impostors brought with them a series of creeds which they themselves invented. People all fell victim to error, and all pious deeds were consumed by greed.
The sage Vyasa in the Mahabharata explains:
In the Kali-yuga, functions of the corresponding order disappear, and people suffer from injustice.
What happens next?
According to Hindu cosmology, at the end of the Age of Darkness, the god Shiva will destroy the universe, and the physical body will undergo a great transformation, in fact, the end of the world will come. When this happens, the Brahma god will recreate the universe again, and humanity will again live in the era of Truth.
Timeline weakening
The doctrine of the cycle of the south says that we live in the Age of Darkness when moral virtue and mental ability have reached their lowest value. The epic of the Mahabharata states that Kali-yuga is the period when the "world soul" turned black; the remaining quarter of virtue gradually disappears. Among people reign evil and anger; diseases and natural disasters multiply, people are afraid of torment and poverty. All beings degenerate.
The beginning and end of Kali Yuga
So, humanity lives in a dark era, where there is practically no good or virtue. But when did this era begin? And when will the world end? Despite the theological characteristics of this period, the start and end dates remain secret. The generally accepted date marking the beginning of Kali-yuga is considered to be 3102 BC. e., which corresponds to the thirty-fifth anniversary of the end of the battle of Mahabharata. This is surprisingly close to the proposed beginning of the current "Great Cycle" of the Mayan calendar in 3114 BC. e. In this case, in both cases, dates indicating the beginning of these cycles were calculated after many years. The Mayan calendars were recounted between about 400 BC. e. and 50 g. e., it was at this time that the year of the beginning of the current Great Cycle was established. Indian calendars were recounted around 500 AD. e. It was then that the famous astronomer Aribhatta named 3102 BC as the start date of the fourth south. e.
Calculations of the beginning of an era
It is generally believed that Aribhatta calculated the date corresponding to the beginning of Kali-yuga based on data provided by the Sanskrit astronomical tract Surya Siddhanta, according to which five “geocentric planets” - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - were aligned with 0 ° Aries (near the star Zeta Piscium), at its beginning. Thus, the starting point was the date of February 17/18, 3102 BC. e. However, modern simulations have shown that on this day all these planets were located along a 42 ° arc in the sky and scattered along three zodiac signs - Aries, Pisces and Aquarius, which is not a connection at all. The relative "alignment" of the planets occurred in previous and subsequent centuries.
Is it possible on this basis to assert that Aribhatta was mistaken in his calculations? Such an opinion would be erroneous, since the Surya Siddhanta never indicated that such alignment of the planets took place at the beginning of the fourth of the four south. On the contrary, it says that this connection of planets at 0 ° Aries refers to the end of the Golden Age. Unfortunately, this simple statement was subsequently distorted due to the desire to substantiate from the point of view of astrology 3102 BC. e. as the beginning of the fourth yuga, and subsequently it was made public as an indisputable fact.
In general, in ancient Hindu astronomy, the point of view regarding the beginning of the yuga was that the real order of things is due to the movement of all the planets from the position 0 ° Aries. In addition, all the planets return to the same position in heaven at certain fixed intervals, which leads to a universal connection. According to Surya Siddhanta, such a connection can be observed at the end of the Golden Age. However, in Hindu astronomy, the prevailing belief is that it refers to the beginning of Brahma Day and Night, consisting of 1000 yuga cycles.
Similar information regarding the connection of the planets can be found in ancient Greek texts. In Timaeus, Plato refers to the Perfect Year, which takes place at the moment when the celestial bodies and planets return to their relative position, despite all their intermediate turns. This idea was repeated by the 3rd-century Roman writer Censorin, who pointed out that the Sun, Moon, and five wandering planets complete their orbits in the Great Year of Heraclitus, when they simultaneously return to the sign they were previously. This “Great Year” has other names - “Perfect Year”, “Platonic Year”, “Highest Year of Aristotle”, etc. Various philosophers called it for different durations: 12.954 years for Cicero or 10 800 years for Heraclitus.
Researchers say the date is 3102 BC. e. for Kali Yuga until 500 BC e. not mentioned in any Sanskrit text. Where did Aribhatta get this information? Most likely, the astronomer himself did not count this date. In one of the texts he mentions that he composed the text at the age of twenty-three years, in 3600 of the fourth yuga. Since his work was compiled in 499 AD e., the beginning of the Iron Age can be traced back to 3102 BC. e. The statement itself does not contain any information on the astronomical basis, which would allow to calculate the date. There is also no indication of whether the calculation itself was compiled by Aribhatta. Perhaps this date was taken from some other source.
Duration Calculation
As the eminent scholar Sri Yukteswar pointed out, in many Sanskrit texts the duration of the yuga, which is 12,000 years, was artificially increased to an anomalously high value of 4,320,000 years. This was calculated using a factor of 360, corresponding to the number of human years making up the divine year. But some ancient texts, such as the Mahabharata and the Laws of Manu, use the initial length of the Yugan cycle of 12,000 years. Many other ancient cultures - among the Chaldeans, Zoroastrians and Greeks - also show faith in a 12,000-year cycle of eras.
Ascending and descending cycles
The concept of the ascending and descending cycle of the south, which is a spiral of time, is still prevalent among the Jains, the oldest religious sect in India. Jains believe that in the full cycle of time (Kalachakra) there are progressive and regressive parts. During the progressive half of the cycle, knowledge, happiness, health and spirituality gradually increase, and during the regressive one these qualities decrease. Each half-cycle of the time spiral consists of six smaller periods, and together these two half cycles make up the complete cycle of time. They follow each other, maintaining a continuous sequence, just like day and night or waning and waning moons.
The idea of ​​an ascending and descending cycle of centuries is also common in Greek myths. The Greek poet Hesiod (approximately 750 BC - 650 BC) introduced the fifth period under the name "Age of Heroes" between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
Evidence from various sources supports the concept of the complete Yuga cycle (24,000 years), consisting of ascending and descending cycles, each of which lasts 12,000 years. Thus, the question arises of the relative duration of the various yugas in the full cycle and transition periods characteristic of the beginning and end of each yuga and known as Sandhya (dawn) and Sandhyana (twilight), respectively.
Yuga timeline
These values ​​are presented in Sanskrit texts for all the south and their dawns and twilight:
- Golden Age: 4000 years + 400 years dawn + 400 years of twilight = 4800 years.
- Silver Age: 3000 years + 300 years dawn + 300 years of twilight = 3600 years.
- Bronze Age: 2000 years + 200 years dawn + 200 years of twilight = 2400 years.
- Iron Age: 1000 years + 100 years dawn + 100 years of twilight = 1200 years.
Since so many errors have permeated the doctrine of the Jugian cycle, the question arises of the accuracy of the relative duration of the yugas mentioned in Sanskrit texts.
Transition from era to era
According to the timeline, the Golden Age begins before 12 676 BC. e., more than 14,500 years to date. It is also seen here that this is Kali-yuga, which should be considered ascendant and which is the current era, and it will end in 2025. The full manifestation of the next rising era will take place in 2325 AD. e., when the transitional period of 300 years ends. After it, two more remaining ascending south will follow. The cycle of 12,000 years will be completed by the rising Satya Yugaray.
The ancient text of the Brahma-vaivarta Purana describes the dialogue between the god Krishna and the goddess Ganges. It says that after 5000 years of Kali-yuga, the dawn of a new Golden Age will come, which will last 10,000 years (text 50, 59). This can be immediately understood in the context of the Yuga timeline. Accordingly, Kali-yuga ends approximately around 5700 from the moment it began, in 3676 BC. And after its completion, three more epochs will follow, spanning 9,000 years, before the upward cycle ends.