Time as a Stage

कलियुग

The material world, (有，有名 the open/closed system) — including the 'life force and the soul — is subject to the laws of entropy. Entropy (Wf) means a progression from a state of temporary order to decay and temporary disorder ― and vice versa, in cyclic times.

The start and end dates of कलियुग the Kali Yuga remain shrouded in mystery. The popularly accepted date for the beginning of कलियुग the Kali Yuga is 3102 BCE, thirty-five years after the conclusion of the great battle of महाभारत the Mahabharata. This is remarkably close to the proposed beginning of the current “Great Cycle” of the Mayan Long Count Calendar in 3114 BCE.

In both of these cases, the beginning dates of the respective cycles were calculated retrospectively. The Mayans had recomputed their ancient calendars sometime between 400 BC to 50 CE, at the ceremonial centre of Izapa in Mexico, and fixed the starting date of the current Great Cycle of their Long Count Calendar. And in India, sometime around 500 CE, a major review of the Indian calendric systems had taken place. It was during this time that the renowned astronomer आर्यभट्ट Aryabhatta had identified the beginning date of कलियुग the Kali Yuga as 3102 BCE. 

The general understanding in ancient Hindu astronomy was that at the beginning of the present order of things, all the planets commenced their movement together at 0° of Aries; and all the planets return to the same position in the heavens, at certain fixed intervals, resulting in universal conjunction. सूर्यसिद्धान्त the Sūrya Siddhānta; lit. 'Sun Treatise' states that this conjunction takes place at the end of the Golden Age. However, there is also a prevailing belief in Hindu astronomy that this conjunction takes place at the beginning of ब्रह्मा का दिन और रात a Day and Night of Brahma, comprising of a 1000 Yuga Cycles.

Similar information regarding the conjunction of planets is also present in the ancient Greek texts. In Τίμαιος the Timaeus, Πλάτων Plato refers to a “Perfect Year” which elapses at that moment when the sun, moon and the planets all return to the same relative position despite all their intervening reversals. This idea was echoed by the 3rd-century Roman writer Censorinus, who said that the orbits of the sun, moon and the five wandering planets complete one “Great Year of Ἡράκλειτος • Heraclitus” when they are brought back together at the same time to the same sign where once they were. This “Great Year” which is known by various other names – “Perfect Year”, “Platonic Year”, “Supreme Year of Aristotle” etc. – was variously represented as being of 12,954 years (Cicero) or 10,800 years (Ἡράκλειτος) duration.

The task of figuring out this date from the ancient संस्कृत Sanskrit texts, however, is fraught with difficulties, since a number of inaccuracies have crept into युग चक्र the Yuga Cycle information contained within them. As pointed out by श्री युक्तेश्वर Sri Yukteswar, in many युग चक्र Sanskrit texts the 12,000-year duration of युग चक्र the Yuga Cycle was artificially inflated to an abnormally high value of 4,320,000 years by introducing a multiplication factor of “360”, which was represented as the number of “human years” which constitutes a “divine year”. However, certain texts, such as महाभारत the Mahabharata and मनु के नियम the Laws of Manu, still retain the original value of युग चक्र the Yuga Cycle as 12,000 years. Many other ancient cultures – the Chaldeans, Zoroastrians and Greeks – also believed in a 12,000-year Cycle of the Ages. The renowned Sanskrit scholar and nationalist leader of India, बीजी तिलक B.G.Tilak had mentioned in his book, द आर्कटिक होम इन द वेद "The Arctic Home in the Vedas" (1903), that:

“The writers of पुराणों the Puranas, many of which appear to have been written during the first few centuries of the Christian, era, were naturally unwilling to believe that कलियुग the Kali Yuga had passed away…An attempt was, therefore, made to extend the duration of the कलियुग Kali Yuga by converting 1000 (or 1200) ordinary human years thereof into as many divine years, a single divine year, or a year of the gods, being equal to 360 human years…this solution of the difficulty was universally adopted, and a Kali of 1200 ordinary years was at once changed, by this ingenious artifice, into a magnificent cycle of as many divines, or 360 × 1200 = 432,000 ordinary years.”

श्री युक्तेश्वर Sri Yukteswar also clarified in the book The Holy Science (1894), that a complete युग चक्र Yuga Cycle takes 24,000 years, and is comprised of an ascending cycle of 12,000 years when virtue gradually increases and a descending cycle of another 12,000 years, in which virtue gradually decreases. Hence, after a 12,000-year descending cycle from सतयुग ⇒ कलियुग Satya Yuga ⇒ Kali Yuga has been complete, the sequence reverses itself, and an ascending cycle of 12,000 years begins which goes from कलियुग Kali Yuga ⇒ सतयुग Satya Yuga. युक्तेश्वर Yukteswar states that “Each of these periods of 12,000 years brings a complete change, both externally in the material world, and internally in the intellectual or electric world, and is called one of दैव युग Daiva Yugas or विद्युत युगल Electric Couple.” The 24,000-year duration of the complete युग चक्र Yuga Cycle closely approximates the Precessional Year of 25,765 years, which is the time taken by the sun to “precess” i.e. move backwards, through the 12 zodiac constellations. Interestingly, सूर्यसिद्धान्त the Sūrya Siddhānta specifies a value of 54 arc seconds per year for precession, as against the current value of 50.29 arc seconds per year. This translates into a Precessional Year of exactly 24,000 years! This raises the possibility that the currently observed value of precession may simply be a temporary deviation from the mean.

The concept of an ascending and descending cycle of युगों Yugas is not a proposition that श्री युक्तेश्वर Sri Yukteswar conjured out of thin air. This idea is still prevalent among भारत के जैन the Jains of India, who are one of the oldest religious sects of the country. जैन the Jains believe that a complete Time Cycle (कालचक्र:Kalachakra) has a progressive and a regressive half.  During the progressive half of the cycle (उत्सर्पिनी Utsarpini), there is a gradual increase in knowledge, happiness, health, ethics, and spirituality, while during the regressive half of the cycle (अवसारपिनी Avasarpini) there is a gradual reduction in these qualities. Each half-cycle is comprised of six smaller periods, and together these two half-cycles constitute a complete Time Cycle. These two half-cycles follow each other in an unbroken succession for eternity, just like the cycles of day and night or the waxing and waning of the moon. It is possible that युक्तेश्वर Yukteswar may have been influenced by the belief system of the ancient जैन Jains, or he may have based his ideas on ancient oral traditions that are not a part of the mainstream documented knowledge.

The idea of an ascending and descending "Cycle of the Ages" was also prevalent in Greek myths. The Greek poet Ἡσῐ́οδος • (Hēsíodos, c. 750 BC – 650 BC) had given an account of the World Ages in the Works and Days, in which he had inserted a fifth age called the “Age of Heroes”, between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. In Hesiod’s Cosmos, Jenny Strauss Clay writes:

“Drawing on the myth in Plato’s Statesman, Vernant also claimed that the temporal framework of Hesiodic myth, that is, the succession of races, is not linear but cyclical; at the end of the age of iron, which he divides into two, the cycle of races starts again with new golden age or, more likely, a new age of heroes, as the sequence reverses itself…Vernant himself offers a solution when he remarks that ‘there is not, in reality, one age of iron but two types of human existence.’ ”

Jean-Pierre Vernant, an acclaimed specialist in ancient Greek culture, clearly believes that the Cycle of the Ages reverses itself as per Hesiod’s account. Not only that — he states that the Iron Age has two parts that correspond exactly to युक्तेश्वर Yukteswar’s interpretation in which the descending कलियुग Kali Yuga is followed by the ascending कलियुग Kali Yuga. In this context, it can be stated that the “Age of Heroes”, which immediately followed the Bronze Age in Hesiod’s account, must be the name ascribed by Hesiod to the descending कलियुग Kali Yuga.

The question of the relative durations of the different युगों Yugas in the युग चक्र Yuga Cycle, and the transitional periods, which occur at the beginning and end of each युगों Yuga, and are known as संध्या Sandhya (dawn) and संध्यांसा Sandhyansa (twilight) respectively. The following values are provided in संस्कृत the Sanskrit texts for the duration of युगों the Yugas and their respective dawns and twilights.

सत्य युग Satya Yuga (Golden Age): 4000 years + 400 years dawn + 400 years twilight = 4800 years

त्रेता युग Treta Yuga (Silver Age): 3000 years + 300 years dawn + 300 years twilight = 3600 years

द्वापर युग Dwapara Yuga (Bronze Age): 2000 years + 200 years dawn + 200 years twilight = 2400 years

कलियुग Kali Yuga (Iron Age): 1000 years + 100 years dawn + 100 years twilight = 1200 years

Although युग चक्र the Yuga Cycle is mentioned in the mythic accounts of around thirty ancient cultures, as described by Giorgio de Santillana, professor of the history of science at MIT, in the book Hamlet’s Mill (1969), there is very little information regarding the relative durations of the different ages within this cycle. 

The Zoroastrians believe that the world lasts for 12,000 years, which is divided into four equal ages of 3,000 years each. A Mexican source, known as the Codex Rios (also referred to as Codex 3738 and Codex Vaticanus A) states that each age lasts for 4008, 4010, 4801 and 5042 years respectively for a total of 17,861 years. 

Two of the most famous astronomers of ancient India, आर्यभट्ट Aryabhatta and पौलिसा Paulisa, both believed that युग चक्र the Yuga Cycle is comprised of युगों Yugas of equal duration! In the 11th century, the medieval scholar ابوریحان محمد بن احمد البیرونی Abu Rayhan al-Biruni had travelled across India for 13 years, questioning and conversing with learned men, reading संस्कृत the Sanskrit texts, observing the religious rites and customs, and had compiled a comprehensive commentary on Indian philosophy, sciences and culture. In Albiruni’s India, Al-Biruni mentions that युग चक्र  the Yuga Cycle doctrine was based on the derivations of the Indian astronomer ब्रह्मगुप्त: Brahmagupta, who in turn derived his knowledge from the संस्कृत स्मृति Sanskrit Smriti texts. He makes the following statement in this regard:

“Further, ब्रह्मगुप्त: Brahmagupta says that “आर्यभट्ट Aryabhatta considers the four युगों yugas as the four equal parts of चतुर्युग the Caturyuga (युग चक्र Yuga Cycle). Thus he differs from the doctrine of the book स्मृति Smriti, just mentioned, and he who differs from us is an opponent”.

Every 2,700 years our planet is impacted by a series of cataclysmic events for a period of a few hundred years, which brings about a total or near-total collapse of civilizations across the world. In all the cases, however, civilization restarts immediately after the period of destruction.

In recent years, many independent historians and researchers have realized that the concept of a Yuga Cycle is a far better descriptor of ancient history than the model of linear progress favoured by mainstream historians. Egyptologist John Anthony West, whose seminal work on the dating of the Sphinx has won him worldwide acclaim, mentions in his article “Consider the Kali Yuga” that:

“Since Egypt’s Old Kingdom, up until very recently…civilization has been going down, not up; simple as that. We can follow that degenerative process physically in Egypt; it is written into the stones and it is unmistakable. The same tale is told in the mythologies and legends of virtually all other societies and civilizations the world over…Progress does not go in a straight line from primitive ancestors to smart old us with our bobblehead dolls and weapons of mass destruction; our traffic jams and our polluted seas, skies and lands. There is another, and far more realistic, way to view history. Plato talked about a cycle of Ages: Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron (or Dark) Age; a cycle, a waveform – not a straight line. A similar understanding is reflected by virtually all other ancient accounts. The best known, and by far the most elaborately developed of these systems, is the Hindu, with its Yuga Cycle, which corresponds to the Platonic idea of four definable Ages.”

It is evident that the original Yuga Cycle was based on सप्तर्षि the Saptarsi Calendar. It was of 12,000 years duration, comprised of four Yugas of equal duration of 2,700 years each, separated by transitional periods of 300 years. The complete Yuga Cycle of 24,000 years was comprised of an ascending and descending Yuga cycle, which followed each other for eternity like the cycles of day and night. For the past 2,700 years, we have been evolving through the ascending Kali Yuga, and this Yuga is coming to an end in 2025. The end of the Yuga will inevitably be followed by cataclysmic earth changes and civilization collapses, as is characteristic of the transitional periods. द्वापर युग Dwapara Yuga is fundamentally different from कलियुग Kali in its spiritual and material dimensions, as can be gleaned from the ancient texts. Hence, we may anticipate far-reaching changes in our environment, and possibly in our cosmic neighbourhood, as we transition to this period of enhanced consciousness. The current upswing in tectonic activities and the increased incidence of extreme weather phenomena may be indicative of the fact that we are slowly entering into a period of volatile earth changes. We need to be aware of these greater cycles of time that govern human civilization, and the changes that are looming on the horizon.