The
Hindu Puranas describe a number of cycles within cycles.
Discussions of these cycles can become
confusing because different cycles are measured in different types of units. For example, the cycles
are often described in units of deva years,
each of which equals 360 human years.
The
following description starts with the smaller cycles and works up to the larger
ones. The length of each cycle is given in
ordinary human (earth) years, as well other units where appropriate. Large numbers
are described using the conventions of American English: thus, a million is a thousand thousand,
a billion is a thousand million, a trillion is a thousand billion.
This
description is based on numerous sources, which are given in the
"References" section at the end of this document.
The
smallest cycle is called a maha yuga. A maha yuga is
4,320,000 human years. Each maha yuga is subdivided into the following four ages, whose lengths
follow a ratio of 4:3:2:1:
Satya Yuga (also called Krita Yuga)
This first age is 1,728,000 human years.
Also known as the Golden Age or age of Truth. The qualities of this age are: virtue reigns supreme;
human stature is 21 cubits; lifespan is a lakh of years,
and death occurs only when willed.
This second age is 1,296,000 human years.
Also known as the Silver Age.
The qualities of this age are: the climate is three
quarters virtue and one quarter sin; human stature is 14 cubits; lifespan is
10,000 years.
This third age is 864,000 human years.
Also known as the Bronze Age.
The qualities of this age are: the climate is one half
virtue and one half sin; lifespan is 1,000 years.
The fourth and last age is 432,000 human years.
Also known as the Iron Age.
This is the age in which we are presently
living. The qualities of this age are: the climate is one
quarter virtue and three quarters sin; human stature is 3.5 cubits; lifespan is
100 or 120years.
Toward
the end of a Kali Yuga, various calamities cause a good deal of destruction. Baba Hari Dass
states that creation disappears at the end of a Maha Yuga and
remains in seed form inside Brahma. However, other sources do not suggest
anything so drastic; it is possible that Hari Dass was really thinking of the end of Brahma's daytime or Brahma's
life when he wrote this description.
A
kalpa is a single daytime period in the life of Brahma, the creator god. Two kalpas are a day and a night of Brahma.
Each
kalpa is composed of 1,000 maha yugas. A kalpa is
thus equal to 4.32 billion human years.
At
the end of Brahma's daytime period, the
Three Worlds (Bhuloka, Bhuvarloka, Swarloka) and the seven underworlds (of the nagas) are temporarily
dissolved (pralaya); that is, the same folks can be reincarnated when the next
day of Brahma begins.
The
Vishnu Purana states that at the end of the daytime period of Brahma, a dreadful drought occurs that lasts 100 years,
and all the waters are dried up. The sun changes into seven suns, and the three
worlds (Bhurloka or Earth, Bhuvarloka or the lowest heaven, and Svarloka or the
next higher heaven) and the underworlds are burned bare of life. The inhabitants of Bhuvarloka and Svarkloka flee
to the next higher heaven, Maharloka, to escape the heat; and then to the next
higher heaven, Janaloka.
Then
mighty clouds form and the three worlds are completely flooded with water. The
lord Vishnu reposes on the waters in meditative rest for another whole kalpa
(4.32 billion years) before renewing the creation.
The
destruction that takes place at the end of a daytime of Brahma is referred to as
naimittika, which is incidental or occasional. The characteristic of this destruction is that the
three worlds continue to exist but are made uninhabitable. The souls of individuals also continue to
exist to be reincarnated in the next daytime of Brahma.
A
year of Brahma is composed of 360 day/night cycles of Brahma, or 720 kalpas, or 8.64
billion human years.
The
lifespan of Brahma is 100 Brahma years,
or 72,000 kalpas, or 311.04 trillion human years.
At
the end of the life of Brahma, all worlds are
completely dissolved (mahapralaya). No one is reincarnated from these worlds
ever again.
Another
cycle that overlaps the others is that of manvantaras. Each kalpa is reigned over by a succession of 14 Manus, and the reign ofeach Manu is
called a manvantara. A single manvantara is approximately 71 maha yugas.
Coomaraswamy
states: "Each Manvantara is followed by a Deluge, which destroys the
existings continents and swallows up all living beings, except the few who are
preserved for the repeopling of the earth."
We
are located in the fifty-first Brahma year of the life of our Brahma.
Within
that Brahma year, we are in the first Brahma day, called the Varaha kalpa.
Within
that Brahma day, we are in the seventh manvantara, and in the 28th maha yuga of that manvantara. This would
place us at about the 454th maha yuga of the 1,000 maha yugas that
comprise this day of Brahma.
Within
this maha yuga, we are in Kali Yuga.
The 5100th year of Kali Yuga will correspond to the year 2,000 A.D. That means that we
are fairly early in Kali Yuga and this age will continue more than
426,000 more years.
Variant Interpretations of Hindu Chronology
The
"Traditional Puranic Model" described above is agreed upon by most
authors on Hinduism and Yoga. Six different authors, listed at the end of this paper, describe this
model identically.
However,
several other authors, some of them well-known Hindu teachers,
have published descriptions of the cycle of ages that differ from the
traditional Puranic model. These variant theories are described below.
In
the introduction to his book The Holy
Science,
Sri Yukteswar describes an interesting variant of the Hindu theory of ages. According to him,
...the
sun, with its planets and their moons, takes some star for its dual and
revolves around it in about 24,000 years of our earth-a celestial
phenomenon which causes the backward movement of the equinoctial points around the zodiac. The sun also
has another motion by which it revolves round a grand center called Vishnunabhi, which is the seat of the creative power,Brahma, the universal
magnetism. Brahma regulates dharma, the mental virtue of the internal world.
Yukteswar
goes on to explain that the sun's 24,000 year revolution around its companion
star takes the sun progressively closer, and then progressively further away
from the mystic center Vishnunabhi. In his system, dharma increases as we
approach Vishnunabhi and decreases as we draw away from it. The cycle of yugas takes place twice in
each 24,000 year revolution. As the sun recedes from Vishnunabhi, the ages pass
in the usual order: Satya, Treta, Dvapara, Kali. As the sun approaches Vishnunabhi,
the ages pass in the opposite order: Kali, Dvapara, Treta, Satya.
The
length of the yugas is: Satya Yuga,
4800 years; Treta Yuga, 3600 years; Dwapara Yuga, 2400 years; and Kali Yuga, 1200 years.
The yugas during the approach to Vishnunabhi he calls 'ascending' yugas; those
during the retreat from Vishnunabhi he calls 'descending' yugas. The most
recent ascending Kali Yuga began in 499 A.D. Since 1599 A.D. we have been in the
ascending Dwapara Yuga, with consequent advances in human culture and
knowledge.
Yukteswar
goes on to say that the Hindu almanacs, which correspond to the traditional
Puranic model described previously, are in error. The error crept in during the
dark years of Kali Yuga when
scholars misinterpreted the scriptures. Regarding the conventional view that we
are currently in Kali Yuga, Yukteswar says flatly that
it is not true.
Yukteswar's
model thus differs from the traditional in the following respects:
·
A
cycle of four yugas takes 24,000 years instead of 4,320,000.
·
The
yugas alternate between ascending and descending trends instead of always proceeding in the same
order. This alternation becomes necessary once you posit that the ages result
from our changing distance from Vishnunabhi, rather than a deliberate divine
intervention at the end of Kali Yuga.
·
The
greater cycles like kalpas, manvantars, and lifespan of Brahma go unmentioned.
Paramahansa
Yogananda was a disciple of Sri Yukteswar and one of the best-known Hindu teachers
ever to visit the West. He wrote the perrenial bestseller Autobiography of a Yogi.
In
the latter book, Yogananda describes and endorses Yukteswar's theory of world cycles. However, in a
footnote, Yogananda adds the following:
The
Hindu scriptures place the present world-age as occurring within the Kali Yuga of a much longer universal cycle than the simple 24,000 year
ecquinoctial cycle with which Sri Yukteswar was concerned. The universal cycle of the scriptures of4,300,560,000 years in extent, and measures out a
Day of Creation. This vast figure is
based on the relationship between the length of the solar year and a multiple of pi (3.1416, the ratio of the circumference to the
diameter of a circle).
The
life span for a whole universe, according to the ancient seers, is
314,159,000,000,000 solar years, or "One Age ofBrahma."
The
Hindu scriptures declare that an earth such as ours is dissolved for one of two reasons: the inhabitants
as a whole become either completely good or completely evil. The world mind
thus generates a power that releases the captive atoms held together as an
earth.
This
statement seems at first to reconcile Yukteswar's theory with the traditional
view, but in fact actually contradicts both.
Regarding
Yukteswar's theory, in his own writing he clearly states that the traditional
Hindu almanacs are in error and suggests how the error came about. He states
that the length of the yugas, given in ordindary years in the scriptures, were
misinterpreted by later scholars as being counted in units of "deva years"
which are much longer. This method led the scholars to believe that the yugas
are much longer than they really are. Yukteswar's theory is thus clearly
intended to replace, not to supplement, the traditional interpretation.
Regarding
the "much longer universal cycle" that Yogananda describes, he states
that a Day of Creation is 4,300,560,000 years.
This is close but not identical to the traditional number, which is
4,320,000,000 years. Similarly, Yogananda gives 314,159,000,000,000 years the the life of Brahma, whereas traditionally
the number is slightly different: 311,040,000,000,000 years.
It seems likely that Yogananda arrived at these different figures because he
wanted to derive them from some multiple of the ratio pi. The exact manner in which pi enters into
the calculation is, unfortunately, not explained in his footnote.
David
Frawley is a Westerner who has become a scholar of Vedic scriptures, Jyotish (Indian astrology), and
Ayurveda (Indian medicine). He has written a number of books on various aspects of Vedic culture and wisdom.
Like
Yogananda, Frawley adopts Yukteswar's 24,000 year maha yuga and views it as a smaller
cycle within the larger maha yugas described traditionally. Frawley likewise
introduces some twists in the way he interprets both the smaller and the larger
cycle.
With
regard to the 24,000 year cycle, Frawley begins like Yukteswar by ascribing the
cycle to the sun's revolution around a companion star. Frawley says that this
revolution varies the amount of cosmic light we receive from
the galactic center. Thus, he seems to have identified Yukteswar's Vishnunabhi with
the center of the galaxy, which Yukteswar
never explicitly does. Still, it is a plausible interpretation.
Unfortunately,
a 24,000 year orbit would make only a negligible difference in our sun's
distance from the galactic center, which is at a vast remove from us.
Presumably because of this, Frawley abandons
Yukteswar's notion that it is our varying distance from Vishnunabhi that causes
the cycles of yugas. Instead, he posits that
our companion star is a dark star, and when it passes between us and
Vishnunabhi, tends to eclipse some of the cosmic light from that source, thus causing the
decline into the less inspired ages like Kali Yuga.
In
describing the greater cycle, Frawley states
The
greater cycle consists of 8,640,000 years,
and what it corresponds to astronomically is not now known. In this cycle we
are in a dark or Iron age,
whose duration is 432,000 years. Exactly when it began or when it will end are not
clearly known either. (Some begin it at 3102 B.C. but this is just to confuse
it with the beginning of the Bronze age or the dark half of the lesser cycle.)
In
this passage, Frawley gives the traditional length for Kali yuga while
giving double the traditional length for the cycle as a whole. Why? Presumably
he considers that the greater cycle follows the same pattern as the lesser,
with both ascending and descending yugas. Thus a full cycle would consist of Satya-Treta-Dvapara-Kali-Kali-Dvapara-Treta-Satya.
Presumably also the whole cycle follows as a result of our overall revolution around
some object more distant than the "companion star" or "dark
star."
Alain
Danielou has written a number of books on the spiritual
traditions of India. In the book While the Gods Play, he quotes the Linga Purana
and derives numbers from it much different than those in the traditional
interpretation described previously. In this version, the life span of the gods is 4,320,000 human years.
This period is divided into 71.42 manvantaras. Each manvantara is divided into
the four yugas: Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali. As a result, the length of these yugas is as follows:
·
Satya
(or Krita) Yuga: 24,195 human years.
·
Treta Yuga:
18,146 human years.
·
Dvapara Yuga:
12,097 human years.
·
Kali Yuga:
6,048,72 human years.
By
Danielou's reckoning, Kali Yuga began in 3012 B.C. and will end in 2442 A.D. By that
point, the last traces of the present human race will
have disappeared. We are supposed to be the seventh manifestation of the human race; the previous
ones appeared in 419,964 B.C.; 359,477 B.C.; 298,990 B.C.; 238,503 B.C.;
178,016 B.C.; and 118,529 B.C. Our race appeared in 58,042 B.C., which
according to Danielou corresponds to the advent of Cro-Magnon man. Danielou also suggests that Neanderthal
man might be the race that precedes ours.
Danielou's
version thus differs from the usual theory in the following ways:
·
He
takes 4,320,000 as the lifespan of the gods, rather than the
length of a maha yuga.
·
He
divides the 4,320,000 period into 71.42 manvantaras, rather than dividing a
kalpa into 14 manvantaras. His manvantaras are thus much shorter than in the
usual version.
·
He
states that each manvantara contains a single mahayuga, instead of the usual 71 maha yugas. His
maha yugas are thus much shorter than in the usual version.
Danielou
makes a couple of other comments worth
mentioning. On the subject of why the scriptures portray a
year as 360 days in length, he states
The
number of days in a year is not
constant. The rhythm of the earth's rotation varies
over very long periods. A figure of 360 is considered to be the average.
In
referring to the cyclical nature of the ages, Danielou also makes the following very
interesting statement:
The
circle is an illusion, for the cosmic mechanism is in reality always formed of spirals. Nothing ever returns
to its point ofdeparture.
However, the circle does give us a simplified image.
Unfortunately,
he does not expand on this concept any further.
Rishi
Singh Gerwal was the author and apparently also the publisher of a small pamphlet on ancient
prophecies, published in Santa Barbara in the 1940s. The pamphlet contains
translations of various prophetic portions of the Mahabharata.
In
the Introduction, Gerwal gives the following numbers:
1
kalpa = 22 septillion, 394 sextillion, 880 quadtillion human years.
1
kalpa = 2 manvantaras (traditionally this would be 14 manvantaras)
1
manvantara = 71 maha yugas (this is the same as the traditional reckoning)
Gerwal
goes on to give the traditional lengths for the Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali Yugas. He then states that the
present Kali yuga has 210,000 years to go. He also states that
22,394,880,000,000,000,000,000,000 years have already passed since the start of the kalpa. Since this number
is the same one he gave as the length of a kalpa, we are presumably at the very end of this present kalpa.
Oddly
enough, if you multiply maha yugas of 4,320,000 years times
71 to make a manvantara and then times 2 to make a kalpa, the result is only
613,440,000 years rather
than the 22 septillion Gerwal states as his total.
The
22 septillion number is far greater than the traditional length of a kalpa, and the statement
that 2 manvantaras make a kalpa is far fewer than the traditional number of 14.
If
we restrict our attention to the traditional interpretation, we find that it
makes a number of significant predictions that
can be compared with the findings of modern science.
Great Culture Preceded Us
Beginning
about 3,894,000 years ago,
there is supposed to have been a great civilisation in which people were
happier, taller, and much longer lived than they are today.
By
contrast, scientists currently believe that homo sapiens evolved from more
primitive forbears about 300,000 to 400,000 years ago. Humanity is supposed to have domesticated plants
about 12,000 years ago,
and animals shortly thereafter. Prior to that point, humans are thought to have
been hunter-gatherers and possibly scavengers.
The
scientific view is based on fossil evidence. The mystery is how an advanced
civilization posited by the Hindu theory could have vanished without leaving
any trace for us to find.
A
number of periodic catastrophes are
described in the Hindu scriptures:
·
At
the end of each Kali Yuga, some type of destruction takes place. The most recent instance would
be a bit under 4 millionyears ago. Other instances should be found every 4,320,000 years before that.
·
At
the end of each manvantara, a great flood
wipes out most life on earth. The most recent occurrence would be 120,534,000years ago.
Other instances would occur at intervals of 306,720,000 years.
·
At
the end of the kalpa, all life on earth
is destroyed. The most recent instance would be 2,267,574,000 years ago.
·
At
the end of a life of Brahma, the entire universe
and all its heavens and hells are destroyed. The current universe would have
come into existence more than 150 billion years ago.
Interestingly,
current scientific research does support the existence of occasional mass extinctions in
earth's history. These include the following major extinctions:
·
At
the Ordovician/Silurian transition, about 425 million years ago.
·
Near
the Devonian/Carboniferous transition, about 345 million years ago.
·
At
the Permian/Triassic transition, about 230 million years ago.
·
At
the Triassic/Jurassic transition, about 180 million years ago.
·
At
the Cretaceous/Tertiary transition, about 63 million years ago.
Additionally,
some scientists have identified what they believe is a cycle of periodic mass extinctions
occurring every 26 million years.
Unfortunately,
none of these specified dates
corresponds to the catastrophes called for by the Hindu theory.
Current
scientific estimates of the age of the universe range from 7
billion to 20 billion years. By contrast, the Hindu theory calls for a universe more
than 150 billion years old.
On
the other hand, the dates ascribed by scientists to the various geologic
periods have been revised a number of times on the basis ofnew evidence, and could
possibly be revised again in the future. Further, cosmology could reasonably be
described as an infant science, and the age it ascribes to the universe as a whole might also change
on the basis of new theories and evidence.
By
far the greater divergence from modern science is in the overall pattern of the Hindu theory. The Hindu
and scientific patterns differ in the following ways:
·
The
main pattern in the Hindu theory is one of cycles.
·
In
the Hindu theory, life follows a downward trend most of the time, from the finest age to the worst. At the end of the worst age,Kali Yuga, divine intervention rapidly
destroys the wicked and restores everything to its pristine state.
·
In
the Hindu theory, humanity is always present. The concept of evolution is confined to
spiritual evolution; that is, each soul takes life in a series of lower to higher animal forms
before finally incarnating as a human being.
By
contrast, the fossil record of life on earth indicates that
life began with very simple forms and later developed more complex organisms.
The advent of humanity appears to be an
extremely recent development when compared to the history of life on earth. Humanity itself
does not appear to have existed long enough to have participated in the vast
cycles of ages posited by Hindu theory.
There
is no scientific support for the Hindu theory of world cycles. Further, current scientific theory
contradicts Hindu theory in many respects. It is best to begin by acknowledging
this truth, as such an acknowledgement can form the basis for interesting
discussions of the different ways of knowing that
underly the more specific differences. Such, however, must be the substance of another paper.
Traditional Puranic Chronology
(Anonymous), Introduction to Kashmir Shaivism. S.Y.D.A. Foundation,
Oakland, California, 1977. See pp. 69-70.
Ananda
K. Coomaraswamy & Sister Nivedita, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists. Dover Publications, Inc.,
New York, 1967. See pp. 392-395.
Baba
Hari Dass, Silence
Speaks.
Sri Rama Foundation, Santa Cruz, California, 1977. See pp. 79-80.
Cornelia
Dimmitt & J.A.B. van Buitenen, Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas. Rupa & Co., Calcutta
etc., 1983. See pp. 19-24, 36-43.
Swami
Vishnu Tirtha Maharaj, Devatma
Shakti (Kundalini): Divine Power. Pub. Swami Shivom Tirth, 1962. See pp. 29-30.
W.
J. Wilkins, Hindu
Mythology.
Rupa & Co., Calcutta etc., 1983. See pp. 353-360.
Variant Interpretations of Hindu Chronology
Alain
Danielou, While the
Gods Play: Shaiva Oracles and Predictions on the Cycles of History and the Destiny of Mankind. Inner Traditions
International, Rochester, Vermont, 1987. See pp. 194-199.
David
Frawley, Vedic
Astrology Correspondence Course, Part I, Section 1. Vedic Research Center, Santa
Fe, New Mexico, 1986. See pp. 16-18.
Rishi
Singh Grewal, World
Prophecies: Dictators and Taxation Foretold in Ancient Hindu Philosophy, pub. Rishi Singh Grewal,
Santa Barbara, California, 1941. Esp. pp. 1-5.
Paramahansa
Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi.
Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, 1979. See pp. 193-194.
Jnanavatar
Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, The Holy
Science: Kaivalya Darsanam.
Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, 1984. See pp. 7-20.
Summaries of Scientific
Theory
Funk
& Wagnall's New Encycopedia, 1986 revision. Various articles.
Rick
Gore, "Extinctions," National
Geographic,
June 1989.
