28 January 2006
- The universe will exist for one lifetime of Brahma.
- Brahma lives for 100 years.
- One day (or kalpa) of Brahma is equal to 4,320,000,000 of our human years.
- One night of Brahma is equally long and there are 360 days and nights of Brahma in one year of Brahma.
- Each day (kalpa) is divided into one thousand cycles of four yugas:
Satya-yuga; 1,728,000 years; people live for 100,000 years and are in the process of self-realization by meditation
Treta-yuga; 1,296,000 years; people live for 10,000 years and the spiritual tendency of the people has declined by 25 percent, and the process of self-realization is through the performance of ritualistic sacrifice
Dvapara-yuga; 864,000 years; people live for 1000 years, spiritual tendency of the people has declined another 25 percent, and the people are engaged in opulent temple worship for self-realization
Kali-yuga; 432,000 years (of which 5000 have already passed); people are all short-lived and exhibit almost no interest in self-realization
According to most Vedic authorities we entered the Kali-yuga 5000 years ago, coinciding wth the birth of Krishna. We would seem to have a long way to go.
Some modern Vedic scholars dispute the extreme long length of the Hindu cycles, and base yuga lengths on the 24,000 year cycle of the precession of the equinoxes putting the four yugas at decreasing lengths within them. This make a much shorter time reckoning not as "cosmic" but maybe more "realistic".
Some modern Vedic scholars dispute the extreme long length of the Hindu cycles, and base yuga lengths on the 24,000 year cycle of the precession of the equinoxes putting the four yugas at decreasing lengths within them. This make a much shorter time reckoning not as "cosmic" but maybe more "realistic".
I leave it up the reader to decide that issue for themselves.
Thank you for your donation. Curtis
