The modern conception about history is that humanity is evolving, coming from the caveman to the industrial revolution. However, our understanding about the past is limited. The oldest artifacts that can be accepted as recorded history date from about 5000 years ago. Most of the theories about what happened before that are based on just stones and bones.
Many cultures from the past had a conception of a forgotten golden age. The Greeks for example believed that humanity went through a sequence of four ages before the present times. In the Vedas, the Greeks are described as the Pulindas (SB 2.4.18), people close to Vedic Culture, that although not a direct part of it shared much of its values and knowledge. It’s not a wonder thus that the concept of Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron ages of the Greeks is also described in the Vedas, but in this case with more detail.
According to the Vedas, our planet goes through a sequence of four ages. Just like we have four seasons in a year and these seasons repeat, similarly these cosmic cycles also go on cyclically.
Different from modern theories that conclude that modern human beings are the result of a long evolutive process that ultimately happened by chance, the Vedas explain that modern humans are actually fruit of a devolutive process. Humanity is originally created by higher beings in a state close to perfection, and slowly degrades up to a point of complete barbarism. Dr. Michael Cremo explains this version in his book Human Devolution.
According to the Vedas, the first of the four ages is called Satya-yuga, the Golden Age. That’s the age of purity, where enlightened souls chalking up an ascending path towards higher planetary systems, take birth in this planet to practice self-realization.
Satya-yuga lasts for 4000 celestial years. Each celestial year corresponds to 360 years of our time, and therefore Satya-yuga lasts for a total of 1,728,000 years. During this period there is a gradual decline in the level of consciousness, which in time leads humanity to the second age in the cycle: Treta-yuga, or the Silver Age.
In this period, people become interested in economic development. Agriculture becomes very prominent and society is divided in different classes, with pious kings watching over the well being of the general population. Most people in this age are still quite pious, and their level of consciousness is sufficient to award them bodies capable of living up to 10.000 years. The preferred method of self realization in this age are elaborated ceremonies where Vedic mantras are chanted in perfect metric and cadence.
Treta-yuga lasts for 3000 celestial years, or 1,296,000 years of our time. Again, there is a gradual deterioration of collective consciousness, and slowly bad habits and lower qualities become more prominent, leading humanity to the third age: Dwapara-yuga, or the Bronze Age.
In this age, about half of humanity is dominated by lust, greed and other bad qualities. At the start of Dwapara-yuga people live for 1,000 years, but life expectancy diminishes gradually and by the end of the period it’s close to 100 years.
Dwapara-yuga lasts for 2,000 celestial years, or 864,000 years of our time. It’s followed by Kali-yuga, the last era of the cycle, the era we are currently living. This age started 5,121 years ago, exactly at the time Krsna left this world. In the Surya Siddhanta is described a particular alignment of planets (very inauspicious according to astrology) that happens at the start of this era, an information confirmed by modern calculations.
During Kali-yuga, humanity slowly degrades, as beings from the lower realms get the opportunity of taking birth in our planet to accumulate a new set of Karma. This is also the shortest of the four eras, lasting for just 1000 celestial years, or 432,000 years of our time. In the beginning of this age, people live for about 100 years, but just as before the life expectancy gradually diminishes as time goes on.
#kali-yuga #kalki #mahayuga
𝗢𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
There is a small mistake in the narration:
Satya-yuga = 𝟰𝟴𝟬𝟬 celestial years (4000 + 400 + 400) = 1,728,000 years on Earth
Treta-yuga = 𝟯𝟲𝟬𝟬 celestial years (3000 + 300 + 300) = 1,296,000 years on Earth
Dwapara-yuga = 𝟮𝟰𝟬𝟬 celestial years (2000 + 200 + 200) = 864,000 years on Earth
Kali-yuga = 𝟭𝟮𝟬𝟬 celestial years (1000 + 100 + 100) = 432,000 years on Earth
Want to see the rest of the series? Here is the playlist:
• The science of the soul
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6 сен 2024