4 yugas (Earth, paradise, evolve, creation, myths)

[aspergers_anomalous]

what can we learn from the 4 yugas? Perhaps our lives have elements of all of them? As a Hindu, do you take them literally or metaphorically?

[Aupmanyav]

I take them metaphorically. Yes, any man is a mix of many qualities, good, bad, and so so. Hinduism says three, Satva (Divine), Rajat (Existentialist), and Tamas (Demonic); it is only a question of proportion or development of a particular quality. This is Kali Yuga (Dark Age), divine qualities are on descendence, we should try to improve.

[Hema]

I take it literally. There is so much unrighteousness in the world because people are forgetting how to live with love.

[xexon]

The Yugas illustrate that everything in creation has a life cycle.

It is created. It grows, It ages, and finally death.

It is a wheel which revolves, as opposed to the western view of a straight line which ends at death.

The Yugas are the time of the season for humankind. Its late summer.

The Kali Yuga is just getting warmed up in it's ferocity. It will cleanse with fire to destroy the old, so that new growth will have a chance to grow again for a while.

To watch Shiva dance, is both terrifying and mesmerizing. But to survive, you must learn to move as Shiva moves. Staying out of the way of those feet. The survivors will be treated to a new earth, blooming like a heavenly paradise.

God shakes the Etch-a-Sketch.

The 4 cycles start all over.



x

[Aupmanyav]

That is nice, Xexon.

[Don Penguinoini]

I dont think the 4 yugs are like metaphoric, in the veds they give amounts of time that they last. I think that there isnt really to take from it except that as time passes sadly everything deteriorates

[Aupmanyav]

IMHO, Yugas belong to the Puranas, Shrimad Bhagawatam. Do Vedas have a mention of four Yugas? I think not, 'yuga' was certainly used to indicate a period of time, but not in sense of Krita, Treta, Dwapar, and Kali. "Excerpts from A VEDIC READER For Students" by Arthur Anthony Macdonell at http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vedaread.htm has no mention of the four yugas. That might mean that it is a later development.

"In Indian Aryan mythology we are suddenly confronted at a comparatively late period, at any rate some time after tribal settlements were effected all over Hindustan from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea, with fully developed conceptions regarding the World's Ages and Transmigration of Souls, which, it is quite evident, did not originate after the Aryan conquest of Hindustan. Both doctrines can be traced in Greek and Celtic (Irish) mythologies, but they are absent from Teutonic mythology. From what centre and what race they originally emanated we are unable to discover. The problem presented is a familiar one. At the beginnings of all ancient religious systems and great civilizations we catch glimpses of unknown and vanishing peoples who had sowed the seeds for the harvests which their conquerors reaped in season.

The World's Ages are the "Yugas" of Brahmanism. "Of this elaborate system . . . no traces are found in the hymns of the Rigveda. Their authors were, indeed, familiar with the word 'yuga', which frequently occurs in the sense of age, generation, or tribe. . . . The first passage of the Rigveda in which there is any indication of a considerable mundane period being noted is where 'a first' or an earlier age (yuga) of the gods is mentioned when `the existent sprang from the non-existent'. . . . In one verse of the Atharva-veda, however, the word 'yuga' is so employed as to lead to the supposition that a period of very long duration is intended. It is there said: 'We allot to thee a hundred, ten thousand years, two, three, four ages (yugas)'."

Professor Muir traced references in the Brahmanas to the belief in "Yugas" as "Ages", but showed that these were isolated ideas with which, however, the authors of these books were becoming familiar."

(Indian Myths and Legends by Donald A Mackenzie at http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/iml/iml11.htm)

[mahesh]

As per vedas our universe lives for 100 years.

Brahmaji represents our universe which has birth and death, a big bang and a big cruch, from a navel singularity. Vishnu represents the eternity that lies beyond our universe which has no birth or death and that which is eternal!
Vedas say that thousands of brahmas have passed away! In other words, this is not the first time universe has been created.
Let us come back to the time measurements now. Brahma lives for hundred years say vedas and we are in the first day of the 51st year of the brahma.
A Year of Brahma
By the way each year of Brahma has 360 days. And we are in the first day of the 51st year of our current brahma. Vedas also say that Lord Hanuman will be the next Brahma. Well, thats something I have to do some research into later, the more things to think about, the more happy and occupied I am
Coming back to a day of the Brahma. Well, there is day and night Vedas say that during the day Brahma is busy in creation of life and during the night all life he created is absorbed back into him! So we will be there only for this day of Brahma, which is the first day of his 51st year. But dont feel sad, let me promise you, this is a pretty long day….
A day of Brahma
Each day of brahma is called a Kalpa, and this itself is very huge a number. No wonder, ancient Indians had to be perfect in mathematics before going into all these things.
A kalpa is made up of brahma’s one day and one night.
Manvantaras

The day has 14 Manvantaras. Similarly the night has an equal 14 Manvantaras. But then Brahma is resting in the night, so lets get back to the day again. We are in the 7th Manvantara of Brahma’s this day, say the vedas.
MahaYuga
Each Manvantara is made up of 71 Mahayuga. We are in the 28th Mahayuga of this Manvantara say the vedas.
A Mahayuga is a collection of 4 Yugas. Maha means giant or huge.
The 4 yugas are Satya Yuga (also called Krita Yuga), Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, Kali Yuga. We are in the Kaliyuga of our current Mahayuga say the vedas.
Satya Yuga lasts for 40% of its Mahayuga - Age of divine where humans need no physical means to exist and are in direct contact with the God
Treta Yuga lasts for 30% of its Mahayuga - Age where bad deeds start appearing, still there is lot of truth, infact 3/4 of this age is still goodness
Dwapara Yuga lasts for 20% of its Mahayuga-Dwapara means after the second, where there are almost equal amount of good and bad
Kali Yuga lasts for 10% of its Mahayuga- Kali means Darkness in Sanskrit (not to be confused with Kaali which is godess), no wonder we are in this age
Now finally we have reached to a timescale which we can relate to our own years.
1 Kaliyuga = 432000 solar years!
A Kaliyuga has the length of one Yuga. So One Mahayuga has 10 Yugas of which four are in Satya Yuga, 3 in Treta Yuga, 2 in Dwapara and 1 in Kali Yuga.
So a Mahayuga = 10 times the Kaliyuga i.e 4,320,000 solar years
Calculations
Let us do some reverse calculations now to find out the age of the universe as per the vedas.
1 Mahayuga = 4,320,000 years
1 Manvantara = 71 Mahayugas
1 day of Brahma = 14 Manvantaras = 994 Mahayugas
Now a small addition here, Vedas also say that before and after each Manvantara there is a gap equivalent to 4 Yugas (Not MahaYugas).
So now, 1 day of Brahma = 14 Manvantaras + (15 x 4 Yugas)
= 994 Mahayugas + 60 Yugas
= 994 Mahayugas + 6 MahaYugas = 1000
So 1 day of Brahma = 1000 MahaYugas = 4,320,000,000 years
1 night is again 1000 MahaYugas = = 4,320,000,000 years
1 Complete day = day + night = 8,640,000,000 years = 8.64 billion years
Note that we are in the 7th Manvantara of this day. So let us calculate how many years have passed since today started for Brahma.
Step 1: For 6 Manvantaras we have 71x 6 = 426 Mahayugas
Step 2: Then we have the gaps between each Manvantara which is 7 x 4 Yugas = 2.8 MahaYugas
Step 3: Then we have the current Mahayuga in our Manvantara which is 28th, we are in the last 1/10 of it (Remember Kaliyuga is the last of 4 yugas and spans 1/10 of a Mahayuga). So it is 27.9 Mahayugas.
So all put together we have 426+2.8+27.9 = 456.7 Mahayugas have been already spent in current day of Brahma. Approximately 543 more to go before we all are absorbed back into the Brahma
Okay so 456.7 in terms of years is 456.7 x 4,320,000 = 1,972,944,456 which is about 2 billion years. Somewhat close to what evolution proposes for life on earth.

The Yugas are mentioned in teh Upansihads and Purans which we as followers of the Sanatan Dharm cannot ignore. Kaliyug Startd while Shri Krishna was on the Earth and it entered the ornaments of Kali. This is recorded in the Bhagwat Puran. This shouldnt be ignored. Those that do ignore are foolish.

[Aupmanyav]

Oh yes, you are talking mythology; and not science or history.

[mahesh]

I could state the same about how you think all is Brahman. But i dont. As i know there is Brahman but thats not everything and i know its absolute knowledge.

What you state is just your opinion. Not a fact. This is History and truth. Can you prove that it isnt? My faith states it is true.