In Sanskrit, the language of ancient India, time and death are synonymous and called Kaal. If we examine this closely, we find that it is not a coincidence. Time indeed actually means decay and death. Everything decays with time and dies once its life span is over.
History abounds with civilizations and cultures which were once mighty and powerful and are today only a pale shadow of their former glory. They flourished, reached the pinnacle of their glory, and then slowly died.
In India many thousands of years ago some very remarkable and exceptional men reached a level of self realization which enabled them to understand the mystery of creation and the laws which govern and sustain it. These men were known as Rishis. These were the men to whom all the knowledge that humans needed or would ever need was revealed as the Ved (Knowledge). In their higher state of consciousness, these ascended masters could intuitively see the devastating effect of time on humans and knew that unless steps were taken to safeguard it, the knowledge that they had would be lost over a period of time.
Vedas are called Shruti. Shruti means something which is heard. The knowledge was revealed as the spoken word and was committed to memory by those receiving it. Written records can fall into wrong hands so the first step was to pass it on from generation to generation as memorized word. The easiest way to commit something to memory is by developing it into a rhyme or ditty. The sum total of knowledge was thus converted to thousands of verses and rhymes. These rhymes were called Richa and Sootra.
The language and selection of words of these Richas is such that each one can be interpreted in a number of ways. Generally every important Richa can have as many as six meanings. A person with gross intelligence will get only the literal meaning which is often unimportant. An ascended master on the other hand will be able to explain the real, ( intellectual and spiritual) meaning. It is for this reason that most English translations of Sanskrit works appear to be dull and meaningless.
This had to be done as some portions of this knowledge were meant for only those who had reached the appropriate state of maturity and enlightenment.
The information was thus handed down from generation to successive generation. People of exceptional mental caliber were chosen to remember Richas and Sootra. In this way the ascended masters negated the negative impact of time on available knowledge. It is because of this that Indian civilization and Vedic philosophy have emerged unscathed across a gaping chasm of time lasting twenty four thousand years at the very least. Depending upon their spiritual and intellectual caliber, some people could remember and reproduce all four Vedas, some three, two or one respectively. They were known as Chaturvedis, Trivedis, Dwivedis and Vedis. Their descendents are still known by these names and enjoy a high status in Indian society.
To make the less sensitive information available to masses, Upanishads and Bhashyas (commentary) were written.
For people with still lower mental caliber Upanishads were further simplified into Puranas. Two epics Ramayana and Maha Bharat were penned by the Rishis and these condense the wisdom of the Vedas into simple, easy to understand stories and parables.
The Yuga system of time is the gift of this great and ancient civilization.
Yuga system defined
The Indian concept of time is cyclical in nature. All systems, ideas and events have a beginning a mid point and an end. Nothing is everlasting in the visible universe that we see all around us. The human intellect is limited in its scope and often assumes that a smoothly or chaotically functioning system will keep on doing so for ever. We take for granted that growth or decay will proceed in a straight line for all times to come. In reality, nature has no straight lines.
Night and day, growth and decay of animal and plant species is a natural part of life. Companies and corporations, kings and their kingdoms all appear on the world stage, flourish for a while, then die. This is the eternal truth.
The Rishis being one with the universe knew the reality of time. They knew it was unreal and had validity only in the three dimensional world. They also knew that under its influence everything will go through crests and troughs, life and death. The essence of this Vedic insight was reintroduced to the world in 1894 by Gyan Avatar Swami Sri Yukteswar ji. His concise but ground breaking book, The Holy Science explains in detail the creation and sustenance of this universe. The following is a summary of his teachings about the Yuga system.
We all know that our solar system has Sun at its center and the earth and the rest of the planets move around it. Sun itself is a dual star and revolves around another star. According to the Vedic philosophy, this dual system of stars orbits around a region in space called Vishnu Nabhi. This region is the seat of creative intelligence. When Sun reaches closest to the Vishnu Nabhi, the Dharma (mental virtue) is at its peak and humans are close to God. They understand the creative principals which create this universe and make life on earth and elsewhere in the universe possible. When Sun reaches a point farthest from Vishnu Nabhi, Dharma is at its lowest ebb and humans lose all their understanding of the creative principals. We understand nothing higher than the grossest material creation.
The autumnal equinox is the pointer to the position of the Sun in relation to the Vishnu Nabhi. When autumnal equinox falls in Aries, sun is closest to it. When autumnal equinox falls in Libra, the Sun is farthest from it. It takes twelve thousand years for the Sun to travel from the closest to the farthest point from Vishnu Nabhi.. At the end of this period The Sun swings around and again begins to advance towards the seat of creative intelligence. Each of these two periods of twelve thousand years is called a Daiva Yuga. When the Sun is moving away from Vishnu Nabhi, the Daiva Yuga is known as descending Yuga. Conversely when the Sun is moving closer to the grand center, the period is called ascending Daiva Yuga. Each Daiva Yuga brings about a complete change in our external world as well as in our thinking process. In twenty-four thousand years the Sun completes one ascending and one descending Daiva yuga.
The growth and decay of Dharma is a slow and gradual process and is divided into four different and distinct stages in a period of twelve thousand years.
As mentioned above the Sun takes twenty four thousand years to complete one orbit around Vishnu Nabhi or grand center. 1/20th portion of this period or twelve hundred years is called Kali Yuga. Dharma during this period is only a quarter developed. The human intellect can not understand anything beyond the simple process of living like eating, sleeping and procreating.
The period of 2400 years during which the Sun passes through the 2/20th portion of twenty four thousand years is called Dwapar Yuga. Dharma at this point is in its second stage of development. It is only half complete. Humans can understand the electricities and their properties which are the creating principals of the external world.
The period of thirty six hundred years during which the Sun passes through the 3/20th portion of its orbit is called Treta Yuga. Dharma at this stage is three quarters developed. This enables us to understand the divine magnetism which is the source of all electricities and electrical forces on which creation is dependent for existence.
The period of forty eight hundred years during which the Sun passes through the 4/20th portion of its orbit is called Satya Yuga. At this stage the development of Dharma is complete and we can understand all principals of creation including God.
This is the English rendition of the relevant portion from Manu Smriti
Four thousand years is said to be the Krita Yuga (Satya Yuga). Its morning has as many hundreds, and its evening is of the same length. (400+4000+400 = 4800). In the other three ages, with their morning and evening twilights, the thousands and hundreds decrease by one. (i.e. 300+3000+300 = 3600 and so on...). That fourfold cycle comprising twelve thousand years is called an Age of the gods. The sum of a thousand divine ages constitutes one day of Brahma, and of the same length is its night.
Manu specifically mentions earth years, nowhere does he say celestial years.
The period of Satya Yuga proper is four thousand years in duration. Four hundred years before and after the Satya Yuga are its Sandhis or junctions with preceding and succeeding Treta Yuga where the gradual changes in the nature of the Yuga take place. Thus forty eight hundred years in all is the total age of the Satya Yuga. Manu has laid down that in the calculation of the periods of the other Yugas, numeral one should be subtracted from the number of both thousands and hundreds which indicate the periods of the previous Yugas and Sandhis. From this rule the age of Treta Yug comes out to be thirty six hundred years. Three thousand as the length of the Yuga and three hundred years before and after as its Sandhis; a total of thirty six hundred years.
Thus two thousand years is the length of the Dwapar Yuga with two hundred years before and after as its Sandhis. A total of twenty four hundred years. Lastly the duration of the Kali Yuga computes to be one thousand years with the junctions or Sandhis lasting one hundred years. This makes the total age of Kali Yuga to be twelve hundred years.
If we add 4800+3600+2400+1200 we get a total of 12000 years which is the length of one Daiva Yuga. Two of these Daiva Yugas make one cycle complete.
Sequence of Yugas Satya(4800)-Treta(3600)-Dwapar(2400)-Kali(1200)-Kali(1200)- Dwapar(2400) - Treta(3600)- Satya(4800). Total 24000 Earth years.
As we can see two Satya Yug, one descending and one ascending are joined together producing a total of 9600 years. Similarly at the other extremity, the descending and ascending Kali Yug are also joined producing a total of 2400 years. The sequence is in fact a circle.
In 11501 BC the autumnal equinox was on the first degree of Aries. At this point the Sun began to move away from its position closest to Vishnu Nabhi or grand center to its position farthest from it. This movement set in motion the very slow and imperceptible decline in the mental virtue of humans. The intellectual power of man began to diminish. In the next 4800 years we lost the power to grasp spiritual knowledge. In the following 3600 years during the Sun's journey through the descending Treta Yuga the human intellect lost all power of grasping the divine magnetism. In the succeeding 2400 years of the journey of the Sun through the descending Dwapar yuga the intellect became more clouded and humanity lost the ability to understand the existence and nature of five electricities. Finally in the last 1200 years of the Kali Yuga the intellectual power became so weak that nothing about the creation could be understood. Only gross material level of existence was known to us.
Adding 12000 years to 11501 BC we reach a figure of 499 AD. The period around 500 AD was indeed the darkest part of kali Yuga and of the whole cycle of twenty four thousand years.
From this point onwards the Sun began to move towards the Vishnu Nabhi or grand center and the human intellect slowly started to develop. During the 1100 years of the ascending kali Yuga there were frequent wars all over the world and man's cruelty and brutality knew no end. This period ended in 1599 AD.
At the end of the kali Yuga the hundred year period of Yuga Sandhi came into effect to usher in the Dwapar Yuga. Slowly the human intellect began to develop and we took the first few hesitant steps towards the understanding of electric current and magnetism. In 1600 AD William Gilbert studied the magnetic forces and observed the presence of electricity in all living beings. A little later Kepler discovered the laws of astronomy and the first Telescope was invented by Galileo. In 1621 Drebbel of Holland produced the first microscope. In 1670 Newton laid down the laws of gravitation and a little later in 1700 AD Thomas Savary used the steam power to lift water from the mines for the first time. In 1720 Stephen Grey discovered the action of electricity on human body. These discoveries and inventions came rapidly on the heals of one another. This became possible because the heavy burden of Kali Yuga was lifted from the minds of humanity and human intellect could begin to soar in the realm of pure thought.
The political structure too underwent a major change. People began respecting themselves and the all powerful medieval political system became less rigid and suffocating. In England democracy took firm roots and undermined the power of the king. Concept of liberty, equality and fraternity gained ground in France and the united states of America won its independence. The war torn Europe at long last saw some peace.
The rising Dwapar gave a huge impetus to the utilization of fine energies like electricity and magnetism. Electric motors combining the two forms of energy came into common use. Mankind learned to harness these energies though their real nature still eludes us.
In 1899 the two hundred year period of Dwapar Sandhi came to an end and the two thousand years long Dwapar Yuga began. This coming period will give us a real understanding of electricity and magnetism. As Dwapar advances, communication will become increasingly widespread and technologies will keep emerging that will simplify this process.
The mistake According to this new theory propounded by Sri Yuteshwar, the Hindu almanacs do not show correctly the present Dwapar Yuga. The astronomers and astrologers who calculate the ephemeris maintain that the duration of Kali Yuga is 432000 years of which only 5103 years have passed till 2003, leaving 426897 years still remaining. Fortunately this is not true.
The reason for this mistake can be traced back to the reign of Raja Parikshit who lived around 700 BC. This was immediately after the completion of the last descending Dwapar Yuga. At that time Maharaja Yudhishthir noticing the approaching dark Kali Yuga, relinquished his throne to his grandson Raja Parikshit and retired to the Himalayas. All the learned and wise men of his court migrated along with him and so there was no one left who could understand the principle of correctly calculating the age of the Yugas.
After the completion of the 2400 years of the then current Dwapar Yuga, no one wanted to - and dared to - announce the end of Dwapar and the beginning of the coming Kali Yuga.
This wrong method of calculation in two steps went like this:
First mistake The first year of kali Yuga was numbered 2401 along with the age of the now ended Dwapar Yuga. In AD 499 when the 1200 years of the length of the true kali Yuga were complete, the age of kali Yuga was given as 2400+1200 = 3600 years.
And the second As the Sun began to move towards the Vishnu Nabhi or grand center the intellectual power of man began to rise. The mistake in the almanacs thus came to the notice of the Pundits living at that time. They found that the ancient Rishis had fixed the duration of the kali Yuga at only 1200 years. They could however make out only the mistake and not the reason for it. They interpreted that the 1200 years of the real age of kali were not solar years but so many Daiva years. Each Daiva year was supposed to contain 12 Daiva months and each Daiva month was supposed to contain 30 Daiva days. Further each Daiva Day was taken to be equal to one solar year of our earth.
The simple mathematical calculation went like this.
1200 (Age of Kali Yug) X 12 (Daiva months) X 30 (Daiva days) = 432000 (Daiva Days)
Since each Daiva day equals one solar year, therefore total length of Kali Yuga is 432000 years.
The ephemeris shows that the autumnal equinox now to be almost 23.85º from the first degree of Aries. This shows through a simple calculation that 1705 years have passed since the time that the equinox began to recede from the first degrees of Aries.
Deducting 1200 years (The age of kali Yuga) from 1705 we get a figure of 505 years to show the present year of our world's entry into the Dwapar Yuga.
The present year is thus 505 Dwapar.
As time passes this view mentioned above will gain ground and replace the old one which gives hugely inflated number of years for each Yug.
Resonance of this view The only other people who kept meticulous track of time like us were Mayan of South America. They were no strangers to our forefathers. Mayans have been mentioned twice in our epics. Once in Ramayan and the second time in Mahabharat. In both instances they are depicted as master builders and technologically advanced race. Their calendar is very similar to ours and corresponds to our Yug system.
Calculations from Mahabharat Scholars from across the world came together, for the first time, in an attempt to establish the 'Date of Kurukshetra War based on astronomical data.' Undoubtedly, it was a comprehensive presentation of information in a discussion group, held on January 5 and 6, 2003 at the Mythic Society, Bangalore.
Scholars analyzed the astrological information present in Mahabharat and their estimates varied from 2067 BC to 1478 BC. This is roughly in accordance with the Dwapar period given by our revised theory.
I feel that we should be open to new ideas when dealing with ancient Indian history. It has been misrepresented and misinterpreted due to many reasons and needs a fresh look.
I am deeply indebted to the teachings of Shri Yukteshwar who was the Guru of Swami Paramhansa Yogananda.
(3084 words)
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