The Idea Of Time and Four Yugas In Hinduism

BY- JAYA CHOUDHARY

Time is a manifestation of God according to Hinduism. God is timeless, everlasting, permanent, unchanging, indestructible, and incapable of movement and duality in his absolute condition. The divides of time do not exist in him because he is indivisible. It does, however, exist inside him as an indistinct and indivisible component. In him, the past, present, and future all exist at the same time. On the other hand, Hindus believe that the creation process occurs in cycles, each of which contains four major yugas of time. And because the creative process is circular and endless, it "began and ended and began."

Each cycle of creation is divided by Puranas into four splits or eras named Yugas, as mentioned above. They are one Mahayuga along (great epoch). Each Yuga has a certain timeframe, a certain purpose, and unique traits that separate it from others. An estimated 4.32 million years are supposed to exist in a single Yuga cycle while 4.32 billion years are thought to represent a Kalpa. They are fixed in succession. Each Yuga has a different time frame.

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The following are the four Yugas.

1. Krita-yuga– The Yuga for Truth that lasted 17,28,000 years of the earth

2. Treta-yuga– The second Yuga lasted for 12,96,000 years on earth

3. Dwapara-yuga– The third Yuga that lasted for 8,64,000 earth years

4. Kali-yuga – The fourth Yuga or dark era lasted for 4,32,000 earth years

An estimated 4.32 million years are supposed to exist in a single Yuga cycle while 4.32 billion years are thought to represent a Kalpa.Wikimedia commons

Satya Yuga- The age of heavenly souls

The Golden Ages or Age of Truth is also known as Satya Yuga. We believe that the embodied spirits had no visible or palpable physical bodies during Satya Yuga or the Age of Truth. They were the purest of the previous time cycle spirits who had been brought into nature for the sake of creation. They just had one body, the body of joy. Therefore, they possessed inherent happiness and omniscience. It is thought that people at this age will never become ill. No one would try to point out flaws or shortcomings in another person's personality. Demerits such as ego, sadness, aggressive thinking, jealousy, hatred, backbiting, fear, rage, and lethargy did not torment the personality.

Treta Yuga- The age of intelligence

Treta Yuga is the second most significant Yuga among the four. It is said that during the Treta Yuga, human strength declines significantly in comparison to the Satya Yuga. In this Yuga, Kings and Brahmins must actively fulfill their objectives rather than relying on simple willpower. People are supposed to become more materialistic and less spiritual, and here is where the ideal scenario – Satya Yuga – deviates. Furthermore, conflicts erupted often throughout this Yuga, and climate changes were widespread, giving rise to deserts and seas. Agriculture and mining arose, along with conventions and rules to keep society in check.

Each cycle of creation is divided by Puranas into four splits or eras named Yugas, as mentioned above.Wikimedia commons

Dwapara Yuga- The age of mental beings

The Dwapara Yuga is the yuga in which spirits gained mental and physical bodies. They possessed three or four bodies in total: the happiness body, the intellect body, the mental body, and the pranic body. They most likely possessed thick astral bodies and delicate senses, which resulted in increased interaction with the outside world. People in this era were dominated by sattva and rajas. As a result, they possessed both bright and dark traits. People in Dwapar Yuga began to indulge in class distinctions. Everyone desired to acquire the specific class's scriptural dharma. The Vedas were split into four sections. Even in old age, many retained youthful traits. Religious virtues like austerity, truth, mercy, and charity were diminished to one-half in Dvapara Yuga by their irreligious equivalents such as discontent, falsehood, violence, and hostility.

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Kali Yuga- The age of physical beings

The Kali Yuga is the fourth and last Yuga. With a duration of 432,000 years, it is also the shortest. Sattva is repressed at this age, and Rajas and Tamas are dominant. Tamas became the most powerful of the three. People in this age have thick physical bodies as a result of this, but their subtle bodies are shrouded by profound darkness, making them open to evil influences and immoral acts. The Kali Yuga is characterized by a lack of room for righteousness and a full departure from the ideal Satya Yuga. As per Hinduism, each era is supposed to conclude with Lord Vishnu's manifestation on earth, and the Kali Yuga is said to terminate with the birth of Kalki. The Kali Yuga is mentioned in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Every virtue had been swallowed by the Kali Yuga's crimes; all excellent literature had vanished, and impostors had promoted a variety of creeds that they had made out of their own imagination.

According to Hindu mythology, three of the present universe's major periods have already passed us by, and we are currently in the fourth, the Kali Yuga. According to Hindu cosmology, Lord Shiva will demolish the cosmos at the conclusion of the Kali Yuga, and the physical body will experience a major alteration. Following the disintegration, Lord Brahma will reconstruct the cosmos, and humanity will once again become 'beings of truth'.