Time, Epochs & Millennia

More of this Feature • Hindu View of Time • The Four Epochs or Yugs • Living in Kali Yug!  Join the Discussion "The present age of Kali Yug is not the worst of all the ages... " ~ OPENHINDU   Related Resources • Reincarnation • Death & Dying • Gods & Goddesses

According to Hindu scriptures, all mortal beings are destined to pass through four great epochs in every cycle of creation and destruction. This divine cycle turns full-circle at the end of what is known as kalpa. A kalpa is a period of 10,000 divine years or 10 million years, and is divided into four ages or yugs (Sanskrit yuga = age/epoch).

The four great epochs in Hinduism are: Satya Yug, Treta Yug, Dwapar Yug and Kali Yug. Satya Yug or the Age of Truth is said to last for four thousand divine years, Treta Yug for three thousand, Dwapara Yug for two thousand and Kali Yug will last for one thousand divine years. It is also believed that three of these great ages have already passed away, and we are now living in the fourth one. What these ages exactly mean, and why this division, it's hard to explain, because they appear too unrealistic to be true for the rational mind.

Songs of Innocence & Experience!
The four ages symbolize the four phases of involution during which man gradually lost the awareness of his inner selves and subtle bodies. Hinduism believes that human beings have five kinds of bodies, called annamayakosa, pranamayakosa, manomayakosa vignanamayakosa and anandamayakosa, which represent the 'gross body', the 'breath body', the 'psychic body', the 'intelligence body' and the 'bliss body' respectively.

Another theory explains these epochs of time on the basis of the degree of loss of righteousness in the world. It says, during Satya Yug only truth prevailed (Sanskrit Satya = truth), Treta lost ¼ truth, Dwapar lost ½ truth and Kali is left with only ¼ truth. Evil and dishonesty has replaced truth in the last three ages or yugs.

Dashaavatar
Throughout these four yugs, Lord Vishnu is said to incarnate ten times in ten different avatars. This is known as 'Dashaavatar' (Sanskrit dasha = ten). During the Age of Truth, human beings were spiritually most advanced and had great psychic powers. In the Treta Yug people still remained righteous and adhered to moral ways of life. Lord Rama of the fabled Ramayana lived in Treta Yug. In the Dwapara Yug, men had lost all knowledge of the intelligence and bliss bodies. Lord Krishna was born in this age. The present Kali Yug is the most degenerated of the Hindu epochs.

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