COSMIC CYCLE, AGE OF UNIVERSE AND TIME DIVISION

A.COSMIC CYCLE & AGE OF UNIVERSE A MACRO VIEW

According to Hindu mythology, universe exists under a certain rhythm and is created, destroyed and recreated in a perpetual cyclic process.

TIME CYCLE TERMED KALP

A time cycle of 4320,000,000 man years is one day in Brahma Ji’s cycle life and is called Kalp. At the end of this period, the universe is destroyed in a process called Pralay, by way of Brahma Ji absorbing all the worlds into himself before recreation of the universe (his) nest day. Different periods within this time cycle, are described in some detail in the following setion.

LARGER TIME CYCLE TERMED PARA

A bigger time cycle called Para is 100 years of Brahma Ji’s life. This time round, Brahma Ji,  along with the entire universe gets absorbed into the supreme energy Vishnu Ji. This annihilation is called Mahapralay after which Brahma Ji appears once again on the lotus from the navel of Vishnu Ji in this cyclic cosmic process.

It may be relevant to reiterate that this time cycle is preceded by as well as followed to, infinity i.e. the absolute beginning and the terminal end are beyond human comprehension.

Present position of existence of the Universe

At macro level, we are presently at a point in time when half the time period of Brahma Ji’s one day is over and at the micro level, we are in the Kalyug which began about 5000 man-years ago.

Micro level details are given in the following passages.

B. TIME DIVISIONS  – A MACRO VIEW

There are different divisions or units of time for men and gods as follows.

Divine-day-equal to one man-year if 360 days based on the fact that there are 360 degrees is one circle. One degree is taken as equal to one day and the complete cycle of earth raoud sun in 360 days and is related to divine day.

Divine-Year-equals 360 man-years

Yug/Mahayug/Manvantar – During Brahma Ji’one day, one particular universe exists, before it is annihilated through Pralay, followed by recreation of the Universe by him in this cyclic process mentioned earlier. This passage of time between consecutive Pralays i.e existence of one universe and called Kalp, can be described as consisting of the following.

Manvantar – There are 14 Mnvantars in one Kalp i.e. Brahma Ji’s one day. Each manvantar is regned  by one Manu and is spread over 71 mahayugs, each mahayug consisting of 12000 divine – years or 4320,000 man-years encompassing 4 smaller time spans called yug.

Yug(or Age)- There are 4 different yugs in one mahayug, given sequentially as follows.

Satyug (or Krityug) spanning 4800 duvine-years or 1728,000 man-years, a period characterised by all pervading truthfulness & righteousness among humans, a life span of 4000 man-years for humans, a yug where procreation occurs by mere wishing Tretayug spanning 3600 divine-years or 1296.000 man-years when truthfulness which prevailed in the previous Satyug diminishes by 25, life expectancy down to 3000 years and procreation occurring by a simple touch (let us avoid going into details like who touches whom, when & how etc.)

Duaparyug spanning 2400 divine-years or 864,000 man-years, truthfulness & righteousness diminishing further of 50 of the previous Tretayug level and procreation achieved through properly organized marriages.

Kalyug spanning 1200 divine-years or 432,000 man-years, truthfulness & righteousness going gown to a very low level of 25 of the level prevailing during the previous Duaparyug, characterized by low character all round, including extra marital relationships and poor respect for elders and teacher and to rules of society etc.