Intrepretation of Yugas

An article by Sri S. Kannan :


There is a confusion with respect to the reading of yugas as per our Hindu almanac and the archeological evidence on the periods of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna.  That is so because of our interpretation of the yugas.  In the constant movement of the constalletations across the universe creating the concept of time and space, the movement of our planet going around the Sun which is at the centre of our Solar system causes the time period of year and months and our earth's rotation on its axis causes day and night.  It is quite possible that our Sun along with its retinue of planets revolves around anothe Sun which perhaps causes the time concept of Yuga. 

Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda's guru, Sri Yukteshwar Giri maharaj has explained this concept in his book called Holy Science (Sairam has this book published by the yogoda sangh). According to him the time taken for our Sun to go around its focal point (could be another star in the spiral galaxy) is 24000 years which he divides into ascending and descending periods comprising of four chatur yugas as follows:

Kali yuga comprising 1200 years including two sandhis (intervening period between two yugas) of 100 years each

Dwapara yuga of 2400 years with two sandhis of 200 years each

Treta yuga of 3600 years with two sandhis of 300 years each and

Sathya yuga of 4800 years with two sandhis of 400 years each.

According to the Mahabharata and other puranas, the above will have to be multiplied by 360 since they represent Deva years and for the Devas one day is equal to one year for the humans. If you do so, then the number of years of each yuga will be - Kali -  432000 years, Dwapara - 864000 years, Treta - 1296000 years and Sathya - 1728000 years which perhaps is discounted by Sri Yukteshwarji as a corruption that crept in during the dark Kali period. According to Sri Yukteshwarji once the cycle of four yugas is completed beginning from the Satya yuga to Kali yuga, then once again we start with kali yuga and proceed to the Sathya yuga. and we are now in the ascending Dwapara yuga and we have passed the ascending kali Yuga between 500 and 1700 AD, with the descending Kali yuga from the previous chatur yugas ranging between 700 BCE and 500 AD, the previous descending Dwapara yuga ranging from  2000 BCE to 700 BCE and so forth.  With this we can to some extent correlate the dates of Sri Krishna and Sri Rama as per the archealogical evidence available.  We should not lose track of what the modern scientists hold as the beginning of civilisation around 10000 years back.

By logically extending this theory upwards, we can imagine that the second Sun that Sri Yukteshwar maharaj had propounded might be revolving around another Sun along with its retinue of suns and planets which might give rise to a much larger Chatur Yuga comprising 12000 years of Kali, 24000 years of Dwapara, 36000 years of Treta and 48000 years of Sathya making a total of 1,20,000 years. This theory can be expanded manifold since there is no limit to the universe as comprehensible to the human mind.

Sri Rudrabhayananda has mentioned in one of his books that the entire universe revolves around a core which is called Brahma Nabhi which is the central point representing the start of creation where time and space are still. While it is impossible to comprehend where we are positioned in relation to this central point as we do not have a full view of the universe, we can safely presume that this postulate has the backing of science which believes in the big bang theory of orgin of the universe through a central point.

As it is difficult for us to comprehend the nature of time and space which are relative and not absolute, the confusion arises. Our puranas further confound us with such distortions as there was no single source for the puranas. Even the Lord says in Mahabharata that He has incarnated as Krishna along with Partha 28 times previously.

I do not know whether I have added to the confusion or not, but suffice to say that we accept what we can rationalise in our minds rather than believe in something which is given in the puranas as a matter of faith.

OMTATSAT