Hindu Calendar - Eras

Eras

Hinduism has of 4 eras (Technically Yuga) or ages, of which we are currently in the last. The four are:

1. Kṛta Yuga or Satya Yuga
2. Treta Yuga
3. Dvāpara Yuga
4. Kali Yuga

They are often translated into English as the golden, silver, bronze and Iron Ages. (Yuga means era or age.) The ages see a gradual decline of dharma, wisdom, knowledge, intellectual capability, life span and emotional and physical strength. The epoch provided above is the start of the Kali Yuga. The Kali Yuga is 432,000 years long. The Dvāpara, Tretā and Kṛta (Satya) Yuga-s are two, three and four times the length of the Kali Yuga respectively. Thus they together constitute 4,320,000 years. This is called a Catur-Yuga.

A thousand and a thousand (i.e. two thousand) Catur-Yuga-s are said to be one day and night of the creator Brahmā. He (the creator) lives for 100 years of 360 such days and at the end, he is said to dissolve, along with his entire Creation, into the Eternal Soul or Paramātman.

A Sāṅkhya view of the timespan of a Yuga is given by Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, the guru of Paramahansa Yogananda. This is detailed in his book, The Holy Science. According to this view, one complete yuga cycle is equal to one complete "precession of the equinox", a period of approximately 24,000 years. The ascending phase consists of a 1200 year Kali, 2400 year Dvāpara, 3600 year Treta and 4800 year Kṛta (Satya) Yuga. The descending phase reverses this order, thus both ascending and descending phases equal 24,000 years. According to calculations given in the book, the most recent yuga change was in 1699, when the Earth passed from Kali Yuga (the lowest material age) to Dvāpara Yuga (the second age associated with electrical, atomic and finger forces). We are in an ascending spiral right now, and will pass into the Tretā Yuga in 4100 CE. According to the book, the motion of the stars moving across the sky (a.k.a.precession) is the observable of the Sun's motion around another star. The quality of human intellect depends on the distance of the Sun and Earth from a certain point in space known as the Grand Center, Magnetic Center or Viṣṇunābhi - said to be the navel/center of Lord Viṣṇu. The closer the Sun is to it, the more subtle energy the Solar System receives, and the greater is the level of human spiritual and overall development. As the Sun moves around its companion star, it brings us closer to or drives us farther away from Viṣṇunābhi, resulting in the rising and falling ages here on Earth.

Yukteswar tells us that the calendars of the higher ages were based on the Yugas, with each era named after its Yuga. Hence, the year 3000 BCE was known as descending Dwapara 102 (because the last descending Dvāpara-Yuga began 102 years earlier in 3102 BCE). He stated that this method was used up until the recent Dark Ages, when knowledge of the connection with the yugas and the precession cycle was lost; "The mistake crept into the almanacs for the first time during the reign of Rājā Parikṣīt, just after the completion of the last descending Dvāpara-Yuga. At that time Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, noticing the appearance of the dark Kali Yuga, made over his throne to his grandson, the said Rājā Parikṣīt. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, together with all the wise men of his court, retired to the Himālaya Mountains... thus there was no one who could understand the principle of correctly calculating the ages of the several Yugas". Thus, Yukeswar assumed that Raja Parikshit was not trained in any vedic principles even though he alone ruled the world many years. Thus, he interpreted that Yugas are not calculated correctly. Consequently, he gave the theory that when the Dwapara was over and the Kali era began no one knew enough to restart the calendar count. They knew they were in a Kali Yuga (which is why the old Hindu calendar now begins with K.Y.) but the beginning of this calendar (which in 2006 stands at 5108) can still be traced to 3102 BCE, (3102+2006=5108) the start of the last descending Dvāpara-Yuga. To this day there is still much confusion why the Kali starts at this date or what the correct length of the Yugas should be. Yukteswar suggests that a return to basing the Yuga calendar on the motion of the equinox would be a positive step.