Throughout history, humans have tried to understand the nature of time. It’s a question that has stumped philosophers, scientists, and theologians for centuries. Some insist that it’s an illusion, while others contend that it springs from quantum entanglement between particles. Many ancient societies believed that time is cyclical, existing as a wheel of ages that continually repeats. In Hindu cosmology, these cycles of ages weave an incredibly long existence that’s impossible for most to comprehend.
The Four Ages of Human History
We use many types of units to measure time. Sixty seconds equal a minute, sixty minutes equal an hour, and so forth. Several classical Hindu texts measure time in much larger units. The smallest of these are yugas, or epochs of varying length. The Encyclopedia Britannica mentions the Krita Yuga, a golden age of virtue and perfection, which lasted around 1,732,000 years. After that comes the Treta Yuga, which lasted about 1,296,000 years, and the Dvapara Yuga, which spanned 864,000 years. Most Hindus believe we’re living during the Kali Yuga, a dark age that began around 3102 B.C.E. and will last 432,000 years.
Multiple Cycles, Multiple Apocalypses
If you’ve done your math, you’ve probably realized that these four ages added together last 4.32 million years. Hindu cosmology calls this larger time unit a maha yuga. Patheos explains that each maha yuga is a cycle of creation, existence, annihilation, and regeneration. When one maha yuga ends, another one immediately begins. Theoretically, the universe could be created, destroyed, and recreated an infinite number of times.
Because this cycle repeats, each yuga’s trends will also repeat. The Mahabharata describes the Kali Yuga as a period of ignorance, wickedness, injustice, and strife. Things will become so bad that Vishnu will eventually return as his tenth avatar Kalki. Puranic texts describe Kalki as riding on a white horse and wielding a flaming sword. This description shares some similarities with Revelation’s description of Jesus Christ, also carrying a sword and riding a white horse. Kalki’s purpose is to end the corruption on earth and usher in the next golden age.
Will Kalki appear anytime soon? We’ve only lived through about 5,102 years of Kali Yuga, so we’re nowhere near the end of this epoch. If the classical Hindu texts are correct, that means we’ve got another 426,898 to go before anyone shows up on a white horse with a sword. However, belief is in the mind and heart of the beholder.
An Incomprehensible Unit of Time
Trying to wrap your mind around 4 billion years of existence may be a tough task. Now, imagine 1,000 cycles lasting 4.32 billion years each. A thousand-cycle collection of maha yugas is called a kalpa, a Sanskrit word that translates as “formation.”
Hindu writings such as the Mahabharata speak of Brahma, a supreme creator deity. His existence is closely tied to the universe, with one kalpa equaling a day in his life. That’s already mind-blowing, considering that a kalpa lasts 4.32 billion years. A night for Brahma also lasts for one kalpa, during which no life exists in the universe. Brahma lives for 100 of his years, which consists of 360 days and nights each. That works out to a lifespan of 311 trillion years.
What happens when Brahma dies? No one knows for certain. Some believe that he will reincarnate, recreate the universe, and start this lengthy cycle again. Others insist that Vishnu will return instead of Brahma. For now, all we have is speculation.
Never-Ending Cycles of Existence
Hinduism’s concept of time underpins a lot of its cosmology. Scientists estimate that the current universe is 13.8 billion years old, but that’s a mere drop in the bucket compared to yugas, maha yugas, and kalpas. Just as samsara is the endless cycle of rebirth, existence itself is also repeatedly reborn.