Hindu scriptures maintain that Kali Yuga has a duration of 4,32,000 years and that we are still in the middle of this Dark Age. This discrepancy has occurred because of misreading the timescales of different worlds.
Time moves at a different pace in the Earths belonging to the 14 different levels within our Cosmos and also beyond — in the Divine planes. At the Source, time is still,there is ‘no time’ in that plane.
For all the Earths in our Cosmos, Brahma Loka (the world of the Creator) is a common reference point to interact with one another. Normally, when there is a communication between Intelligent life of two Earths, the year, month, day and time of each Earth is quoted, and then the corresponding reference toBrahma Loka is mentioned. The scriptures which talk of 4,32,000 years are in fact referring to the Kali Yuga of Brahma Loka; hence the misconception came into existence that Kali Yuga on this Earth will last for lakhs of years.
Another misconception occurs in the New Age circles, where the total duration of the 4 Yugas (a MahaYuga) is mentioned as 25,920 years. This value is based on the Axial Precession of our Earth rather than the Total Time Period of the Yugas.
Our Earth’s axis is not fixed. It undergoes a gradual shift of about 1 degree every 72 years resulting in a slow shift in the axis of rotation. At the end of 25,920 years, the tip of Earth’s axis would have traced a circle, which is called as the ‘Arc of Precession’. At present, our northern axis is pointed towards the Star, Polaris. As the axial precession shifts, other Stars like Gamma Cephei, Vega, Thuban, etc will become our North Stars. After 25,920 years, Polaris again becomes our Pole Star.
This cycle is misunderstood as a shift in Ages in the New Age circles.
LARGER CYCLES OF TIME
The Four Yugas together form a larger Cycle of time known as a MahaYuga. This runs for a total duration of 51,840 years, including the transitory periods between the Yugas.
There are cycles of time which are larger than this. 71 Mahayugas constitute a Manvantara which is equivalent to an hour in the timescale of Lord Brahma. At the end of each Manvantara, life on our Earth is totally destroyed. At the end of the previousManvantara, there was a great deluge. This complete destruction is also known as ‘Mahapralaya’. After thousands of years, life begins again from single celled organisms.
And there is also a larger time period called a Kalpa, which is equal to a day of Lord Brahma. Since its creation, our Earth is presently in the 7th Manvantara. It has completed 28 Mahayugas so far and is in the beginning of the 29th MahaYuga. We are in the transition between these two Mahayugas, moving from the Dark Age to the Light Age.
