YUGA : Yuga in Hinduism is an epoch or era within a four-age cycle. It starts with the Krita (or Satya) Yuga, followed by the Treta Yuga and the Dvapara Yuga and finally the Kali Yuga. We are currently in the Kali yuga.
- Satya Yuga equals 1,728,000 human years
- Treta Yuga equals 1,296,000 human years
- Dvapara Yuga equals 864,000 human years
- Kali Yuga equals 432,000 human years
- Together, these four yugas constitute one Mahayuga, equal to 4.32 million human years (not far from the modern scientists point of view when dating the creation of the earth).
- In the present days we may be said to live in the Kali Yuga, which is said to have started in 3102 BCE, the day that Lord Krishna left Earth and went to abode, 5122 years ago from now (2020).
- The duration of yugas in the Mahabharata are expressed in "divine years", so : 1 divine year = 360 human years.
- Some theoreticians teach that the yugas are like a wheel with for example the Dvapara Yuga coming again after the Kali Yuga, and that we are presently in a new Dvapara Yuga (since 1700 CE). It is not what explains the Mahabharata.
Four thousand years have been said to constitute the Krita Yuga. Its dawn also, as well as its eve, hath been said to comprise four hundred years. The Treta-Yuga is said to comprise three thousand years, and its dawn, as well as its eve, is said to comprise three hundred years. The Yuga that comes next is called Dwapara, and it hath been computed to consist of two thousand years. Its dawn, as well as its eve, is said to comprise two hundred years. The next Yuga, called Kali, is said to comprise one thousand years and its dawn, as well as eve, is said to comprise one hundred years. Know, O king, that the duration of the dawn is the same as that of the eve of a Yuga. And after the Kali Yuga is over, the Krita Yuga comes again. A cycle of the Yugas thus comprised a period of twelve thousand years.
(NB: see in the glossary: YUGA to understand the conversion between divine and human years).
The Mahabharata, Book 3: Vana Parva: Markandeya-Samasya Parva: Section CLXXXVIII (extract):
O best of regenerate ones, I am Narayana, the Source of all things, the Eternal, the Unchangeable... For the preservation of rectitude and morality I assume a human form, and when the season for action cometh, I again assume forms that are inconceivable. In the Krita age I become white, in the Treta age I become yellow, in the Dwapara I have become red and in the Kali age I become dark in hue, I the Kali age, the proportion of immorality becometh threefourths, (a fourth only being that of morality). And when the end of the Yuga cometh, assuming the fierce form of Death, alone I destroy all the three worlds with their mobile and immobile existences.
The Mahabharata, Book 6: Bhishma Parva: Jamvu-khanda Nirmana Parva: Section X (extract):
"Sanjaya said,--'O bull of Bharata's race, four Yugas set in Bharata's Varsha, viz., Krita, Treta, Dwapara,
and Kali. The Yuga that sets in first is Krita. O Lord; after the expiry of Krita comes Treta; after expiry
of Treta comes Dwapara; and after that last of all, sets in Kali. Four thousand years, O best of the
Kurus, are reckoned as the measure of life, O best of kings, in the Krita epoch. Three thousand years is
the period in Treta, O ruler of men. At present in Dwapara, persons live on Earth for two thousand
years. In Kali, however, O bull of Bharata's race, there is no fixed limit of life's measure, in so much that
men die while in the womb, as also soon after birth.
The Mahabharata, Book 6: Bhishma Parva: Bhagavat-Gita Parva: Section XXXII (Bhagavad Gita Chapter VIII) (extract):
"The Holy One (Krishna) said,... All the worlds, O Arjuna, from the abode of Brahman downwards have to go through a round of births, on attaining to me, however, O son of Kunti, there is no re-birth. They who know a day of Brahman to end after a thousand Yugas, and a night (of his) to terminate after a thousand Yugas are persons that know day and night. On the advent of (Brahman's) day everything that is manifest springeth from the unmanifest; and when (his) night cometh, into that same which is called unmanifest all things disappear.
