Yuga
So as a child Rama was studying with a very great saint, Vishwamitra, and he had an ashram where Rama and His brothers studied, and they used to come for holidays to their father’s place. Then He had the capacity to kill a demon with only one arrow. One arrow of Shri Rama’s was sufficient. And He was a small little child, say about seven, eight years of age and people were surprised how He could do it.
Now these Yagnyas [ceremonies] were created to evoke the deities within the spinal column, actually. And for these Yagnyas they used to sit down and do all these Havanas the way we do it. But at that time the rakshasas [demons] would come and try to spoil the Yagnya. Because Yagnyas are to be done with a pure heart, and with cleanliness and with purity. It should not be insulted. There is a protocol about it. While they thought that, “If we insult the deities there, then the deities will disappear and their Yagnyas will be spoiled.”
At the time of Rama also there were some rakshasas who took a special pleasure in spoiling these Yagnyas, and Rama as a child would go and protect the rishis [saints] from the demons. And the demons would take on some sort of a funny form, and come like miserable creatures and put some bones of animals and things like that in the Yagnya, and that would spoil the effects of the Yagnya. And Rama would protect that, as a child. Imagine, as a child He used to do that. They would be doing the Yagnya and He would be sitting outside with all His small brothers around Him, and they would kill the demons who would try to destroy the Yagnya.
This is the early life of Rama in which you see how as a child also He showed an amount of expertise in arrow and bow. So any time you see a statue, how to make out if it’s a Rama statue is to see if there’s an arrow and a bow – then it’s Rama’s statue.
Now His coming on this earth gave us the development of the right side, and so the Yagnyas were also on the right side. Because first of all when human beings came on this earth, they were frightened of all the animals who would invade them and all kinds of horrible rakshasas and all those people, and negative forces would trouble them. In that state they needed to create a king, a ruler who was an ideal king and who would rule according to the laws of dharma [right conduct]. So He was the one in charge of that.
He was here in Treta Yuga, and Krishna came at the time of Dwapar Yuga. When I came it was Kali Yuga, but now today the time is of Krita Yuga. The Yuga where work will be done – Krita Yuga. This is the time where work will be done. So far things have moved from one to another.
Now in the Treta Yuga when Shri Rama came, the idea of kingship and rulership started, so the greatest emphasis was on the goodwill of the people. The people had to have goodwill, for the people and for the king, and for the betterment of humanity. The will: that is the right side. So how to create the goodwill? First the leader has to sacrifice, and show how far he can go on sacrificing to keep the moral and the goodwill of the people. So the right side was created by the advent of Shri Rama, because He showed a path of creating among people the awareness that they should be ruled, that they should not be anarchists. There should be one head who should be able to organise, coordinate and work out a collective thing.
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, 1982
(Photograph: infobankofindia.com)
In Indian philosophy, there is a view as to why humankind finds itself in its present chaotic situation. The belief is that humankind passes through different ages, or Yugas. There are four main Yugas, and much like the different seasons, each has its own character. According to the Puranas, which are ancient Indian texts, the Yugas last for thousands of years. With each Yuga, the collective unconscious shifts, and gradually humankind finds itself adopting different principles and beliefs. For instance, there is a Golden Age, or Satya Yuga. This is a divine time; an age of spirituality. During this time, there is harmony between people; the world is a place of benevolence. People are said to be in a state of constant medititation. It is a time where there is no disease or sickness. Conflict is a thing of the past.
The second Age or Yuga is the Treta Yuga. This is an age characterised by mental abilities. This age is seen as a step down from the Golden Age of Satya Yuga. Man now has a sense of self. He develops the desire for power. A belief in man’s own mental abilities steadily rises.
The third age is Dvapara Yuga. In this age the sciences flourish. Inventions are abundant, especially inventions that seem to make distances between people and places disappear.
The fourth age, which is the one we currently find ourselves in, is Kali Yuga. This is the age of Darkness, where humankind has lost its inner connection with Divinity. It is, unfortunately, the world as we see it today. Here is an extract from the Mahabarata, describing the Kali Yuga. And remember, the Mahabharata was written thousands of years ago. So, this was written as a sign of things to come:
“Avarice and wrath will be common. Men will openly display animosity towards each other. Ignorance of Dharma will occur. Lust will be viewed as being socially acceptable. People will have thoughts of murder for no justification, and they will see nothing wrong with that mind-set. Family murders will also occur. People will see those who are helpless as easy targets and remove everything from them. Many other unwanted changes will occur. The right hand will deceive the left and the left the right. People will not trust a single person in the world, not even their immediate family. Even husband and wife will find contempt in each other. In the Kali Yuga even pre-teenage girls will get pregnant. The primary cause will be the social acceptance of sexual intercourse as being the central requirement of life. It is believed that sin will increase exponentially, whilst virtue will fade and cease to flourish. People will take vows only to break them soon. Alongside death and famine being everywhere, men will have lustful thoughts and so will women. People will without reason destroy trees and gardens. As previously mentioned, men will murder. There will be no respect for animals. People will become addicted to intoxicating drinks. Men will find their jobs stressful and will go to retreats to escape their work. As the sin increases exponentially, so will the incidence of divine justice and wrath.”
While this is a bleak description, I think we have to admit that it is an accurate one. There is, however, another Yuga, and it’s called Krita Yuga. Krita Yuga doesn’t last for thousands of years, but rather for several decades. It comes in between the four major Yugas and marks the transition from one to another.
According to the prophecies of Kakayyar Bhujander, a renowned Indian astrologer who lived almost 2000 years ago, this age of Darkness, or Kali Yuga, would begin to recede in the year 1970. It’s at this time the the world enters the transition stage, the Krita Yuga, which leads us to the promised times of Satya Yuga, the age of meditation, bliss and enlightenment.
Andre Anglem