Kalpa

A Kalpa (Sanskrit: कल्प "ritual, a long period of time, aeon"), originally a condensed form of Hindu ritual literature for practical use by Brahmins, stands for a great world age in Hindu cosmology. The term is also used in this sense in Buddhist cosmology.

A Kalpa represents a day of Brahma, a Brahma day, which comprises 1000 Maha-Yugas. Each maha-yuga is in turn divided into four world ages, the four Yugas. The first of these yugas lasts four times, the second three times and the third twice as long as the last, most imperfect age, so that the whole maha-yuga lasts ten times (4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10) as long as the last age.

According to the "Code of Manu", the Manusmriti, is believed to be the first ancient legal text of Hinduism, the four Yugas last 4000, 3000, 2000 and 1000 years, each preceded or followed by a transitional period of 400, 300, 200 and 100 years respectively. This makes the duration of the Kali Yuga 1000 + 100 + 100 = 1200 years. The corresponding maha-yuga therefore lasts 12,000 years. Rudolf Steiner, however, gives 5000 years for the duration of the Kali-Yuga; it began in 3101 BC and ended at the end of 1899.

According to the Bhagavata Purana, however, the times for the yugas are to be understood as god-years, with one god-year corresponding to 360 human years. The above figures should therefore be multiplied by 360:

• Kali-yuga: 1200 × 360 = 432,000 years
• Dvāpara-Yuga: 2400 × 360 = 864,000 years
• Tretā-Yuga: 3600 × 360 = 1,296,000 years
• Satya-Yuga: 4800 × 360 = 1,728,000 years

A Maha-Yuga thus comprises 4,320,000 years. 1000 Maha-Yugas form a Kalpa, i.e. a Brahma day, which therefore lasts 4,320,000,000, i.e. 4.32 billion years. The Brahma day is followed by an equally long Brahma night, i.e. a total of 8,640,000,000 = 8.64 billion years. The entire life of a Brahma, a Maha Kalpa, lasts 100 Brahma years of 360 such days and nights each, i.e. 8,640,000,000 x 100 x 360 = 311,040,000,000 = 311,400 billion human years, which is 864,000,000,000 = 864 billion god-years. Everything then disappears for another 100 Brahma years in a state of complete formlessness. After that, from the navel of Vishnu, a new world, a new Brahma is born.

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Die okkulten Wahrheiten alter Mythen und Sagen, GA 92 (1999), ISBN 3-7274-0920-7 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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