Happy New Year! Start of Kali 5106

AvidTrekker

YUGAADI

Today, March 21st, 2004 is YUGAADI. It is the beginning of the New Year in Andhra, Karnataka, Maharashtra.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Co-incidentally, this year it also happens to be the official "Spring Festival" of the Parsees. To all Parsees, Jamsedi Navroz Mubaarak. HAPPY NAVROZ.

Yuga aadi iti Yugaadi. Transliterated from Sanskrit it means, "Yuga began on this Yugaadi day". (Kali Yuga). The day this Yuga began, Traditional Indian calendar makers had to re-set their "counters" to "one" (Even though the Indians invented "zero", it was considered an ill-omen to start with "zero". You always started with "one".)

The Year was now reckoned as Kali one. The day was Kali one. By this method of counting, Anno-Domini-2004-5 is Kali 5106 and 21st March 2004 is Kali day 1,864,640. This can be verified all over India in more than 5000 locations where the old-calendar makers still make their calendars. Many of them have got the planetary positions quite wrong because their math has not kept pace with the lunar movements. But this figure is absolutely the SAME all over the country. Because it is plain numerical counting.

To put things into Historical perspective : A small story

The Dvaapara Yuga was reigning. Nearly 36 years had elapsed since the great war in which 40,00,000 died. The land of Bhaarata-varsha had seen relative peace for the last 35 years.

The King Yudhishthira received news of Krishna's death. The entire Palace went into a deep gloom. His brother, Arjuna, was out of town. Krishna was his best friend. When Arjuna got the news, he fainted. He considered Krishna his very strength. It was as if his strength had deserted him.

The gopikaas (female-cowherds) at Gokul-Vrindaavan were getting along in their years. All were middle-aged, some were old. They love Krishna with every pore of their body. They had complete one-ness of feeling with Krishna. They considered Krishna as their very breath. Some of them did not get up that morning. (Krishna died at mid-night) Their bodies were lifeless. The others "dropped dead" on hearing the actual news the second day. Even the animals were mourning. It was here that Krishna's childhood pranks & miracles were witnessed. Here, there was a special place for Krishna in everyone's heart.

The Sage Shuka was all-knowing. He knew of the impending event in advance. He was beyond "body feeling" hence was not "sad". He declared that the Supreme Lord's Avataar had left the "Krishna Body" at midnight last night. The students of the ashram went into mourning. As they were located deep inside the forest, they got the physical "news" only on the third day.

The Sage Shuka also stated : Today, Kali Yuga has started. Even though we observed impending signs, the Lord had kept it at bay so long as he walked as Poorna-Avataar. Today it gets full permission to reign. From now on, it shall be reckoned as Kali Yuga. You may not know this, but Kali is the "best" for spiritual seekers. It may be the worst possible Yuga for the people, but it carries with it a "blessing in disguise". Spiritual aspirants can attain moksha very easily. All that one must do is chant the Lord's name constantly. Any "one" name will do.

It was never so easy in the previous Yugas. This is a special facility given in the Kali Yuga only.

After the official mourning period was over, Yudhishdthira resumed his Kingly duties. As was the custom, he went around in his chariot to oversee the state of affairs in his city. On the main market avenue, he observed a carpenter & blacksmith working together. He could see they were making something different. He made inquiries. He was told that thieves had entered the shop & walked away with the entire stock last night. The craftsmen were fabricating a door to shut the shop at night. The blacksmith was making a "lock" which would render the door "un-openable" without its "key". Down the market avenue, this apprehension had caught on. Other merchants were also getting doors made. The King was mentally disturbed. His reign of 35 years had not seen the necessity of a door to protect the house or shop.

Further down the road, he reached a prominent cross-roads. He saw an unmarried youth talking to an unmarried young girl in the middle of the market square. He recognized them as both being from extremely wealthy families. He thought :"they should be meeting at their house. Why are they doing this on the main street?" He thought that if such eminent people were to set this example, it wasn't long before the common people will emulate this brash behaviour.

He went further. He met a funeral procession. An old father was going to cremate his newly-wed son's body. He happened to be the only son. Now he was completely unsettled. This was enough. He was not called "Dharmaraaja" for nothing. His reign never saw any son die before the father. He thought he must have made a grave mistake in the discharge of his kingly duties. He did not deserve to be king hereon. He certainly did not deserve the title "Dharmaraaj" after witnessing such events with his own eyes.

He commanded his charioteer to turn back and head for the palace. He had seen enough.

Upon reaching, he commanded the high priest: "Make preparations to crown Pareekshit King tomorrow. We five brothers are leaving the kingdom to retire to the forest." (Pareekshit, grandson of Arjuna, was the only heir to the throne. He was brought back to life after being born dead. It was Krishna's miracle & he was the miracle child).

He called all brothers & wife Draupadi : "I have no desire to rule the kingdom any longer. We will proceed for the Himalayas tomorrow immediately after the coronation of Pareekshit." The four brothers and Draupadi agreed to this. Draupadi was relieved. She was fed up with the raajasik lifestyle. She secretly longed to do meditation in the Himalayas much before Yudhishthira said this. In fact, she was quite glad at this turn of events. She welcomed it wholeheartedly.

End of small story

According to the Gregorian calendar, Krishna left his body at midnight of 13/14th Feb. 3102 BCE. Kali Yuga is said to have started on this day. 14th Feb 3102 BCE was Kali day ONE. Today, 21st March 2004 A.D. is Kali day 1,864,640. Kali Year 5106 started today. This is the OLDEST living piece of recorded History and the ONLY ONE which is being UPDATED EVERY DAY for the last 5106 years.

Happy Yugaadi & to all Andhra-ites, all Kannadigaas, and all Maharashtrians. May you prosper & render India strong.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

__________________
The Universe is an ellipsoid?... or a Spheroid?? If the sphere smiles... it becomes an ellipse. This IS Creation.

Serena

Thank you for your story but I have to confess my ignorance....
so kali yuga started with the death of Krishna but when it finish?

Is ti true that kali yuga means also "age of darkness" and why?

Thanks.

AvidTrekker

The End of Kali Yuga

is not really known. According to Bhaagavata Puraana, the duration is 432,000 years. I cannot swallow this figure. It is too big. Maybe there is some interpretation way which we humans don't know. Going by some other Saint's statement, we are in the middle of Kali Yuga. It means we have around 5500 years at least before Kali Yuga ends. One other teacher has said that the Kali Yuga ended and we are now in Dwaapara. IMHO, the way humans are killing each other almost every day does not suggest Dwaapara. Wars did happen in the previous Yugas, only it wasn't a daily occurence.

There are four Yugas : viz. Krita, Tretaa, Dwaapara, Kali. If Kali is one year, Dwaapara is two, Tretaa three & Krita four(the longest)

Krita is the Yuga of purest mental level. It is said children were born with mere "thought". I don't know how to interpret this. People were very tall & long-lived (4 times Kali & Kali is 120 yrs.)

These factors reduced by a quarter in Tretaa. Procreation was by body contact now onwards. People were somewhat more corrupt. The great epic of Raama and Raavana was played out in the Tretaa.

This became half in Dwaapara. The great war of Mahabhaarata was fought at the end of the last Dwaapara, where Krishna played a prominent role.

Kali is the shortest, most corrupt, where most people keep fighting over the three basic issues : sex, money, power. The people are the shortest in height & in lifetime. (120 yrs)

After one such cycle, there will be a deluge. It will start all over again. This is one Mega Yuga. After 1000 such cycles, The night of Bramhaa (the creative aspect of God) starts. The Universe goes into reverse gear. After the same time (1000 cy) the Universe will be subsumed into the Basic Truth. No more Universe. It is said that "God Sleeps". After a 2000 cycle sleep, the Universe starts all over again with another Big Bang. One cycle of the birth & death of the Universe is one Kalpa. Even the Buddha has mentioned that many Kalpas & many Buddhas have come & will come. (interjecting Ananda's speech to the public where Ananda had said, "Never was such a great one born & never will such greatness ever come back")(Buddha naturally corrected him on the spot).

It is said, we are in the 43rd cycle of (2000 Megacycles) presided over by Vaivasvata Manu (Diety in charge) in the Varaaha Kalpa. This is un-verifiable. All I can say is "I don't know".

According to scientists, the sun will live another 5 billion yrs. Inhabitants of planet Earth will be gone after 2 Blln cuz it will become too hot.

At such time scales it is difficult to think straight. Suffice to say that God made such Universes many times & will go on and on.

Why were the Yugas so designed ? Don't know. It is the same as asking : "Why Creation?" Why did Creation happen? Don't know. Whether God did it OR (for those who do not accept the existence of a Supreme Power) it happened due to some accident, the fact is .... it happened.