ve promjene možemo očekivati. Slično tome, želimo pronaći zakonitosti u društvu i povijesti koje će nam omogućiti razumijevanje trenutnih promjena i predviđanje budućnosti.
Mnogi ljudi se tada okreću politici, ideologiji ili religiji kako bi pronašli smisao i stabilnost u svijetu koji se mijenja. Ti sustavi nude svojevrsni okvir u kojem se mogu povezati s drugima koji dijele ista uvjerenja i djelovati u skladu s tim. Uz to, oni pružaju nadu i osjećaj sigurnosti da postoji neki veći plan koji vodi sve što se događa.
Međutim, važno je biti svjestan da ti sustavi nisu apsolutni i da mogu biti podložni promjenama i kritici. Upravo zbog toga je važno razviti vlastito kritičko razmišljanje i sposobnost sagledavanja šire slike. Samo tako možemo donositi informirane odluke i prilagoditi se novim okolnostima.
It will be what is coming. We have the ability to predict what is coming, and therefore the ability to prepare for what is yet to come. We desire such “astronomy” for historical time as well, so that we can prepare for “heating” and “preserves” in time.
Although we have calendars and clocks with which we can measure time almost perfectly, we actually do not know what time is. If we do contemplate it, we experience it as an amorphous continuum. Something that flows, that inevitably comes (from where?) and irreversibly disappears (into what?). We grow up in the shadow of the myth of eternal progress, that child of modern ideologies, in the shadow of the idea of linear time.
But everything revolves: planets and comets around the Sun; every cosmic system has a center around which it moves, electrons orbit in atoms, and matter in nature as well. Nothing moves linearly into infinity. Is time an exception to this?
Time cycles
All of the great traditions of mankind pass down teachings about time cycles. Cycles are circles and the times within which all aspects of reality manifest. According to these teachings, time is not an amorphous framework of events, but a living medium that determines events with its quality.
When Bhima meets his brother Hanuman in the great Indian epic Mahabharata, he asks him to reveal himself in his true form, to which Hanuman responds:
You can hardly see my true form, neither can anyone else. Things were different in those times, but that is no longer the case. It was one thing to live in the Krita Yuga period, another in the Treta Yuga period, and something entirely different in the Dwapara Yuga. In this period, everything has diminished and declined, and I no longer possess the powers I once had. The land, the rivers, the plants, the rocks, even the gods and heavenly sages, all adapt to the time and the condition of things that arise from different yugas.
The periods Hanuman refers to are known in the Indian tradition as yugas. Within one great cycle called Mahayuga, there are four shorter yugas:
Krita Yuga (Satya Yuga) – in this yuga,
In that period, there was a unique order, everyone followed the path of a single Vedas; there was no disease, malice, arrogance, hypocrisy, buying or selling. Virtue was not lost, and that is why that period is called the golden, perfect. Narayana, the soul of all beings, had a white complexion. This yuga lasted for four thousand divine years.
Tretayuga – virtue in this period decreased by a quarter. Narayana, the soul of all beings, turned red. People cherished truth and made sacrifices. It lasted for three thousand divine years.
Dvaparayuga – in this period, virtue decreased by half, and Narayana became yellow. The Vedas were divided into four. People moved away from the truth, and only a small number remained with it. Diseases appeared, and people, plagued by their passions, sought salvation in asceticism. Dvaparayuga lasted for two thousand divine years.
Kaliyuga – in this period, only a quarter of virtue remained. Narayana is black. Diseases and natural disasters prevail. Hey, virtues and sacrifices have ceased to be respected. It lasts a thousand divine years.
Each yuga is preceded by dawn, and at its end is twilight. Both last one-tenth of that yuga. The duration of a Mahayuga equals the total duration of all four smaller yugas.
One human year is a day for the gods, and 360 human years make one divine year. It follows:
At the end of Kaliyuga, there is a small “end of the world” when everything is destroyed, and after a period of rest, the whole cycle starts again with a new Mahayuga.
According to this tradition, we are now living in Kaliyuga, the dark age, the worst of all. This era began on February 16, 3102 BC. We are only about five thousand years into its 432,000-year duration. Such precise dating of the beginning is possible thanks to the eternal celestial clock – the start of Kaliyuga is described in texts by the position of celestial bodies in the sky, and astronomers can calculate when celestial bodies were in such a position.
Only one Mahayuga Mahakalpe is a brief period in the life of the universe.
Seventy-one Mahayugas make up one Manvantara – the reign of one Manu.
Fourteen Manvantaras and one Krtayuga make up one Kalpa – one day of Brahma. According to the Puranas, sacred Indian texts, at the end of the Kalpa comes a period called Pralaya, when the eternal Avyaya (Vishnu) takes on the characteristics of Rudra (Shiva) and reunites all beings within himself. After that, a new Kalpa follows and 360 days and nights of Brahma make up one Brahma year.
And finally, the life of Brahma, or Mahakalpa, the life of one universe, lasts one hundred Brahma years, which is 311,040,000,000,000 human years!
Mahakalpas are countless. There was never a first one, nor will there ever be a last one.
We are astonished by the magnitude of the numbers mentioned in the Indian tradition. They dramatically surpass not only the calculations of some ancient Christian theologians, who believed that the world was created only four thousand years before the birth of Christ, but also the calculations of modern cosmology, which ascribes great age to this universe. From “only” 15 billion years ago.
The Indian tradition is not the only one that is not “afraid” of using large numbers. In Central America, during our Middle Ages, the powerful Maya culture flourished. Along with the many achievements of this culture, the wealth of numerical and calendar notations stands out. Calendar inscriptions were carved on every building, part of a building, and on stelae.
Two calendars stand out from the complex Maya calendar system, two ways of counting days:
1. “Long Count”
As an example of a calendar notation, we can take the motif of the Ballplayer (a symbol in the ball game) from Chinkultic in Mexico. Written in our way, it looks like this: 9.7.17.12.14. The numbers 9, 7, 17, 12, and 14 correspond to specific calendar units: 9 baktuns, 7 katuns, 17 tuns, 12 uinals, and 14 kins.
This means that from the initial date of this calendar, which according to one correlation (relationship between this calendar and ours) is 12th August 3114 BC, 9 × 144000 + 7 × 7200 + [insert missing text] years have passed. 17 × 360 + 12 × 20 + 14 = 1,352,774 days, which in our calendar corresponds to the date of April 29, 521 AD.
The larger calendar units are:
An Alautun has 23,040,000,000 days, which is over 63 million of our calendar years!
On a stela from Quirigua, there is a complete calendar record that refers to an event 400 million years ago!
2. Tzolkin
The second calendar has a cycle of 260 days, consisting of two sets: one that counts days from 1 to 13, and the other consisting of twenty named days, just like our monthly dates that run independently of the days of the week. The names of these days are: Imix, Ik, Akbal, Kan, Chicchan, Cimi, Manik, Lamat, Muluc, Oc, Chuen, Eb, Ben, Ix, Men, Cib, Caban, Edznab, Cauac, and Ahau.
These two sets run independently of each other. Thus, in the Tzolkin, after 260 days, both sets close and the combinations of numbers and days start again. The starting date of the calendar corresponds to 4 Ahau. Ahau is the day that ends one set and begins another major one. cycle.
These two calendars, the Long Count and the Tzolkin, run in parallel, and in a cycle of 1,872,000 days, two days with the same calendar markings will not appear. After that time, the date sequence starts from the beginning. The end of that great cycle occurred on December 23, 2012, and a new one began.
At the beginning of the Mayan book of prophecies, Chilam Balam emphasizes the cyclical nature of time:
All months, all years, all days, all winds reach their fulfillment and disappear. Likewise, all blood comes to its resting place when it achieves its power and its throne.
And for the end of the great cycle, it predicts:
Then the sky will open
And the earth will rise,
And the book of the thirteen gods will begin
There will be a great flood on the earth
And the great Iztam Cam Ain will appear.
The end of words,
The end of katuns:
This is the flood
That will mark the end of katuns.
Cycles in other traditions
In ancient Egypt, a series of time cycles is known: the Apis cycle of 25 years when the Moon revolves The Sun remains in the same position relative to the star Sirius; the Phoenix or Sothic cycle connects the Egyptian calendar year of 365 days with the sidereal (stellar) year. This cycle corresponds to a period of 1461 Egyptian calendar years. The beginnings of these cycles were in 4242, 2782, and 1322 BC. Egyptian astronomers celebrated the beginning of the fourth Phoenix cycle on July 19, 139 AD.
In Rome, there was a Great Year cycle lasting 11,340 years. The beginning of one of these cycles was in 716 BC – the year of Romulus’s death.
Astrological eras are generally associated with cosmic events – specific positions of celestial bodies.
The most significant astrological cycle is the precession cycle, also known as Plato’s year, which lasts for 25,920 years. This cycle is divided into twelve eras of 2160 years. Each era is governed by one zodiac sign. We are currently passing through the gates of the Age of Aquarius, but we must not forget that the transition from one era to another does not occur abruptly, but gradually.
Five Human Generations
In accordance with the cycles of birth and death, there have been generations of humanity that have succeeded each other throughout the history of mankind.
Hesiod, in his work Works and Days, mentions that there were four previous generations before the present generation of humans.
The first race was the golden race. This was during the time when Cronus ruled the heavens. They lived carefree lives. The earth itself brought forth abundant fruits. They were not threatened by old age, and when they died, it was as if they were overcome by sleep. When they disappeared, they became benevolent spirits who protected humanity.
They were replaced by the silver race. They too were created in the divine image, but Zeus wiped them off the face of the earth because they did not offer sacrifices to the gods. They became lesser blessed spirits.
The third race, the bronze race, was strong and formidable like the ash tree. They had giant bodies. They carried weapons made of bronze and enjoyed war. They were arrogant and cruel. They fell into ruin by their own hands.
The fourth race were half-gods.
i. Their fathers were gods and their mothers mortal women. They participated in the expedition of the Argonauts and in the Trojan War. They became heroes and reside on the islands of the blessed.
The fifth generation, today’s generation, is the iron generation. We are less worthy inheritors of the fourth generation. This is a generation that will never be free from daily toil and sorrow. Hesiod laments belonging to our generation.
On the completely opposite side of the world, in Central America, among the Aztecs, there is also talk of five generations and five Suns.
The Incas in South America also have a legend about generations of people:
Vari Viracocha runa – the time of Viracocha.
Vari runa – the time of holy people.
Parun runa – the time of wild people.
Auka runa – the time of warriors.
The Rhythm of History
If we resist the initial impulse to dismiss these legends of vast time cycles without thinking, considering them as products of the unrestrained imagination of a mind that lacks a true understanding of the world, we are left to question the meaning of these legends.
Perhaps we find ourselves in the same position as s In the 19th century, a geologist found evidence that proves the world was not created six thousand years ago, as new knowledge has shed light on the depths of geological history which is much older than any previous assumptions. However, it should not be forgotten that knowledge, even modern scientific knowledge, always has its limits. These limits turn into psychological “boxes” within us that do not allow us to see anything that does not fit within their framework.
When the Indian tradition speaks of humans having lived at a high level of culture in the distant past, it seems unacceptable to us because modern evolution theory teaches us that humans as a species appeared approximately a million years ago and have been steadily advancing to our current level of superiority over nature.
The legend of the great continent, which we call Atlantis, exists among people both west and east of the Atlantic Ocean – Aztlan among the Aztecs, Ruta and Daitya among the Indians. Its existence is denied because it contradicts established scientific beliefs. Material evidence strong enough to shatter our psychological limitations has yet to be found. Would we ever accept the existence of dinosaurs, even though they are mentioned in fairy tales and myths, if their fossils had not been discovered?
Many knowledge and ideas exist, sinking into oblivion, only to be rediscovered according to the law of cycles. At the end of the 15th century, Columbus, driven by the “revolutionary” idea that the Earth is round, sailed west in search of a new route to India. And yet, Eratosthenes, 1700 years before Columbus, knew not only that the Earth is round but also measured its radius very accurately. An old idea was rediscovered. “There is nothing new under the Sun!”