Images below: First from bottom - Street/wall art, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Second from bottom - detail from "Creation of Man" by Michelangelo. Third from bottom - detail from "Creation of the Sun and the Moon", also by Michelangelo.
Columnists
Mumbo Jumbo
I.J. SINGH
A moody teenager was venting her existential angst, and I was trying to listen with deliberate patience and kindness. Quite expectedly, she blurted out: "This was, like, absolutely the grossest day of my life..."
All I could do was mutter some palliatives about cultivating cheerful equanimity, and the promise that she was still young; there would surely be many more increasingly "gross" days in her life. I thought I was being wise and witty, but she was not amused. For her, it was a time of living hell.
Later on that day, when I went to the gurdwara, the visiting scholarly granthi was pontificating on a fundamental concept of Indian (primarily Hindu) mythology that divides creation and its history into four eras - perhaps better labeled as eons: Satyug, Treyta, Duaaper, and Kalyug. (The Sanskrit words "Treyta" and "Duaaper", respectively, mean the third and second. It seems that the ages were named as a journey from the present - Kalyug - as the reference point, backwards into the past.)
Let me briefly summarize the concept, tersely, but I hope, not inaccurately.
Satyug runs 4,800 years, Treyta spans 3,600 years, and 2,400 years are allotted to Duaaper, while Kalyug would last 1,200 years. Mind you, these are not the years you and I know. These are years by which the gods of Hindu mythology live and die, and each godly year equals 360 human years. So these four ages - the time span of creation - add up to 4,320,000 years as we count them.
According to legend, the Hindu god-king Rama existed during Satyug, a period that spanned 1,728,000 years from the beginning of creation. The extent of Treyta was 1,296,000 years, Duaaper and Kalyug, respectively, account for 864,000 and 432,000 years.
And we are now in the age of Kalyug, but at what exact point along its time line, no one knows.
The mythological construct of this quad of yugs is an unparalleled tribute to human imagination. I suspect the numbers, like the Old Testament's six days of creation, were never meant to be literally interpreted. These are idealized concepts; the language is that of poetry, full of powerful imagery, metaphors and allegory.
The yugs not only ascribe such determinate time spans to an indeterminate creation, but they take a further monumental step into the unknown and attribute character traits to those who lived then. The residents of Satyug were said to be kindly and truthful people.
Going forward, the human inhabitants have degraded such that by Duaaper, the virtues had reached their half-life.
Now is the age of Kalyug, or darkness. But exactly when this period began and when it might end remain unknown. And what happens at its end: does someone push the reset button, and the quad recycles, or does life end with a bang ... or a whimper?
Some Hindu texts that claim ten incarnations for Vishnu also insist that Nanak was the ninth. That, I suppose, makes him the prophet of Kalyug. Guru Nanak, of course, was the founder-prophet of the Sikh religion who lived just over five hundred years ago, and was clearly dismissive of such mumbo jumbo.
According to the dictum of this mythology, in Kalyug, our priorities and propensities are ruled by our senses and our passions; by our wants, not our needs; when we fail to discover, cultivate and nurture our connection with the divinity within; when we do not see the universal connectivity that defines and binds us with all of humanity.
Yet, I notice that most Sikh preachers and ministers hew to the mythological line totally and faithfully, even though Sikhism holds no truck with the whole concept of such a linear timeline of creation.
When at the end of the sermon, I encountered Sikhs coming out of the gurdwara with appreciative and gushing oohs and aahs for the erudition of the granthi, my mind went into overdrive, and I couldn't resist dissecting the idea.
Is it really literally true? Did the Guru-founders of our faith really promote this model of our existence? And the answer is a resounding "No!"
And why couldn't we have been born in Satyug? Modern pop psychology assures me that I am a pretty good person! Even more importantly, I wondered about this inevitable linear descent from Satyug to Kalyug that mythology envisions and Hinduism promotes.
In such a concept of reality, apparently there is absolutely no room for reversal. In other words, creation is headed for a fall and increasingly evil ways: we are on a slippery slope to perdition, and never should we foresee or expect even a brief return to the values of Satyug.
Is this somewhat like the well established scientific concept of Entropy, which postulates that, with time, disorder increases and, therefore, stable systems will, over time, manifest increased disorder and decay?
The inevitability of all this sucks the hope out of existence.
Many people who heard the sermon were agog about the concept and its presentation. To a man (and woman), they bemoaned the fact that we all now lived in the age of Kalyug. This, they thought, had happened because we must have been sinful in our past lives. God had now exacted His revenge by consigning us into Kalyug - the age of darkness, ignorance and injustice.
I don't know about past lives. I see that the past is dead and buried, the future yet unborn. The only way to free ourselves of the shackles of the past is to make a life for the future.
What's more, the only way to be assured of a future is to wisely lay its foundations in the present. So, in the final analysis, the only time to live is now. If we live rightly in the present, the future will be no less. What religions and stable societies do is to provide a blueprint for how to shape our lives in the here and now.
I see that in any single lifetime, all four ages of creation are often experienced, because they remain intertwined. In fact, one lives through them equally powerfully in the briefest moments as well. Sometimes, the mind is in the heaven of Satyug, the next moment is the hell of Kalyug.
Says the Guru Granth (page 876): "kab-hoo jeearha oobh charat hai, kab-hoo jaaye pyaaley" - one moment, the mind is on "Cloud Nine"; the next instant, it plunges to the depths of despair.
This too shall pass, as the Bible tells us. Seize the moment - carpe diem - and our private times of Kalyug may even magically transform into the reality of Satyug.
It seems that the young lady with whom I started this column was going through her "kalyug" at that moment. Who knows if her "satyug" may have been just around the corner?
The four stages of our existence are true. But we need not wait millennia for the wheel to turn; it turns every moment of every day of our lives.
Conversation about this article
1: D.J.Singh (U.S.A.), August 26, 2007, 11:46 AM.
This article highlights that not all individuals receive the same message from the sermons. What we receive from these interactions depends not only on our maturity but also on our understanding of the scriptures. It is essential to learn the language of the scriptures to fully appreciate the essence of its teachings.
2: Manjyot Kaur (New York City, USA), August 26, 2007, 12:45 PM.
Great essay! I certainly identified with this young person, although my own teenage days are far behind me. Guru Granth Sahib teaches us (M9,633:15) that, "One who grieves not in misery and delights not in pleasure, who is free from fear and attachment, and for whom gold and dust are the same...within his heart, God dwells". (translation-srigurugranthsahib.org) Guru Tegh Bahadar goes on to say that only through the Guru's Grace can a person be blessed with this state of sehaj. Indeed, it is clear - painfully clear, from my own personal experiences - that getting off the "Kalyug-Satyug seesaw" cannot be attained through our puny "powers" alone.
3: Pritam Singh Grewal (Canada), August 27, 2007, 2:30 AM.
Yes, "mumbo jumbo" has no place in Sikhi. Why should our preachers, Gurdwara managements and sangats continue wasting their precious time on such issues rather than discussing the message of the Gurus, and our rich history. Here is what Sikhi says about the signs of Kalyug happening anywhere any time- "Kalyug rath aggan ka koorh aggay rathwahu", GGS:470; "Hovay parvana karahi dhigana kal lakhan vichar"; "Jay ko naun lai badnavin kal kay lakhan ayee", GGS:902. [In short, anger and falsehood dominated behaviour, approval of tyranny, scorn for those who dwell on Naam, denote the presence of Kalyug, irrespective of any particular time period or age.] A thought provoking essay indeed.
4: Jessi Kaur (California, U.S.A.), August 29, 2007, 5:12 AM.
Your thought provoking article made me delve deeper into the Guru Granth Sahib to understand the meanings of the reference to "yugs". I had always thought that Satyug, Doapar, Treta and Kaljug were real eras spanning thousands of years. Therefore, I inferred that references to these periods had to be taken literally. I looked up the reference to different "yugs" in various translations. Dr. Sahib Singh's "Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan" makes the passages totally clear. There are two references that come close together, pages 445 ("Satjug sab santokh sareera") and 470 ("Nanak mere sareer ka ik rath ik rathvao"). He states that the Guru is referring to behavioral patterns pertaining to an individual's consciousness. It is the mind that is trapped in Kalyug or Duapar. You are right on in your understanding that these are allegorical references. However, this does not mean that these yugs did not exist. Elsewhere, the Guru enjoins us to wear the sacred thread spun out of contentment. There is such a thing as the "sacred thread", but it has no meaning for us. Hindu scriptures have mapped the span of human life on earth into various time periods. We can understand it better if we compare them to the Dark Ages, the Medieval period , etc., except each yug ran into thousands of years. These eras may be valid reference points but are given no importance in Sikhi. What matters is remaining in the Satyug consciousness. Thanks a million for a wonderful article that helped clarify my understanding.
5: I.J. Singh (New York, U.S.A.), August 29, 2007, 8:39 PM.
Jessi, much as I like your argument, I think it leaves some loose ends. You think that the four yugs did exist. I don't quite know what to make of them. But I see that the mythological description provides suspiciously accurate numbers of years for each. And Guru Nanak tells me that the ultimate realty cannot be measured or weighed by our methods, and that no one can fathom the extent, the beginning or the end of time. Again, I ask, if we are in a fixed age - then, where on its timeline are we now? How can we put finite measures to the infinite? That's why Sikhism tells us not to worry about fixed ages but think of the metaphoric and allegoric references to them; the latter are indeed useful in understanding what is otherwise abstract and elusive. The mythological yugs are like the biblical six days of creation - not to be taken literally.
6: Kuljit Singh (Canada), August 31, 2007, 9:26 PM.
I think the article is very interesting. I agree with the response above, that each individual takes away something different from each sermon. Which is okay. In regards to quoting Gurbani, we must be careful. A preacher friend of mine once pointed out the following. The sentence is "ruko na ageh jao". Four simple words. But if you read it as "ruko na, ageh jao" - pausing after the word na, it means "Dont stop, go forward". If you read it "ruko, na ageh jao" it translates into "stop, Don't go forward"... Quite opposing translations. Just my two cents.. I wish you all the best.