Monday, May 5, 2008

Daily Dedroidify: Alan Watts about the Kali Yuga

Daily Dedroidify: Alan Watts about the Kali Yuga

According to Hindu scriptures the cycle of creation is divided into four yugas (ages, eras). We call each one a Yuga and name them after the four throws in the Hindu game of dice; Krita, the perfect throw of four; Treta, the slightly imperfect throw of three; Dvapara, the throw of two; and Kali, the worst throw of one.

And so the first period, the Krita Yuga ... the longest period, runs for 1,728,000 years (not to be taken literally), during which the whole world is as perfect as a fresh flower and as unblemished as the skin of a young girl. It's beautiful, everything's right and life is glorious.

The second period, the Treta Yuga ... is a little shorter. It runs for 1,296,000 years, during which a small element of evil and decay comes into life and the tips of the petals are very slightly browned.

The third period is the Dvapara Yuga ... running for 864,000 years. The syllable Dva in Dvapara means two, double or dual, so that in this age, the powers of good and evil are equally balanced.

The fourth period is the shortest running for only 432,000 years in which the power of evil and destruction takes over. An age of spiritual decay, violence and hypocrisy. We're supposed to be living in that now, what's called the Kali Yuga ... the Age of Darkness. The Ancient Greeks knew it as the Iron Age.
At the end, your eternal Self takes the form of Shiva, the Lord of renewal through death; blue bodied and ten armed with a necklace of skulls. But with one hand in the gesture called 'fear not' as a reminder that all this is in illusion and play. And then Shiva dances the Tandala dance, the dance of fire in which the material world is destroyed and the Self returns to the state of Pralaya, of peace, uninvolvement, and pure bliss into a new Satya Yuga ... the Golden Age.

"We are living in a time of disintegration and iconoclasm which the Hindus call Kali Yuga. It hurts and frightens us, but is not essentially evil. It is rather a universal passion in which man cries, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' But it is the prelude to a Resurrection, because spiritual growth depends upon ceasing to cling to any form of life for security. Forms are not contrary to the Spirit, but it is their nature to die: their transience is their very life, and a permanent form would be a monstrosity- a finite thing aping God."
Alan Watts

10.000 days in the fire is long enough. You're going home.

Alan Watts Streaming Vids


...Krishna had a chosen disciple, called Ontaven. This disciple asked him for some guidance, and Krishna told him: In seven days the city Danvaraguay will be destroyed. The period of the Kali Yuga will begin. In this new era the people will be cowardly and untrustworthy and will be lacking of mutual goodwillingness. They will have weak health, be undermined by disease and will live shortly.
Therefore leave the world behind and retreat in solitude. There You will always think of me, You will give up worldly desires and through attentive meditation You will regulate your souls life. Learn to live by thinking, believe that the unvierse is in me and that it only exists because of me; conquer Maya, the illusion of all apparition; visit the wise. May I be in You and You in me.
One that through wisdom and insightful truth rejects vain deceit, attracts the divine light and makes it shine inside himself. His heart will be as pure as the undulated surface of a clear pond, and it will mirror my image. Renounce the spirit of right of property in passing things completely, this is the first step to completion. Only by renouncing totally the earthly matters can greed, selfishness and other urges be fought.
The soul is the absolute ruler of the senses, and I am the absolute ruler of the soul. The space is bigger than the elements, and I am bigger than the space. The will is bigger than the obstacles, and I am lord over the will. Brahman is bigger than the gods, and I am bigger than Brhaman.
The sun is more radiant than all other heavenly bodies, but I am more radiant and inspiring than the sun. In the words I am the wisdom, in all wishes and commands, I am the one that commands that nothing alive can be be killed; in the alms I am the bread; of the seasons I am the inspiring spring.
The truth, the wisdom, the love, the good, the charity, the prayer, the Vedas, Eternity are my images.

From Eliphas Levi: Elements of Kabbala

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i adore this part of the AW audiobook. :)