Kali Yuga
A particular age of the world in one of
the reckonings of cosmic time.
According to traditional belief, time has
neither beginning nor end, but alter-
nates between cycles of creation and
activity, followed by cessation and qui-
etude. Each of these cycles lasts for 4.32
billion years, with the active phase
known as the Day of Brahma, and the
quiet phase as the Night of Brahma. In
one reckoning of cosmic time, the Day
of Brahma is divided into one thousand
mahayugas(“great cosmic ages”), each
of which lasts for 4.32 million years.
Each mahayuga is composed of four
yugas, the Krta Yuga, Treta Yuga,
Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga. Each of
these four yugasis shorter than its pre-
decessor and ushers in an era more
degenerate and depraved. By the end of
the Kali Yuga, things have gotten so bad
that the only solution is the destruction
and re-creation of the earth, at which
time the next Krta era begins.
Kali Yuga is the last of the four yugas,
lasting for “only” 432,000 years. It is
also considered to be the most
degenerate yuga, symbolized by its
identification with iron—a metal that is
sometimes useful, sometimes harmful,
not particularly precious, and whose
black color is associated with Saturn,
the malevolent planet. Kali Yuga is
considered the time when human
wickedness runs rampant, virtue
virtually disappears, and the world is
inexorably falling into ruin. Hindus
believe that the Kali Yuga began with the
commencement of the great war
described in the epic Mahabharata,
and not surprisingly, it is the age in
which we now live.Kalka
Town in the Ambala district of the state
of Haryana, about ten miles north and
east of Chandigarh. Kalka is famous as
the site of the temple of Kalika Devi,
who is considered to be a form of the
goddess Kaliand is one of the nine
Shiwalik goddesses.Kalki Avatar
The tenth avataror incarnation of the
god Vishnu, and the only one of these
incarnations who has not yet appeared.
In traditional art, Kalki is portrayed as
riding a white horse and brandishing a
sword. It is believed that he will come at
a time when the state of the world has
completely degenerated. His arrival will
signal its imminent destruction; his pur-
pose will be to purify the world by
destroying the wicked.Kalpa
The largest unit of cosmic time, equiv-
alent to 4.32 billion years. According to
one concept, the kalpa is broken up
into one thousand mahayugas, each
lasting 4.32 million years. The kalpa, or
Day of Brahma, is the longest con-
ceived measure of time and is used to
determine the duration of the uni-
verse. After the kalpa is complete, it is
followed by an equally long “Night of
Brahma,” a period of universal disso-
lution (pralaya).Kali Yuga
Image of the god Vishnu’s Kalki avatar.
It is believed that Vishnu will appear in
this form at the end of the world.