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From: dkb@cs.brown.edu (Dilip Barman)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Hindu Concept of Time
Message-ID: <33183@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 18 Mar 90 05:24:58 GMT
Sender: mukund@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Reply-To: dkb@cs.brown.edu (Dilip Barman)
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One thing that impresses me about eastern philosophy is its surprisingly
advanced and free-thinking attitude toward science.  Recently I compiled
the following description of endless time in Hinduism; dogmatists 
argue the beginning and end of time, but the following model that I 
sketch seems more in line with a steady state universe and in any case
shows humbleness to that undefinable concept, time. 

    Re: Hindu cyclical concept of time
    Wednesday March 14, 1990

         There are an infinite number of worlds, and each passes through 4
     yugas, or periods, over and over.  Time itself has no beginning or end.
     The names of the yugas come from dice throws, perhaps implying nondeter-
     minism.  The first age is krita yuga (lasting 1,728,000 years), then
     comes treta yuga (1,296,000 years), dvapara yuga (864,000 years), and
     finally our current one, Kali yuga (432,000 years).  The yugas are of
     decreasing length, mirroring a decrease in virtue.
          But that's just the beginning!  One cycle of the four yugas is
     4,320,000 years and is called a mahayuga.  One thousand mahayugas equals
     ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF BRAHMA (the creator)!!!!  This is called a kalpa.
     After each mahayuga, there is a minor dissolution of the world and the
     next mahayuga the universe is cosmically nondifferentiated potential.
     After each kalpa there is a major dissolution that lasts another kalpa.
          But even that's the beginning!  Brahma lives for 100 Brahma years
     of Brahma days and Brahma nights -- i.e., 311,040,000,000,000 human
     years  (3x10**14)!!!  What happens when he dies?  Everything, including
     he, dissolve and nothing but potential substance exists for another
     Brahma century.  Then we start the whole cycle again!  There's no
     beginning or end!
     {From Kinsley, David. R.  "Hinduism: A Cultural Perspective".  Englewood
     Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1982, page 86}

Dilip Barman     dkb@cs.brown.edu
U.S. mail: Brown University                       Home: 19 Elton Street 
           Dept. of Computer Science, Box 1910          Providence, RI 02906
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