Kali Yuga, the Dark Age

Wisdom Teachings
Eternal Wisdom
Kali

The ancient seers of India understood time as a flower pattern imbedding the petals of various scales of magnification. They had a vision of the law of correspondences which they applied to all these units of time – to the day or the cycle of the year, the life of man, the cycles of ages or of the emerging and merging of creations. They knew the law of cycles and of alternation. They regarded the phases of darkness and of light as a play of spirit and matter, in which one is alternately dominating the other.

Everything moves cyclically and arises out of the effect of the dual energies in nature: New moon is followed by full moon, full moon by new moon. Times of crises and conflicts are cyclically followed by times of peace and of harmony. Every dusk is a promise of a midnight, which is followed by a dawn and a new sunrise. For millions of years the earth has been moving around the sun, and always some part is in the light and another part in the night. From this the sages realised that light and darkness co-exist in creation and form a unity. In the duality of creation ignorance and knowledge, virtue and vice are only two poles of the One. Wisdom therefore teaches that it is foolish to chose one pole and to reject the other. Spreading good doesn’t have to go along with condemning evil, and the virtuous person should not hate the vicious one.

The old sages regarded everything in creation as fourfold: Consciousness with the states of waking, dreaming, sleeping and active subjectivity; day with morning, noon, evening and midnight; the month with full moon and new moon and the eighth ascending and descending phases; the year with the solstices and equinoxes; human life with childhood, youth, adulthood and old age; creation with the steps of pure existence, existence as awareness, as thought and as action.

The cycles of time also divide into four ages or yugas: The Krita Yuga, the golden age, the Treta or silver age, the Dwapara or copper age, and the Kali Yuga or dark age.

According to the law of cycles we are in the Kali Yuga. According to the Puranas the Kali Yuga comprises a period of 432.000 years; the Dwapara age is twice, the Treta age thrice and the Krita four times the magnitude of the Kali age. All the four put together form the great Mahayuga of 4+3+2+1 = 10 units of the Kali age and hence 4.320.000 years.

Some teachings argue that we are still at the beginning of Kali Yuga, which started at the time of the Mahabharata war. But this number is a blind. The time unit of 432.000 years is for the geological cycles of the earth, but not for the living beings on the planet, for which we have to strike some zeros. Therefore H.P. Blavatsky says in the Secret Doctrine that the zeros should not be taken literally, but be understood as cycles.

The Kali cycle of humanity is 4320 plus one tenth of it as a transition period. In 2007, these are 4752 years since the time of the passing of Lord Krishna. We are now in this time, and therefore the thought of a new age is emerging. But the Aquarian age does not hold good for all living beings on the planet and neither for all humans, but only for a part. It is true for those who follow the path of light and who now have a good occasion to enter into a sub-cycle of the Krita Yuga and go into the Light. But there are so many who still want to continue experiencing the mundane treasures and do still more experiments. It is always the individual or group decision which way to go. It is a question of alignment. In the darkest of all ages a little sincere spiritual practice helps to gain the Light. It is not so easy in the other ages. Thus an apparent disadvantage also has an advantage.

Many people want to liberate themselves from darkness. It is not possible to repulse darkness by fighting against it. But already a small lamp lights us the way. In its light we can take the next steps and even cross a large jungle. The light is the discrimination, a thought without discrimination causes inner darkness.

This darkness is ignorance. It casts a dark veil on the light of truth. It spreads through the quality of desire: the desire for money and power, for sex, alcohol and drugs. They make sprout the spirit of Kali. In the Puranas it says that at the beginning of the yuga Kali was granted five places where he could unfold his power: where there is craving for gold and money and where there is gambling, the places of prostitution and where there is much consumption of alcohol and also where animals are regularly killed. And Kali said: “These are more than enough places for me to spread.”

With government licences and the support of banks people gather gold and money at the expense of others. Worldwide money is made from products which are unhealthy for man, but satisfy his base desires. He who has more capital is regarded as more virtuous. Government and religion, research and technology, education, social services and health services orient themselves to money. Everything has its price and is measured according to its profitability. People prefer making money and ignore behaving according to Dharma, the law of natural and ethical order.

The age of Kali encourages separatism and separates people from each other; they become more and more individualistic and lose the spirit of community. Families and social systems disintegrate, numerous people suffer from loneliness and are unable to get out of it. When man is more and more inclined towards objectivity, the inner potential gets concealed. As soon as he turns again to the inside, the subtle wisdom slowly reveals itself. People become again more group-centred and learn to integrate into communities, for there is strength in community.

In Kali Yuga the truth gets hidden under much superstition and it is difficult for man to work it out through all the fixed thoughts. Many concepts have to be broken until you realise the universal wisdom. So that it doesn’t get lost in all the illusions of matter, Lord Krishna gave the plan to Lord Maitreya at the twilight hours of the Dwapara Yuga, how in the coming dark age the path to the Light can be kept open for humanity, and he installed him in the office of the World Teacher for the Kali Yuga. Several great initiates, among them Maru (Master Morya) and Devapi (Master Koot Hoomi) joined the work. This group formed the foundations for the spiritual hierarchy of this age, and Lord Maitreya took over the responsibility to help humanity during the entire Kali Yuga.

At first Maitreya wanted to fight darkness, but Krishna showed him that darkness cannot be conquered through fighting, but expands further this way. He taught him the law of inclusion and of synthesis. At his departure Krishna promised that he would continue to give his presence on the planet through Maitreya, and for the fulfilment of the plan he passed on to him the radiant robe of his celestial causal body.

He gave as his last message: “Wherever I exist Kali doesn’t exist. Wherever I don’t exist, Kali exists. Therefore keep on spreading the I AM. Lead every being into the I AM and don’t leave any other thought behind. Then I will start working and I will permeate the entire individual. Simply connect to the I AM and live in this awareness. Don’t let yourself get caught by things like bad or evil and similar things. In all situations fill yourself with the awareness of I AM.

I propose to grace my presence through the power of the music of the soul. This is my path for the age. I touch the strings of the subconscious current of everyone that he may learn to be awakened gradually into my presence and get himself turned to me. I will be heard in the form of music which everyone knows and recognises as His own presence.”

This Yoga of Synthesis was given to Maitreya by Lord Krishna at the beginning of the Kali Yuga. Since we are forgetful, it is given again and again, so that we may remember it.

Sources: K.P. Kumar: The Aquarian Cross / Hercules / notes from seminars / E. Krishnamacharya: Man Sacrifice / Wisdom of the Heavens. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.