Every civilization grows, reaches its peak, and then collapses. All of human history is marked by periods of catastrophe. This has happened in the past, and it will happen again in the future. This is the secret hidden in the science of Hindu cycles called Yugas, which precisely describe the rise and fall of human consciousness over thousands of years. Our modern period is not the peak of human evolution, but its final decline, its end-of-cycle phase at the end of which everything will reset.
According to this vision, human life and consciousness are governed by these cycles, just as nature is governed by the four seasons. Many traditions, in addition to the Hindu tradition, speak of a great human cycle divided into four ages, which are all involutionary phases during which consciousness sinks into matter during a progressive acceleration of 1, 2, 3, and 4 (the last age being 4 times faster than the first).
The four yugas of Hindu tradition are:
Golden Age or Krita Yuga (25,920 years): harmony with the source and with life, kindness, positivity, and unity between beings and nature.
Silver Age or Treta Yuga (19,440 years): loss of contact with the source, beginning of rituals to compensate, emergence of passions and duties.
Brazen Age or Dwapara Yuga (12,960 years): beginning of greed, pride, theft, and anger. Negativity invades the world.
Iron Age or Kali Yuga (6,480 years): the last Yuga. The fastest, but also the worst: conflicts, wars, confusion, lies, deception, suffering, corruption, and pollution reach their peak. This is the most difficult period. All values are reversed, evil triumphs. The masses are imprisoned in trivialities and illusions. Empires during this period are both their harshest and their most fragile; they rise and fall most quickly.
Like a raga in traditional Indian music, the beginning is slow and gentle. Then a gradual acceleration unfolds throughout the piece, leading to its frenetic and overexcited final climax. The music stops abruptly, having reached the peak of excitement. The final collapse is the work of Shiva, who destroys in order to create, who tears down the old to build the new. The final explosion, brutal and violent, is a complete overhaul of the world, which can then rebuild itself in silence and slowness; it is the return of Krita Yuga.
In the Mahabharata, the monkey god Hanuman describes the cycles of the yugas:
“Kritayuga had a religion and all men were holy; There was no need for religious ceremonies… Men neither bought nor sold; there were no rich nor poor; they had no need to work, for all that men needed was obtained by will… Krita Yuga was without disease, there was no decline with age, there was no hatred or vanity, no pain or fear. All humanity could attain the sacred. The universal soul was white… The identification of the Self with the universal soul was the full religion of the perfect age.
In Treta Yuga, sacrifices began, and the world soul turned red. Virtue declined by a quarter. Humanity began to seek truth and perform religious ceremonies; they obtained what they desired by giving and doing.
In Dwapara Yuga, the aspect of the world soul was yellow: religion declined by a half. The Veda was divided into four parts; some had knowledge of all four Vedas, others only three or one. The spirit declined, truth declined, and then came desire and disease. For these beings suffered punishments. It was an age of decadence due to the prevalence of sin.
In Kali Yuga, the aspect of the world soul was black: it is the age of conflict and death. It is the conclusion of the cycle before it begins again.”
How will this final stage of the great cycles of human consciousness in which we find ourselves end? How exactly will Kali Yuga end? It all depends on human consciousness, whether a sufficient number of people have awakened to this cyclical approach to time and consciousness, whether a sufficient number of people have awakened to their spiritual nature, and not their material nature.
When each Yuga ends, it gives way to the next. Our Dark Age will come to an end, followed by the restoration of sacred knowledge and lost wisdom, leading to a transitional phase, and then a return to the Golden Age. The tyrants of the Dark Age will no longer be able to imprison the masses, for the truth will come forth and illuminate all lies and ignorance. The true history of the world will emerge, and the true divine nature of human beings will be revealed. The collapse of power structures will begin to crumble, truths begin to return. These observed trends will escalate, eventually bringing down the powerful of this world.
There are forces trying to keep us in the dark night of consciousness. But their time is now running out. The only question is: will we be ready to navigate this period of transition? Will we be ready to welcome the new cosmic forces acting on the planet? Will we sink back into the old world in full collapse, or will we grow with the new energies?