Are We in the Age of the Kali Yuga?

In Vedic science, there are four world ages or Yugas: the Satya Yuga, the Treta Yuga, the Dwapara Yuga and the Kali Yuga. Each of the four Yugas is characterized by the state of what might be called the quality of human knowledge. During the Kali Yuga, which is the darkest period, knowledge is occluded, muddied. Everything seems haywire, topsy turvy, like bizarro world in the old Superman comic books.

There is considerable debate about whether we are living in the age of the Kali Yuga currently. John Major Jenkins and Jay Weidner believe that this is the case. Sri Yukteswar, Yogananda’s teacher and guru, has been one of the more visible dissenters as outlined in his book the Holy Science. Yukteswar believes that the current age is the Dwapara Yuga also known as the Bronze age, a time characterized by mixed bag of positives and negatives.

While sometimes I tend to view these debates as “2012 theology”, it seems clear that, Kali Yuga or not, the current time – especially the last ten years – has been characterized by elements associated with this Yuga: surreal inversions of good and evil and the need to legislate morality and even at times basic human decency. The Vedic texts themselves say things like: “Rulers will no longer see it as their duty… to protect their subjects.. men will openly display animosity towards each other…cowards will have a reputation for bravery, and the brave will be enervated cowards.” This last item is reminiscent of a line in the Yeats poem “The Second Coming”: “the best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity”

Whether or not what’s happening now is related to the Kali Yuga, at times of transition things can seem dire indeed. The old energies are manifesting still in powerful ways, a last final burst of expression, but the new energies have not fully manifested. The saying that “it’s always darkest before the dawn” springs to mind. In my own experience I find that thinking about this is one helpful way to stay out of fear during the chaos of transition.