Kali Yuga

[Alexander]

Indian philosophy has the concept of the “yugas,” or four ages of the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga?wprov=sfti1

The idea is dharma (virtue) behaves in a cycle. The descent of an avatar inaugurates the start of a new cycle, starting with the satya yuga (age of virtue). Religion and the quest for self-realization then devolve each millennium by one-quarter, until eventually we enter the spiritual dark age.*

*Note the name “Kali” is also the name of an Indian deity, but the world age has nothing to do with her (the word just means “dark”).

We can assume Lord Vishnu descended to earth in approximately 1500 BC. We can see an artifact of this in the Bhagavad Gita.

If we observe the world we can see clear signs we are living in a dark age. (This is despite the paradox of the massive economic and educational development which is occurring simultaneously to the decline of religion.) For example:

-School shootings happening in the United States
-The massive surge in rates of obesity in the west
-Rising losses caused by the opioid epidemic
-The Catholic Church pedophile scandal and efforts at coverup
-Decline in religious attendance and general disbelief
-The worship of “false gods,” ie, greed, fame, and sexuality, as the highest ideal
-The rise in prostitution and the decline in modesty
-The general ignorance of piety and sanctity
-The disparagement of the holy (ie, virgins, celibates)
-The utter unconsciousness and hypocrisy of those in charge of religious orders
-The rise of low quality or evil men to positions of high authority
-Confusion over gender identity, the sense of self, and sexuality
-A pathological dynamic developing in the relationship between men and women and a decline in familial-social harmony
-A culture of grievances, division, and discord
-Lack of humanity or compassion for the ill and suffering

If we look at the global situation:
-Christianity is more or less done in the west. Christianity is more like an echo of what Christ taught than his actual teaching
-Islam has devolved more or less into the state of a cult (very low tier, provincial, xenophobic religion)
-Note the rise in suicide warfare in Islam. Explicitly forbidden by the Koran
-Note the domination of Islam by hypocrites (experts in religious behavior). You have only to observe what is happening now in Iran and see for yourself
-The Chinese have no religion. That is a nation of 1.4 billion people. It is incomprehensible

If only the gods would send someone to help us deal with this mess 🤷‍♀️

[Jhanananda]

Thank you, Alexander, for posting a piece on Hindu philosophy.  As a scholar of mysticism, philosophy and Asian literature, while I am familiar with the claim, I really don't see the evidence for this claim of an enlightened past decaying in to a future darkened state, because the most enlightened literature I have found is the Pali Canon, which this philosophy doesn't even recognize, and dates back to 500BC.  Mostly what I see in Hindu literature is favoring class and ethnicity of the Arian people who invaded and conquered India around 1500 BC. They appear to have come from central Asia through Mesopotamia.

[Tad]

Alexander,

I agree there is a lot of decay that comes with the growing culture of consumership and commercialization. I waw actually planning to start a new discussion whether people are better off without any religion or with somewhat distorted religion such as in the case of mainstrean Christianity.

[Jhanananda]

Alexander,

I agree there is a lot of decay that comes with the growing culture of consumership and commercialization. I waw actually planning to start a new discussion whether people are better off without any religion or with somewhat distorted religion such as in the case of mainstrean Christianity.

I find this subject to be a worthy discussion. What I get from the Pali Canon is Siddhartha Gautama emerged in a culture which we would today define as Hinduism, and when we examine the first sutta in the Long Discourses DN-1, we see a description of the major religious and philosophical points of view present in Siddhartha Gautama's culture. And, the conclusion of DN-1 is a rejection of all of those belief systems and a description of the 4 Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, which require no belief system at all, but just a willingness to accept the pervaysive presence of suffering, which is caused by our craving and covetousness, and a description of a simple lifestyle that results in freedom from suffering, which is the Noble Eightfold Path. So, I agree with Siddhartha Gautama. We don't need belief systems. What we all need is to dedicate ourselves to a rigorous, self-aware contemplative life, and dump the belief systems.