Juan Sarmiento

Divine Experiences Divinity is a goal, a process, and an end in itself. The spiritual experiences of author Acarya Parameshvarananda Avadhuta, recounted in Divine Experiences, tell of this wondrous journey to divinity, a journey taken by both the disciple and the guru. Acarya Parameshvaranandas mystical experiences of...

Yuga Sandhi or the Great Transition

We live in the great transition today called yuga sandhi in Sanskrit. The yugas - Satya, Tretá, Dvápara and Kali yugas have no significance apart from individual and collective psychological magnitudes as stated by Shrii PR Sarkar:

Kalih shayáno bhavati saiṋjihánastu dváparah;
Uttiśt́han tretá bhavati krataḿ sampadyate carań. (Vedas)

-A person who abstains from work and is unwilling to move, is living in Kali Yuga (Dark Age); one who has just awakened from slumber is in Dvápara Yuga; one who has stood up is in Tretá Yuga; and when one has started moving, then Satya Yuga has come in that person’s life. ..

The word yuga is derived from this verb yunj. What is a yuga? When a particular period of time ends, when a particular epoch ends, when a particular flow of life ends and another begins or emerges, it is called yuga. The past may be divided into various yugas or ages: the shudra yuga or worker age; the kśatriya yuga or warrior age; the vipra yuga or intellectual age; and the vaeshya yuga or capitalist age. In the future also these ages will come and go. People will reject the old social order and embrace a new one. The transitional phase between the two social orders is called yuga sandhi.

When people are so inert that they turn a blind eye to what happens around them, when they ignore the future of others, of society, even of themselves, when they remain blissfully unaware that they too have a significant role to play in checking the degeneration of society, then it is called kali yuga. They are asleep.

Saiṋjihánastu dváparah. There are some people who also continue to lie down, but who have awakened, who have become conscious. They feel the need to act but fail to do so. This also happens in collective life. Suppose something is going on for a long time. We see it happening, even understand what is happening, yet we fail to do anything about it. “This is what should be done,” “This is what should have been done,” “This should have been done a long time ago” – people make such comments but due to the lack of dynamic leadership they fail to take action. Who is to bell the cat? This is the general feeling of the dvápar yuga. Saiṋjihánastu dváparah. People have awakened from sleep, become conscious but they have not yet taken any action.

Uttiśt́han tretá bhavati. When people no longer pass idle comments from the comfort of their beds – “Oh, I think this should be done or that should be done, I am to start action”– but rather, able to discriminate between right and wrong, leap up, ready for action, it is called tretá yuga in both individual and collective life. Uttiśt́han tretá bhavati. “Now it is time to act. We must act right now.” People meet together in groups of five or ten or twenty, and so on, to make concrete plans for immediate and effective action. Awareness exists but it is yet to be translated into action.

Krtaḿ sampadyate carań. Suppose one makes comprehensive plans and programs, but these plans still remain at a theoretical level. It is a paper tiger. No work is accomplished. It doesn’t make for progress in individual life. What then needs to be done? They have to be translated into action. When people undertake concrete work with sincerity, then success becomes inevitable in their lives. This is the krta yuga [age of practical action] or satya yuga [age of truth]. It is the way human beings have advanced in the past, how they are advancing now, and how they will advance in the future.

In collective life at the critical juncture between one great age and another, in this transitional stage of great change, when it becomes impossible for the common people or even ordinary sadvipras (benevolent intellectuals) to take up the leadership, then Parama Puruśa (Supreme Being) through special grace arranges that leadership. At this time on the earth humanity is witnessing such a yuga sandhi.

On one side there is the rubbish heap of the past and people are clinging to that rubbish heap because they have not yet been shown the way out. And on the other side, there is the call of the new. Under such conditions what will that Mahásambhúti (great manifestation) do who gave guidance to the human race in the past? With courage He will call to human beings and declare: “Give up the rubbish of the past. It can only harm you and lead you to your death. Move ahead. Answer the call of the new. I am with you. There is no reason to be afraid.”

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