Cycles of Time: Evolution of Consciousness by Karen Sherman, Ph.D. Many civilizations have referred to times in the distant past when there were civilizations with abilities and understandings that dwarf our own. David Steinmetz, a scientist who has pursued metaphysical teachings and practices for thirty years, has studied historic anomalies that are not understood by traditional academics in the context of world cycles of evolution. Karen: David, exactly what are these cycles of time? David: Many ancient cultures speak of cyclic changes in human consciousness. In the Hindu tradition, such ages are known as yugas. They are first described in the scripture attributed to the ancient sage Manu. There are four yugas. Consciousness is highest in the Sayta yuga, or age of truth. It’s followed by the Treta yuga, or mental age. Next is an age of energy, called the Dwapara yuga. Finally, the lowest age of gross material consciousness is called the Kali yuga, or dark age. Most accounts believe we are now in the darkest age. Most Hindus today believe that our present Kali yuga will not end for another 427,000 years. They also believe that when this age is completed, the cycle will begin anew with a Golden Age. One description of the Hindu yuga cycles differs substantially from the others. It claims that we have completed the Kali yuga and have entered a new Dwapara age of energy as we move in reverse order through the ascending phases of the cycle toward the Golden Age. In the introduction of his book The Holy Science, written over a hundred years ago, the great Indian sage Swami Sri Yukteswar offers a fresh understanding of the ancient idea of the yuga cycles. In his view, the entire cycle of four ages of descending understanding, and four more ascending, are complete in 24,000 years. The idea of extremely long periods of hundreds of thousands of years currently attributed to the cycle, he explains, arose from a mistake made near the lowest point in the cycle when humanity's capacity to understand was near its nadir. When I first read about these yuga cycles some thirty years ago I felt that these ideas, if true, should be evident in recorded history as well in present-day trends. As I’ve studied the actual facts of history and the artifacts of archaeology in more depth, I’ve become increasingly convinced of the truth of Sri Yukteswar's assertions. Especially telling are recent scientific discoveries that corroborate certain of his ideas, ideas that must have seemed very radical a century ago. For example, he describes a "grand central sun" about which the solar system and its neighbors slowly rotate. At the time he wrote, no one understood what our galaxy was, let alone that it rotated about a distant center. But within the last twenty years, we have begun to appreciate that there appears to be in that center a body with the mass of a few million suns, perhaps a black hole, capable of putting out enormous amounts of energy. Sri Yukteswar says that it is the influence of this "grand central sun" that changes over the 24,000-year cycle, that reaches the earth and influences mass consciousness. Karen: Where are we now in the cycle of the yugas? David: If Sri Yukteswar is correct, we left the descending Dwapara yuga and entered the Kali yuga in 700 B.C. We reached the nadir of the cycle in A.D. 500 and entered an ascending Kali yuga. In 1900, after a two hundred-year transition, we entered the ascending Dwapara yuga proper — the age of energy. Is it coincidence that Einstein published his special theory of relativity, equating matter and energy, in 1906? The last two Kali yugas (descending and ascending) constitute our entire recorded history. We are currently dominated by the idea that humanity has made steady progress from ape to astronaut. But I believe this has blinded us to evidence that people in ancient times approached life with very different values stemming from a greater capacity to understand the truth behind the appearance of reality. People have asked me questions like, "If our present age corresponds to the end of the descending Dwapara yuga of 1000 B.C., where are the remains of their freeways?" To understand this, consider the characteristics of the different ages and their sequence. The descending Dwapara was preceded by a Treta yuga, a mental age, in which the power of the mind was the dominant reality. In the descending Dwapara, then, there would be a tradition that the power of mind was superior to that of energy. We would not expect interest in accomplishing things with matter. Thus, the civilization of dynastic Egypt, toward the end of the Dwapara yuga, descended into magic, the application of mental energy toward material ends. By contrast, today we are applying our newfound capacity to understand the energy reality behind form, to accomplish everything we have been trying to do with matter for the last 2400 years. In other words, a machine is matter imbued with energy (and would be expected in ascending Dwapara yuga), while a magic spell is energy directed by mind (and would be expected in descending Dwapara yuga). I like to play a game with history books by folding a timeline around the A.D. 500 point and comparing events at corresponding periods in the descending and ascending ages. For example, the sun was the center of the solar system to the Dwapara yuga Sumerians. This concept was replaced by a geocentric universe in classical Greek times of early descending Kali yuga. Is it coincidence that the heliocentric idea was reinstated by Copernicus and Galileo in the later ascending Kali yuga corresponding to the time in the descending phase when it was lost? Instances of this type are far too numerous to list here. Karen: Please explain the transition between yugas. David: The collapse of civilizations seems to be a hallmark of the changeover. The dynastic Egyptian civilization that began in 3100 B.C., the exact beginning of the Dwapara yuga, fell in the opening centuries of the Kali yuga. Rome was founded at that time (750 B.C.) and lasted only for descending Kali yuga. Invasions by various groups of barbarians destroyed civilizations in China and India at that time as well. So what about our time, the change from ascending Kali yuga to Dwapara yuga? We certainly seem to be in a period of turmoil and change! The Kali yuga is characterized by the idea that matter and form are the realities. Structures and institutions are built to endure. Change is looked upon with suspicion. By contrast, in a Dwapara yuga, energy is seen as the reality behind outward forms. To create something in Dwapara yuga, you start the energy in motion, and let the form develop to reflect that energy instead of building a structure first. The very nature of energy is to change, so we can expect an ever more fluid, dynamic world in the future. Karen: It seems that many of us think that we’re going backward. Why does it appear that way when we are actually moving forward? David: As we move into Dwapara yuga, the old social forms, appropriate for Kali yuga, are crumbling. Old empires, such as those of Britain and the U.S.S.R., have dissolved. As power is becoming decentralized, nations are learning to cooperate rather than use so much coercion or competition in their relationships. The major challenge in Dwapara yuga is to use energy wisely. For example, our first major application of the new understanding of the energy nature of matter was the atomic bomb. This was certainly the fulfillment of the dreams of every military leader for thousands of years because it was so powerful. However, once we had developed such a bomb, we had to face the ethical question of whether to use it or not. The forces moving us forward are doing battle all around us with the forces that would constrain the world to the old forms. In Kali yuga we were limited by what we could do, but in Dwapara, when limitations of matter are overcome, we are faced with the new challenge of understanding what we should do. Every age is accompanied by its own lessons. It can seem frustrating when we see that we’ve just begun to solve many of our old problems with certain forms and structures that have served us well and we’re being asked to give them up. This can certainly seem like a step backward. Many are confused about what our new values should be. The forces moving us forward are doing battle all around us with the forces that would constrain the world to the old forms. We must each be aware of which forces we align ourselves with. Karen: So what is the special spiritual opportunity for us here? David: The yuga cycle measures the ebb and flow of dharma. This Sanskrit word, often translated as "righteous action" or "duty," indicates harmony with the divine will. In the higher ages, people will live generally more aligned with the divine will, which automatically implies harmony with nature as well as with each other. Thus you can see that the ecology movement, for example, is one manifestation of the Dwapara energy, although directed at our material surroundings. If we can understand what it really means to enter into this new age and cooperate with the change, then the seeming destruction and chaos will be easier to accept, and in fact move us ahead spiritually. What an opportunity to develop non-attachment to material forms! Right now, however, the changeover to the Dwapara yuga is bringing many spiritual lessons and tests directly into our ordinary daily life in the world. Just living through this period of turmoil and change with a joyful, positive attitude can easily bring us all the spiritual growth opportunities we can handle. For further details about these fascinating cycles, please join David Steinmetz at his seminar "Cycles of Time: Evolution of Consciousness" on Saturday April 18th from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Ananda Church (6509 Roosevelt Way NE). Call (206) 523-4343 for further information.