Sree Krishna, the Lord of Love

by Baba Premananda Bharati

SECTION IV. THE CYCLIC MOTION OF CHANGES.

The Veda says that when the three Cardinal Attributes, by losing this equipoise of force, sprang into being, and leaving the bosom of Krishna (Absolute Love) passed through the three stages of their development, viz., Vāsudeva, Sankarsana and Pradyumna, they brought with them a vibration from Krishna which found expression in Aniruddha, who exclaimed as he awoke from trance-sleep, as it were: "I am One, I wish to be the Many." This Divine Will manifested itself into the Universe in the manner described in the previous section.

From the One—Love—the motion of manifestation of Creation has therefore been towards manifoldness. From One—Love—the Principles sprang one by one, and where there was only One, there were twenty-four. The details of Creation sustained this process of manifoldness, and motion gradually increased in speed, manifesting varieties, until now that increased motion manifests that Will in millions of phases within every second of time.

This motion of manifestations or changes is like the surface of a troubled ocean, where heaving billows innumerable, crested with foam, cover countless living beings. The current of creative changes is mixed with and fed by, and dashes against, the opposite current of involutionary changes. The moment the last Principle of the Universe—Earth—was created, it had the tendency to go back to the First Source of Creation. But, unable to force its way back through the channel by which it sprang, owing to the rush of creative current, it found a circuitous channel by which its composing molecules started on their way back. As has already been said, and will be fully explained in detail in a separate section, the molecules have a tendency to open the passage of their composing principles, and thus to journey back by myriads of reincarnations through different and higher and higher life-forms to the First Parent Principle: The current of Creation which began with the manifestation of Universal Consciousness is still moving on, and will move on in the shape of changes until universal disintegration and dissolution take place. This current of creative changes is mixed up and swelled by the opposite current of involution, also in the shape of changes. These warring waves of action and reaction make up the Cosmos-Ocean.

Nārāyan (Aniruddha) is the Seed-Manifestation (Will) of Krishna (the Supreme Deity); the Universe is the Physical Manifestation (Materialized Will-Force) of Krishna; Time is the Motion Manifestation (Process of Working of the Will-Force) of Krishna; and the Veda is the Sound-Manifestation (Sound-Expression of the Laws of the Will-Force) of Krishna.

It has been shown how Nārāyan is the Seed-Manifestation and how the Universe is the materialized Will-Force of Nārāyan and Brahmā. I will now deal with this Motion-Manifestation—Time.

"I am One, and I wish to be the Many." The Lord was One, and the moment He wished to appear to be the Many, then this wonderful creation of vastness and variety sprang into existence. From the moment of the rise of that Will in the Divine Mind down to this moment, that Will is undergoing the process of its execution. It is a rush from the One towards manifoldness. This process of that manifoldness is called Creation, and the rhythm of its motion is called Time. The whole Creation is nothing but motion of Changes. Time is nothing but the cognition by our mind of events and ideas which are phases of changes in internal and external Nature. If we had no notion of events and never had an idea within ourselves, we would be in Eternity. So long as we are conscious of the kaleidoscopic changes in us and Nature or are conscious of their impressions on our mind, we live in Time. And the moment all impressions of the mind are obliterated and we become, through any process, unconscious of human and natural events, we lose all consciousness of existence; that is to say, we go behind the veil which enshrouds these physical phenomena, and we enter the realm which is an undisturbed calm of Absolute Life, Light and Bliss, the Trinity which is Eternity.

These changes in Nature and human society, starting from the beginning of Creation, move in cycles; that is to say, they have a cyclical process of motion. In other words, some events, natural and human, that occur within a certain period of time, are reproduced in their principal features in the next period of time of the same length. Creation proceeds towards ever manifold variety at this cyclic pace.

The smallest appreciable Cycle of Nature's change-process is the Day. Twenty-four hours, called one day, are divided into two parts, called day and night.

One Day is a Cycle embodying natural and human events which are reproduced in the following day, and so on. So that every day and night, in their principal features, are but a reproduction of the previous day and night. One day, therefore, is the smallest cycle of time or events, for events are but the phases of natural changes, and time is but the cognition or consciousness thereof.

The next cycle of time or events is the Month, in which two events which occur within twenty-eight lunar days are reproduced in the next twenty-eight lunar days. These two events are the fourteen days of waxing and waning moon, and the bright fortnight is the day and the dark fortnight is the night of the month.

The next larger cycle is the Year, in which the four seasons mark the principal divisions of events and are reproduced in all years in the self-same order, their uniform changes of weather and Nature bringing forth fruit and crops.

In the same way these events, called Time, develop larger cycles in which some event or other, or a series of events, are reproduced in the -next equal length of time. There are cycles, for instance, of from 500 to 100,000 years, the phenomena of which are reproduced in the next period of their respective proportions. But the most pronounced cycle is called the Divine Cycle. The Sanscrit word "Diva" is the root of the word "Divine," and "Yuga" is the original of which the word "Age" is a corrupted form.

This Divine Age (Daiva-Yuga) is divided into four Human Ages, called Satya, Tretā, Dwāpar and Kali. The span of this Divine Cycle is composed of 12,000 Divine Years, and each Divine Year is equal to 360 human years, so that 12,000 years multiplied by 360 gives us 4,320,000 human years, which is the length of a Divine Cycle. The next bigger cycle is called the Manwantara, which is made up of 71 Divine Cycles and is wound up with a Deluge, in which the whole world, including the highest peaks of the Himalayas, becomes immersed in water and remains so for the period of 71 Divine Ages. The next larger cycle is the Kalpa, which is made up of 14 Manwantaras, or 1,000 Divine Ages. The next cycle and the largest is called Mahā-Pralaya, in which the whole universe is destroyed totally, Krishna alone remaining with His Radiance, filling all space, and 36,000 Kalpas bring about this Universal Dissolution.

Since the beginning of this Kalpa creation, six Manwantaras (Deluges) have passed away. Since the last Deluge 27 Divine Cycles have rolled away. This is the twenty-eighth Divine Cycle of which the first three sections, viz., the Golden Age, the Silver Age and the Copper Age have passed away. We are just now in the early part of the fourth section, the Kali or Iron (Dark) Age.