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.
SECTION V. THE GOLDEN AGE.
Creation begins with the dawn of the Satya Yuga, which is also called the Golden Age. It is the first part and the longest section of the Divine Age. The span of this age is 4,800 Divine years, which being multiplied by 360 gives us 1,728,000 human years. It is the most spiritual age, because, of the three Cardinal Attributes—Sattwa, Rāja and Tama—which govern, and are the parents of, the composing principles of the Universe, the Sattwa is predominant in its influence. The Sattwa is that attribute which uncovers the true state of things without and within us and in Nature, hence it may be called the attribute of Illumination. Rāja is the attribute of Activity (motion of change), and Tama is the very reverse attribute of Sattwa. It is that attribute within us and Nature which covers the true State of things, hence it may be called the Obscuring, darkening attribute, the Attribute of Darkness.
The Satya Yuga is called the Golden Age, because gold is very abundant in this age of utmost spirituality, and gold is the purest and most spiritual of all metals. The Illumination of predominant Sattwa pervades all Nature in this age. Nature, inside and out, is full of light, almost transparent with light—spiritual through and through. So is man, her best product. Men and women in this age attain a spiritual depth and height which no other age can develop. This spiritual height manifests itself In their physical body, while the depth of their inward spirituality shows itself in their outer life and actions. The Gulden Age men are twenty-one cubits, or thirty-one and a half feet, in height. This may strike us, diminutive mortals of this Kali Yuga or Iron Age, as absurd or improbable, but it need not do so if we remember how long ago the last Golden Age was—nearly three million years. Moreover, as they are all of the same height, they do not think they are abnormally tall.
These men and women, owing to their high degree of spirituality, have a perfectly healthy, harmonious and beautiful body, for spirituality is health, harmony and beauty. They have their inner vision fully opened and see more through their ensouled mind's eyes than through their physical ones. They, therefore, see through Nature as through a glass. All Nature stands revealed to them to her inmost depth wherein they see the One Essence which pervades it, the One Spirit of which all things within and on the surface of Nature are but different phases of its manifestation. And in it all they find themselves as part of the same phases, living, moving and having their being sustained by that One Spirit which is both life and light—the One Omnipresent Spirit, the one All-Pervading Essence—Love.
The Golden Age men and women have no garments to cover their entirely bare body, nor do they need any. We clothe our bodies for two reasons:' First, out of our sense of delicacy and shame because of our dark thoughts born of improper and unnatural (sinful) actions, and secondly, to protect our body and health from the attacks of the sun, the rain and the changes of weather and climate. The Golden Age men have no such reason for wearing any clothes. Their perfect spirituality admits of no dark thought to touch their mind, for all is illumination within and without them, while their actions are all in perfect consonance with the purest laws of Nature, in rhythmic motion with the music of the Infinite whose song they hear in their soul. They may be called moving Vedas—walking wisdom and spirituality. The laws of the Veda form the mechanism of their mind, and it is these Vedic laws that move their limbs and prompt their words and actions. Their perfect spiritual health is proof against the hardships of weather, or rather there is no hardship of weather at all. The spirit of the Age pervades all Nature, of which the weather a phase. Even Nature's forces are in perfect harmony with one another, for harmony is the very keynote of the Age. It is Spring, sweetest Spring season, all the year round, during night and during day; warm enough without heat, cool enough without being cold, breezy enough without being windy—man and beast and bird and tree and earth and weather all are in harmony. Harmony, harmony, all is harmony in this Blessed Age.
Man and woman have no need at all for sex life in the Golden Age. The ecstasy of the soul with which their body and being are filled renders it impossible for even any thought of gross fleshly pleasures to enter their mind. The very drawing of breath is to them a pure delight which any fleshly or objective pleasure of our day cannot dream of approaching. Life is lived then in its veriest depth—deep down through the mind, deeper down through the heart, deepest down in the depth of the soul. And when life is lived in such depth, its surface is not heeded or cared for. Such a life does not require much material nutrition—it is nourished by the souls all-nourishing nectar.
These men and women eat very little food—fruits and roots only, and drink milk and water, and these between long intervals. They feel very little hunger and that little on far-between occasions. We feel hungry because of our mind contemplating matter. All matter is changeful—matter is nothing but collected forms of change. Its seeming substance embodies but motion of change, so that its inmost attribute is changefulness. Our mind concentrating on material objects absorbs its attribute—changefulness—and is affected by it forthwith; it becomes changeful in its turn, that is, it is rendered restless, flitting quickly from one object to another. This changefulness of the mind is in turn absorbed by our body, which suffers from its effects in the shape of loss of tissue. And this loss of tissue we have to supply by food and drink and rest and sleep. The Golden Age people do not suffer from this loss of tissue, because their minds are always concentrated on the One Changeless Substance, the very reflection of which through the changeful forms of matter makes them seem steady and substantial. The little wear and tear they suffer from, owing to looking now and then on the surface of things, causes some little need of nutrition, which their occasional fruit and milk meals supply.