The First Cycle of Time: SATYA or KRITA YUGA, the Golden Age
The first cycle is called THE AGE OF WISDOM, the Golden Age or in Sanskrit, the SATYA or KRITA YUGA.
Pressed by Desire, the Creator emits the Illusion of Separation and Multiplicity. On one level these emissions are abstract metaphysical principles, cosmic stations containing the spectrum of all frequencies, all possible waveforms. While on another level of perception, they become temporal creator entities as beings and we are all latent within these primordial beings.
As they emerge from the Oneness, so we emerge within them. As they are the Oneness, so are we. TAT TWAM ASI - That thou art! There is no hierarchy as yet and these beings are all equal. They begin to manifest the desired forms of multiplicity in order to play in this universe.
They KNOW who and what they are - meaning they have the conscious knowledge that they are a projected part of Oneness. The Veil of Forgetting has not yet fallen.
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The LINGA Purana (Part I, Chapter 39) says that in the Golden Age there is no need for any basic social system and only as time decays, does the need for such a system arise. Time is of a degenerative nature and as time further decays through the cycles, it is no longer possible even to maintain such a sustaining social system. By the time of the Kali Yuga, DHARMA is nearly vanquished.
The Golden Age is the age of goodness. Meditation is the main activity. Beings who are still full connected to Source spend their time in meditation simply for the ecstatic bliss of doing so, or to enjoy creating for their own pleasure temporal illusory multiplicity in the hologram. Perhaps they create other worlds and travel through time and space to visit them - as people do today when they have out of body experiences, OBEs.
Our lifespan in the Golden Age is about 4,000 human years. Each Yuga is successively shorter in duration as is human life span. The way we experience time literally increases in speed as the cycles proceed.
In this golden SATYA Age people are born in pairs and their livelihood consists in reveling in the taste of what exists right before their eyes. All creatures are satisfied, always, and take delight in all enjoyments. There is no distinction between the lowest and the highest - all are good, all equal in their life span, happiness, and form. [Linga Purana, Part I Ch. 39]
People go wherever they wish, constantly rejoicing in their minds. They do not engage in any actions, good or bad. There is no system of separate classes and stages of life. They have no preferences, nor do they experience the opposing pairs of emotions. They do not hate or get tired. They have no homes or dwelling places, but live in the mountains and oceans. They have no sorrow, but consist mostly of goodness and generally live alone. [Linga Purana, Part I Ch. 39]
The VAYU Purana says that in this Golden Age, people have equal forms, features, and longevity. Their bodies themselves are probably not solid as ours are. People are highly powerful, very strong and perpetually delighted in their mind. They experience neither gain nor loss, have neither friends nor foes, neither likes nor dislikes. Everyone still knows that they are the Oneness and the emission of that.
There is no death, no human labor, no buying and selling. In this first Age we manifest freely. Whatever takes form within the mind appears.
Interestingly it also says that objects function according to their minds – implying that their thoughts are creating the external reality which can be thus be altered whenever and however they like. This seems to me to be a better, more subtle version of the Star-Trek Replicator.
The Vedas do not as yet exist – except perhaps in the ethers of the eternal indestructible AKSHARA - as there is no need for them.
Time is equivalent to virtue!
This SATYA Yuga is also called the eon of the Winning Throw. In the Puranic texts, creation is often compared to a cosmic game of dice.
The hierarchies of gods and other beings have not yet come into existence. We all know and Remember who we are - but we will soon become attached to our creation and begin to feel a sense of loss and longing for our original state.
While the Gods Play: Shaiva Oracles & Predictions on the Cycles of History and the Destiny of Mankind
Alain Danielou
Inner Traditions, 1987
The VAYU Purana
Translated and Annotated by Dr. G.V. Tagare
Part I & II
Motilal Banarsidass Publishers; 1987 & 2003, Delhi
The LINGA Purana
Translated by a Board of Scholars and Edited by Prof. J.L. Shastri
Part I & II
Motilal Banarsidass Publishers; 1973 & 1997, Delhi
Translated by Swami Ambikananda Saraswati; 2002, Ulysses Press
The Bhagavadgita in the Mahabharata
Translated by J.A.B. van Buitenen
University of Chicago Press, 1981
The Mahabharata
Translated & Edited by J.A.B. van Buitenen
University of Chicago Press, 1981
© Thel Dar Publishing
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