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Hindu conceptions of time, like those found in other non-Western traditions, is cyclical in that one age may end but another will always begin. As such, the cycle of birth, growth, decay, death, and renewal at the individual level finds its echo in the cosmic order of all things, yet affected by the vagaries of the comings and goings of divine interventions in the Vaishnavite belief.

Contemporary Hindu eschatology is linked in the Vaishnavite tradition to the figure of Kalki, the last Avatar of Vishnu before the age draws to a close and Shiva dissolves and Brahma regenerates the universe.

Most Hindus acknowledge as part of their cosmology that we are living in the Kali Yuga, the last of four periods (Yuga) that make up the current age. Each period has seen a successive degeneration in the moral order and character of human beings, to the point that in the Kali Yuga where quarrel and hypocrisy are prevalent. Often, the invocation of Kali Yuga denotes a certain helplessness in the face of the horrors and suffering of the human condition and a nostalgia for a golden past or a future salvation.

The Four Yugas

A Divya Yuga comprises four yuga's and lasts for 4.3 billion years. Yuga Dharma is a self-realization in each yuga.

• Satya Yuga lasts 1.632 billion years.
• Treta Yuga lasts 1.3 billion years.
• Dvapara Yuga lasts 884 million years.
• Kali Yuga lasts approximately 448 million years.

In each yuga the life span of humans is reduced, starting from a few thousand years in the krutha yuga to about 100 years in the Kali yuga.

One cycle of these four yugas complete the existence of the universe and the universe starts to contract backwards in time followed by a new big bang which leads to the formation of a new universe.

See also

• Metrics of time in Hinduism

References

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