“You will find your answers to any of your questions in the Puranas” used to be something I was used to listening while growing up. When I recently went to a planetorium and saw the expanse of the universe, it made me think about the microcosm as well. While it triggered multiple thoughts in me, I started looking at each of them one by one.

Sharing what I read, realized and understood thus far…

Puranas are from Hindu mythology, so I will be referencing some of the Hindu Gods in this post.

• Lord Brahma has the life span of 100 years. (In Brahma years (not our 365 days a year types.. let us see how much that is as we read along).
• His life span is called as “Par” and half his life span is called as “Parardha”, meaning half a life span (Par-ardha – where ardha means half).

Now let us start from the smallest level of time that can be quantified

• One Kastha consists of 15 Nimeshas
• One Kala consists of 30 Kasthas
• One muhurtha consists of 30 Kalas
• The period of 30 muhurthas are equal to one day & night of human beings (24 hour cycle)
• One month equals 30 days and nights
• Six months make an Ayan
• One year consists of two Ayans (Uttarayan and Dakshinayan)
  • Uttarayan is the day of the deities
  • Dakshinayan is the night of the deities

Now let us start looking expanding our perspective

• Four yugas (also known as Chatur yuga) are equivalent to 12,000 years of the deities. These yugas occur in a cyclic order
  • Satya yuga – 4000 years
  • Treta yuga – 3000 years
  • Dwapara yuga – 2000 years
  • Kali yuga – 1000 years
  • Total – 10,000 years
• Each yuga is followed by a hibernation period called Sandhya and Sandhyansh

Yugas	Sandhya	Sandhyansh
Satya Yuga	400 years	400 years
Treta Yuga	300 years	300 years
Dwapara Yuga	200 years	200 years
Kali Yuga	100 years	100 years
Total	1000 years	1000 years

Now, it starts getting complex 🙂

• One Brahma’s day consists of 1000 such Chatur yugas.
• Fourteen Manus appear during this whole period of 1000 Chatur yugas (or in other words, in a day of Lord Brahma)
• Each Manvantar (meaning during a specific Manu’s phase) is named after a Manu and is equivalent to about 71 Chaturyugas
• A Manvantar is approximately 306,720,000 (about 306 Million years…)
• 14 such Manvantars are there during a Brahma’s day making it 4,294,080,000 (about 4 Billion years)
• After this period of Brahma’s day, deluge takes place and there is unbearable heat
• Lord Brahma then takes rest for the same period of 4 Billion years (equivalent to one Brahma’s night)
• Then, he commences creation again

This process continues for all 100 years of Lord Brahma’s life span. Then, it is time for the next Brahma.

I had to read it over 20+ times to understand and appreciate the micro level and macro level – traversing in my mind the concept of a nimesha (1/20th of a second) to 400 Billion years (One Brahma’s lifespan). Just so absolutely amazing!

Using astrology, we can predict the events and happenings to as minute as 1/20th of a second where the thought is seeded in our mind and the concept of the universe became clear. Traversing the micro and macro was not easy from a mind and thought standpoint. I needed to learn more. Now there were three things I wanted to know.

1. More about the universe
2. More about Predictions and Astrology
3. More about the rest of the information in the Puranas

Felt, my learning to understand the universe had started!