“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”
— W. B Yeats
Yeats’ The Second Coming and the Four Yugas of Hinduism
Yeats’ poem ‘The Second Coming’ is best known for capturing the essence of the transition from one historical cycle or era to another. The symbol of ‘gyre’, a recurrent symbol in his poetry, represents the movement of time—how one period ends and the other begins to emerge. Yeats uses the figure of two intersecting funnels to represent this movement. The themes of violence, dissolution of morality, uncertainty, suffering, “things falling apart”, and anarchy that we see in Yeats’ poem finds much resonance with Kalyug or Kali Yuga, the fourth and last age in the Yuga cycle in Hinduism.
The word yuga in hinduism translates to an age of humankind that is part of a larger cycle. Let’s take a walk through time to unravel what the four Yugas are all about.
Defining Time: Chronology of the Four Yugas
The unit of time employed for measuring the yugas runs a little different from what we humans are used to. Yugas are generally talked about in terms of ‘divine years’. One mahayuga lasts 12,000 divine years. Each divine year is made up of 360 days where one day equals one human year! Further, two transitional periods precede and follow each yuga, known as Sandhya and Sandhyansa, respectively. The duration of each of these two periods is as many hundred years as thousands in a yuga. For instance, Satya Yuga, spanning over 4000 years, will include 400 years of Sandhya and 400 years of Sandhyansa, totalling 4800 divine years. In human years, this amounts to 1,728,000 human years. You can reference the table below for more details.
| Age/Yuga | Divine Years | Sandhya/Sandhyansa | Human Years
(Total*360) |
| Satya Yuga | 4000 | 400+400 | 4800*360= 1,728,000 |
| Treta Yuga | 3000 | 300+300 | 3600*360= 1,296,000 |
| Dwapar Yuga | 2000 | 200+200 | 2400*360= 864,ooo |
| Kalyug | 1000 | 100+100 | 1200*360= 432,000 |
Altogether, one mahayuga spans over 12,000 divine years or 4,320,000 human years.
Characteristics of the Four Yugas
In Hindu mythology, Dharma is envisioned as a bull whose four legs represent four virtues—truth, penance, purity, and compassion. With each age following Satya Yuga, Dharma is prophesied to lose one leg, corresponding to the loss of that particular virtue in that age.
Satya Yuga: Satya Yuga, or Krita Yuga, the first yuga is known as the age of perfection or the Golden Age. The period is marked by a life of truthfulness, morality, virtue, and harmony. Complete peace prevailed with no wars, struggle, strife, or greed. This is the longest of the four ages.
Treta Yuga: Treta Yuga is known as the silver age. The spiritual, moral, and ethical discipline of the Satya Yuga begin dwindling in this age. The class system prevails for the first time.
Dwapar Yuga: The third epoch is known as the Bronze Age. Dwapara Yuga is marked by a rise in sin, greed, and deceitfulness and a simultaneous advancement in science and technology.
Kali Yuga: Kalyug, the iron age and the last yuga, is infamous as the most degenerate of all ages. Prevalence of disease, struggles, wars, chaos, immorality, and lack of compassion define this age. Considering that the notion of Kaliyuga was first perceived millions of years ago, we’re provided a remarkable foresight into the modern age that we’re currently living in.
The four yugas together make up a mahayuga and 2000 mahayugas make one cosmic cycle, known as kalpa.
What Comes After the Kaliyuga
In his theory of gyres, Yeats explains how one era’s culmination corresponds with another’s conception. Similarly, the end of kaliyuga will be followed by the beginning of a new yuga cycle. Hindu mythology believes that as Kaliyuga nears its end, lord Vishnu will reincarnate as Kalki to reestablish Dharma in the world. His appearance will be followed by Pralaya or complete extinction through floods, earthquakes, or meteor showers. This will lead to the beginning of a new yuga cycle.