JUGS (YUGAS)

Satyug: This is considered to be the best of all the yugas and is also the longest among all of them with an age of 1728000 years. The people of this yuga were truthful, content, had high moral values, and justice and honesty were the norms of the time. Setamber (one who wears white dress) was their deity and was worshipped for salvation. The bull which supports the earth on one of his horns had all the four feet intact.  Bhagat Prehlad a great devotee of God lived in this yuga. He was the son of king Hernkashyup (Hernakash) who was blessed by Brahma that he would not die either during the day or the night; neither inside nor outside, and neither on the earth nor on the sky. Finally, he should not be killed by a human or an animal. Hernkashyup ordered in his kingdom that only he deserved to be worshipped and nobody else. Anyone found worshipping any other deity would be severely punished. Prehlad did not obey his father and began to worship God.  Prehlad was subjected to great torture was ordered killed, but he survived all attempts on his life. Finally, Vishnu killed the king when he was about to kill Prehlad with a sword.  Vishnu transformed himself into a human-lion, and put the startled king in his lap. It was the time when the sun was just setting. Vishnu sat in a door and tore open the stomach of the wicked king.  All this was done to circumvent the conditions of the blessing. You see, when Hernkashyup was killed, it was neither the day time nor the evening and so on.

 

However, this very popular Vedic story leaves many unanswered questions some of which are as follows:

(1) Rather than laying down so many restrictions on his death, why did not Hernkashyup ask for a simple thing – he never die?

(2) If Satyug was such a wonderful yuga that all the people were honest, kind, caring, and truthful, why was Hernkashyup so different in the same yuga? And what about all those people who supported him in his cruelty towards Prehlad and also in the implementation of his unjust laws?  Did they possess all those good qualities expected in the Satyug?

(3) Vishnu has been through so many incarnations including fish, turtle, boar, midget and so on;  why is his transformation into human-lion not considered an  incarnation?

Traita: The people of this epoch lost some of their morality, but were still considered good. They had control over their sensual pleasures. Lord Rama was the deity of this epoch which meant that people could find salvation only by worshipping Rama. The yuga shrank slightly in length with an age of 1596000 years, and the bull supporting the earth lost one of his feet.  The Epic, Ramayana, is the most popular story of the epoch.

Duapar: This is called the epoch of yaggas (a ritual in which some deity is worshipped by lighting a fire, and animals are sacrificed.  Also, cash and some other necessities of life are given in charity). People suffered bodily hardships to control their sensual desires. Lord Krishna was the deity of the epoch and people worshipped him for salvation. Many unnecessary battles and wars were fought among the rulers. Mahabharata (the story of the Kauravs and the Pandvas) is the most popular event of the time. The bull lost one more foot and the age of the epoch decreased to 864000 years. The Pandvas were very brave and powerful. They even defeated Lord Shiva who ran to the Himalayas to save his life. To disguise himself, he transformed himself into a male buffalo and gored the mountain at Kedarnath to hide. His front part did push through the mountain, but his back did not go deep enough. Kedarnath is a holy place for the Hindus and they go there to see the back of Lord Shiva which is sticking out of the mountain.

Kalyug:  This is the current yuga and is considered to be a dark era in which there is a lot of corruption and injustice. People are considered immoral and they are so engrossed in the material world that there is no respect for law and order. The deity to worship is Allah for the Muslims and idols of gods and goddesses for the Hindus. The bull lost one more foot, and now the earth is supported by a bull with only one foot to stand on. The age of this era is only 472000 years.

Notes:  (1) The ages of the yugas have been copied from Book 3, of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan written by Principal Sahib Singh.

 

Gurbani does not believe that laws of Nature are different in different yugas – they never change with time. No matter what the yuga is, there is only one way to realize God and thus find salvation – and that is to worship only one Supreme being, God and acquire noble qualities. There It is also not true that the nature of the people was different in different yuga – there were good and bad people in each yuga. If Prehlad was a holy man, his father, Hernkashyap was an evil man even though they lived in the same epoch. Likewise, if Lord Rama was a great man, his contemporary, Ravana was an evil guy as depicted in the Hindu granths.  Similarly if there are bad people in the present, Kalyug, there have been most holy people like the ten Guru Sahiban, the Bhagats, Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad, in this epoch. So, Gurbani does not support the principle of the Yugas as advanced by the Hindu beliefs.