History
According to Hinduism, What is the Age of the Universe and When is the World going to End.?
Can we witness the end of the Universe?
Let us first know what Puranas are. Puranas are ancient Indian works of literature that explore almost everything in the world. It was the ancient encyclopedia. There were several Puranas and each Purana will talk about an exclusive topic ranging from medicines to astronomy to grammar to philosophy.
Now, let us talk about the age of time known as Yuga. A Yuga basically refers to a period of time. A Yuga commonly known as Chatur Yuga is a cyclic age. A cycle of 4 world ages namely,
- Satya Yuga: Span — 17,28,000 Years (1.72 Million Years) [Four times the span of Kali Yuga]
- Treta Yuga: Span — 12,96,000 Years (1.29 Million Years) [Thrice the span of Kali Yuga]
- Dwarapa Yuga: Span — 8,64,000 Years (0.86 Million Years) [Twice the span of Kali Yuga]
- Kali Yuga: Span — 4,32,000 Years (0.43 Million Years)
One Chatur Yuga is all the 4 Yugas above put together. Summation of the span of all the 4 Yugas is 4.32 Million Years.
We are currently in the 21st Century, but according to the Bhagavatha Purana and the Vishnu Purana, we are in the Kali Yuga. The span of the Kali Yuga is 4,32,000 years (4.3 Million Years). Lord Krishna (an avatar of Lord Vishnu) leaving the Earth and reaching his abode Vaikunta is known as the end of Dwarapa Yuga and the commencement of the Kali Yuga, roughly believed to be 3102 BCE. So, now we are in 2021 CE.
Let’s do the math here, Adding 3102 + 2021 = 5123 years into the Kali Yuga, which means we still have 4,26,877 years (4.2 Million Years) for the Kali Yuga to end. Post which Lord Vishnu (one of the principal deities of Hinduism) will reincarnate in the form of a Kalki Avatar to destroy evil and restore Peace or Dharma in the world as per the Bhagavatham. When the Dharma is restored, it marks the start of the Satya Yuga all over again but not the end of the universe.
Maha Pralaya or the complete destruction of the Universe and the recreation of the Universe or Shristi will only happen after 100 Years of Lord Brahma (one of the principal deities of Hinduism) gets completed. Lord Brahma being a celestial being has a different time frame from that of a human being. We now need to calculate the life of Lord Brahma and inspect the equivalent human years according to the Solar Calendar, which in turn marks the life of the Universe.
To discover the life of Lord Brahma we need to consider the Yugas which are the cycles of age. As we have seen earlier, One Chatur Yuga is all the 4 Yugas put together. 1000 such Chatur Yuga’s is called as 1 Kalpa (1000 x 4.32 Million Years = 4.32 Billion Years), which makes just ONE DAY of Lord Brahma.! One night of Lord Brahma is another Kalpa. So, 2 Kalpa’s make his one full day, let alone his one year and his 100 years.
I know right, this piece of information is Unbelievable.! and too much of math too. :)
This marks the end of the tenure of Lord Brahma, paving the way for another Brahma to take his place. This is when the entire Universe would get annihilated and reconstituted as per Hinduism. So, the life span of Lord Brahma would be 311 Trillion Years approx.(4.32 Billion Years x 2 Kalpa’s x 360 days of a year x 100 years).
This whole cycle is known as the Wheel of Time or Kaala Chakra. As the Kaala Chakra keeps rotating infinitely through cycles of creation and destruction, it is said that the Aathma or the Soul keeps taking infinite re-births until it gets the permanent bode called Moksha or the Salvation.
Fifty years of Brahma are supposed to have elapsed, and we are now in the Shveta-Varaha Kalpa or the first day of his fifty-first year. By these calculations the life of Lord Brahma seems fantastic and interminable, but from the viewpoint of eternity it is as brief as a lightning flash. Brahma and his creation are all part of the material universe, and therefore they are in constant flux.
