Cosmology

• Hindus believe thee are four very long ages , known as epochs or yugas
• The four yugas are:

  • Yuga of Gold  
  • Yuga of Silver  
  • Yuga of copper  
  • Yuga of Iron  
• The four yugas are known as the Cycle of Four Ages
• There are 2 realities:

  • Spirit – which cannot be seen and touched  
  • Matter – which can be seen and touched 
• Cosmology is ideas about the universe
• Hindu cosmology tries to explain the difference between spiritual worlds and material worlds
• Ideas from Hindu cosmology

  • Time is cyclical  
  • The material world is repeatedly created  
  • There are three tiers of our universe : the heavenly planets , the earthly realm , and the lower worlds  
  • There are many interrelated stories of creation  
  • There are 2 realities , spirit and matter – The atman is distinct from the material and temporary mind and body  
• Hindu's believe that the universe passes through a cycle of time that is made up of four ages or yugas - these ages continuously rotate and each age gets shorter and more corrupt
• The length of all four yugas

  • The Yuga of Iron is 432,000 years  
  • The Yuga of Gold is 1,728,000 years  
  • The Yuga of Silver is 1,296,000 years  
  • The Yuga of Copper is 864,000 years 
• • Hindus believe that we are living in the Yuga of Iron  
  • We have 427,000 years left until the avatar of Vishnu appears as Kalki , riding a white horse  
  • He will kill off evil and evil doers  
  • He will bring about the birth of another golden age so a new cycle of time will start 
• Hindus believe there are many universes , each like clusters of bubbles floating in space , created from Vishnu’s breath – In each one there is ?


  • An upper realm of heavenly planets  
  • An earthly realm where humans live  
  • A lower realm full of less pleasant beings  
• Every form of creation has its place in each universe - In a new creation within the cycle of life , humans might move into a different realm
• Hindus believe that the world is made up of

  • Purusa (spirit)  
  • Prakriti (matter)  
• Some Hindus think that the 2 realities , spirit (purusa) and matter (prakriti) , exist separately , and that spirit must overcome matter
• Other Hindus think that spirit and matter are needed together for the universe to be complete and for creation to be fulfilled
• Enlightenment is the gaining of true knowledge about God or self , which leads to freedom from the cycle of rebirth
• When a soul reaches enlightenment , the world no longer has any substance - in other words, it it shown to be an illusion (maya)
• Matter goes through 3 stages

  • Creation  
  • Maintenance  
  • Destruction  
• The three qualities of matter / stages that matter goes through are known as the tri-guna
• The three qualities of matter / stages that matter goes through are seen in human life as , passion , goodness and ignorance
• It is though that a persons actions can be explained by the balance of gunas in their personality