Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

THE AGES
THE passage of time within a mah ā-yuga influences for
the worse man and the world in which he lives. This
passage is marked by the four ages (yuga), called Satya,
Treta, Dvāpara, and Kali-yuga, the last being that in
which it is generally supposed the world now is. The
yuga 1 is a fraction of a kalpa, or day of Brahmā of
4,320,000,000 years. The kalpa, is divided into fourteen
manvantaras, which are again subdivided into seventyone
mahā yuga; the length of each of which is 4,320,000
human years. The mahā-yuga (great age) is itself
composed of four yuga (ages)—(a) Satya, (b) Treta,
(c) Dvapara, (d) Kali. Official science teaches that man
appeared on the earth in an imperfect state, from which
he has since been gradually, though continually, raising
himself. Such teaching is, however, in conflict with the
traditions of all peoples—Jew, Babylonian, Egyptian,
Hindu, Greek, Roman, and Christian—which speak of
an age when man was both innocent and happy. From
this state of primal perfection he fell, continuing his
descent until such time as the great Avatāras, Christ
and others, descended to save his race and enable it to
regain the righteous path. The Garden of Eden is the
emblem of the paradisiacal body of man. There man
was one with Nature. He was himself paradise, a
privileged enclosure in a garden of delight 2 —gan be
Eden. Et eruditus est Moyse omni sapientia Ægyptiorum.
1 See Bentley, “Hindu Astronomy” (1823), p. 10.
2 Genesis ii. 8. Paradise is commonly confused with Eden, but the two are
different. Paradise is in Eden.