Pādma Kalpa

Pādma Kalpa, “the age of the lotus”

A kalpa is a great cycle of creation, one full day of Brahmā. The Pādma Kalpa is the name of the kalpa we live in now. It is called Pādma because at its start Brahmā came forth from a golden padma (lotus) that rose from the navel of Nārāyaṇa.

The Matsya Purāṇa (Chapters 163–170) gives the fullest account of how the Pādma Kalpa began. It tells of the great pralaya (dissolution) before it, Nārāyaṇa’s yoga-nidrā (divine sleep), the dialogue with Mārkaṇḍeya, the rise of the golden lotus, the birth of Brahmā, the defeat of Madhu and Kaiṭabha, and the second stage of creation, which ends with the Gāyatrī mantra and the four Vedas.

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Pādma kalpa is the last kalpa of the first parārdha (the first half of Brahmā’s life), named so because in it the lotus that is the world appeared from the lake-like navel of Śrī Hari; the kalpa now going on, the first of the second parārdha, is the Vārāha kalpa.

The Name

The present kalpa is called the Pādma Kalpa because Brahmā, the four-faced creator, was born from a golden lotus that rose from Nārāyaṇa’s navel at the dawn of this creation. This lotus is called the nābhi-padma (navel-lotus) or hiraṇya-padma (golden lotus). So the name Pādma refers to the particular way Brahmā was born in this cycle of creation.

How the Pādma Kalpa Unfolds

The Matsya Purāṇa gives the beginning of the Pādma Kalpa in this order:

  1. Pralaya: At the end of the last kalpa, seven Saṃvartaka suns dry up the oceans. The Saṃvartaka fire burns up all matter. The Saṃvartaka clouds pour rain for a thousand years, and a great flood covers everything.
  2. Nārāyaṇa’s yoga-nidrā: Only Nārāyaṇa remains, floating on the waters in his first, divine sleep. All beings and worlds are drawn back into him.
  3. Mārkaṇḍeya inside Nārāyaṇa: The long-lived ṛshi Mārkaṇḍeya wanders inside Nārāyaṇa’s body. He is breathed out into the empty ocean, and there he sees Nārāyaṇa as a baby lying on a vaṭa (banyan) leaf. This is one of the greatest divine visions in all the Purāṇas.
  4. The elements appear: At the dawn of the new kalpa, the stalk of the golden lotus begins to rise from Nārāyaṇa’s navel, through the order ākāśa (space), vāyu (air), agni (fire) and jala (water).
  5. The navel-lotus: The golden lotus rises out of the waters, blazing with the light of a thousand suns.
  6. Brahmā‘s birth: From the centre of the lotus, Brahmā comes forth, alone in the vast ocean.
  7. Madhu and Kaiṭabha: Two dānavas (a clan of asuras), Madhu and Kaiṭabha, arise from Nārāyaṇa’s ears and threaten Brahmā. Vishṇu defeats them.
  8. The lotus becomes the earth: The golden lotus is identified with Pṛthivī (the earth). The mountains and Jambūdvīpa are set in place.
  9. The second stage of creation: Brahmā creates his mānasa-putras (sons born from his mind): Svāyambhuva, Bhuva and Bhūrbhuva. He sets up Nārāyaṇa as Yogācārya (teacher of Yoga) and Kapila as Sāṃkhyācārya (teacher of Sāṃkhya). He creates Gāyatrī (Sarasvatī), speaks the Gāyatrī mantra, and brings forth the four Vedas and all the Prajāpatis (lords of offspring). His first son is Dharma.

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa

The Pādma kalpa among the kalpas

Maitreya Maharshi, teaching Vidura the measures of time, tells of the life of Brahmā. By the measure of Brahmaloka, Brahmā’s life-span is a hundred years, the greatest in this creation. Half of it is called a parārdha. The first parārdha has passed; now the second parārdha is going on.

  • Brāhma kalpa: the great kalpa at the beginning of the first parārdha, so called because in it Brahmā, made of the Veda and famed as Śabda-brahma, appeared.
  • Pādma kalpa: the last kalpa of that same first parārdha, so called because in that kalpa the lotus (padma) that is the world appeared from the lake-like navel of Śrī Hari.
  • Vārāha kalpa: “O Vidura, of the line of Bharata!” The very first kalpa of the second parārdha, the one now going on, is called the Vārāha kalpa, because in it Śrī Hari descended as Varāhamūrti, the Boar form.

Śrī Hari himself is beyond kāla (time). He is the cause of all causes, without beginning or end, and the time of the two parārdhas is said, by way of a figure of speech, to be for him the time of one blink of the eyelid: it is no count of a life-span for him, for kāla has no sway over the Parabrahma.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 11

Śuka’s promise

At the close of the second Skandha, Śuka Maharshi tells King Parīkshit of the mahākalpa of Brahmā and its avāntara-kalpas (sub-kalpas). In every mahākalpa the creation is the same: at its beginning all the tattvas, from the mahat-tattva to the earth, are created from prakṛti, while in an avāntara-kalpa the tattvas remain as they are and only the unmoving and moving beings are created. Then Śuka says: “The measure of time, the marks of a kalpa and the division of the avāntara-kalpas I will explain truly further on. Hear attentively the details of the Pādma kalpa.” The chapter then turns to the questions of Śaunaka to Sūta.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 10

Why It Matters

Because the present kalpa is called Pādma, every person living in this creation is linked to the lotus that rose from Nārāyaṇa’s navel. The lotus, seen everywhere in Indian sacred art and temples, points back to this first event: the first appearance of form and beauty in the middle of the empty, shapeless ocean at the start of creation. Brahmā seated on the lotus, and Vishṇu with the lotus rising from his navel, are both pictures of the founding event of the Pādma Kalpa.

Sources

  • Matsya Purāṇa, Chapters 163–170 (Chapter 168 for the name)
  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 10; Skandha 3, Chapter 11