Kālamāna in the Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa

Kālamāna means “the measuring of time”. The Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa has a long teaching on how time is counted, from the smallest moment to the life of Brahmā himself. It is given by Varuṇa, the deva of the waters, to Paraśurāma while Paraśurāma stays in the city of Aśmanagara.

The teaching covers the four kinds of month, the ladder of time units from the nimeṣa (the blink of an eye) to the mahākalpa, the nature of each yuga (age), what happens at the end of a manvantara (the reign of a Manu) and at the end of a kalpa (a day of Brahmā), and the great dissolution when Brahmā’s own life comes to an end. It closes with the well-known Padmanābhopākhyāna, the story in which Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi lives through the pralaya (dissolution of the world), sees the divine child Aniruddha, enters the child’s body and sees the three worlds inside, and later learns from Brahmā that this child is Aniruddha-Padmanābha, the final ground of all that exists.

The Four Kinds of Month

Varuṇa taught Paraśurāma that kāla (time) is the body of the anādinātha, the master who has no beginning, Rudra-Saṅkarṣaṇa himself. He is equal toward all bhūtas (beings) and is atisūkṣma-sūkṣmatara, subtler than the subtlest. Even yogīs cannot grasp this subtlety. Time is counted by following the movements of the grahas (planets).

There are nine grahas: five tārā-grahas or star-planets (Kuja, Budha, Guru, Śukra, Śani), two mahā-grahas or great grahas (Sūrya, the Sun, and Candra, the Moon), and two upa-grahas or lesser grahas (Rāhu and Ketu). Of these, the movements of Sūrya and Candra decide the measure of time.

The twenty-seven nakṣatras (lunar mansions) are grouped into twelve rāśis (signs of the zodiac). There are four ways of counting a month:

In the sāvana count, the solar year ends six nights short; these are called ūnarātras (“missing nights”). After two years, eight months, sixteen days and four nāḍīs (ghaṭikās), one extra month builds up. This is the adhika-māsa (leap month) of the lunar calendar, and kāmya-karmas (rites done to gain a particular wish) are not allowed in it.

Kāla-Saṃkhyā: The Ladder of Time

The smallest unit of time is the nimeṣa, the time it takes to say one short syllable. The units build up like this:

One ahorātra also has thirty muhūrtas, fifteen by day and fifteen by night. As the Sun moves north, the days grow longer; as he moves south, the nights grow longer. When the Sun enters the rāśi Meṣa or Tulā, day and night are equal. This is the viṣuvat (equinox), a most sacred time, when even small gifts bring great puṇya (merit).

Two solar months make one ṛtu (season). Three ṛtus make one ayana (half-year), and two ayanas make one saṃvatsara (year). The six months of uttarāyaṇa (the Sun’s northward course) are the day of the devas, and the six months of dakṣiṇāyana (the southward course) are their night. For the pitṛ-devatās (honoured ancestors), one lunar month is one day and night: the kṛṣṇa pakṣa (dark fortnight) is their day and the śukla pakṣa (bright fortnight) is their night. On amāvāsyā (new moon) one should offer śrāddha (rites for the ancestors).

The length of the yugas in divine years:

Seventy-one caturyugas make one manvantara. One thousand caturyugas make one kalpa, which is one day of Brahmā.

The Dharma of Each Yuga

Kṛta Yuga: Dharma stands on all four pādas (legs). The whole world is brahmottara: the authority of the Veda is supreme. Viṣṇu is śveta-varṇa (white). People live four thousand years, and all are equal in strength.

Tretā Yuga: Dharma stands on three pādas. Viṣṇu is rakta-varṇa (red). People live a thousand years and perform yajñas that involve hiṃsā (harm to living beings). The world is kṣatrottara, led by the kṣatriyas.

Dvāpara Yuga: Dharma stands on two pādas. Viṣṇu is pīta-varṇa (yellow). People live four hundred years and are fond of war. Śāstras multiply, and so do differences of opinion. Seeing how short life has become, Viṣṇu comes down as Vyāsa and divides the single Yajurveda into four Vedas. His disciples divide it further into a thousand branches.

Kali Yuga: Dharma stands on one pāda. Deva-niścaya (firm faith in the devas) crumbles. Even babies die in the womb. Śūdra rule prevails. The pāpiṣṭhas (most wicked) prosper while the dharmic suffer, and the honest man does not live long. Yet in this yuga Viṣṇu is quickly pleased by even a little tapas (spiritual effort). Kalki will come as Viṣṇuyaśas, clear the earth of the mlecchas (those outside dharma), and bring back the Kṛta Yuga.

Viṣṇu has taken countless thousands of avatāras, past and future, and their number cannot be counted. In the twenty-fourth Tretā Yuga of the present kalpa, Viṣṇu himself took birth in the line of Bhṛgu as Vālmīki and composed the Rāmāyaṇa.

The End of a Manvantara

At the end of each manvantara, the fourteen Manus who rule the manvantaras (Svāyambhuva, Svārociṣa, Vaivasvata, Sāvarṇi, Brahmaputra, Dharmaputra, Rudraputra, Dakṣaputra, Raucya, Bhautya, Viśvātman and others) go to Maharloka together with the seven ṛṣis, free of all karma. The Manu, the Devendra (king of the devas) and the devas of that manvantara reach Brahmaloka. The Saptarṣis of that period attain brahma-sādṛśya (likeness to Brahmā) and live there. Maheśvara, in his jala-rūpa (form as water), floods the whole surface of the earth with waves of huge force and covers everything. Four worlds (Bhūloka, Bhuvarloka, Svarloka and Maharloka) are destroyed; only Janaloka and the worlds above it remain.

The great mountains do not perish: Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Śuktimat, Ṛkṣavat, Vindhya, Pāriyātra, Mālyavat, Gandhamādana, Himavat, Hemakūṭa, Niṣadha, Nīla, Śveta, Śṛṅgavat and Meru. The earth takes the form of a boat carrying all the seeds of life, and the coming Manu and the seven ṛṣis stay on her. Viṣṇu as Matsya (the fish avatāra) pulls this boat from place to place and finally brings it to rest on the Himālaya. Then the Matsya disappears, but all those on board remain. A span as long as the Kṛta Yuga passes, called the prākṣālana (the washing clean). The waters go down, creation begins again, and the ṛṣis and the new Manu together carry out all the work of the world.

Kalpānta: The End of Brahmā’s Day

At the end of Brahmā’s day (the kalpa), seven terrible suns appear in the four directions of the sky. They drink up all the water in the universe and dry out the three worlds until the earth is like a lump of iron, and all creatures are burnt up. Those who remain only as prāṇa-mātra (bare life-breath, with no further karma) rise to Janaloka and live there in peace. The four lower worlds (Bhū, Bhuvar, Svar and Mahar) are destroyed, while Janaloka and the worlds above it endure.

Then the tejas (fiery power) of Rudra puts out the great burning suns. Mahā-raudra (fierce) clouds of many colours cover the sky, with lightning and thunder, pouring down rain in torrents that flood the whole earth. The oceans burst their shores and cover everything. Then the sāṃvartika wind (the wind of pralaya) scatters all the clouds in an instant. Brahmā draws even that wind into his own body. As the world becomes one vast ocean, all beings and things dissolve: the Moon, the Sun, the grahas, the nakṣatras and the wind. Everything stops, and Brahmā sleeps. He sleeps for a thousand yugas, as long as his day, then wakes and creates the world anew, repeating this cycle without end.

The End of the Mahākalpa: Brahmā’s Own Life

When even Brahmā’s hundred years are complete, he dissolves the whole creation and lies in the ekārṇava (the single ocean). He then gives up his body, enters yoga-samādhi (deep meditative absorption), and merges into the Puruṣa (Brahman). When Brahmā reaches the state of mokṣa (liberation), all the jīvas (souls) in Brahmaloka are liberated along with him. The brahmāṇḍa (the egg of the universe), filled with water from within, splits open. Brahmā dissolves into the all-pervading ātman.

In this great dissolution, each element merges into the one before it, in a set order:

1. Bhūmi (earth) dissolves into udaka (water).
2. Udaka dissolves into jyotis (fire).
3. Jyotis dissolves into vāyu (air).
4. Vāyu dissolves into ākāśa (space).
5. Ākāśa dissolves into manas (mind).
6. Manas dissolves into buddhi (intellect, the mahat-tattva).
7. Buddhi dissolves into the ātman.
8. The ātman dissolves into the avyakta (the unmanifest, the para-puruṣa).

Countless brahmāṇḍas are all drawn in together and rest within Bhagavān Viṣṇu; this is his night. When the night of the mahākalpa ends, the jagat-prabhu (master of the universe) creates again from the avyakta, in the same order reversed, and himself enters the egg of the universe as Aniruddha.

Padmanābhopākhyāna: The Divine Child

Mārkaṇḍeya’s Vision

King Vajra asked Mārkaṇḍeya about what he himself had lived through during pralaya. Mārkaṇḍeya told him:

At the end of a manvantara he had been in the great boat. At kalpānta, when the great fire came, he stayed in Janaloka. But when the waters of pralaya rose and he fell from Janaloka down to the surface of the earth, he floated in the dark, churning ocean of pralaya. He was tossed by huge waves, could see no land anywhere, and was filled with nirveda (weariness and despair) at how long this existence went on.

In the darkness of that water he suddenly saw a magnificent vaṭa-vṛkṣa (banyan tree) standing in the ocean. Its countless branches spread wide, and its leaves were thick and shining, like a gathered cloud. He swam to it and climbed onto a branch. There on the tree, on a splendid paryaṅka (couch), lay a shining child. His body was dark and glossy like a blue lotus in bloom. He wore pītāmbara (yellow silk). His feet were rosy like lotus petals and his hands rosy like lotus buds. He wore many ornaments, and a peacock feather added to his beauty. He blazed with the light of a koṭi (ten million) suns and yet bore the marks of śrī-kalā (gentle, auspicious beauty).

The child saw Mārkaṇḍeya and said with a gentle smile: “O knower of dharma! If you are tired, open your mouth and enter my body. Rest there for a while.” Mārkaṇḍeya felt shy, but he had no choice. He went in through the child’s open mouth.

Inside he saw the whole earth: its mountains, forests, cities, oceans, seas, rivers and lakes, the villages of brāhmaṇas ringing with Vedic chanting, the whole world just as it had always been, with the varṇas and āśramas (the orders and stages of life) and the festivals of yajña, exactly as before. He was filled with wonder at the child’s playful power. He wandered inside for a thousand yugas and could find no end. At last, worn out, he surrendered to the child, and he came out through a tiny opening finer than the tip of a hair, like coming out of a lotus stalk. Outside he saw the same banyan tree and the same ocean. He bowed down at the child’s feet. Then the child and the tree vanished.

Who the Child Was: Aniruddha-Padmanābha

Vajra asked who this child was. Mārkaṇḍeya said he had seen this great being many times over many kalpas but had never understood who he was, until, after this kalpānta, Brahmā told him the truth.

Mārkaṇḍeya went to Brahmā and asked him. Brahmā said: “That child is Aniruddha, the jagad-guru (teacher of the world). Even at kalpānta you could not understand him. I too have seen him, lying on a couch of nāga (the divine serpent). I entered his belly and saw the three worlds inside, and then I could find no way out. I wandered searching and finally surrendered to him. He showed me an opening as thin as a hair. I came out through it, just as one comes out of a lotus stalk. Outside, I found his body. Knowing that he is the sarvādhāra (the support of all), I surrendered to him again.”

Brahmā went on: “From Viṣṇu’s nābhi-sarovara (the lake of his navel) a lotus arose. Its petals were lit by the gem-light of Śeṣa’s hoods, which shone like suns. I was born from that navel-lotus, and so I am known as Padmaja, ‘born from the lotus’. That navel-lotus is the whole circle of the universe, and its centre is Meru. I was born from that Cakrāyudha, Aniruddha-Viṣṇu, who holds the discus. He is Viṣṇu, the master of all the worlds, the cause from which everything arises. He is the child you saw in pralaya, lying in mahāmāyā at kalpānta. I myself, charmed by his māyā, also dwell inside him at kalpānta.”

Where We Are in Brahmā’s Life

Mārkaṇḍeya told Vajra where the present moment stands in the vast count of time. By then, Brahmā’s eighth year, fifth month and fourth day and night had passed. In other words, six manvantaras, seven sandhis (junctions), twenty-seven mahāyugas and three full yugas of the twenty-eighth cycle had gone by. The present Kali Yuga was ten years old. The total time passed in Brahmā’s life cannot be counted exactly, just as no one can count the grains of sand in the Gaṅgā or the drops in a rainfall.

Mārkaṇḍeya also foretold the future of Vajra’s family line:

• Vajra would rule for five hundred years after Parīkṣit’s departure and then go to svarga.
• Janamejaya would rule at Hastināpura.
• Vajra’s son Acala would rule at Mathurā.
• His son Bhīmavikrama would rule Khāṇḍavaprastha justly.
• The Maya-sabhā (the assembly hall built by Maya) would be carried away by Maya’s own servants to Bindu Sarovara in the Himālaya.

Are All Kalpas Alike?

Vajra asked whether all kalpas are the same. Mārkaṇḍeya answered that kalpas are broadly alike but not exactly the same in the details of the jīvas, the devatās and the events. In each kalpa, one Manu in each manvantara attains liberation and does not return. The Acyuta-śakti (the power of the unfailing Viṣṇu) fills the world with new jīvas to take their place. The jīvas of Brahmaloka come back after the mahākalpa, but those who reach Viṣṇuloka, Rudraloka or Śvetadvīpa do not return.

As an example of how kalpas differ: in the previous kalpa, in the twenty-fourth Tretā Yuga of the seventh manvantara, Rāvaṇa was killed by Rāma and Kumbhakarṇa was also killed by Rāma. But in the present kalpa, as Vālmīki tells it, Kumbhakarṇa was killed by Lakṣmaṇa. Such are the small differences between kalpas. Names such as Kārttika-kalpa, Lakṣmī-kalpa and Rudra-kalpa point to particular kalpas, each with its own arrangement of devatās.

Sources

• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 72
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 73
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 74
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 75
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 76
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 77
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 78
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 79
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 80
• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 81