It is true that my success at such times has
been accompanied by extraordinary difficulties. But my conviction
has always been justified: faith in the divine protection, and the
right use of man's God-given will, are forces formidable beyond
any the "inverted bowl" can muster.
The starry inscription at one's birth, I came to understand, is not
that man is a puppet of his past. Its message is rather a prod to
pride; the very heavens seek to arouse man's determination to be
free from every limitation. God created each man as a soul, dowered
with individuality, hence essential to the universal structure,
whether in the temporary role of pillar or parasite. His freedom
is final and immediate, if he so wills; it depends not on outer
but inner victories.
Sri Yukteswar discovered the mathematical application of a 24,000-year
equinoctial cycle to our present age. {FN16-4} The cycle is divided
into an Ascending Arc and a Descending Arc, each of 12,000 years.
Within each Arc fall four YUGAS or Ages, called KALI, DWAPARA,
TRETA, and SATYA, corresponding to the Greek ideas of Iron, Bronze,
Silver, and Golden Ages.
My guru determined by various calculations that the last KALI YUGA
or Iron Age, of the Ascending Arc, started about A.D. 500. The Iron
Age, 1200 years in duration, is a span of materialism; it ended
about A.D. 1700. That year ushered in DWAPARA YUGA, a 2400-year
period of electrical and atomic-energy developments, the age of
telegraph, radio, airplanes, and other space-annihilators.
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