Origin 1894
The reinterpretation of the Hindu yuga cycle set out by Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri in his 1894 treatise The Holy Science, which ties the length of a full yuga cycle to the astronomical precession of the equinoxes rather than to the far larger Puranic reckoning. Where the Vishnu Purana and the Manusmriti together fix one mahayuga at 4,320,000 years, Yukteswar's cycle runs 24,000 years, the span he holds the equinox takes to complete one full turn against the fixed stars. The cycle carries his own name in this atlas because he is its sole documented originator within the modern Kriya Yoga lineage he founded, not because any older textual tradition names it this way. It is recorded here as his own stated position within that lineage, not as an established chronology outside it.
Facts
Origins
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own accountSet out within the modern Kriya Yoga lineage Yukteswar founded, as a direct reinterpretation of the older Puranic yuga doctrine rather than as a claim descended from the Puranas' own textual tradition. 1 Origin of the NameSourced to the subject's own accountCarries the name of Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, who set out this specific 24,000 year reckoning in The Holy Science; no earlier textual tradition names or dates the cycle this way, so the attribution is to him personally rather than to a lineage of transmission. 1 Reckoning
Repeating CycleSourced to the subject's own account Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceSourced to the subject's own accountThe Holy Science holds that the yuga cycle, properly understood, spans 24,000 years, matching one full precession of the equinoxes, in place of the Puranic figure of 4,320,000 years for one mahayuga. 1 Rival Systems
A Rival System's AttributionThe Vishnu Purana fixes one mahayuga, the traditional unit Yukteswar's cycle reinterprets, at 4,320,000 years, one hundred eighty times the length Yukteswar assigns to the same cycle. 2 Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Swami Sri Yukteswar's own reinterpretation of the Hindu yuga cycle, set out in The Holy Science within the Kriya Yoga lineage he founded, tying cycle length to precession rather than to the larger Puranic reckoning.
Source The Holy ScienceSwami Sri Yukteswar Giri
Contrasts With
Related To
Yukteswar's yuga cycle is his own reinterpretation of the same ascending and descending age cycle that the Puranic Mahayuga scheme already relates to eternal return on this axis, holds. He disagrees only on the cycle's length, twenty four thousand years tied to the precession of the equinoxes rather than the Puranic 4,320,000 years, not on its endlessly repeating shape.
Source The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and HistoryMircea Eliade; Willard R. Trask (trans.)
Sources
1. The Holy Science
Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, Self-Realization Fellowship, 1894the Introduction, the passage recalculating the yuga cycle at 24,000 years via the precession of the equinoxesQuote, the Introduction, the passage recalculating the yuga cycle at 24,000 years via the precession of the equinoxes
Thus, in a period of 24,000 years, the sun completes the revolution around its dual and finishes one electric cycle consisting of 12,000 years in an ascending arc and 12,000 years in a descending arc.
2. Vishnu Purana
The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History
Mircea Eliade; Willard R. Trask (trans.), Princeton University Press, 1949Related To: Eternal return
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