Each universe experiences a cycle of four different ages, called yugas in sanskrit, that are much like the seasonal changes present on earth.
Just as the seasons are characterized by the amount of light and heat available, the yugas are distinguished by the amount of God-consciousness that the residents are exhibiting at the time.
Their consciousness ultimately influences the general life span, mental state, and standard of living available to the population. We are presently in the fourth age, called the age of quarrel and dissension in some teachings, an age of massive chaos and pandemonium.
This age is called Kali-yuga in the Vedic scriptures. This is a time marked by more intrusion from the subtle plane in the form of fairies, disembodied spirits, ghosts, and other entities. In this age, many people are possessed and people exhibit their most animalistic tendencies.
During Kali-yuga one can expect to live at most up to one hundred years or so, but as the age progresses, a person will be considered old at age thirty.
Consider a teenage girl who has led a rough life of prostitution and drug and alcohol abuse.
She could easily look twice her age. Thus, our lifestyle, our thoughts, and how we take care of the physical and subtle bodies has an effect on how the aging process manifests in our bodies.
People will become so gross, and life will become so hellish that despite scientific advancements, life spans will continue to decrease.
We are only five thousand years into Kali-yuga. It is scheduled to last for approximately 430,000 years before the general process comes to a conclusion and we move into the next cycle.
There is much to expect with the end of this cycle. The Vedas describe much famine, drought, and starvation, so much so that people will become cannibals. Don’t be shocked; there are hundreds of thousands of people who practice cannibalism right now.
There are people in governments around the world who make human sacrifices and sometimes eat certain human organs as a way of obtaining power.
In fact, many cosmetics presently on the market contain human tissue from fetuses, with the claim that these will slow down the aging process and rejuvenate the skin.
Whether you use human organs for dinner, cosmetics, or something else, it is still human tissue, and to use it in these ways is demonic.
In this age of quarrel, little children carry guns to school as a way of solving arguments or protecting themselves. This is an age when the retort “I’m going to blow your head off” must be taken seriously.
When people reach into their pocket to pull something out, it is no longer just brass knuckles or a chain; in many cases it is a gun or a knife. These signs show that this age is moving rapidly, even though we are only a few thousand years into it.
The age before Kali-yuga is called Dvapara-yuga, and its duration was about 800,000 years. This age was more God-oriented. People lived to about one thousand years of age.
The Bible speaks of Methuselah’s longevity; at that time, people were graced with a longer life span. The physical size of people was also larger when the spirituality was deeper.
Descriptions exist of the Sons of God, who were angelic entities that many would consider to be giants. Over time as the spirituality decreased, so did everything else. The memory, the intelligence, the compassion, the love, and the longevity all began to decrease.
The age before Dvapara was the Treta-yuga which lasted about 1,300,000 years. In this age, people lived to be about 100,000 years old, and they practiced elaborate spiritual rituals. The age prior to that was called Satya-yuga, or the golden age.
This age lasted for almost 2,000,000 years, and the citizens of this age were the most Godconscious of all. Everything is an aggregate of individual and collective consciousness.
In different periods of history, a certain kind of personality predominates; the souls in those periods have similar experiences.
For example, the souls that were very active during the 1960s have similar mentalities. Adults who were born during the baby boom have similar perspectives and life goals. There is a certain mentality among the present-day children.
This situation occurs because specific souls come at particular times according to the work they have to do; therefore there are some similar patterns.
Paradise Found?
Now that we have a better understanding of the functioning of the our universes, let’s examine the heavenly planets. We said earlier that there is a difference between the kingdom of God and the heavenly planets.
In the Koran when Prophet Muhammad made his ascension, he traveled with the Angel Gabriel first to the lower hellish planets and then to the heavenly kingdoms up to the Seventh Heaven, which is the highest material planet.
At that point, Angel Gabriel could not go with him any further. Prophet Muhammad then went to Sidratil-Muntaha, which is beyond the heavens; it is in the spiritual world, the abode of Allah. There he had personal association with Allah.
Angel Gabriel wasn’t allowed to go to that level because he was not properly qualified. Prophet Muhammad was able to have that experience because of his level of purity and dedication to the will of Allah.
When we talk about heaven, we are talking about places or states where intensified and unceasing pleasure is available. These experiences are available from the earth level up to higher planetary systems.
Although such a place is called paradise, we are not really talking about the place where the Supreme Lord resides. We must make this distinction.
When the Bible states that God created the heavens and the earth, one may wonder where God was situated when the heavens were being created. It can be logically concluded that there is a difference between the heavens and where the Lord resides.
The heavens are a part of the material creation. The Lord resides in the spiritual world.
How is one chosen to go to heaven? The key determinant is one’s consciousness. There are three basic modes or principles that permeate the material atmosphere and influence our consciousness.
Based on our desires, one of the three modes will have a predominant influence on our mentality and consequent actions. The first or lowest mode is the mode of ignorance, which leads one to be aggressive, obnoxious, unclean, animalistic, exploitative, lazy, and manipulative.
Those in this mode enjoy inflicting pain on others. People who have mainly lived under that influence will go to a hellish environment when they leave their bodies at death. They must spend some time there for serious adjustment and rectification.
Then there is the mode of passion. Persons in this mode are very attached to material gain, success, fame, and power. Those individuals are attached to family life and the material environment.
Those who leave the body while in the mode of passion will normally come back to an environment that is predominantly self- centered. Such a place is actually not hell, but surely it is not a heaven.
The mode of goodness influences one to be pious, religious, philanthropic, compassionate and ethical. People in this mode try to love their neighbors as themselves.
They are usually vegetarians and are greatly concerned with the earth and its inhabitants. When they leave their bodies, they have many opportunities to go to the heavenly kingdoms for various types of pleasurable experiences, which are like extended vacations.
However, even residing in the heavenly kingdoms with all of their pleasures is only temporary. It is the payment you get for the pious activity performed.
It is difficult to go directly from the heavenly kingdom to the spiritual world because the lack of duality and suffering in the heavenly environments prevents the inhabitants from fully depending on the Lord.
There isn’t much opportunity for devotional service to the Supreme. In our present environment among the earth-like planets, there is more duality and contrast. The transitory nature of life on earth often increases one’s frustration and determination to get beyond the temporary.
Such a situation makes it more likely that one will cry out to God. Thus, it is less difficult to go directly from the earth planet to the spiritual abode than to go from the heavenly planets to the spiritual abode.
