Krita

Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 24 Jul 2011 09:57 and updated at 24 Jul 2011 09:57

VISHNU PURANA NOUN

vp.1.3 constitute a day and night of mortals: thirty such days make a month, divided into two half months: six months form an Ayana (the period of the sun s progress north or south of the ecliptic): and two Ayanas compose a year. The southern Ayana is a night, and the northern a day of the gods. Twelve thousand divine years, each composed of (three hundred and sixty) such days, constitute the period of the four Yugas, or ages. They are thus distributed: the Krita age has four thousand divine years; the Treta three thousand; the Dwapara two thousand; and the Kali age one thousand: so those acquainted with antiquity have declared. The period that precedes a Yuga is called a Sandhya, and it is of as many hundred years as there are thousands in the Yuga: and the period that follows a Yuga, termed the Sandhyansa, is of similar duration. The interval between the Sandhya and the Sandhyansa is the Yuga, denominated Krita, Treta, &c. The Krita, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali, constitute a great age, or aggregate of four ages: a thousand such aggregates are a day of Brahma, and fourteen Manus reign within that term. Hear the division of time which they measure 4.
vp.2.2 In the country of Bhadraswa, Vishnu resides as Hayasira (the horse headed); in Ketumala, as Varaha (the boar); in Bharata, as the tortoise Kurma(); in Kuru, as the fish Matsya(); in his universal form, every where; for Hari pervades all places: he, Maitreya, is the supporter of all things; he is all things. In the eight realms of Kimpurusha and the rest (or all exclusive of Bharata) there is no sorrow, nor weariness, nor anxiety, nor hunger, nor apprehension; their inhabitants are exempt from all infirmity and pain, and live in uninterrupted enjoyment for ten or twelve thousand years. Indra never sends rain upon them, for the earth abounds with water. In those places there is no distinction of Krita, Treta, or any succession of ages. In each of these Varshas there are respectively seven principal ranges of mountains, from which, oh best of Brahmans, hundreds of rivers take their rise.
vp.2.3 In the Bharata varsha it is that the succession of four Yugas, or ages, the Krita, the Treta, the Dwapara, and Kali, takes place; that pious ascetics engage in rigorous penance; that devout men offer sacrifices; and that gifts are distributed; all for the sake of another world. In Jambu dwipa, Vishnu, consisting of sacrifice, is worshipped, as the male of sacrificial rites, with sacrificial ceremonies: he is adored under other forms elsewhere. Bharata is therefore the best of the divisions of Jambu dwipa, because it is the land of works: the others are places of enjoyment alone. It is only after many thousand births, and the aggregation of much merit, that living beings are sometimes born in Bharata as men. The gods themselves exclaim, "Happy are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men in Bharata varsha, as that is the way to the pleasures of Paradise, or the greater blessing of final liberation. Happy are they who, consigning all the unheeded rewards of their acts to the supreme and eternal Vishnu, obtain existence in that land of works, as their path to him. We know not, when the acts that have obtained us heaven shall have been fully recompensed 7, where we shall renew corporeal confinement; but we know that those men are fortunate who are born with perfect faculties 8 in Bharata varsha."
vp.3.2 At the end of every four ages there is a disappearance of the Vedas, and it is the province of the seven Rishis to come down upon earth from heaven to give them currency again. In every Krita age the Manu (of the period) is the legislator or author of the body of law, the Smriti: the
vp.3.2 In the Krita age, Vishnu, in the form of Kapila and other inspired teachers, assiduous for the benefit of all creatures, imparts to them true wisdom. In the Treta age he restrains the wicked, in the form of a universal monarch, and protects the three worlds 15. In the Dwapara age, in the person of Veda vyasa, he divides the one Veda into four, and
vp.4.5 his son was Nandivarddhana; his son was Suketu; his son was Devarata; his son was Vrihaduktha; his son was Mahavirya; his son was Satyadhriti; his son was Dhrishtaketu; his son was Haryyaswa; his son was Maru; his son was Pratibandhaka; his son was Kritaratha; his son was Krita; his son was Vibudha; his son was Mahadhriti; his son was Kritirata; his son was Maharoman; his son was Suvarnaroman; his son was Hraswaroman; his son was Siradhwaja.
vp.4.19 The son of Dwimidha 37 was Yavinara; his son was Dhritimat 38; his son was Satyadhriti; his son was Dridhanemi; his son was Suparswa 39; his son was Sumati; his son was Sannatimat; his son was Krita, to whom Hiranyanabha taught the philosophy of the Yoga, and he compiled twenty four Sanhitas (or compendia) for the use of the eastern Brahmans, who study the Sama veda 40. The son of Krita was Ugrayudha, by whose prowess the Nipa race of Kshatriyas was destroyed 41; his son was Kshemya; his son was Suvira; his son was Nripanjaya 42; his son was Bahuratha. These were all called Pauravas.
vp.4.24 Future kings of Magadha. Five princes of the line of Pradyota. Ten saisunagas. Nine Nandas. Ten Mauryas. Ten sungas. Four Kanwas. Thirty andhrabhrityas. Kings of various tribes and castes, and periods of their rule. Ascendancy of barbarians. Different races in different regions. Period of universal iniquity and decay. Coming of Vishnu as Kalki. Destruction of the wicked, and restoration of the practices of the Vedas. End of the Kali, and return of the Krita, age. Duration of the Kali. Verses chanted by Earth, and communicated by Asita to Janaka. End of the fourth book.
vp.4.24 portion of that divine being who exists of his own spiritual nature in the character of Brahma, and who is the beginning and the end, and who comprehends all things, shall descend upon earth: he will be born in the family of Vishnuyasas, an eminent Brahman of Sambhala village, as Kalki, endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. By his irresistible might he will destroy all the Mlechchhas and thieves, and all whose minds are devoted to iniquity. He will then reestablish righteousness upon earth; and the minds of those who live at the end of the Kali age shall be awakened, and shall be as pellucid as crystal. The men who are thus changed by virtue of that peculiar time shall be as the seeds of human beings, and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Krita age, or age of purity. As it is said; "When the sun and moon, and the lunar asterism Tishya, and the planet Jupiter, are in one mansion, the Krita age shall return 80."
vp.4.24 The day that Krishna shall have departed from the earth will be the first of the Kali age, the duration of which you shall hear; it will continue for 360,000 years of mortals. After twelve hundred divine years shall have elapsed, the Krita age shall be renewed.
vp.4.24 Thus age after age Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and sudras, excellent Brahman, men of great souls, have passed away by thousands; whose names and tribes and families I have not enumerated to you, from their great number, and the repetition of appellations it would involve. Two persons, Devapi of the race of Puru, and Maru of the family of Ikshwaku, through the force of devotion continue alive throughout the whole four ages, residing at the village of Kalapa: they will return hither in the beginning of the Krita age, and, becoming members of the family of the Manu, give origin to the Kshatriya dynasties 84. In this manner the earth is possessed through every series of the three first ages, the Krita, Treta, and Dwapara, by the sons of the Manu; and some remain in the Kali age, to serve as the rudiments of renewed generations, in the same way as Devapi and Maru are still in existence.
vp.6.1 Parasara. Hear from me, Maitreya, exactly the circumstances of the end of all things, and the dissolution that occurs either at the expiration of a Kalpa, or that which takes place at the close of the life of Brahma. A month of mortals is a day and night of the progenitors: a year of mortals is a day and night of the gods. Twice a thousand aggregates of the four ages is a day and night of Brahma 2. The four ages are the Krita, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali; comprehending together twelve thousand years of the gods. There are infinite successions of these four ages, of a similar description, the first of which is always called the Krita, and the last the Kali. In the first, the Krita, is that age which is created by Brahma; in the last, which is the Kali age, a dissolution of the world occurs.
vp.6.1 [paragraph continues] Kali age, shall a man acquire by a trifling exertion as much eminence in virtue as is the result of arduous penance in the Krita age, or age of purity 18.
vp.6.2 Being thus addressed by the Munis, Vyasa smiled, and said to them, "Hear, excellent sages, why I uttered the words Well done, well done. The fruit of penance, of continence, of silent prayer, and the like, practised in the Krita age for ten years, in the Treta for one year, in the Dwapara for a month, is obtained in the Kali age in a day and night: therefore did I exclaim, Excellent, excellent, is the Kali age! That
vp.6.2 reward which a man obtains in the Krita by abstract meditation, in the Treta by sacrifice, in the Dwapara by adoration, he receives in the Kali by merely reciting the name of Kesava. In the Kali age a man displays the most exalted virtue by very little exertion; therefore, pious sages, who know what virtue is, I was pleased with the Kali age. Formerly the Vedas were to be acquired by the twice born through the diligent observance of self denial; and it was their duty to celebrate sacrifices conformably to the ritual. Then idle prayers, idle feasts, and fruitless ceremonies, were practised but to mislead the twice born; for although observed by them devoutly, yet, in consequence of some irregularity in their celebration, sin was incurred in all their works, and what they ate, or what they drank, did not effect the fulfilment of their desires. In all their objects the twice born enjoyed no independence, and they attained their respective spheres only with exceeding pain. The sudra, on the contrary, more fortunate than they, reaches his assigned station by rendering them service, and performing merely the sacrifice of preparing food, in which no rules determine what may or may not be eaten, what may or may not be drunk. Therefore, most excellent sages, is the sudra fortunate.
vp.6.2 subsequent inquiry." On hearing which, Krishna Dwaipayana laughed, and said to the holy persons who had come to see him, whose eyes were wide open with astonishment, "I perceived, with the eye of divine knowledge, the question you intended to ask, and in allusion to it I uttered the expressions, Well done, well done. In truth, in the Kali age duty is discharged with very little trouble by mortals, whose faults are all washed away by the water of their individual merits; by sudras, through diligent attendance only upon the twice born; and by women, through the slight effort of obedience to their husbands. Therefore, Brahmans, did I thrice express my admiration of their happiness; for in the Krita and other ages great were the toils of the regenerate to perform their duty. I waited not for your inquiry, but replied at once to the question you purposed to ask. Now, ye who know what virtue is, what else do you wish me to tell you?"

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