In this lesson, we learn about the beginning, the middle and the end of one complete 'time cycle' of this world. More than anything else, we will understand the great significance of the period we are undergoing at present.

The world has been in existence since eternity and it will continue to be eternal. The world was neither created anytime before nor will it get destroyed later, because matter can neither be created nor destroyed, it only undergoes transformation from one form to another. Similarly this world also undergoes changes in its characteristics, but as such the world was not created out of nothing nor will there be a total annihilation.

The cycle of time is best understood with the help of the picture of the world drama wheel. It illustrates the "flow" of time. In the middle of it is the Fylfot ( Swastika ) which divides the Time into four equal parts. The Swastika is considered to be very auspicious.

In the first part of this Wheel of Time, marked by Swastika is shown Golden Age. Here the arm of the Swastika is pointing towards right because the right arm symbolizes what is good or what brings about goodness. In these early times, when the cycle started, people of the diety religion ( Sanatan Dharma) were possessed of divine qualities and nature and they enjoyed complete purity, 100% peace and complete prosperity.

Then came the Silver Age. In this era too, people were possessed of purity, peace and prosperity to a very high degree. But the degree of their divine qualities had decreased a little. They were two degrees less divine than the people of the Golden Age who were divine to the extent of 16 degrees. Therefore the arm of Swastika that indicates this epoch is bent downwards because souls in this era had come down from the state of super-righteousness to what is just righteous.

Next came Copper Age.After having experienced beatitude and fruition for many a life, turned ti the path of vices or unrighteousness. This is why the arm is reversed because the left hand symbolizes what is impure and auspicious. People then were second-grade by their nature, qualities and actions. Mankind is now divided on various religions; strifes and disputes started to appear and the five vices brought disquiet and sorrow in homes.

Steadily, unrighteous doings, ie the actions done under the sway of one or the other of these five vices, led the world to more and more impurity and sufferings and the world came under the yoke of Iron Age ( Kaliyuga). Strifes, wars, bellicosity and the resulting peacelessness increased rapidly in frequency and intensity in this era. Therefore the fourth of Swastika is shown raising itself up to indicate the rise in conflicts, clashes and calamities. Then, a stage comes when ignorance, lassitude, stupor, moral turpitude and sin become dominant. People become devilish by nature and religion becomes utterly degenerate.

The Significance of the present period

At present, we are undergoing through a critical phase in the history of mankind. This is the period of the confluence of the ending phase of the Iron Age and the starting phase of the Golden Age. This is the most important of all epochs, called the Confluence Age, when God, the Highest Being, descends in this world to meet the human beings, His beloved children and gives the most precious boons of Redemption and Beatitude.

Through the Godly Knowledge and the easy Raj Yoga, God creates the Golden Age or new viceless order. The act of 'creation' does not mean constructing something out of nothing but it means the moral reconstruction of mankind or the re-establishment of the ancient most Deity Religion. The reader would be pleased to know or, perhaps, surprised to know that God Shiva, the Supreme Father of all, is indeed doing this great task of resurrection of mankind at present. The world will soon be free of all miseries and the paradise, which is full of peace and happiness, will be established again.

The Nature of the World Drama Cycle
The cycle of five epochs, comprising Golden-Age, Silver Age, Copper-Age and Iron Age and the confluence Age repeats exactly everytime after it has turned full wheel. During every cycle, the souls who are the actors on this world-drama stage will be the same. Each soul will act the same part in every cycle since, in the soul itself is indelibly ingrained the part it has played life after life in the previous cycle or that it has to repeat cycle after cycle. Just as in a tape record or a gramophone record, a whole song or drama is recorded and it repeats every time the record is played, even so, a soul’s role in this world drama is recorded in the soul itself which is only self-luminous, conscient point. The soul replays the part once every 5000 years, because each one of the four eras of the world-drama being equal to 1250 years, the duration of one World Cycle is 5000 years.