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Kalpa (time)

February 13, 2023

This article is about the reckoning of time. For a discipline of Vedic literature, see Kalpa (Vedanga). For other uses, see Kalpa.

A kalpa is a long period of time (aeon) in Hindu and Buddhist cosmology, generally between the creation and recreation of a world or universe.[1]

Etymology

Kalpa (Sanskrit: कल्प, lit. 'a formation or creation') in this context, means "a long period of time (aeon) related to the lifetime of the universe (creation)." It is derived from कॢप् (kḷp) +‎ -अ (-a, nominalizing suffix) (Sanskrit: कॢप्, romanized: kḷp, lit. 'to create, prepare, form, produce, compose, invent').[2][3]

Hinduism

See also: Hindu units of time, Manvantara, and Yuga Cycle

In Hinduism, a kalpa is equal to 4.32 billion years, a "day of Brahma" (12-hour day proper) or one thousand mahayugas,[4] measuring the duration of the world. Each kalpa is divided into 14 manvantara periods, each lasting 71 Yuga Cycles (306,720,000 years). Preceding the first and following each manvantara period is a juncture (sandhya) equal to the length of a Satya Yuga (1,728,000 years).[5] A kalpa is followed by a pralaya (dissolution) of equal length, which together constitute a day and night of Brahma. A month of Brahma contains thirty such days and nights, or 259.2 billion years. According to the Mahabharata, 12 months of Brahma (=360 days) constitute his year, and 100 such years his life called a maha-kalpa (311.04 trillion years or 36,000 kalpa + 36,000 pralaya). Fifty years of Brahma are supposed to have elapsed, and we are now in the Shveta-Varaha Kalpa or the first day of his fifty-first year. At the end of a kalpa, the world is annihilated by fire.[6]

The definition of a kalpa equaling 4.32 billion years is found in the Puranas—specifically Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana.[4]

The duration of the material universe is limited. It is manifested in cycles of kalpas. A kalpa is a day of Brahmā, and one day of Brahmā consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas, or ages: Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. ... These four yugas, rotating a thousand times, comprise one day of Brahmā, and the same number comprise one night. Brahmā lives one hundred of such "years" and then dies. These "hundred years" total 311 trillion 40 billion (311,040,000,000,000) earth years. By these calculations the life of Brahmā seems fantastic and interminable, but from the viewpoint of eternity it is as brief as a lightning flash. In the Causal Ocean there are innumerable Brahmās rising and disappearing like bubbles. Brahmā and his creation are all part of the material universe, and therefore they are in constant flux.

— Brihat Swasthani Brata Katha[citation needed]

The Matsya Purana (290.3–12) lists the names of 30 kalpas, each named by Brahma based on a significant event in the kalpa and the most glorious person in the beginning of the kalpa. These 30 kalpas or days (along with 30 pralayas or nights) form a 30-day month of Brahma.[7]

  1. Śveta (current)
  2. Nīlalohita
  3. Vāmadeva
  4. Rathantara
  5. Raurava
  6. Deva
  7. Vṛhat
  8. Kandarpa
  9. Sadya
  10. Iśāna
  11. Tamah
  12. Sārasvata
  13. Udāna
  14. Gāruda
  15. Kaurma
  16. Nārasiṁha
  17. Samāna
  18. Āgneya
  19. Soma
  20. Mānava
  21. Tatpumān
  22. Vaikuṇṭha
  23. Lakṣmī
  24. Sāvitrī
  25. Aghora
  26. Varāha
  27. Vairaja
  28. Gaurī
  29. Māheśvara
  30. Pitṛ

The Vayu Purana has a different list of names for 33 kalpas, which G. V. Tagare describes as fanciful derivations.[8]

Buddhism

In the Pali language of early Buddhism, the word kalpa takes the form kappa, and is mentioned in the assumed oldest scripture of Buddhism, the Sutta Nipata. This speaks of "Kappâtita: one who has gone beyond time, an Arahant".[9][10] This part of the Buddhist manuscripts dates back to the middle part of the last millennium BCE.[citation needed]

Gautama Buddha claimed an incalculable number of Buddhas lived in previous kalpas: Vipassi Buddha 91 kalpas ago, Sikhi Buddha 31 kalpas ago, and three prior Buddhas in the present kalpa.[11] He confines his teachings to the present kalpa, the duration of which he doesn't arithmetically define, but uses a similitude:[12]

Were a man to take a piece of cloth of this most delicate texture [of fine cotton], and therewith to touch in the slightest possible manner, once in a hundred years, a solid rock, free from earth, a yojana [~14 miles] high, and as much broad, the time would come when it would be worn down, by this imperceptible trituration, to the size of a mung or undu seed. This period would be immense in its duration; but it has been declared by Buddha that it would not be equal to a Maha Kalpa.

A similar similitude is found in the Mountain Pabbata Sutta (SN 15:5) of the Pali Canon:[13]

Suppose there were a great mountain of rock—a league long, a league wide, a league high, uncracked, uncavitied, a single mass—and a man would come along once every hundred years and rub it once with a Kāsi cloth. More quickly would that great mountain of rock waste away and be consumed by that effort, but not the eon [kalpa]. That’s how long, monk, an eon is.

— Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (translator)

Described in the Vibhanga division of the Abhidhamma Pitaka are sixteen rupa brahma lokas (worlds or planes) and four higher arupa brahma lokas, each attained through the imperfect, medial or perfect performance of the four states of jhana (meditation), granting a duration of life measured in kalpas that exceed the top-most heavenly loka of 9.216 billion years:[14]

  • 1st jhana leads to 3 lowest rupa lokas with respective lifespans of 1/3, 1/2 and 1 kalpa.
  • 2nd jhana leads to 3 higher rupa lokas with respective lifespans of 2, 4 and 8 kalpas.
  • 3rd jhana leads to 3 more higher rupa lokas with respective lifespans of 16, 32 and 64 kalpas.
  • 4th jhana leads to 7 highest rupa lokas with respective lifespans ranging from 500 to 16,000 kalpas, and 4 still higher arupa lokas with respective lifespans of 20,000; 40,000; 60,000 and 84,000 kalpas.

At the termination of each kalpa, the lower three rupa brahma lokas, attained through the 1st jhana, and everything below them (six heavens, Earth, etc.) are destroyed by fire (seven suns), only to later again come into being.[15]

In one explanation, there are four different lengths of kalpas. A regular kalpa is approximately 16 million years long (16,798,000 years[16]), and a small kalpa is 1000 regular kalpas, or about 16.8 billion years.[citation needed] Further, a medium kalpa is roughly 336 billion years, the equivalent of 20 small kalpas.[citation needed] A great kalpa is four medium kalpas,[17] or about 1.3 trillion years.

The Buddha did not give the exact length of the maha-kalpa in terms of years. However, he gave several astounding analogies to understand it.

  1. Imagine a huge empty cube at the beginning of a kalpa, approximately 16 miles in each side. Once every 100 years, you insert a tiny mustard seed into the cube. According to the Buddha, the huge cube will be filled even before the kalpa ends.[18]

In one instance, when some monks wanted to know how many kalpas had elapsed so far, Buddha gave the below analogy:

  1. If you count the total number of sand particles at the depths of the Ganges river, from where it begins to where it ends at the sea, even that number will be less than the number of passed kalpas.[19]

Another definition of Kalpa is the world where Buddhas are born. There are generally 2 types of kalpa, Suñña-Kalpa and Asuñña-kalpa. The Suñña-Kalpa is the world where no Buddha is born. Asuñña-Kalpa is the world where at least one Buddha is born. There are 5 types of Asuñña-Kalpa:[20]

  1. Sāra-Kalpa - The world where one Buddha is born.
  2. Maṇḍa-Kalpa - The world where two Buddhas are born.
  3. Vara-Kalpa - The world where three Buddhas are born.
  4. Sāramaṇḍa-Kalpa - The world where four Buddhas are born.
  5. Bhadda-Kalpa - The world where five Buddhas are born.

The previous kalpa was the Vyuhakalpa (Glorious aeon), the present kalpa is called the Bhadrakalpa (Auspicious aeon), and the next kalpa will be the Nakshatrakalpa (Constellation aeon).[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Chapter 36: The Buddhas in the three periods of time". Buddhism in a Nutshell Archives. Hong Kong: Buddhistdoor International. Retrieved 2014-12-21.
  2. ^ "kalpa". Wiktionary. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
    "कल्प (kalpa)". Wiktionary. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
    "कॢप् (kḷp)". Wiktionary. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
    "Kalpa, Kalpā, Kālpa". Wisdom Library. June 2008. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  3. ^ González-Reimann, Luis (2018). "Cosmic Cycles, Cosmology, and Cosmography". In Basu, Helene; Jacobsen, Knut A.; Malinar, Angelika; Narayanan, Vasudha (eds.). Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Vol. 2. Leiden: Brill Publishers. p. 415. doi:10.1163/2212-5019_BEH_COM_1020020. ISBN 978-90-04-17641-6. ISSN 2212-5019. The cycle [of creation and destruction] is either called a yuga (MBh. 1.1.28; 12.327.89; 13.135.11), a kalpa, meaning a formation or a creation (MBh. 6.31.7 [= BhG. 9.7]; 12.326.70; 12.327.23), or a day of the brahman, or of Brahmā, the creator god (MBh. 12.224.28–31). Sometimes, it is simply referred to as the process of creation and destruction (saṃhāravikṣepa; MBh. 12.271.30, 40, 43, 47–49).
  4. ^ a b Johnson, W.J. (2009). A Dictionary of Hinduism. Oxford University Press. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-19-861025-0.
  5. ^ Cremo, M.A., 1999. Puranic time and the archaeological record. In T. Murray (ed.), Time and Archaeology 38–48. London: Routledge. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/379479
  6. ^ "Story of Pralaya". Wisdom Library. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  7. ^ Basu, Major B. D. (1917). "CCLXXXX". The Matsya Puranam. Vol. XVII part II. Sudhindra Natha Vasu, At The Indian Press Allahabad. p. 368.

    Vasu, S.C. & others (1972). The Matsya Puranam, Part II, Delhi: Oriental Publishers, p.366
  8. ^ Tagare, G. V. (1987). The Vayu Purana, Part I. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 127 (fn 1), 125–129 (21.26–69), 130–132 (22.9, 20), 133–136 (23.1, 20, 33). ISBN 978-8120803329.
  9. ^ Sn 373
  10. ^ Muller, F. Max (2001). The Dhammapada and Sutta-Nipata. Taylor & Francis Group. p. 60. ISBN 9781317849179.
  11. ^ Gogerly, Rev. Daniel John; Silva, Rev. David de; Scott, Rev. John (1870). "Budhism: A Lecture delivered before the Colombo Young Men's Christian Association". Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Colombo. 1867–70, Part I: 91–92 (f.n. 4).
  12. ^ Gogerly, Silva & Scott 1870, pp. 96–97.
  13. ^ A Mountain Pabbata Sutta (SN 15:5)
  14. ^ Gogerly, Silva & Scott 1870, pp. 106–108.
  15. ^ Gogerly, Silva & Scott 1870, p. 110.
  16. ^ Epstein, Ronald B.(2002). Buddhist Text Translation Society's Buddhism A to Z p. 204. Buddhist Text Translation Society. ISBN 0-88139-353-3, ISBN 978-0-88139-353-8.
  17. ^ Yen, Sheng. Orthodox Chinese Buddhism. p. 104. One great kalpa consists of the four medium kalpas of formation, statis, dissolution, and nothingness. In other words, from the formation of one billion-world universe, through its destruction, until the beginning of the formation of its replacement billion-world universe is a great kalpa.
  18. ^ "What are Kalpas?". Lion's Roar. December 14, 2016. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  19. ^ Epstein, Ronald (2003). Buddhism A to Z. Burlingame, California, United States.: The Buddhist Text Translation Society. ISBN 0-88139-353-3.
  20. ^ The Commentary of Buddhavamsa
  21. ^ Buswell, RE Jr.; Lopez, DS Jr. (2014). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (1st ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-691-15786-3.

External links

  • Kalpa names from various texts

February 13, 2023
kalpa, time, this, article, about, reckoning, time, discipline, vedic, literature, kalpa, vedanga, other, uses, kalpa, kalpa, long, period, time, aeon, hindu, buddhist, cosmology, generally, between, creation, recreation, world, universe, contents, etymology, . This article is about the reckoning of time For a discipline of Vedic literature see Kalpa Vedanga For other uses see Kalpa A kalpa is a long period of time aeon in Hindu and Buddhist cosmology generally between the creation and recreation of a world or universe 1 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Hinduism 3 Buddhism 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksEtymology EditKalpa Sanskrit कल प lit a formation or creation in this context means a long period of time aeon related to the lifetime of the universe creation It is derived from क प kḷp अ a nominalizing suffix Sanskrit क प romanized kḷp lit to create prepare form produce compose invent 2 3 Hinduism EditSee also Hindu units of time Manvantara and Yuga Cycle In Hinduism a kalpa is equal to 4 32 billion years a day of Brahma 12 hour day proper or one thousand mahayugas 4 measuring the duration of the world Each kalpa is divided into 14 manvantara periods each lasting 71 Yuga Cycles 306 720 000 years Preceding the first and following each manvantara period is a juncture sandhya equal to the length of a Satya Yuga 1 728 000 years 5 A kalpa is followed by a pralaya dissolution of equal length which together constitute a day and night of Brahma A month of Brahma contains thirty such days and nights or 259 2 billion years According to the Mahabharata 12 months of Brahma 360 days constitute his year and 100 such years his life called a maha kalpa 311 04 trillion years or 36 000 kalpa 36 000 pralaya Fifty years of Brahma are supposed to have elapsed and we are now in the Shveta Varaha Kalpa or the first day of his fifty first year At the end of a kalpa the world is annihilated by fire 6 The definition of a kalpa equaling 4 32 billion years is found in the Puranas specifically Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana 4 The duration of the material universe is limited It is manifested in cycles of kalpas A kalpa is a day of Brahma and one day of Brahma consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas or ages Satya Yuga Treta Yuga Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga These four yugas rotating a thousand times comprise one day of Brahma and the same number comprise one night Brahma lives one hundred of such years and then dies These hundred years total 311 trillion 40 billion 311 040 000 000 000 earth years By these calculations the life of Brahma seems fantastic and interminable but from the viewpoint of eternity it is as brief as a lightning flash In the Causal Ocean there are innumerable Brahmas rising and disappearing like bubbles Brahma and his creation are all part of the material universe and therefore they are in constant flux Brihat Swasthani Brata Katha citation needed The Matsya Purana 290 3 12 lists the names of 30 kalpas each named by Brahma based on a significant event in the kalpa and the most glorious person in the beginning of the kalpa These 30 kalpas or days along with 30 pralayas or nights form a 30 day month of Brahma 7 Sveta current Nilalohita Vamadeva Rathantara Raurava Deva Vṛhat Kandarpa Sadya Isana Tamah Sarasvata Udana Garuda Kaurma Narasiṁha Samana Agneya Soma Manava Tatpuman Vaikuṇṭha Lakṣmi Savitri Aghora Varaha Vairaja Gauri Mahesvara Pitṛ The Vayu Purana has a different list of names for 33 kalpas which G V Tagare describes as fanciful derivations 8 Buddhism EditIn the Pali language of early Buddhism the word kalpa takes the form kappa and is mentioned in the assumed oldest scripture of Buddhism the Sutta Nipata This speaks of Kappatita one who has gone beyond time an Arahant 9 10 This part of the Buddhist manuscripts dates back to the middle part of the last millennium BCE citation needed Gautama Buddha claimed an incalculable number of Buddhas lived in previous kalpas Vipassi Buddha 91 kalpas ago Sikhi Buddha 31 kalpas ago and three prior Buddhas in the present kalpa 11 He confines his teachings to the present kalpa the duration of which he doesn t arithmetically define but uses a similitude 12 Were a man to take a piece of cloth of this most delicate texture of fine cotton and therewith to touch in the slightest possible manner once in a hundred years a solid rock free from earth a yojana 14 miles high and as much broad the time would come when it would be worn down by this imperceptible trituration to the size of a mung or undu seed This period would be immense in its duration but it has been declared by Buddha that it would not be equal to a Maha Kalpa A similar similitude is found in the Mountain Pabbata Sutta SN 15 5 of the Pali Canon 13 Suppose there were a great mountain of rock a league long a league wide a league high uncracked uncavitied a single mass and a man would come along once every hundred years and rub it once with a Kasi cloth More quickly would that great mountain of rock waste away and be consumed by that effort but not the eon kalpa That s how long monk an eon is Ṭhanissaro Bhikkhu translator Described in the Vibhanga division of the Abhidhamma Pitaka are sixteen rupa brahma lokas worlds or planes and four higher arupa brahma lokas each attained through the imperfect medial or perfect performance of the four states of jhana meditation granting a duration of life measured in kalpas that exceed the top most heavenly loka of 9 216 billion years 14 1st jhana leads to 3 lowest rupa lokas with respective lifespans of 1 3 1 2 and 1 kalpa 2nd jhana leads to 3 higher rupa lokas with respective lifespans of 2 4 and 8 kalpas 3rd jhana leads to 3 more higher rupa lokas with respective lifespans of 16 32 and 64 kalpas 4th jhana leads to 7 highest rupa lokas with respective lifespans ranging from 500 to 16 000 kalpas and 4 still higher arupa lokas with respective lifespans of 20 000 40 000 60 000 and 84 000 kalpas At the termination of each kalpa the lower three rupa brahma lokas attained through the 1st jhana and everything below them six heavens Earth etc are destroyed by fire seven suns only to later again come into being 15 In one explanation there are four different lengths of kalpas A regular kalpa is approximately 16 million years long 16 798 000 years 16 and a small kalpa is 1000 regular kalpas or about 16 8 billion years citation needed Further a medium kalpa is roughly 336 billion years the equivalent of 20 small kalpas citation needed A great kalpa is four medium kalpas 17 or about 1 3 trillion years The Buddha did not give the exact length of the maha kalpa in terms of years However he gave several astounding analogies to understand it Imagine a huge empty cube at the beginning of a kalpa approximately 16 miles in each side Once every 100 years you insert a tiny mustard seed into the cube According to the Buddha the huge cube will be filled even before the kalpa ends 18 In one instance when some monks wanted to know how many kalpas had elapsed so far Buddha gave the below analogy If you count the total number of sand particles at the depths of the Ganges river from where it begins to where it ends at the sea even that number will be less than the number of passed kalpas 19 Another definition of Kalpa is the world where Buddhas are born There are generally 2 types of kalpa Sunna Kalpa and Asunna kalpa The Sunna Kalpa is the world where no Buddha is born Asunna Kalpa is the world where at least one Buddha is born There are 5 types of Asunna Kalpa 20 Sara Kalpa The world where one Buddha is born Maṇḍa Kalpa The world where two Buddhas are born Vara Kalpa The world where three Buddhas are born Saramaṇḍa Kalpa The world where four Buddhas are born Bhadda Kalpa The world where five Buddhas are born The previous kalpa was the Vyuhakalpa Glorious aeon the present kalpa is called the Bhadrakalpa Auspicious aeon and the next kalpa will be the Nakshatrakalpa Constellation aeon 21 See also EditBrahma Hindu units of time Kalpa day of Brahma Manvantara age of Manu Pralaya period of dissolution Yuga Cycle four yuga ages Satya Krita Treta Dvapara and Kali List of numbers in Hindu scripturesReferences Edit Chapter 36 The Buddhas in the three periods of time Buddhism in a Nutshell Archives Hong Kong Buddhistdoor International Retrieved 2014 12 21 kalpa Wiktionary Retrieved 2021 03 25 कल प kalpa Wiktionary Retrieved 2021 03 25 क प kḷp Wiktionary Retrieved 2021 03 25 Kalpa Kalpa Kalpa Wisdom Library June 2008 Retrieved 2021 03 25 Gonzalez Reimann Luis 2018 Cosmic Cycles Cosmology and Cosmography In Basu Helene Jacobsen Knut A Malinar Angelika Narayanan Vasudha eds Brill s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Vol 2 Leiden Brill Publishers p 415 doi 10 1163 2212 5019 BEH COM 1020020 ISBN 978 90 04 17641 6 ISSN 2212 5019 The cycle of creation and destruction is either called a yuga MBh 1 1 28 12 327 89 13 135 11 a kalpa meaning a formation or a creation MBh 6 31 7 BhG 9 7 12 326 70 12 327 23 or a day of the brahman or of Brahma the creator god MBh 12 224 28 31 Sometimes it is simply referred to as the process of creation and destruction saṃharavikṣepa MBh 12 271 30 40 43 47 49 a b Johnson W J 2009 A Dictionary of Hinduism Oxford University Press p 165 ISBN 978 0 19 861025 0 Cremo M A 1999 Puranic time and the archaeological record In T Murray ed Time and Archaeology 38 48 London Routledge http catalogue nla gov au Record 379479 Story of Pralaya Wisdom Library Retrieved 9 November 2021 Basu Major B D 1917 CCLXXXX The Matsya Puranam Vol XVII part II Sudhindra Natha Vasu At The Indian Press Allahabad p 368 Vasu S C amp others 1972 The Matsya Puranam Part II Delhi Oriental Publishers p 366 Tagare G V 1987 The Vayu Purana Part I Motilal Banarsidass pp 127 fn 1 125 129 21 26 69 130 132 22 9 20 133 136 23 1 20 33 ISBN 978 8120803329 Sn 373 Muller F Max 2001 The Dhammapada and Sutta Nipata Taylor amp Francis Group p 60 ISBN 9781317849179 Gogerly Rev Daniel John Silva Rev David de Scott Rev John 1870 Budhism A Lecture delivered before the Colombo Young Men s Christian Association Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Colombo 1867 70 Part I 91 92 f n 4 Gogerly Silva amp Scott 1870 pp 96 97 A Mountain Pabbata Sutta SN 15 5 Gogerly Silva amp Scott 1870 pp 106 108 Gogerly Silva amp Scott 1870 p 110 Epstein Ronald B 2002 Buddhist Text Translation Society s Buddhism A to Z p 204 Buddhist Text Translation Society ISBN 0 88139 353 3 ISBN 978 0 88139 353 8 Yen Sheng Orthodox Chinese Buddhism p 104 One great kalpa consists of the four medium kalpas of formation statis dissolution and nothingness In other words from the formation of one billion world universe through its destruction until the beginning of the formation of its replacement billion world universe is a great kalpa What are Kalpas Lion s Roar December 14 2016 Retrieved August 29 2019 Epstein Ronald 2003 Buddhism A to Z Burlingame California United States The Buddhist Text Translation Society ISBN 0 88139 353 3 The Commentary of Buddhavamsa Buswell RE Jr Lopez DS Jr 2014 The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism 1st ed Princeton New Jersey Princeton University Press p 106 ISBN 978 0 691 15786 3 External links EditKalpa names from various texts Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Kalpa time amp oldid 1138353724, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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