Day of Brahma

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.

Etymology

''Kalpa'' ( sa, कल्प, , 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) ( sa, कॢप्, kḷp, to create, prepare, form, produce, compose, invent).

Hinduism

In Hinduism, a ''kalpa'' is equal to 4.32 billion years, a "day of Brahma" (12-hour day proper) or one thousand '' mahayugas'', 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). 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.

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

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.

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

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". This part of the Buddhist manuscripts dates back to the middle part of the last millennium BCE.

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''. He confines his teachings to the present ''kalpa'', the duration of which he doesn't arithmetically define, but uses a similitude:

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

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:
* 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.

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

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.

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'':

# ''Sāra-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.
# ''Sāramaṇḍa-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).

In popular culture

''Kalpa Imperial''

''Kalpa Imperial'' (Imperial Kalpa, 1983-1984) is a collection of short stories by Argentine speculative fiction author Angélica Gorodischer. She details the history of a vast imaginary empire through tales of fantasy, fable, and allegory. It does this in a way that gained many admirers who deem it to be one of the finest genre works of Argentina. Translated by Ursula K. Le Guin in 2003, it also gained supporters in the English-speaking world. A part of the work appeared as a story in the American anthology ''Starlight 2''.

''The Elder Scrolls'' series

In ''The Elder Scrolls'' series of action role-playing video games, the concept of ''kalpas'' is used to represent the life-cycles of the world.

''City at the End of Time''

In '' City at the End of Time'', a science fiction novel by Greg Bear, Kalpa is a fortress city built on Earth by descendants of humans in the last period of the Universe to protect themselves from the Chaos that is devouring it.

''Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne''

In '' Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne'', the kalpas are represented by five optional dungeons of increasing size, which are designed to test the player. Each kalpa is designed to appear deeper, darker, and more neglected than the previous, signifying the large expanse of time a kalpa truly represents. Nocturne contains many Buddhist and Hindu themes, although they are mostly left to interpretation as the game does little in the way of direct explanation of its themes.

See also

* Brahma
* 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 scriptures

References

External links

{{Buddhism topics

Units of time
Buddhist philosophical concepts
Hindu philosophical concepts
*
Time in Buddhism
Time in Hinduism