The ancient teachings of Sanskrit recognised that there are four cycles of life with regards to civilizations and humanity. These given periods of time determine the creation and destruction of life based on the currently activated Yuga cycle. It is also known as the Dharmic Ages or the Cycle of Four Ages. The Yugas represents past, present and the future as one of the four cycles will always be active for a given period of time.
Our current Yuga cycle is the Kali Yuga (कलियुग) and it is known as the age of darkness and ignorance. It is this cycle where spirituality is at its lowest form and our quest to gain enlightenment is that much harder to achieve. Mankind and mother earth are currently at their lowest point with regards to all aspects of life. We are rock bottom spiritually, with our senses dulled and our desire to achieve enlightenment a long distant memory from previous birth cycles.
The ancients recognised that the four Yuga cycles are based on cyclic time and not linear time. Linear time implies that there is a sequence of events that always lead from a beginning to an end moving in one direction only. Cyclic time is the opposite of this thinking, in that there are always recurring events or cycles such as night and day.
Extract from MAYA: The Mask of Creation available to buy on Amazon Kindle.