CHAPTER 4

27. Ancient Mexican calendar stone showing the four suns of
past ages, all of which ended in disaster, and the face of the
present, the fifth, sun god.
360 days (leap years excepted), so the divine year contained 360 human years. 120,000 divine years, i.e. 43*2 million human years formed one "great period" the Maha-Juga. The great period was divided into four epochs of unequal duration but of equal rhythm, and each epoch was preceded by a waxing period and followed by a waning period, each ^ the duration of the epoch itself. Thus the Krita-Juga epoch, for instance, is composed of a waxing period of 400 divine years, a main period of 4000 divine years and a waning period of 400 divine years. A twinkle in the eye of Vishnu or Seva lasts two million human years which, to all intents and purposes, is an eternity.
In the Near East, religious concepts of time were a little more down-to-earth, and were largely based on astronomical observa-