Unaffected By The Millennium Fever?

Strange Though it may seem the common man in this country appears to be unaffected by the millennium fever which has captured the media and the urban elite. And these are not only the teeming millions of this vast land, many of whom not even remember their own date of birth, but the educated too who are not excited about the projected golden age the new millennium would usher in on this planet.

One of the reasons for this lukewarm approach of the common masses to this media hyped event is that common sense tells one that life at large does not move on the basis of man-made calendars. The year 2000 AD has its significance in that it marks the birth of a great spiritual leader of mankind, Jesus, Christ, but apart from that it has little importance for many.

Yet another reason for the lack of enthusiasm among the laymen in this country is that even the unlettered ones here believe in the cyclic theory of time unlike in the West where time is perceived as a linear in movement, hence every event there is considered a one time happening.

In India, according to the Vedic view, the time graph moves through the cycle of four ages, Yugas - Sat Yuga, the Treta, the Dwapar and the Kali - which succeed one another during the period of one creation. Rama, Krishna, Buddha and the Christ will manifest themselves again, although with a different name and form in the next cycle, too, according to this view. According to the Vedic calculation of time, this is the 1972949100th year of the creation on this earth in this universe of ours which is one of the innumerable other universes in the infinity of time and space.

The period of one creation is called a Kalpa which literally means a concept as the creation is first mentally conceived by the cosmic mind, called Brahma in the scriptures. One Kalpa has a span of 4 billion years and has 72 cycles of four Yugas in it. Presently it is the 28th Chaturyugi and the Kaliyuga in this cycle. The Kali era (samvat) is 5001 ate present while the Vikram Samvat is 2056. So in spite of all the reverence due to the year 2000 of the Christ, one finds little reason to be over-excited.

Although every new moment in the life of humankind is worth celebration, seeing the hazards which it faces from natural and manmade disasters even in these modern times of great technological and scientific advancement, the euphoria about the new millennium is obviously being created by the market forces and lacks the spiritual fervour which it should have when seen in the context of the advent of Jesus Christ.

The most glaring drawback in the present hyperbole about the second millennium is that it tends to ignore the achievements of all the older civilisations which enriched the mental and spiritual wealth of humanity.

Highly developed civilisations existed in India, China, Egypt and the Middle East much before the start of the first millennium which had preceded the second millennium.

The truth is that all these ancient civilisations have contributed to the cumulative advancement of the human civilisation as a whole and by celebrating only the second and third millennium we are guilty of ingratitude towards our ancestors.