To think in terms of a "lifetime" of Brahma is misleading - Brahma exists in the realm of Eternities where there is no death. However, the jîva that is Brahma does function in that capacity for a cycle we call a "lifetime."

The universe cycles through four major periods, or yugas, during the lifetime of the Creator, Lord Brahma. Brahma lives for a very long time when measured in years as we experience them. During His lifetime he creates a new universe each “morning” and sends his family of jîvas forth to play. Every night Brahma calls the jîvas back into His vast body as Saraswatî, His S’akti, becomes exhausted and His universe dissolves. He rests to restore His S’akti, then repeats the same cycle of creation. Thus pass the days and nights in the life of Brahma.

One day/night cycle in the life of Brahma is equivalent to approximately 167,389,960,000 years of man’s life. Over His lifetime Brahma creates 36,000 universes that each exist for only one day of His life. Each day in the life of Brahma (a Kalpa) consists of 14 cycles known as Manvantaras. One Manvantara contains 72 Chaturyugis. Each Chaturyugi contains 4 Yugas. Here is a brief summary of the characteristics of the 4 Yugas:

• Sat-yuga - the golden age - this cycle is 1,728,000 years in duration. During this period life is lived in accord with Natural Law for most of the period except near the end of the period. The human lifespan is 100,000 years during this period. Dharma is the measure of life in accord with Natural Law and during Sat-yuga all four pillars of Dharma are in place: cleanliness, austerity, mercy and truthfulness. When cleanliness erodes and drops away, this signals the onset of Treta-yuga
• Treta-yuga  - the silver age - this cycle is 1,296,000 years in duration and Dharma consists of austerity, mercy and truthfulness. The human lifespan is only 10,000 years during this age. When austerity erodes and drops off the Dvapara-yuga dawns.
• Dvapara-yuga - the copper age - this cycle is 864,000 years in duration and Dharma is characterized by mercy and truthfulness only. The typical human lifespan declines to 1,000 years. When mercy erodes and drops off, Kali-yuga dawns
• Kali-yuga - the iron age - this cycle is the most brief of the four, lasting for 432,000 years during which society and morals decline and even truthfulness eventually is lost. The human lifespan is a mere 100 years if you are lucky. As Kali-yuga deteriorates more and more there comes a time when Lord Vishnu steps in and makes a sweeping change, causing the end of Kali-yuga and the sudden onset of a new Sat-yuga with Dharma fully established again.

With each passing age starting from Sat-yuga, comes a reduction in the earth's productive energy, so that food loses more and more of its sustaining power, until by Kali-yuga people are mental, physical, moral and spiritual runts compared with their status in the golden age. Stature, strength, stamina, memory and intelligence are all meager.

The decline of Dharma is gradual as there is a progressive drop in intelligence and ability to remember. The harrassment of hard times upon an increasingly witless populace hastens its moral and spiritual decline. People begin to slaughter animals for food; they become more and more enslaved by drugs; they lose all sexual restraint. These habits further their physical and mental deterioration.

The people sink deeper annd deeper into sensuality and ignorance. Families break up, and women and children are abandoned. Increasingly degraded generations, conceived accidentally in lust and growing up wild, swarm over the earth. Leadership falls into the hands unprincipled criminals who use their power to loot the people. The world teems with ideologues, mystagogues, fanatics, and spiritual bunko atrists who win huge followings among a people dazed by social and moral anarchy. Unspeakable depravities and atrocities flourish under a rhetoric of high ideals.

All of this decline is directly linked to a deterioration in the S'rî Chakra which is the archetype of all life in the universe. When the S'rî Chakra is fully populated with devas and totally devoid of ungrounded energies, the individual is living Brahman Consciousness. When the norm of society is all people living in Brahman Consciousness, Sat-yuga is the age.

	Within each of the 4 yugas there are innumerable minor cycles of the 4 yugas.

Within each of the 4 yugas there are innumerable minor cycles of the 4 yugas. At this moment in time we are about 5,100 years into the beginning of a major 432,000 year Kali-yuga cycle. However, life has declined to such a point that soon we will see a sudden rise to a 10,000 year minor Sat-yuga cycle because when Dharma declines to a very low point, as it is now, Lord Vishnu steps in and makes a sweeping change to restore Dharma, causing the sudden rise of a Sat-yuga.

The change in society that occurs to bring an end to Kali-yuga and restore full Dharma in Sat-yuga has two fronts, which occur almost simultaneously:

• Initially, large numbers of people begin to rise to Brahman Consciousness because the door to the path is opened wide. S'rî Vyuha is one of those broad doorways that has recently opened. However, the vast majority of the population will remain apathetic.
• Major cataclysmic events occur that wake-up the apathetic population to the fragility of human life, the depravity of the times, and the necessity of a complete reversal in thinking and the alignment of their lives with Dharma. Those who have risen to Brahman Consciousness during Phase I will be the teachers and leaders of this population. The people will suddenly be very open to the idea of devoting their time to gaining Brahman Consciousness.

	We invite you to enter the initial group of thoughtful and caring individuals who are quickly rising to Brahman Consciousness now, and who will be here to help when our brothers and sisters awaken to the truth of life.