Akalpa is a long period of time (aeon) inHindu andBuddhist cosmology, generally between the creation and recreation of a world or universe.[1]
Kalpa (Sanskrit:कल्प,lit. '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) (Sanskrit:कॢप्,romanized: kḷp,lit. 'to create, prepare, form, produce, compose, invent').[2][3]
InHinduism, akalpa is a unit of time equal to 4.32 billion years. It corresponds to one day in the life ofBrahma, the creator god, and represents the active, creative phase of the cosmic cycle. Eachkalpa is made up of 1,000Yuga Cycles, vast ages that repeat in a set pattern.[4][5][6]
Akalpa is further divided into 14manvantaras. Eachmanvantara lasts for 71Yuga Cycles, or 306.72 million years.[7] Before the firstmanvantara and after each one are transitional periods known assandhyas, each as long as aSatya Yuga—1.728 million years.[4][5][8][9]
At the end of eachkalpa, the universe enters a period of rest and dissolution calledpralaya, or the night of Brahma. This night is equal in length to the day—another 4.32 billion years. Together, one day and night of Brahma make up a full cosmic day, totaling 8.64 billion years.[4][5]
Expanding further, a month of Brahma contains 30 such day-and-night cycles, which adds up to 259.2 billion years. A year of Brahma consists of 12 months, or 360 days and nights, equaling 3.1104 trillion years. Brahma's full lifespan is 100 of these divine years—a span of 311.04 trillion years, known as amaha-kalpa.[4][5][10]
According to the traditional time-keeping, 50 years of Brahma's life have already passed. We are currently living in theShveta-Varaha Kalpa, which marks the first day of Brahma’s 51st year.[4][8] At the conclusion of eachkalpa, it is believed that the world is destroyed by fire, only to be recreated again when the next day of Brahma begins.[5][7][11]
The definition of akalpa equaling 4.32 billion years is found in thePuranas[6] such asVishnu Purana andBhagavata Purana.
The duration of the material universe is limited. It is manifested in cycles of kalpas. A kalpa is a day of Brahmā, and one day of Brahmā consists of a thousand cycles of four yugas, or ages:Satya Yuga,Treta Yuga,Dvapara Yuga andKali Yuga. ... These four yugas, rotating a thousand times, comprise one day of Brahmā, and the same number comprise one night. Brahmā lives one hundred of such "years" and then dies. These "hundred years" total 311 trillion 40 billion (311,040,000,000,000) earth years. By these calculations the life of Brahmā seems fantastic and interminable, but from the viewpoint of eternity it is as brief as a lightning flash. In theCausal Ocean there are innumerable Brahmās rising and disappearing like bubbles. Brahmā and his creation are all part of the material universe, and therefore they are in constant flux.
— Brihat Swasthani Brata Katha[citation needed]
TheMatsya Purana (290.3–12) lists the names of 30 kalpas, each named byBrahma based on a significant event in thekalpa and the most glorious person in the beginning of thekalpa. These 30 kalpas or days (along with 30pralayas or nights) form a 30-day month of Brahma.[12]
TheVayu Purana has a different list of names for 33 kalpas, which G. V. Tagare describes as fanciful derivations.[13]
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In thePali language of earlyBuddhism, the wordkalpa takes the formkappa, and is mentioned in the assumed oldest scripture of Buddhism, theSutta Nipata. This speaks of "Kappâtita: one who has gone beyond time, an Arahant".[14][15] This part of the Buddhist manuscripts dates back to the middle part of the last millennium BCE.[citation needed]
Gautama Buddha claimed an incalculable number of Buddhas lived in previouskalpas:Vipassi Buddha 91kalpas ago,Sikhi Buddha 31kalpas ago, and three prior Buddhas in the presentkalpa.[16] He confines his teachings to the presentkalpa, the duration of which he doesn't arithmetically define, but uses a similitude:[17]
Were a man to take a piece of cloth of this most delicate texture [of fine cotton], and therewith to touch in the slightest possible manner, once in a hundred years, a solid rock, free from earth, a yojana [12 kilometres] high, and as much broad, the time would come when it would be worn down, by this imperceptible trituration, to the size of a mung seed. This period would be immense in its duration; but it has been declared by Buddha that it would not be equal to a Maha Kalpa.
A similar similitude is found in theMountain Pabbata Sutta (SN 15:5) of thePali Canon:[18]
Suppose there were a great mountain of rock—a league long, a league wide, a league high, uncracked, uncavitied, a single mass—and a man would come along once every hundred years and rub it once with a Kashi cloth. More quickly would that great mountain of rock waste away and be consumed by that effort, but not the eon [kalpa]. That's how long, monk, an eon is.
— Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (translator)
Described in theVibhanga division of theAbhidhamma Pitaka are sixteenrupabrahma lokas (worlds or planes) and four higherarupa brahma lokas, each attained through the imperfect, medial or perfect performance of the four states ofjhāna (meditation), granting a duration of life measured inkalpas that exceed the top-most heavenlyloka of 9.216 billion years:[19]
At the termination of eachkalpa, the lower threerupa brahma lokas, attained through the 1stjhāna, and everything below them (six heavens, Earth, etc.) are destroyed by fire (seven suns), only to later again come into being.[20]
In one explanation, there are four different lengths of kalpas. A regular kalpa is approximately 16 million years long (16,798,000 years[21]), and asmall kalpa is 1000 regular kalpas, or about 16.8 billion years.[citation needed] Further, amedium kalpa is roughly 336 billion years, the equivalent of 20 small kalpas.[citation needed] Agreat kalpa is four medium kalpas,[22] or about 1.3 trillion years.
Gautama Buddha did not give the exact length of themaha-kalpa in terms of years. However, he gave several analogies to understand it.
In one instance, when some monks wanted to know how many kalpas had elapsed so far, Buddha gave the below analogy:
Another definition of Kalpa is the world where Buddhas are born. There are generally 2 types of kalpa,Suñña-Kalpa andAsuñña-kalpa. TheSuñña-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 ofAsuñña-Kalpa:[25]
The previouskalpa was theVyuhakalpa (Glorious aeon), the present kalpa is called theBhadrakalpa (Auspicious aeon), and the next kalpa will be theNakshatrakalpa (Constellation aeon).[26]
The cycle [of creation and destruction] is either called a yuga (MBh. 1.1.28; 12.327.89; 13.135.11), a kalpa, meaning a formation or a creation (MBh. 6.31.7 [= BhG. 9.7]; 12.326.70; 12.327.23), or a day of the brahman, or of Brahmā, the creator god (MBh. 12.224.28–31). Sometimes, it is simply referred to as the process of creation and destruction (saṃhāravikṣepa; MBh. 12.271.30, 40, 43, 47–49).
Each manvantara is preceded and followed by a period of 1,728,000 (= 4K) years when the entire earthly universe (bhu-loka) will submerge under water. The period of this deluge is known as manvantara-sandhya (sandhya meaning, twilight). ... According to the traditional time-keeping ... Thus in Brahma's calendar the present time may be coded as his 51st year - first month - first day - 7th manvantara - 28th maha-yuga - 4th yuga or kaliyuga.
One great kalpa consists of the four medium kalpas of formation, statis, dissolution, and nothingness. In other words, from the formation of one billion-world universe, through its destruction, until the beginning of the formation of its replacement billion-world universe is a great kalpa.
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