Dwapara Yuga Blog

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer - Keats Poem

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
    And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
    Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
    That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
    Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
    When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
    He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
    Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

I found a similar inspiration and doorway into Hindu, Christian, and Greek texts with the interpretations of Sri Yogananda and Sri Kriyananda… also a greater appreciation of poetry and PG Wodehouse!

The picture is a re-imagining of the Guardian of Forever doorway from Star Trek The Original Series (TOS).

Kaizen - Continuous improvement

Kaizen is the Japanese idea of continuous improvement. It is most well known for workers in car factories looking for small improvements every day that results in fantastically high quality vehicles that keep their utility and value for years.

It's a mindset that can be applied to any personal activity from creative writing, to martial arts, to career growth.

The Yugas broadly describe the evolution of humans on this planet. A glance at a news app shows where Dwapara Yuga innovations are displacing Kali Yuga limitations — you can't do this or that because of race, religion, sex, or national origin being some of the most obvious barriers falling away over the last 100+ years.

No matter your karma, you are not bound to the Yuga average but can transcend it — with a better mindset and application, even if just a few minutes per day of a positive activity like meditation, a sports drill, or study. It's the continuous small habits that build us and not showy and (potentially) shallow efforts like a fancy gym-spa membership or a get rich scheme from TikTok or Instagram influencers.

A boxer wins in the ring from years of mental, physical, and technical training — the will to win, thousands of hours of conditioning, sparring, and building boxing IQ from coaches and camps around footwork, setups, and timing.

My Spiritual name is Gyanananda, which means bliss thru knowledge. I take the name as a motivation for daily self-improvement / self-mastery!

Strange Bedfellows — the “Alt Right” and the Yugas

I just came across a BBC write-up of “Savitri Devi”, a French/Greek spy, who identified the Axis leaders of WWII as instrumental in the ending of Kali Yuga. I had never heard of her previously.

“Savitri Devi: The mystical fascist”

I consider Paramhansa Yogananda to be the key figure in the dawning of Dwapara Yuga.

I know that Yoganandaji had had to present a spiritual rather than political message in the turbulent times of the 1920s to 40s, avoiding direct involvement in the many independence movements in India that followed “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” line of thinking.

In the 1920s, he had come close to being lynched in Miami given anti immigrant sentiment and a backlash against the many carnies, carpet baggers, and grifters presenting themselves as yogis, fakirs, and gurus. The corrupt Sheriff was still the Sheriff.

In the sense of a cosmic play, presumably both “good” and “bad” guys are always needed to keep things “interesting!”

WWII brought many horrors.

It also began to break Kali Yuga constraints, e.g., with the founding of Israel, Pakistan, and India, modern Germany and Japan, the first steps towards equality in the US for Native Americans, African Americans, and Women, and representation for ordinary people rather than “beribboned buffoon” elites in the 1945 British elections.

Science Fiction

The genre of science fiction has been called the literature of ideas.

It both tries to predict the future and offer insights around our present times.

It began as an oral and then written tradition, a mix of mythology and fact.

Later expressions were in comics, toys, radio, movies, television, video games, ... and online blogs.

Some highlights IMHO are

Kali Yuga

360 BC (Descending Kali 340) Timaeus and Critias - Plato - The legend of Atlantis

1516 AD (Ascending Kali 1016) Utopia - More

1626 AD (Ascending Kali 1126) New Atlantis - Bacon

Dwapara Yuga to today

1818 (Ascending Dwapara 118) Frankenstein - Shelley

1870 (Ascending Dwapara 170) Twenty Thousands Leagues - Verne

1895 (Ascending Dwapara 195) The Time Machine - Wells

1905 (Ascending Dwapara 205) The Scarlet Pimpernel - Orczy - First Super Hero

1959 (Ascending Dwapara 259) Starship Troopers - Heinlein

1968 (Ascending Dwapara 268) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Dick

1977 (Ascending Dwapara 277) Judge Dredd - Wagner

I asked the ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence tool to “Write me a verse about Dwapara Yuga” and here it is —

In Dwapara Yuga, truth and virtue reign
People live in harmony, free from pain
The gods are present, and righteousness prevails
In this golden age, all stories and myths unveil

The land is fertile, and abundance is rife
People live in peace, free from strife
The Vedas are studied, and wisdom is sought
In Dwapara Yuga, the world is fraught

With opportunity and prosperity
And people live in harmony and unity
But as all things must pass, this age too shall fade
And the cycle of time, forever be played.