A New Year Reflection Through the Inner Yugas

At midnight on December 31st, something fascinating happens.

Clocks strike twelve. Calendars flip obediently. Fireworks announce to the universe: “Time has changed!” And yet nothing really changes.

The sun rises the same way. The inbox remains full. The mind wakes up with the same habits. Time does not transform us. Understanding does.

The First Teaching: Time as an External Event (Adhyaropa)

We are taught that the Yugas: Satya, Treta, Dvapara, Kali are vast cosmic ages spread across thousands of years. This is intentional.

The human mind learns first through story, scale, and time. So the sages said: “Here are ages. Here is decline. Here is renewal.” But this is only the teaching layer. Adhyaropa or the Super Imposition is the first teaching layer.

The Subtle Correction: Time as an Inner State (Apavada).

Apavada is the second and final teaching layer where the earlier Adhyaropa( Super imposition ) is negated. The idea of Adhyaropa is gently withdrawn.

The Yugas are not on the calendar. They are on the mind’s operating system.

You enter Kali Yuga the moment you believe:

“I am alone. I must survive.”

Life becomes transactional. Fear dominates. Spirituality feels distant.

That is Kali Yuga… right there.

The Turning Point: Dvapara Yuga Within

As the year ends, many feel uneasy-not depressed, but unsettled.

Questions arise:

• Why am I busy but unfulfilled?
• Why do I repeat patterns I promised to break?

This is Dvapara Yuga-the age of inner conflict.

You are awake enough to question, but divided enough to suffer. Mind vs heart. Logic vs intuition. Success vs meaning.

January Rituals and Treta Yuga

January arrives with optimism. Resolutions. Routines. New systems.

This is Treta Yuga-the age of discipline and effort. Nothing wrong here. But our Upanishads ( ancient texts)  offers a warning:

Discipline without understanding only polishes the same ego. Rituals help. But clarity liberates.

The Quiet Arrival of Satya Yuga

And then sometimes unexpectedly, a realization dawns. Not dramatic. Not loud. Just simple truth: “I do not need to become someone else. I need to understand who I already am.”

This is Satya Yuga. Life aligns. Urgency reduces. Action continues, but without inner friction.

Beyond the Yugas: The Real Completion

Finally comes the greatest insight: The purpose of moving through the Yugas is not to remain in Satya Yuga, but to transcend the need for Yugas altogether.

When one knows, understand and recognizes: Aham Brahmasmi – I am That

Time continues. Years change. But bondage ( samsara) ends.

A New Year Question Worth Asking

So this New Year, instead of asking: “What should I achieve?”

May we Ask: “What misunderstanding am I ready to drop?”

Because enlightenment does not arrive with January 1st. It arrives with clarity.

May this New Year not take you somewhere new- but bring you home to yourself.