The Yugas: Keys to Understanding Our Hidden Past, Emerging Present and Future Enlightenment
The concept of the yugas is critically important for a clear understanding of humankind's ancient past, our potential future, and the way the larger cosmic environment influences humanity's changing consciousness. The conventional mainstream view of an overall linear progression in human history is no longer tenable; it is now clear that the ancients of 10,000 to 15,000 years ago were not primitives and we have much to learn from them. Based on the teachings of Sri Yukteswar, The Yugas by Joseph Selbie and David Steinmetz provides a perceptive analysis of history from the height of the last Satya Yuga (Spiritual Age) of circa 11,500 B.C. to our present age. Just as importantly, the authors discuss trends and developments that we may anticipate over the next 10,000 years as the cycle of the yugas comes full circle. The Yugas integrates and synthesizes disparate facts and apparent anomalies that are often ignored. This is a profound book on a profound subject. Intelligently written and fascinating, it provides new revelations on the unfolding of human potential over the course of millennia. (Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., July 2010)The Yugas is a great and important book that will undoubtedly revolutionize our view of history and how it plays out. Selbie and Steinmetz have done a terrific job in demonstrating the scientific evidence of rising and falling ages of man, as opposed to the linear development of civilization favored by most historians. Before reading The Yugas, I was familiar with Sri Yukteswar's and Paramhansa Yogananda's concept, on which the book is based. After reading The Yugas, I understood more deeply this concept's sometimes-surprising foundations in the past and its all-penetrating ramifications for the future. Reading this book was like being given a glimpse of the sweeping panorama of the ages. My mind shifted. My consciousness was transformed. I think The Yugas should be used as a textbook in universities. If you are at all interested in where humanity has been and where we are headed, I highly recommend that you read this book. (Richard Salva, author of The Reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln and Walking with William of Normandy, August 2010)Move over Copernicus, another revolution is underway! The Yugas will not only change the way we look at history, it will change the way we see ourselves and the world around us. This is a wisdom whose time has come. The startling revelations and sweeping vision of Selbie and Steinmetz deliver a story so timeless it will challenge and inspire generations to come! Our forefathers etched the phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum (New Order of the Ages) on the Great Seal of our new nation, but few historians have understood its meaning. By resurrecting a lost knowledge, with exquisite and provocative detail, Selbie and Steinmetz unleash its full power and promise. The Yugas . . . I absolutely loved this book! (Walter Cruttenden, author of The Lost Star of Myth and Time, August 2010)Selbie and Steinmetz have produced a comprehensive and in-depth study of the yuga theory of Hindu and yogic thought. They have based their research upon the writings of Sri Yukteswar, the venerable guru of famed Yoga master Paramahansa Yogananda, and his profound insight. The book covers all aspects of the yugas, including the secret of what world age humanity currently resides in and what we can likely expect for the future. The book casts an important new light on the history and evolution of the human race and the mysteries of the great cycles of time that we must all honor. All those who want to understand our species and the hidden cosmic influences that govern our lives will benefit from its detailed examination. Those who study the book carefully will come away with a transformed vision of our world and its spiritual potentials. (David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri), author of Astrology of the Seers and Yoga and Ayurveda, August 2010)We moderns tend to believe we know more than those who have lived before us, especially those of earlier millennia. In its detailed research and fascinating revelations, this book pricks the bubble of that linear conceit with its wealth of extraordinary insights and evidence to the contrary. Here is proof once again that ancient wisdom and truth, though often overlooked or long forgotten, is never superceded. As we learn in this brilliant detective-like study that probes the arc of time, greater civilizations than ours have preceded and exceeded us, more advanced in spirituality as well as science, borne to higher awareness by a cyclical dance of cosmological forces. Contained in this new history of humankind is a divinely inspired examination of why we were as we were in ages past, why we are as we are in this ascending age of energy and understanding, and what we can anticipate about ourselves and our world in ages yet to come. Selbie and Steinmetz have given us a thesis that is uncompromisingly accurate in its chronicle of significant events and their correspondence to the yugas - cycles of human consciousness - in which they occurred. What emerges is an astonishing, compelling and altogether enlightened view of evolution itself. (James Surendra Conti, Manager, East-West Bookstore, August 2010)If you're one of the people who has been asking yourself, "What's going on these days?" and not finding an answer that resonates with you, this is a book you will want to read and study. Based on the teachings of Sri Yukteswar and Paramhansa Yogananda, the book explains about the Yugas or ages the planet goes through every 24,000 years.Not only does the book provide compelling evidence of the veracity of these cycles, it goes much further by telling us about our possible future cycles and how we and planet can be much different than we are today. The Yugas is comforting by giving meaning to today's events and it is intriguing by putting the world into a more easily understood evolutionary picture.This is a don't miss read for anyone who wants a deeper understanding and appreciation of our past, present, and future.A great gift for anyone on a spiritual path and for those who love history.-Krysta Gibson, New Spirit journal; December, 2011