Were there advanced human beings in past Kali-yugas?

What about past Kali-Yugas? Who were the people living during these times? Post-industrial civilizations like ours should have left a lot of artifacts we could recognize. Why don't we find them?

Building on the previous article, one could question the existence of human beings in the past Kali-yugas. According to the chronology given in the Vedas, the last Kali-Yuga started about 4.32 million years ago. In the book "The Big Bang and the Sages", Siddharth Prabhu makes the point that time on our planet goes at a rate of two per one compared to the time in Bhu-Mandala, therefore the 4.32 million years should be multiplied by two to get the geological dates in our planet. Therefore, taking this factor of two into account, we can calculate that the last Kali-yuga started about 8.64 million years ago, according to our local time.

This implies that there should be no artifacts from advanced human civilizations before this period since the advanced human beings from Satya-yuga up to Dvapara-yuga were living in more refined dimensions and would probably not leave any artifacts that could be found in our reality. Human beings who would be living in the same dimension as us during this period would be aborigines or other less evolved humans. This is consistent with the simple stone and metal artifacts modern archaeologists find.

However, what about past Kali-Yugas? Post-industrial civilizations from these periods would be living in the same dimension as us, and they should have left a lot of artifacts we could recognize, such as plastics, concrete, advanced metal alloys, and so on. Why do archaeologists not find artifacts from technologically advanced civilizations dated from 8.64 million years ago, as well as artifacts from other past Kali-yugas, which started 17.29 million years ago, 25.93 million years ago, and so on? We are at about the middle of the day of Brahma, therefore there are already about 500 Kali-yugas before us.

First of all, there is no indication that things go the same way in all Kali-yugas. Of course, the main factor that is the moral degradation and the spread of sinful activities, falsity, atheism, and so on always go on more or less the same way, but there is no indication that human beings always develop their civilization in the same way we did.

On SB 2.7.37, for example, it's described that in some past Kali-Yuga human beings were able to travel in space and attack other planets, until the advent of an incarnation of Lord Buddha (different from the Buddha from our time) who taught the principles of ahinsa.

The verse reads: "When the atheists, after being well versed in the Vedic scientific knowledge, annihilate inhabitants of different planets, flying unseen in the sky on well-built rockets prepared by the great scientist Maya, the Lord will bewilder their minds by dressing Himself attractively as Buddha and will preach on subreligious principles."

This verse was spoken by Lord Brahma at the beginning of his current day. He speaks in the future because it is the future from his perspective, but these are events that already happened. Srila Jiva Goswami confirms that this event happened in some past Kali-Yuga, and not on some other planet. We can see that at this time human beings were able to establish contact with the asuras in the lower planets, and somehow got some Vedic technology from them that allowed them to build spaceships and mystic weapons that they used to attack other planets. These weapons were powered by mantras, and not some mechanical or electronic arrangement, and thus they would probably not be something we would recognize as technology if found under the ground. Since these human beings were able to interact with the asuras and other inhabitants of Bhu-Mandala, it is also questionable if they were living in the same gross dimension as us. It's more plausible that they could somehow be still living in a more subtle dimension, just as the inhabitants of Dvapara-Yuga. We should consider that although atheists, they were still following Vedic culture and were able to still use mantras, just as inhabitants of past eras.

We can see, however, that this was an isolated incident. It is described exactly because it was something uncommon. There are no descriptions of human beings mastering such Vedic technologies in other Kali-yugas.

What about technological civilizations as we have now? There is no evidence of it either, since technological civilizations, as we have now would imply the massive use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy. It's not possible to create an industrial revolution without the large use of coal and oil, and as it advances nuclear power would be eventually discovered. However, there is nothing to suggest that this was the case because the reserves of oil, coal, and uranium on our planet appear to have been intact at the time of the beginning of our industrial revolution. This suggests that human beings in other Kali-Yugas probably never passed the medieval stage. We can see that Drutakarma Prabhu mentions some metal and stone artifacts from periods that coincide with past Kali-Yugas, but nothing that could be described as technologically advanced. This supports this theory.

What about the appearance of human beings in past Kali-Yugas? There is no evidence to support that they always look the same either. Even nowadays there is a great variation in the appearance of human beings from different areas (what to say about the difference in appearance between someone from West Africa and someone from Denmark, for example?) The human lineage is restarted at the beginning of every Satya-yuga when advanced beings repopulate our planet after the devastation caused by Kalki. Human beings are created in a very elevated stage, and the human race goes through a long process of devolution during the course of the yugas. This is a long process that takes millions of years and creates a lot of different possibilities. In this way, human beings in different Kali-Yugas may look quite different, as well as have different languages and different cultures. Bones from humans from past Kali-Yugas if found could thus look different from bones from contemporaneous human beings and thus end up being classified as different species of Hominids.

Again, we can see that artifacts found by modern archaeology and paleontology actually support the historical accounts given in the Vedas, instead of the opposite.

Why is it that the development of advanced technology happened only in the Kali-yuga we are living on? It may have something to do with the Sankirtan movement of Mahaprabhu. In every Kali-yuga, an incarnation of Vishnu comes as the Golden avatar to bring the dharma for the age: the chanting of the holy names. In these other Kali-yugas, the degradation happens more slowly remanents from the Vedic civilization from Dvapara-yuga perdure for more time. Everything happens more slowly and predictably.

Once on the day of Brahma, however, Krishna appears in His original form and later comes again as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to reveal the maximum extent of love of Godhead, something that is only partially manifested in the other Kali-yugas. When this happens, the events are much more dramatic. All the powerful demons of the universe take birth in Dvapara-yuga and are killed by the Lord, and the demons who are not fortunate enough to be killed by Him, take birth in Brahmana families at the beginning of Kali-yuga and accelerate the degradation, completely destroying Vedic culture from the inside. During the Middle Ages, humanity degrades to a level close to what is found at the end of Kali-yuga, with starving people working for a piece of bread and life expectancy in many parts of the world falling as low as thirty years. As Caitanya Mahaprabhu comes to bring His sankirtan movement, technical advancements create the conditions for it to spread over the world, including fast means of transportation and communication, such as planes and the Internet. It seems the appearance of such tools in just this particular Kali-yuga has a purpose after all.

Hindu scholars from the past centuries generally had the idea that the Puranas are not historical accounts, transmitting stories that have spiritual significance, but little practical meaning. Srila Prabhupada however insisted that the descriptions from the Srimad Bhagavatam as well as other Puranas should be accepted literally, as concrete historical facts. Interestingly enough, modern branches of science, like astronomy and even paleontology and archaeology are producing data that allow us to verify and support some of the historical claims made in the Puranas, making the point that although very difficult to understand, the descriptions given in the Puranas are actually the key to better understand the history of our planet and the universe at large.

Since you came all the way here, click on the like button and help with the algorithm. It doesn't cost anything and helps the article reach more people. You can also share it or post a comment. Thanks! :)