The Vayu Purana: Kalpas, Manvantaras & Yugas

Chapter 58
Verse 116. In a single set of four Yugas everything happens in the manner you have heard now. In the other sets of four Yugas also the same thing happens in the same order.

117. The differences that occur in the various creations are confined to TWENTY-FIVE, neither more nor less.

118. So also Kalpas and the Yugas are similar in characteristics.
This alone is the characteristic sign of all the Manvantaras.

119. So also the transitions of the Yugas occur naturally. They are eternal as well. But the living beings that undergo modifications in the form of dissolution and re-creation cannot be permanent.

121-122. In respect to future Manvantaras the traits shall be inferred from the previous one. In the Manvantaras whether of the past or of the future, know that the Manvantaras shall be explained by the present one;
ONE KALPA IS EXPLAINED BY EXPLAINING ANOTHER.

[My caps – but when I read this, I couldn’t help but think: You’ve seen one Kalpa, you’ve seen ‘em all!]

123-124. The eight classes of Devas, sages and Manus are also similar in all Manvantaras in names, forms, and purposes.
The division of the four castes and stages of life is the same in every Yuga.

VAYU Purana Chapter 49

Verse 150-151. ...There are thousands of crores of Cosmic Eggs.

[I assume this refers to the fact that there are multiple universes.]

Abhinavagupta says it like this:
Universes Float Like Bubbles in an Ocean…
Maya, the divine power of the Lord, reflected by him externally appears … The Lord, covering Himself with it, conceals his nature of absolute purity and divinity.
… He sees everything through of viewpoint of diversity and forgets the divinity of His I-consciousness.
Besides, Maya-tattva serves as the inanimate objective substance out of which all other insentient elements evolve.
It is thus the substantive cause of numerous universes floating in it like bubbles in an ocean.

Excerpt from:
Essence of the Exact Reality or PARAMARTHASARA of Abhinavagupta
With English translation & notes by Dr. B.N. Pandit
Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers; 1991, New Delhi

VAYU Purana Chapter 8

Verse 33. Whatever names and forms (these beings have) in the past Kalpa, they mostly receive the same in future Kalpas.

[So what I take from this is that these forms –nama rupa – are always here in this universe and that we sort of enter into them and get recycled through endless Manvantaras – world without end – until we wake up. Of course it’s all the Divine Lila – God playing in and time and space ...

I have read enough of the Puranas now to realize that Vishnu only seems to incarnate here and there in select Yugas within the Maha-Yugas of Manvantaras.

But if this is so, then this would mean that there is only ONE incarnation of Vishnu as Krishna in a KALPA?

This would mean that Krishna only lived in our present Dvapara Yuga in this the 28th Maha-Yuga of the 7th manvantara?

If this is so, then how would the Mahabharata War - which obviously eliminates the genome of the Sacred Warriors who can only thrive in the Dvapara Yuga - take place without Krishna.

And what would trigger the movement into the Kali Yuga? Recall that Krishna's leaving the earth, triggers the Kali.

And even more crucial - since BHAKTI YOGA is recommended by Krishna as the 'safest' and most effective way to achieve enlightenment in the Kali Yuga - who would teach Bhakti to people in the Kali as Krishna does in the Bhagavad Gita, the Uddhava Gita, and the Puranas?

I find it impossible to accept that there could be a (heinous) Kali without the wisdom of Krishna's Gitas.]

The Vayu Purana

Part 1 & 2

Translated & Annotated Dr. G.V. Tagare

Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1987, 2003, Delhi

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