Concept of Time: Indian vs Western
Linear arrow or cosmic cycle? What the yuga framework actually says, and why civilizations think differently because they time differently.
Indic Lectures — session notes · Indic Warriors lecture series
How a civilization imagines time shapes everything downstream — its history-writing, its ambitions, its patience. This lecture puts the two great models side by side: the linear, once-through time of the Abrahamic and modern-scientific West, and the vast cyclical architecture of Indic cosmology — yugas, kalpas, the breathing of Brahma — with its startlingly modern comfort with deep time.
The session neither mystifies nor dismisses: it examines what the cyclical frame made possible (astronomy on great timescales, equanimity about decline, a non-apocalyptic ethics) and what the linear frame powers (progress narratives, urgency, the historical method itself). Listeners leave able to say what each model is for.
Attend or revisit: session schedules and recordings are announced on the Indic Lectures page; related reading grows on the Indian Knowledge Systems shelf.
Credits: lecture programme by Indic Warriors; notes by the editorial team.
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