WHY I CANNOT BELIEVE IN THE BRAHMAKUMARIS' 5000 YEAR CYCLE by Dr Peter Iveson
Today we are in the year 2007 AD (or CE if you prefer). We are still in the Confluence Age. We are not yet in the Golden Age, are we? It follows that the Golden Age must start in or after 2007.
2500 years ago from today would be 493 BC (or BCE). If the 5000 Year Cycle is accurate, that should be somewhere near the end of the Silver Age. That is, the Silver Age should end, and the Copper Age begin, after 493 BC. The Copper Age cannot begin earlier than 493 BC, otherwise the Copper Age and the Iron Age together would be more than 2500 years, which is not permissible, as it would mean that 'Heaven', the Golden Age and Silver Age, would have to be less than 2500 years in order to fit into the 5000 Year Cycle. So the 6th Century BC, that is from 501 BC to 600 BC, should definitely be within the Silver Age. But was it?
The 6th Century BC is not, as Brother Jagdish might have said, 'a remote period of prehistory, about which we know nothing'. There are professors of Ancient Greek, Assyriology, Egyptology, etc., in the major universities, and Curators at the British Museum, who could tell us quite a lot about the first half of the first millennium BC, that is, the period from 1000 BC to 500 BC. There are specialists in the languages and literature of the ancient Middle East, such as the Akkadian language, which was spoken in Babylon, and in the language and culture of the Hittites.
The civilizations of the Middle-East during this period were nothing like the Brahma Kumaris' image of the Silver-Aged world of the Deities Rama and Sita. The civilizations of Greece, Egypt, Sumeria, Assyria etc. all had temples and worshipped their gods and goddesses. They had military technology; bronze and iron swords and spears, bows and arrows, helmets and body armour, horse-drawn war chariots etc. Examples can be seen today in the British Museum. They were constantly at war with their neighbours. They certainly did not have their babies by yoga-power, without having sexual relations. They did not fly in vimans. It was not 'heaven'.
Just suppose for a moment that the 5000 Year Cycle is accurate. The Copper Age must start after 493 BC. That implies that Abraham must come to start the Jewish religion no earlier than 493 BC. But we know that the Middle-East was controlled by the Persians from the fall of Babylon to Cyrus in 539 BC, until the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great in 336 - 323 BC. If Abraham had come in 493, the whole of Jewish History: Moses and the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, the kings Saul, David and Solomon; the separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel, the conquest of Israel by Assyria, the Exile in Babylon, must all have happened between 493 and 323 BC - about 170 years. Impossible! In fact Cyrus released the Jews from their exile in Babylon in 538 BC, allowing them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple.
The 6th Century BC.
In 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar became king of Babylon. He defeated the Egyptians at the battle of Carchemish in 605, and so inherited the former Assyrian empire. The Babylonian empire became the dominant power in the Middle-East. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem in 597 BC, and deported the king Jehoiachin and all the ruling class of Jerusalem to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar returned to Jerusalem ten years later, in 587, when he destroyed the city and King Solomon's Temple, and deported a second group of Jews into exile in Babylon. Their exile continued for about 50 more years, until Babylon fell to the Persian king, Cyrus, who allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and to rebuild their Temple and the city (from 538 onwards). There was a major Persian Exhibition last two years ago at the British Museum. The 'Cyrus Cylinder', which records some of these events, was on display.
The Persian kings extended their empire westward into Asia Minor (Turkey), and clashed with the Greek colonies that were established there. A series of wars resulted between the Greeks and the Persians, which are well documented in Greek history. The Greeks defeated the Persians at the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. I read in 'The Times' that the Greeks are preparing to celebrate the 2500' anniversary of the battle of Marathon, in three years from now, in 2010.
The Persians were finally and decisively beaten at the naval battle of Salamis in 484 BC, which put an end to the westward expansion of the Persian empire. Meanwhile, the city-state of Rome was well-established by 500 BC, when after a dynasty of kings, the monarchy was overthrown and a republic set up.
All this is public knowledge, available to anyone with access to a public library, or to the Internet. If the Silver Age had existed in the 6t' Century B.C., it would imply that the last 'world emperor' of Rama and Sita's dynasty was ruling from a golden palace in Bharat simultaneously with all these Middle-Eastern kings, such as Nebuchadnezzar, who did not recognize him. Is this possible? Would not the lust and anger of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians etc. have brought the Silver Age to an end?
Furthermore, Baba has been interpreted as saying that at the time of 'vinash' (Destruction), all the continents of the earth will fuse together to form one single land of 'Bharat'. But if this were to happen, the reverse change would be necessary at the confluence of the Silver Age and the Copper Age, which as we have seen above, must come after 493 BC. It did not happen! The Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern lands had their present sea boundaries well before 1000 BC. The Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt, and the Trojan War are dated by scholars at about 1250 BC.
I challenge any BK to explain to me why the scholars' view of history is wrong, and give me the evidence to support the BKs' concept of the 5000 Year Cycle. "Baba says ..." is not evidence. If extraordinary claims are made, extraordinary evidence is required. Why can we not send a trance messenger up to Baba to request a rational basis for his 5000 Year Cycle. If there is no rational basis, there can be no Cycle.
For each year that passes, the permissible boundary for the confluence between the Silver Age and the Copper Age must also move forward by one year, otherwise the Copper Age and the Iron Age together would be more than 2500 years. Next year, 2008, it will be 492 BC. In 2009 it will be 491 BC, and so on. There is absolutely no archaeological, historical or scientific evidence for a cataclysm in the 5th or 6th centuries BC, leading to the end of the 'Silver Age', and the beginning of the 'Copper Age'. It did not happen. The concept of the 5000 Year Cycle is really not credible.
Final Note.
So far I have been making the assumption that if 'vinash' or 'Destruction' were to come in 2007, the Golden Age would be dated from 2007, to give after 2500 years, the Copper Age beginning in 493 BC.
However I realise that time must be allowed, after 'vinash' for the 'Advance Party' to prepare for the Golden Age. Shri Krishna and Radhe have to be born and grow up. If the duration of the Confluence Age is reckoned as 100 years, from Baba's coming in 1936, to the Coronation of Lakshmi and Narayan in 2036, the formal inauguration of the Golden Age, which Baba calls 1.1.1., then the Silver Age must end, and the Copper Age begin in 464 BC. Now that really is ridiculous! (Socrates was born in 470 BC).
Don't you agree that there is no rational basis for the 5000 Year Cycle?
Dr Peter Iveson wrote:I read in 'The Times' that the Greeks are preparing to celebrate the 2500' anniversary of the battle of Marathon, in three years from now, in 2010.
Ha. We missed this. One of the most famous events in Western history. There are numerous websites dedicated to it, e.g marathon2500.org/. Please explain ...
2011 marks 2,500 years since the Battle of Marathon (Greece) in 490 BC ... the famous 26 mile run by Pheidippides from Marathon to Athens, and the meaning of the Athenian victory which gave Western Civilization time to flourish.
The 490 BC battle, in which the Athenian army defeated an invading band of Persians at the seaside plain of Marathon, was the first time that the Greeks had bested the Persians on land.
Historians argue that this victory was pivotal in the development of Western civilization because it preceded a flowering of Athenian culture that led to great advances in mathematics, drama, philosophy and astronomy.
The generally accepted date of the Battle of Marathon is 12 September 490 BC. This was proposed by the nineteenth century scholar August Boeckh, based on accounts written shortly after the battle by the Greek historian Herodotus who lived in the 5th century BC (c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative.