Beyond the smaller cycles of time that we are all familiar with, the sacred texts and legends of our ancestors resonate with the ideas of larger cycles of time which govern the rhythmic rise and fall of civilizations over thousands of years and the evolution and extinction of life forms over geological time scales. Two of these time cycles have been spelled out in explicit detail in the ancient texts, which I have explored in my earlier articles: the “Yuga Cycle” and the “Day and Night of Brahma”. 

The Yuga Cycle, also known as the Great Year or the Cycle of the Ages, is the same as the precession cycle of the earth and is 25,800 years in duration. Throughout this long cycle, human consciousness declines from a Golden Age or Satya Yuga of enlightenment, abundance and harmony to an Iron Age or Kali Yuga of greed and manipulations, discord and divisions; and, having touched the nadir of consciousness, civilization, then, begins a slow and steady ascent back to the next Golden Age. These are not just empty tales but are based on scientific facts indelibly imprinted in the archeological records. We now know that, over the past 12,000 years of the descending Yuga Cycle, humans have shrunk in size by at least 10%, along with a decline in bone strength and athleticism. This has been accompanied by a 10% to 17% reduction in our cranial volume, which has reduced our memory, atrophied our sense of judgment and morality, and led to the loss of subtle mental abilities such as foresight, telepathy, astral projection, remote viewing, etc. It also turns out that, towards the end of the last Ice Age (when the Golden Age was in progress), there was no food scarcity or diseases, but as time went on, food sources became scarce, many kinds of diseases became endemic, and incidences of violent deaths increased substantially. 

The Yuga Cycle or the Cycle of the Ages is part of an even longer cycle of time called the “Day and Night of Brahma”, which is a grand cosmic cycle of creation and dissolution spanning 25.8 million years or 1000 complete Yuga Cycles! 

This cycle also has two halves. A “Day of Brahma” extends for 12.9 million years, when we experience a continuous sequence of 500 complete Yuga Cycles and the world bustles with life and civilization. At the end of a “Day of Brahma”, the entire creation is destroyed and turns into a formless ocean, and all life returns to the Source. This is followed by a “Night of Brahma” of equal duration of 12.9 million years when no life exists in a manifested form. After the “Night of Brahma” ends, the world is created once again, and the next cycle begins anew with another “Day of Brahma”.

All of this might sound quite fantastic, and test the limits of our beliefs, but the astonishing fact is that almost every facet of the “Day and Night of Brahma” is reflected in the fossil records of the earth. I had written a detailed article on this topic earlier, and, for now, I will simply present a summary of findings to refresh our memories: 

As per the ancient Vedic texts, all life on the earth is extinguished at the end of a “Day of Brahma”, every 25.8 million years. The fossil records, on the other hand, show that a mass extinction of species occurs every 26 million years. The 26 Myr mass extinction cycle has now been validated by a number of separate studies.

The Vedic texts claim that the earth remains in a lifeless state during the “Night of Brahma”, which extends for 12.9 million years following a dissolution or extinction event. The fossil records, on the other hand, show that it takes 10 million years or more for new life forms to emerge and for global biodiversity to recover, after a mass extinction event, due to the continuing grim conditions on earth. 

The Vedic texts claim that new life forms arise on the earth as soon as a new “Day of Brahma” dawns, and that it takes nearly 47,400 years for all living entities to be created. The fossil records reveal that new species appear in rapid, episodic bursts, in a fully formed state, and not through the slow and gradual transformation of its ancestors, as Darwin had proposed. The rapid speciation events are completed within 5,000 - 50,000 years. 

The evidence is indisputable; the ancients knew how the large cycles of time operate, and change the conditions of life on our planet in profound ways, and it is only now that we are beginning to grasp and appreciate the true import of their wisdom teachings. What I was keen to figure out, however, was, what could be causing these vast time cycles that bring about dramatic shifts in our consciousness, genetics, and the entire ecosphere. Surely, a powerful cosmic source must be involved – something as energetic as our Sun, perhaps – for, what else can be capable of modulating our ecosphere and our psyche in such an intense manner?

Vishnunabhi – The Galactic Center

In the book, The Holy Science (1894), Sri Yukteswar provided some important clues for decoding this mystery. He wrote that, according to Oriental astronomers, the sun had another motion around a grand center called Vishnunabhi that is responsible for the unfolding of the Yugas. Here are his exact words:

“The sun also has another motion by which it revolves round a grand center called Vishnunabhi, which is the seat of the creative power Brahma, the universal magnetism. Brahma regulates dharma, the mental virtue of the internal world. When the sun…comes to the place nearest to this grand center, the seat of Brahma (an event which occurs when the Autumnal Equinox comes to the first point of Aries), dharma, the mental virtue becomes so much developed that man can easily comprehend all, even the mysteries of Spirit…After 12,000 years, when the sun goes to the place in its orbit which is farthest from Brahma, the grand center (an event which occurs when the Autumnal Equinox comes to the first point of Libra), the mental virtue comes to such a reduced state that man cannot grasp anything beyond the gross material state.”[1]

When we read this intriguing passage, the first question that pops up in our mind is, what did Yukteswar mean by the grand center called Vishnunabhi, around which our sun revolves? Now, that is easy enough to answer based on what we know about our galaxy today. It has been determined that our sun revolves around the Galactic Center, completing one orbit in 225-250 million years. Therefore, Vishnunabhi (i.e. the navel of Vishnu) must be the Galactic Center. This interpretation is also in perfect alignment with ancient Hindu iconography and cosmological symbolism. 

In Hindu iconography, Lord Vishnu is regarded as the preserver of the created order, and he is typically depicted in a form known as “Anantasayi Vishnu”, in which he is shown, reclining on his serpent bed in the middle of the cosmic Milky Ocean, and dreaming the world into existence from his navel. Out of his navel sprouts a lotus flower which symbolizes the world, and seated within the lotus is Brahma – the supreme creative principle – who brings forth the created order. This is why, Vishnu is called padma-nabha i.e. lotus-naveled”, and Brahma is called nabhija i.e. “navel-born”.  

It is reasonable to assume that the cosmic “Milky Ocean” in the center of which Vishnu reclines, refers to the Milky Way galaxy. In that case, the luminous god Vishnu could be symbolized by the gigantic, central bar of our galaxy, which is nearly 27,000 light-years long and stretches across the center of the Milky Way.[2]

The central bar was discovered quite recently, in 2005, using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. It is composed of roughly 30 million stars. That makes it the biggest and brightest constellation of stars in our galaxy. Like the preserver-god Vishnu, the central bar plays an important role in preserving the created order. It is thought to spin like a propeller inside the Milky Way, helping to maintain our galaxy’s unique spiral shape. 

If Vishnu is symbolized by the central bar of the Milky Way, then Vishnunabhi i.e. the “navel of Vishnu”, must be the Galactic Center, since the navel is the center point of the human anatomy. Thus, whichever way we look at it, the term Vishnunabhi refers to the Galactic Center. It is the “grand center” around which our sun revolves, and it is also the center point of the central bar of the Milky Way, which represents the preserver-god Vishnu.

But the Indian astronomers of the late 19th century (remember, Yukteswar published his book in 1894) were not supposed to know that the sun revolves around the Galactic Center, because it was only in the 1920s that modern astronomers – primarily Harlow Shapley and Edwin Hubble - began to suspect that we live in a spiral galaxy, and our sun was well off the center of the galaxy by some 30,000 light-years, and probably revolving around it. So, this is yet another example of the sophisticated astronomical knowledge of our ancestors, which had been passed down through oral tradition in specific lineages for thousands of years, but largely forgotten by the rest of the world.

Yukteswar also wrote that Vishnunabhi “is the seat of the creative power Brahma, the universal magnetism. Brahma regulates dharma, the mental virtue of the internal world”? This statement is aligned with Vedic cosmological beliefs, as per which, Brahma is the unformed, creative principle who sits on the navel of Vishnu i.e. Vishnunabhi, and is called nabhija i.e. the “navel-born”. 

Now, if Vishnunabhi is the Galactic Center, then who or what is Brahma, the creative power? 

There is only one celestial object in the region of the Galactic Center which is deserving of the epithet Brahma, the creative principle. It is the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center called Sgr A* (Sagittarius A*).

Brahma – The Central Black Hole of the Milky Way

For a long time, astronomers had been observing a powerful radio source at the center of the Milky Way, which they termed Sgr A*since it was located in the direction of the Sagittarius constellation. Then they began to speculate that the only cosmic object that might generate such powerful radiation in the radio frequency (RF) is a black hole. The concept of a black hole came out of Einstein's equations. It was visualized as a “dark star” having enormous gravitational pull that gobbles in and crushes anything which crosses a boundary known as the “event horizon”. A black hole is believed to be formed when an old, massive star uses up its nuclear fuel, implodes under the force of its gravity, and gets compressed within a tiny space called a singularity.

Even till the early 1990s, the existence of black holes was regarded as science fiction by most astronomers, but things changed with the discovery of Sgr A*. Astronomers began to speculate that Sgr A* could be a supermassive black hole, nearly 4.3 million times the mass of the sun, squeezed into a tiny space only ten times bigger than the sun. They proposed that, when the nuclear bulge was forming, a small fraction of the mass lacking orbital momentum collapsed in the middle to form the supermassive black hole. 

But, if a black hole is a “dark star”, and nothing, not even light, can come out of it due to its tremendous gravitational pull, then, how is it that the black hole at the Galactic Center is emitting strong radiation in the RF spectrum? Astronomers believe that the radio waves are coming from the “accretion disk” surrounding the black hole, and not from the black hole itself. The accretion disk was visualized as superheated rings of hot gas, dust and stars that surround a black hole, and spiral toward the “event horizon”. 

Subsequent observations revealed that the supermassive black holes at the centers of other galaxies are emitting intense radiation at all frequencies – from radio waves to gamma rays – and ejecting powerful plasma jets from their north and south poles. That is why astronomers started to refer to black holes as the “central engine” powering a galaxy.

If black holes are the “central engines” powering entire galaxies, then it would not be amiss to postulate that the supreme creative principle called Brahma, who sits in the Galactic Center i.e. Vishnunabhi, must be the supermassive black hole, Sgr A*. 

In other words, as per Sri Yukteswar, it is the central black hole Sgr A*, which regulates our mental virtue and is responsible for the rhythmic rise and fall of consciousness in the course of the Yuga Cycle. 

This can be intuitively understood since human consciousness is strongly influenced by electromagnetic radiation. We know that reduced levels of sunlight in the winter months can cause Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), whose symptoms include anxiety, mood swings, sleep problems and even suicidal thoughts. A similar situation could be transpiring on a galactic scale. Currently, we receive very little radiation from the central black hole, since the nuclear bulge of our galaxy is hidden from our view by vast clouds of interstellar gas and dust. It is probably due to this lack of radiation reaching us from the Galactic Center that we are languishing in the Kali Yuga – the time when consciousness touches rock bottom.

Yukteswar wrote that, as per the ancient astronomers, the sun moves towards and away from the Galactic Center in the course of its revolution around it, which causes electromagnetic radiation to fluctuate and thereby influence our consciousness. I was curious to find out if the sun actually exhibits such a to-and-fro motion. It turns out that, the solar system has two additional motions as it revolves around the Galactic Center. 

The solar system moves up and down the galactic plane at 5-7 km/s, making one complete oscillation in nearly 60 million years. Since the periodicity of this movement is 60 million years, it cannot be tied to Yuga Cycle of 25,800 years.

The solar system moves towards and away from the Galactic Center at a speed of 20 km/s. The amplitude or periodicity of this sinusoidal movement is not known. It is this oscillation that Yukteswar seems to have mentioned in his book.

Once again, it is amazing to realize that the astronomers of ancient India knew that the solar system moves towards and away from the Galactic Center in the course of its orbit - yet another indication of the high wisdom of ancient times.

We need to ascertain, however, if the sideways movement of the solar system, towards and away from the Galactic Center, at speeds of around 20 km/sec, is large enough to cause a palpable variation in the radiation reaching us from the central black hole. I did a rough, back-of-the-envelope calculation. Let’s assume that the periodicity of the sideways movement is 25,800 years. Since the sideways velocity is 20 km/s, the total distance covered in a 25,800-year period will be 1.72 light years. The amplitude will be less than half of that, i.e. less than 0.86 light years. This is extremely small, particularly in comparison to the vast distance of 25,800 light-years between our sun and the Galactic Center. 

How can such a small oscillatory movement change the radiation reaching us from the central black hole to a sufficiently large degree to trigger the enormous changes in our consciousness, physical stature, and environment in the course of the Yuga Cycle? It just didn’t seem convincing to me. To add to the conundrum, very little radiation is anyway reaching us from the black hole due to the interstellar dust clouds.

I was stumped. While it is very likely that the fluctuation in the EM radiation from the central black hole is driving the consciousness shifts during the Yuga Cycle, I couldn’t figure out what is causing the EM radiation to fluctuate. Neither of the motions of the solar system - sideways or up-and-down - could explain it. 

So, I decided to change the direction of my thinking. I wondered, what if the source itself is fluctuating? What if the emission of EM radiation from the central black hole itself varies in a sinusoidal manner, over 25,800 years? 

As soon as I changed the direction of my inquiry, the doors of possibility opened up, leading me to an eminently plausible explanation.

The AGN Cycle of the Central Black Hole

There are times when the nucleus of a galaxy becomes extremely luminous and emits so much radiation that it outshines the light from the rest of the galaxy. Such a luminous nucleus is called an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN). A typical AGN has around four times the luminosity as the rest of the galaxy combined. AGNs are known to be powered by the supermassive black holes in their core, which can become very active from time to time and emit intense radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays. A galaxy hosting an AGN is called an “active galaxy”.

Why is this important? Because the nucleus of a galaxy such as the Milky Way, which has a supermassive black hole in its center, can also experience phases of intense activity when it becomes extraordinarily luminous and turns into an AGN. 

Right now the Milky Way’s central black hole is not very active and emits only radio waves and sporadic X-ray flares, but astronomers know that it exhibited AGN activity in the past. The Magellanic Stream near the Milky Way is believed to have been photoionized by an AGN event in the Galactic Centre some 1–3 Myr ago. 

This means that the Milky Way has its own AGN cycle, and it is possible that the AGN Cycle could be powering the Yuga Cycle.

In a recent paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2015), an international team of scientists - whose members included Kevin Schawinski, Michael Koss, Simon Berney and Lia F. Sartori - described the phases of an AGN cycle, along with their estimates for the duration of each phase, for a typical, large galaxy.3 It must be noted that the Milky Way is not a large galaxy, but a medium-sized one, and therefore these estimates are not applicable to the Milky Way. 

The scientists identified 3 distinct phases in an AGN cycle: Switch-on phase, AGN phase and Switch-off phase. 

Switch-on phase: When the central black hole starts accreting matter, the accretion disc begins emitting radiation at optical, UV and X-ray wavelengths. This is the Switch-on phase. For a large galaxy, this phase extends for ~ 10,000 years. 

AGN phase: After the Switch-on phase, the nucleus becomes extremely luminous and emits intense radiation at all frequencies. Since any electromagnetic radiation is a stream of energetic photons, these photons photoionize the interstellar medium of the host galaxy. Photoionization is the process in which a photon ejects electrons from an atom or a molecule and converts it into an ion i.e. a charged particle. It is at that point that the host galaxy can be identified as an AGN. The AGN phase for a large galaxy extends for ~ 100,000 years. 

Switch-off phase: After the AGN phase, the black hole stops accreting matter and emitting radiation. However, the interstellar medium of the galaxy continues to be photoionized for some time as the “light echo” from the AGN phase travels out across the galaxy. The Switch-off phase for a large galaxy is estimated to extend for ~ 10,000 – 100,000 years.

As per the scientists in the study, the statistical estimate for the total duration of an AGN cycle (including the three phases) for a typical large galaxy is ~ 200,000 years. As I have mentioned earlier, these estimates are not applicable to the Milky Way since it is a medium-sized galaxy. So what could be the duration of the AGN cycle of the Milky Way?

The point to be noted is that there is considerable variability in the duration of the AGN cycle. In some small galaxies, the AGN phase could last for a few decades or even days. I wondered, what if the total duration of the AGN cycle of the Milky Way is one order of magnitude less than that of a typical large galaxy i.e. ~ 20,000 years? That would make it comparable to the 25,800-year duration of the Yuga Cycle and precession cycle.

I decided to take the argument forward and tried to map the three phases of an AGN cycle to the Yuga Cycle. The outcome was more than satisfactory and quite plausible.

Since the Milky Way’s nucleus is currently not very luminous, we may be living in the Switch-on phase of the central black hole, Sgr A*. This phase may have started sometime after the beginning of the ascending Kali Yuga in c.676 BCE. We know that Sgr A* has been emitting strong radiation in the radio frequency spectrum. In addition, observations since 2006 indicate that Sgr A* displays strong, unpredictable, flaring emissions in the X-ray band, atop a steady level.[4] Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues have also noted in their paper that, “X-ray light echoes in the Galactic Center show moderate-luminosity flares in the last few centuries.” It is quite possible, therefore, that Sgr A* is currently in the Switch-on phase. The X-ray emissions may be responsible for the genetic mutations that have been increasing our physical size and lifespan during the ascending Kali Yuga. 

The AGN phase of Sgr A* could begin after the end of the Kali Yuga in 2025, sometime during the 1200 years of Ekpyrosis. The AGN phase may continue for the entire 11,700 years of the ascending Yuga Cycle, till the end of the Golden Age. During this time, the nucleus of the Milky Way could become extraordinarily luminous and photoionize the entire galaxy. The increase in the intensity of ionizing radiation from Sgr A*, such as extreme UV, X-ray, and Gamma rays, could trigger beneficial genetic mutations that can progressively increase our cranial volume, height and lifespan during the ascending cycle. Ionizing radiation is very effective in killing bacteria and disease-causing microorganisms. This could be why the higher Yugas were said to be free of diseases. The photoionization of the earth’s atmosphere will also provide a positive boost to our mood and attitude. Many studies have shown that exposure to negative ions can alleviate depression, reduce stress, increase mental alertness and improve cognitive abilities.[5]

The Switch-off phase of Sgr A* could begin after the end of the next Golden Age, sometime during the 1200-year period of Kataklysmos that will follow. The Switch-off phase may extend for ~ 10,200 years, spanning the 1200 years of Kataklysmos and another 9000 years till the end of the descending Kali Yuga. During the Switch-off phase of Sgr A*, the emission of electromagnetic radiation will stop. The photoionization of the galaxy will taper off gradually due to the “light echo” in the outer galaxy, and as it does so, the harmful genetic mutations that occur due to the background radiation on the earth (i.e. cosmic rays, solar UV and radioactive decay) will begin to predominate and reduce our lifespans, physical structures and cranial volumes. Germs and diseases will begin to multiply, and the positive “mood” that we experienced in the AGN phase due to the presence of negative ions will begin to slowly dissipate.

The AGN cycle of the central black hole, Sgr A*, therefore, provides a plausible explanation for the changes that occur in the course of the Yuga Cycle. Every AGN burst of 25,800 years duration could be driving a complete Yuga Cycle on the earth. Although we don’t know if the AGN cycle of the Milky Way is actually of 25,800 years duration, I felt optimistic that this was the correct explanation, since, not only does it explain all the changes that occur in the course of the Yuga Cycle it is remarkably well-aligned with Hindu cosmic symbolisms and the writings of Sri Yukteswar. 

One might think that it is too much of a coincidence to expect that the AGN burst of Sgr A* will be exactly equal to 25,800 years, which is the duration of the Yuga Cycle and the precession cycle of the earth. But isn’t nature full of such interesting coincidences? In December 2020, the VERA Experiment used state-of-the-art telescopic measurements to determine that the distance of the Earth from the central black hole is exactly 25,800 light-years![6]

Isn’t that amazing? Think about this: if the duration of the AGN cycle of Sgr A* is 25,800 years, then it becomes exactly equal to the time taken by the radiation from the black hole to reach the earth i.e. 25,800 years. In that case, the Yuga Cycle will be “in phase” with the central black hole i.e. we will see the black hole exactly as it was one full Yuga Cycle ago. In other words, we can look at the current state of the black hole and determine which part of the Yuga Cycle we are in. These are not coincidences, but the signs of Intelligent Design. Intelligent Design is all around us; but since we are languishing at the fag end of a long age of darkness, we have lost the eyes to perceive the underlying reality of our existence.

So, here’s what seems to be going on in tandem to power the Cycle of the Ages. The spherical solar system (yes, the solar system is a sphere, since it is enclosed by a spherical shell of comets called the Oort cloud) is rotating clockwise on its axis once in 25,800 years to cause the precession of the equinoxes. The rotating solar system is also revolving around the Galactic Center once in 225-250 million years, and it is located at a distance of exactly 25,800 light-years from the Galactic Center. The central black hole, Sgr A*, completes one AGN cycle in 25,800 years, which brings about dramatic changes in our consciousness, physical stature, lifespan and the external environment throughout the Yuga cycle.

The Central Black Hole has Switched On

My contention in Yuga Shift was that, sometime after the end of the Kali Yuga in 2025, the central black hole, Sgr A*, will switch from the “Start-up phase” of its AGN cycle to the active or “AGN phase”, and this will provide the necessary energetic impetus for our spiritual ascension. I did not know exactly when this switchover might happen but expected it to occur sometime during the 1200 years of transition called Ekpyrosis that will follow the Kali Yuga.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I came across this piece of news on CNN Science which stated that, over the past year, the central black hole of the Milky Way has been emitting blindingly bright flares of light daily, along with many shorter flashes. As I have already mentioned, till now the black hole had been emitting only radio waves and occasional X-ray flares, so this is indeed a very big change in its behavior. Here’s a small excerpt from the article.

“Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have spied dynamic flares of light near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The constant, rapid-fire display includes seconds-long short flashes and longer, blindingly bright flares of light on a daily basis...A study describing the findings was published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters... 

In our data, we saw constantly changing, bubbling brightness,” said lead study author Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, a professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, in a statement. “And then boom! A big burst of brightness suddenly popped up. Then, it calmed down again. We couldn’t find a pattern in this activity. It appears to be random. The activity profile of this black hole was new and exciting every time that we looked at it.”[7]

This is a clear indication that the central black hole is currently in the process of switching to the active or “AGN phase” of its AGN Cycle. It’s still in the initial stages of the AGN phase, though, since it is emitting only visible light as of now, but over time, we can expect it to become considerably more active and emit intense radiation at all frequencies from radio waves to gamma rays.

I was expecting that the activation of the black hole would happen sometime after 2025, but as it turns out, the shift had already happened in 2024. And now that I think back, it explains a lot of what was going on in 2024. Many people around the world were waking up to the lies and deceptions everywhere and started asking questions about what was really going on in the world. There was a definite uptick in psychic and intuitive abilities, and a lot of people felt that a big shift was on the way. The interest in our true origins and the extraordinary skills and wisdom of our ancestors was picking up and the call for moving away from the drama and negativity of the outer world and aligning with the inner spirit kept getting louder.

What the activation of the central black hole implies is that the spiritual ascension of humanity will now continue relentlessly in an upward trajectory over the next 12000 years, taking us to the pinnacle of human consciousness, and manifesting a virtual utopia on earth. Nothing can derail this process, no power on earth can stop it. All that is needed for us to do is to open our hearts to welcome the new energies, let go of any fears or doubts that hold us back, and be willing to manifest our soul potential.

The Growth Phase of the Black Hole

The news about the activation of the central black hole made me quite certain that it is the AGN Cycle of Sgr A* that is powering the Yuga Cycle. But there is something else, which adds to my conviction. The black hole has a longer cycle, which explains the 26-million-year cycle known as the “Day and Night of Brahma”. I was aware of this when I was writing Yuga Shift, but I did not include it in the book, since it would have required me to explain the concept of the “Day and Night of Brahma”, and I did not want to introduce any additional complexities in that book. But now is the perfect time to bring it up.

Astronomers Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues, whose paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2015) I had referenced earlier, had observed that AGNs flicker on and off over tens or even hundreds of millions of years. I contended that these consecutive AGN bursts can power a long, uninterrupted, sequence of Yuga Cycles.

However, the AGN cycles of the central black hole do not go on indefinitely. A black hole typically goes through many short AGN bursts, anywhere from 100 to 10,000, to build up its mass. After that, the black hole enters into a quiescent state, when it emits practically no radiation. This is what the astronomers wrote in their paper:

“It is likely that a large number of 100 to perhaps 10,000 (AGN bursts) make up a longer growth phase of 10^7 – 10^9 yr. To put it another way, what we previously considered to be a 10^8 yr. AGN phase, perhaps triggered by a major merger, should be divided into ~ 1000 short bursts”[8]

In other words, for a typical large galaxy, the central black hole goes through ~ 1000 AGN cycles, which comprises the “growth phase” of the black hole. After the growth phase is over, the black hole becomes completely quiet, and the AGN cycles resume after a long period of no activity. 

This behavior perfectly correlates to what we know about the cycle known as the “Day and Night of Brahma”. A “Day of Brahma” consists of a continuous sequence of 500 complete Yuga Cycles of 25,800 years each. If each Yuga Cycle is powered by an AGN burst of the central black hole Sgr A*, then it means that the central black hole needs to go through 500 consecutive AGN bursts to complete its growth phase, before becoming quiet. As per astronomers Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues, a typical large galaxy goes through ~1000 AGN bursts to complete its growth phase. Since the Milky Way is a medium-sized galaxy, it is eminently possible that the growth phase of its central black hole, Sgr A*, consists of 500 AGN bursts, which powers a Day of Brahma!   

Moreover, after the completion of a growth phase consisting of ~1000 AGN bursts, the central black hole of a typical large galaxy becomes completely quiet and emits no radiation at all. This perfectly explains the period known as “Night of Brahma” when the cycle of the Yugas comes to a halt, and there is a mass extinction of species.

Thus, the cosmic mechanism for the two grand cycles of time – the Yuga Cycle and the “Day and Night of Brahma” - are intimately tied together. One explains the other. If the Yuga Cycle is powered by an AGN burst of the central black hole of the Milky Way, then the Day of Brahma is the growth phase of the central black hole comprising 500 AGN bursts, while the Night of Brahma is the quiescent phase that follows the growth phase.

Also remember that the Vedic sages referred to the central black hole as Brahma, the “creative power”, which implies that the “Day and Night of Brahma” must be a cycle associated with the black hole. And indeed, it is!

These remarkable correlations made me quite confident that it is the AGN cycle and the growth phase of the central black hole, Sgr A*, of the Milky Way, that is powering the large cycles of time that the ancients spoke of. In fact, I am so certain of this now, that I am going to specify a set of three hypotheses related to the behavior of the central black hole, Sgr A*.

1. An AGN burst of the central black hole, Sgr A*, of the Milky Way is of 25,800 years duration, and it powers a complete Yuga Cycle of the same duration. 

2. The growth phase of the central black hole, Sgr A*, of the Milky Way consists of 500 AGN bursts, and it powers a “Day of Brahma” of 12.9 million years duration, which is followed by a mass extinction of species on earth.

3. The quiescent phase of the central black hole, Sgr A*, of the Milky Way is of 12.9 million years duration, known to the Vedic sages as the “Night of Brahma”, when all of creation comes to a standstill. 

Of course, all of this raises more questions. How did the ancients know about these long cycles of time? How could they have known about the existence of the central black hole of the Milky Way, and its smaller and larger cycles? Did they figure out all of this by themselves? The truth is that our ancestors always said that their wisdom, skills and knowledge were “given” to them by their gods and sages. This, in turn, leads to questions about who these entities were, and why we do not see them today. The answers to such questions are likely tied up with the UFO phenomenon, and as more clarity emerges regarding these anomalous events we will, hopefully, get to the bottom of this mystery. 

A few people have asked me, how do we really know that there is a black hole at the Galactic Center? A black hole is a hypothetical entity, a mathematical construct that came out of Einstein’s equations, and Einstein himself did not have much faith in these kinds of weird “singularities” where the known laws of physics cease to operate. 

Is it possible that the energetic cosmic entity at the center of the Milky Way is not a black hole but something entirely different? This is a question that I will attempt to address in a subsequent article, taking the aid of insights from various ancient and spiritual traditions. 

References

1. Sri Yukteswar Giri, The Holy Science, op. cit., p. 14.
2. Terry Devitt, “Galactic survey reveals a new look for the Milky Way”, University of Wisconsin-Madison News, 16 August 2005, http://www.news.wisc.edu/11405
3. Kevin Schawinski, Michael Koss, Simon Berney, Lia F. Sartori, “Active galactic nuclei flicker: an observational estimate of the duration of black hole growth phases of ?105 yr.”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, August 2015, Vol.451, No.3, pp. 2517–2523, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1136
4. “Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Flares Irregularly and Unpredictably, Astronomers Find”, SCI NEWS, 13 January 2022, http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/flaring-sagittarius-a-10458.html
5. Denise Mann, “Negative Ions Create Positive Vibes”, WebMD, 6 May 2002, https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-positive-vibes
6. Diane Lincoln, “Our galaxy's supermassive black hole is closer to Earth than we thought”, LiveScience, 20 December 2020, https://www.livescience.com/milky-way-black-hole-closer-to-earth.html
7. Ashley Strickland, "Astronomers spot flares of light near the black hole at the center of our galaxy" CNN, February 19, 2025, https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/19/science/milky-way-black-hole-flickers-webb?cid=ios_app&fbclid=IwY2xjawI2dH1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHVXzMIBhdSSmNpQlGonQ0wGnSEX9sTsswKtoi0aUC57smeEDjMUUDQmA-A_aem_6unHAcT-oJcHVawfytDttw
8. Kevin Schawinski, Michael Koss, Simon Berney, Lia F. Sartori, “Active galactic nuclei flicker: an observational estimate of the duration of black hole growth phases of ?105 yr.”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, August 2015, Vol.451, No.3, pp. 2517–2523, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1136

RELATED VIDEOS