"To answer your question, let me tell you about us, the gods," Krishna said.
"Do you know how old the earth is?" Krishna asked.
"Yes, it's 4.5 billion years old," Aariv replied.
"Yes, that's correct and do you know how old the humans are"
"200,000 years old," Aariv said.
"Correct, but not fully, in the first 1 billion years of earth, the first intelligent life was born. They were gods" Krishna said as he waved his hand and a holographic image engulfed Aariv and him.
Aariv saw images of many gods, not just Hindu gods but Greek, Egyptian and some unknown gods too.
"With gods, Asuras/demons also came" The scene changed and Aariv saw many ugly faces of demons.
"Let me tell you a story.
Once there was a king by the name Kashyapa. He had two wives. Their names were Adithi and Dithi. Adithi did service to the husband when she was ordered by her husband. She served him with a full-pledged and pleasant mind without any hesitation as she loved him very much.
By that, Kashyapa was impressed and asked to demand a wish. As a result, she asked to be given noble sons. She gave birth to Devas(Devas are benevolent supernatural beings in the Vedic era literature, with Indra (above) as their leader.) (sons of Adithi—- Adityas)
Dithi came to her stepsister and asked how Adithi got sons. She told how their husband was impressed by her service. Then Dithi went in odd time to get the boon by force. Kashyapa was not in mood and was very busy with his meditation. She disturbed his meditation and she did service in massaging his legs by force, although he had no pains. She demanded sons.
Kashyapa said it was odd time,i.e. the time of Asura Sandhya(evening twilight). She didn't listen. As a result, Dithi got Dityas/Asuras(Asuras are defined as being powerful titans or demons and are considered to be the gods of the primeval world and counterparts of devas) having Thamo Guna(one that causes confusion at every step. There is a complete lack of light (ignorance, darkness)). She repented afterward. But of no use.
The eternal universal binary is not good vs evil but order vs chaos. Chaos contains the sum total of all possibilities, both positive and negative - some of the Asuras were good guys like Prahlada and Vibhiṣaṇa and some were really bad like Rāvana, Hiranyakashipu, etc.
Chaos is necessary to bring out order and order has its reference to chaos, a balanced life is one in which both chaos and order are in balance — neither can exist without the other. As humans, they have a predilection for walking on the edge - finding excitement in chaos but security in order. Chaos leads to confusion and deterioration in life, order creates defined goals, aspirations and the discipline to succeed." Krishna said and stopped for a minute so that Aariv could digest all the knowledge and continued.
"Devas and Asuras were a species just like humans, they were the first to come into existence. My main body, God Vishnu, was one of those devas. The lifespan of the Devas was 100 divine years which was equal to 36,000 human years.
After thousands of years of asceticism, some of us were granted godhood by the supreme formless force of the universe. We don't know who or what that force is, all we know is that it is the supreme creator and destroyer of time and space in all multiverse.
Most of the gods that you know today came from that era and we also kept on making more gods by granting small godhood to mortals who prayed to us and made us happy.
But the age of Devas and Asuras could not last for eternity as the cycle of Yugas(eras) must continue.
There are 4 eras that society/civilization on earth goes through.
1. Satya Yuga(Era of truth):- 4800 Devine year (17,28,000 human year)
The first and best Yuga. A time of truth and righteousness-Virtue reigns supreme. Humans are gigantic, powerfully built, handsome, honest, youthful and virtuous. People must perform penances for thousands of years to acquire Samadhi and die.
2. Treta Yuga(age of mankind):- 3600 Devine year (12,96,000 human year)
There was 3 quarter virtue & 1 quarter sin. It is considered to be the second Yuga in order, however Treta means the "Third". In this age, virtue diminishes slightly. At the beginning of the age, many emperors rose to dominance and conquered the world. Wars become frequent. People become slightly diminished compared to their predecessors. The average lifespan of humans is around 1000-10,000 years.
3. Dwapar Yuga:- 2400 Devine year (08,64,000 human year)
There was 1 half virtue & 1 half sin. It is considered to be the third Yuga in order. Dvapara means "after two". In this age, people aren't as strong as their ancestors. Diseases become rampant. Humans are discontent and fight each other.
4. Kali Yuga:- 1200 Devine year (04,32,000 human year)
There is 1 quarter virtue & 3 quarter sin. The final age. It is the age of darkness and ignorance. People become sinners and lack virtue. They become slaves to their passions. People become liars and hypocrites. Knowledge is lost and scriptures are diminished. Humans eat dirty food and engage in unrestrained sinful sexual practices. The environment is polluted, water and food become scarce. Wealth is heavily diminished. Families become nonexistent. The average lifespan of people is barely 100 years, though by the end of the Yuga, it will be up to 20 years. So after this yuga again Satya yuga follows.
1 cycle takes 12,000 Devine years (43,20,000 human years)..." Krishna said and was continuing but was interrupted by Aariv.
"Wait, what era am I living in right now?" Aariv asked eagerly.
"You live in Kali Yuga, it started on 3102 BCE," Krishna answered calmly.
"You can ask anything you want after I finish. So, after the first 1 billion years, Devas and Asuras fought each other and ended up killing each other and destroying the earth's atmosphere. After that, it took some more millions of years for life to evolve again.
Before the current civilization that you live in, 700 cycles have passed, but none of those civilizations reached the pinnacle. Some of them couldn't evolve as an asteroid fell and destroyed them, some of them couldn't evolve as plague engulfed the whole planet and everyone died of disease and some just destroyed themselves with big wars.
One way or another it always ended in the Kali-yuga." Krishna said it looked like he had finished speaking so Aariv spoke.
"Well, from the time I came from, we humans didn't die out from war or disease," he said.
"Yes, that was or is an exception, even we, the gods were surprised to see that happening, you cleaned your planets and truly made lives of humans better. For a civilization to reach the stage of space civilization is extremely rare. It looked like the cycle was going backward. but who knew that the universe also had its own cycle, which refreshed every 500 million years.
When we gods found out about that cycle, we were angered because what was the reason for our existence if we had no power to protect our world?
Yes, we tried to interfere when the aliens came to destroy earth, but we could do nothing, every time one of us gods tried to interfere with the mortal world, that god would vanish from existence. We learned it the hard way that we were not the powerful entities in the universe. There was someone above us, who had the power to do whatever it wanted.
We just call that entity 'the creator.'" Krishna explained.
"Yes, I know, when I died I saw an old man he also said 'only you can free us from the control of creator', do you know anything about that?" Aariv asked with a confused face.
"Yes, that old man was Brahma, the creator god.
When we gods found out about the cycle of the universe, we all felt like being tied like a puppet whose only purpose was to do as his master wished. So, we left earth and traveled the universe for answers. We looked for the creator but only found other higher beings like us, some of them were even older and stronger than us and some had already given up looking for the creator.
Many of us are still traveling, that is why you don't see many godly miracles happening on earth, these days.
You are meant to be even stronger and greater than the best of us. The sole purpose of your reincarnation is to find the creator, the controller and free us all from the invisible strings.
And this is also applied to you Juno, Although you don't remember your past, but let me tell you something. You were one of us, gods. That is all I can tell you, you will have to find the rest of the answers on your own." Krishna said and then headed back to the palace.
Aariv just stood there with a surprised face.
If Juno had a body, her jaws would have been dropped by now. She was shocked that Krishan knew about her past.
"Wait wait, tell me more," Juno yelled with a childish voice.
"I can't as its not the right time," Krishna said while walking.
"Follow me Aariv, it's time to hand you over your thing. All the gods had to come together to make it"
Aariv quickly started following him, he was still thinking about Krishna's words, he was also interested in Juno's background now, and how the hell was he supposed to find and stop the creator of the goddamn universe.