Its all so complicated, but also so simple ;)

Great question Kate! Yes, the dark times are coming and for some are already manifesting strongly. But, we all still have free will and we and choose to place God in front of us and transcend with our practice and help others to do the same. This is the time that it will be most needed, because those that do not will not continue and may be lost. These are the darkest of times, but only the smallest light of faith will save us all. Through knowledge and action will we transcend and meanwhile we will help educate and guide those that may have lost their way, or can not see through the darkness. With the light of Jnana, Bhakti, Hatha, Karma, Kriya, Raja Yoga we can help ourselves and those that seem to search but are lost in darkness. It is already upon us, so what shall we do?

We can follow multiple paths! In chapter 4 of the Gita, Krisna stresses that all paths will lead us to a God Realized existence, but there is a path that is easier than others. He states that the path of both Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga are the clearest paths, combined to Enlightenment. But this is for the more informed aspirant, the more devoted. All paths will lead you to a state of God Realization, but some are easier than others. Kriya is a very difficult path but is known to be the fastest one, many will stumble and fail because of how austere it is. That is why Krisna says that the path of both Karma, action and Jnana, knowledge is the best combination of paths to follow. They all lead us to the same place but we want to make sure that the path isn't so austere that the students/aspirants lose their way.

Suffering will decrease greatly if not completely by following our dharma! And we also have to burn off the karma that we were born with, we can't get away from that work. Except!!!! Kriya Yoga ! That helps burn off karma faster! But that is a different story! Namaste

The answer is always much more complex than we should hope for, but also so much easier. The idea of heaven and hell, is an entire course in itself. Is the other side of suffering heaven? That is an interesting concept all in itself. Lets remove the religious and romanized idea of heaven and look at suffering by itself. When we are not in sink with our dharma, we will suffer. When we deny our karma we will suffer . The suffering is not heaven hell, it is nothing but what is. There is no emotion attached to our lives, we attach the emotions, this is what creates so much more suffering. The non emotional being would do better here, it is a balance sheet. Do right action, all the time then suffering will lesson. Don't, then suffering will become greater. If you had a lot of credit card debt, and you suffered from it, collectors called you, your credit was ruined, people judged you for it. What would you do? Would you take responsibility for it? Work harder at clearing up this debt? To build your credit? Or..... would you deny the debt, open another credit card and believe you will do better but continue to do the same as before? Now you have twice as much debt. What is this? Hell? NO! Its just debt. Pay it back. Stop creating more. Heaven is when you take responsibility for your actions, pay off your karma and stop creating more Samskaras! Then we have positive karma, heaven on earth.

:)

For the second part if this question, which... like Eleni's questions are not so easily answered. The timing of the Yugas is difficult to comprehend. But to understand this just a little bit further, understand that the physical representation of the human being was most probably created the beginning of Kali Yuga, the Yuga we are in today. The Yugas before that were metaphysical representations of a Yuga, but equally as important and real. It is very difficult to understand that actual timeframe of these yugas, for our minds can not understand the multitude of facits that are expressed in each yuga For most of us we need to accept the place that we are in, and see the clarity of its existence that was written and foretold so many millions of years ago, Like a circle that is never-ending are our lives ,until we reach a God realized existence, that is when this cycle ends and yes, a new one begins. The Yuga's are all just greater cycles. As far as when they started and when will they end? That goes under the never ending discussion of yogic philosophy! We will all know the answer on that one glorious day that we become God Realized! Let us all know what the real truth is! Till then, we will collectively continue to move forward in faith.

Yes!!! This is the good news and the bad news! But the beautiful part of this is that we are not forgotten, nor is our purpose. So if we don't figure it out in one life then we will have many posibilities to continue our studies. We should stop thinking that life is reoccurring , rather consider them as a day in your life. Does your responsibility of one day end on the next? This is the same with life times. Namaste

It does say 12 years to change a cycle or a samskara, but during that time we can be working on a few things at the same time. For instance we can work on Ahimsa as well as Pratyahara, so the culmination of work happens within those 12 years of dedication. the 13th year that they speak of is the year that God Realization is recognized. None of this is easy, but once we begin on this journey it appears to be easier to do the right thing than not.

Thanks Eleni for our first and probably most difficult question to answer! :) Krishna isn’t some supernatural power like God of Abraham…….he is the supreme concsiousness that resides in you and in all of us only.. So ask yourself, why Dharma has declined and we have different yugas…As a human are we so perfect to practice dharma without any selfishness and making no mistakes in life?? Aren’t there humans who have gone against their dharma for their own selfish motives? Aren’t there humans who just are too lazy to perform their dharma so that theirs a balance and it never declines? How many humans actually are able to listen their consciousness and are just lost and oblivious about their dharma? Is the consciousness of every human the same?? Aren’t there humans with demonic consciousness like terrorists ( something to discuss)? Don’t they influence the decline of dharma??? Well, because of this we have cycles , in this case they are yoga's, but we also know them as Samsara. The never ending cycle of life, death, and rebirth. There are thousands of cycles, large ones like the Yugas and Samsara and smaller ones as to some bad habits we have that we continue to perpetuate. Why do the cycles continue? So that we can break them! So that we can reach liberation, freedom from suffering and liberation into a God Realized existence. They repeat so we can have more opportunities to break them, if they didn't repeat then we would only have one chance to learn and break a particular pattern, They are here so we can learn from them, so we can break them, so we can release ourselves of suffering. But.... the answer is also as complex as Why does the sun rise every day, and the moon every night? When did they start to do this? This is actually and easier question than the one you have presented to me :) The end answer is that there are many planes of understanding , and this is just one cycle of thousands upon thousands of cycles. They are here so that we can realize God in all living beings and ourselves . They end when we realize this. But then we enter another age of cycles as well! The answer as to why we are here, why do we have to cycle in and out of these cycles, is an age long and highly discussed subject matter and one we may never gain a true answer until of course we arrive in an enlightened state and become God Realized! Until then, we will collectively search and study and grow together to learn how to end our suffering! Thankfully we are reading and studying the Gita! The answers are here! The answers are within ourselves! Thanks Eleni for a great question!