કાળચક્રThe wheel
In the Bharat and Airavat kshetras time turns like a wheel without beginning or end. One turn is 20 kotakoti sagaropam: an avsarpini of 10, when life slowly declines, and an utsarpini of 10, when it slowly rises again.
છ આરાThe six ara
The avsarpini has six ara: Sukham-sukham (4 kotakoti sagaropam), Sukham (3), Sukham-dukham (2), Dukham-sukham (1 kotakoti less 42,000 years), Dukham (21,000 years) and Dukham-dukham (21,000 years). The utsarpini has the same six in reverse order.
તીર્થંકરો ક્યારે થાયWhen the Tirthankars come
In the first ara people live as yugalik, and the kalpavruksh meet their needs. Near the end of the third ara Shri Rishabhdev Bhagwan taught the arts of living and set up the first tirth; the other 23 Tirthankars came in the fourth ara. Shri Mahavir Swami attained nirvan three years and eight and a half months before the fourth ara ended.
આપણો કાળ: પાંચમો આરોOur time: the fifth ara
We live in the fifth ara, Dukham, of this avsarpini. It began about 2,500 years ago and lasts 21,000 years. In this ara no one from Bharat attains kevalgyan or moksha; Shri Jambu Swami was the last kevali. Yet the Jin-shasan of Shri Mahavir Swami continues through the whole ara.
હવે પછીWhat comes next
After the hard sixth ara the utsarpini begins. In its third ara the coming chovisi will start with Shri Padmanabh Swami, the soul of King Shrenik. Mahavideh has no such change: there it is always like the fourth ara.