kalpa

American  

[kuhl-puh] / ˈkʌl pə /

noun

Hinduism.

1. a thousand cycles of Maha Yugas.

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kalpa British  

/ ˈkælpə /

noun

1. (in Hindu cosmology) a period in which the universe experiences a cycle of creation and destruction

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Etymology

Origin of kalpa

Borrowed into English from Sanskrit around 1785–95

Example Sentences

Transfer this experience from man to God; consider it not as abstract and apparent, but as concrete and real, and you have the Hindu doctrine of the kalpa.

From The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life by Alger, William Rounseville

Even as at the end of the great kalpa, those holding the law who die, when the rolling sound of the mysterious thunder-cloud severs the forests, upon these there shall fall the rain of immortality.

From Sacred Books of the East by Various

And 'All beings at the end of a kalpa return into my Nature, and again, at the beginning of a kalpa, do I send them forth.

From The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja — Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 by Thibaut, George

IV The fourth Teacher in the present kalpa was Sākya Muni, or Gautama Buddha, who was born in a Royal family in India about 2,500 years ago.

From The Buddhist Catechism by Olcott, Henry Steel

The end of a kalpa, or cycle of manifestation, is symbolized by the presence on a planet of many avatars, masters, and angels.

From Cosmic Consciousness by McIvor-Tyndall, Alexander J. (Alexander James)