Thousands of pilgrims gather for Kalachakra at Bodhgaya in Bihar

From the archive record

Thousands of Tibetan pilgrims arrive to witness and take part in 32nd Kalachakra at Bodhgaya in 2012. The word kalachakra means cycles of time, and the Kalachakra system presents three such cycles -- external, internal and alternative. The external and internal cycles deal with time as we normally know it, while the alternative cycles are practices for gaining liberation from these two. The structures of the external and internal cycles are analogous, similar to the parallel between macrocosm and microcosm discussed in Western philosophy. This means that the same laws that govern a universe also pertain to atoms, the body and our experience of life. The practices of the alternative cycles also follow this structure so as to allow us to engage with and surmount these forces in an efficient