When we talk of past life's, does it not beg the question, how about this life? How long will it last? What is the ceiling or max life expectency? This is Ayush or age determining considerations. Pending ones lot-in-life e.g. individual, [ manusya-ayus ] celestial [deva-ayus], animal [triyag ayus] or a hell being [ naraka ayus] various life spans are possible.
For the individual, on this planet in this yuga ( this time period), ones life say the wise, is vimshottari or 120 years. This knowledge is from Parasara muni (the Jyotisha of the first degee). Ya gotta ask why not an even 100, or the familur 108 (which I subscribe to, based upon another dasa period system)? Let's take a look:
Saturn as Yama , His Hand In This
This one-hundred-and-twenty is coupled to Saturn, Sani, also known as Yama. It is Yama that meters out the length of life. So if connected to Sani, we see that one trip around the sun = 29.5 years. For one's life to be 'complete' it is to cover the 4 Periods or ayana's of life: Dharma (that which upholds individual life or one's duties), Artha ( wealth creation), Kama ( fulfilling one's desires) and then Moksha ( enlightenment or establishing one SELF).
If we multiply 29.5 years X 4 periods we get 118 years. I will assume Sri Parashara's knowledge is much more advanced then mine and rounded to 120 years because he knows more, trying to keep it simple, etc. I can assure you this 120 is not an approxiation, or best efforts! Some also think the following:
The vimshottari dasha cycle of 120 years = 43,830 days, whereas, using the 360 days years, this amounts to 43,200 days. Now why would one use 360 days vs. a 365 day year? One year = one trip around the sun or completing a total 360 degree circle…so each day is worth 1 degree. Hence a 360 degree year is logical and then can work on any planet (brilliant I may add).
Now, note this 43,200 days. It resembles the number of years in Kali Yuga that is, 432,000 years, and it is not uncommon to write this as 43,2000 even though I find it confusing! Hence the length of Vimshottari dasa life span is a subset of the Kali Yuga duration… as Parasara shows consistency of his wisdom and dictums.
Side note, I used this word dasa , which is period or duration. Vimshottari dasa is a 120 year period. Other dasa periods are also available , there are 32 different types of dasa periods one can access and calculate, pending ones chart. My chart sugests that I should access Astottari dasa for a total of 108 years possible ayus.
Based Upon The Yuga In Place
The notion then is the yuga determines ones life span.
That is , Dwapar, Teta and Krita Yuga's are 2X, 3X and 4X times as long as kali duration, all based on this 432,000 years, and 43,200 days. So, one's life span can be potentially 2X to 4X the life span potential of Vimshottari ayus or from 120 years to (4X120) 480 years of potential life. This 480 when added together is 12 [4+8+0]. This 12 is one complete revolution around the zodiac ( 12 signs or rasi's) where one experiences the fullness ( Bhuma) of life in Krita Yuga ( called sat or truth yuga) where most if not all of the population is enlightened beings. Fullness on the indiviual, famly, social and world levels. Fullness of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha.