 |
 |
|
|
|
|
TEXT 17 sahasra-yuga-paryantam
SYNONYMS  sahasra--thousand;
yuga--millenniums; paryantam--including; ahah--day;
yat--that; brahmanah--of Brahma; viduh--they know;
ratrim--night; yuga--millenniums; sahasra-antam--similarly,
at the end of one thousand; te--that; ahah-ratra--day and
night; vidah--understand; janah--people.
TRANSLATION By human
calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahma's
one day. And such also is the duration of his night.
PURPORT The duration
of the material universe is limited. It is manifested in cycles of kalpas.
A kalpa is a day of Brahma, and one day of Brahma consists of a
thousand cycles of four yugas or ages: Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and
Kali. The cycle of Satya is characterized by virtue, wisdom and religion,
there being practically no ignorance and vice, and the yuga lasts
1,728,000 years. In the Treta-yuga vice is introduced, and this yuga
lasts 1,296,000 years. In the Dvapara-yuga there is an even greater decline
in virtue and religion, vice increasing, and this yuga lasts 864,000
years. And finally in Kali-yuga (the yuga that we have now been
experiencing over the past 5,000 years) there is an abundance of strife,
ignorance, irreligion and vice, true virtue being practically nonexistent,
and this yuga lasts 432,000 years. In Kali-yuga vice increases to
such a point that at the termination of the yuga the Supreme Lord
Himself appears as the Kalki avatara, vanquishes the demons, saves
His devotees, and commences another Satya-yuga. Then the process is set
rolling again. These four yugas, rotating a thousand times, comprise
one day of Brahma, the creator god, and the same number comprise one night.
Brahma lives one hundred of such "years" and then dies. These "hundred
years" by earth calculations total to 311 trillion and 40 million earth
years. By these calculations the life of Brahma seems fantastic and interminable,
but from the viewpoint of eternity it is as brief as a lightning flash.
In the Causal Ocean there are innumerable Brahmas rising and disappearing
like bubbles in the Atlantic. Brahma and his creation are all part of the
material universe, and therefore they are in constant flux.
In the material
universe not even Brahma is free from the process of birth, old age, disease
and death. Brahma, however, is directly engaged in the service of the Supreme
Lord in the management of this universe--therefore he at once attains liberation.
Elevated sannyasis are promoted to Brahma's particular planet, Brahmaloka,
which is the highest planet in the material universe and which survives
all the heavenly planets in the upper strata of the planetary system, but
in due course Brahma and all the inhabitants of Brahmaloka are subject
to death, according to the law of material nature.
|
