BHAGAVAD-GITA 8:17

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 8:17

 

sahasra-yuga-paryantam

ahar yad brahmano viduh

ratrim yuga-sahasrantam

te 'ho-ratra-vido janah

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

sahasra--one thousand; yuga--millenniums; paryantam--including;

ahah--day; yat--that which; brahmanah--of Brahma; viduh--they know;

ratrim--night; yuga--millenniums; sahasra-antam--similarly, ending

after one thousand; te--they; ahah-ratra--day and night; vidah--who

understand; janah--people.

 

TRANSLATION

 

By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together form 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 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, 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 billion 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.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.