The origin and end of all creatures

I wish, O Kuru hero, to know what origin and what the end is of all creatures; what the nature of their meditation is and what their acts; what the divisions of time are, and what is the spare of human existence in the respective cycles.

I wish also to know fully the truth about the genesis and the conduct of the world; the you. coming of creatures into the world and their exit. Indeed; whence their creation and destruction?

O best of virtuous persons, if you wish to favour us, do tell this about which I ask

Having heard before this the excellent discourse of Bhrigu to the twice-born sage Bharadvaja, which you did recite, my understanding, shorn of ignorance, has become greatly attached to yoga, and withdrawn from worldly objects rests upon heavenly purity. I ask you about the subject, therefore, once more. You should describe it to me fully.

Bhishma said Regarding it I shall recite to you an old narrative of what the divine Vyasa said to his son Shuka when the latter had asked the former.

Having studied the measureless Vedas with all their branches and the Upanishads, and desirous of leading a life of celibacy on account of his having acquired excellence of religious merit, Shuka put these very questions, about which his doubts had not been removed, to his father Dvipayana, who had removed (by study and contemplation) all doubt regarding true duties.

Shuka said You should tell me who the Creator is of all beings, as fixed by a knowledge of time, and what the duties are of a Brahmana!

Bhishma said The father, having a knowledge of both the past and the future, conversant with all duties and gifted with omniscience, thus described the subject to his son, who had questioned him.

Vyasa said Only Brahma, who is without beginning without end, unborn, effulgent, above decay, immutable, indestructible, inconceivable and transcending knowledge, exists before the Creation.

The Rishis, measuring time, have given particular names to particular portions. Five and ten winks of the eye make what is called a Kashtha: Thirty Kashthas make what is called a Kala. Thirty Kalas, with the tenth part of a Kala, make a Muhurta. Thirty Muhurtas make up one day and night. Thirty days and nights form a month, and twelve months form a year. Persons well-read in mathematical science say that a year is made up of two solar motions. viz., the northern and the southern.

The sun makes the day and the night for men. The night is for the sleep of all living creatures, and the day is for work.

A month of human beings is equal to a day and night of the departed manes. That division consists in this: the light half of the month is their day which is for work; and the dark fortnight is their night for sleep.

A year (of men) is equal to a day and night to the gods. This division consists in this: the half year for which the sun travels from the vernal to the autumnal equinox is the day of the gods, and the half year for which the sun moves from the latter to the former is their night.

Calculating by the days and nights of human beings about which I have told you, I shall speak of the day and night of Brahman and his years also.

I shall, in their order, tell you the number of years, that are for different purposes calculated differently, in the Krita, the Treta, the Dvapara, and the Kali Yugas.

Four thousand celestial years is the duration of the first or Krita age. The morning of that cycle consists of four hundred years and its evening is of four hundred years.

Regarding the other cycles, the duration of each gradually decreases by a quarter in respect of both the principal period with the minor portion and the conjoining portion itself.

These periods always keep up the neverending and eternal worlds. They who know Brahma, O child, regard this as Immutable Brahma.

In the Krita age all the duties exist in full, along with Truth. Men of that age never acquired knowledge or object through unrighteous or forbidden means.

In the other cycles duty, as laid down in the Vedas, is seen to gradually decline by a quarter in each. Sinfulness multiplies by theft, untruth, and deception.

In the Krita age, all persons are free from disease and achieve their objects, and all live for four hundred years. In the Treta, the period of life decreases by a quarter.

We have heard that, in the succeeding Yugas, the words of the Vedas, the periods of life, the blessings and the fruits of Vedic rites, all decrease gradually.

The duties set down for the Krita Yuga are of one kind. Those for the Treta are otherwise. Those for the Dwapara are different. And those for the Kali are otherwise. This is in accordance with the decline which marks every succeeding cycle.

In the Krita, Penance is the foremost. In the Treta, Knowledge is foremost. In Dvapara, Sacrifice has been said to be the foremost. In the Kali Yuga, only gift is sanctioned.

The learned say that these twelve thousand celestial years from what is celled a cycle. A thousand such cycles form a single day of Brahman.

The same is the duration of Brahman's night. With the beginning of Brahman's day the universe begins to come into being. During the period of universal dissolution the Creator sleeps, in Yoga-meditation. When the period of sleep expires, He awakes.

What is Brahman's day covers a thousand such cycles. His night also covers a thousand similar cycles. They who know this are said to know the day and the night.

On the expiry of His night, Brahman, waking up modifies the indestructible intelligence by causing it to be overlaid with ignorance. He then causes Consciousness to spring up, whence originates Mind which is at one with the Manifest.