Cosmic Dissolution

This cosmic manifestation is not permanent. It is created, and it is again annihilated,

and the whole energy is wound up into the body of the Supreme Lord. It comes out,
and again it is wound up. Prakriti is not independent. It is dependent on the
Supreme Lord. This material cosmic manifestation is a chance for the conditioned
souls to return back to the eternal nature. Otherwise bhutvd bliutva prallyate
(Bhagavad-gita 8.19) The material manifestation is created, it is maintained and it is
annihilated and the cycle repeats itself.

The Four Milleniums

The four millenniums are called the Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali yugas. The
aggregate number of years of all of these combined is equal to twelve thousand
years of the demigods.One year of the demigods is equal to 360 years of the human
beings. 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 Dvaparayuga 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 the Satya millennium, complete execution of religious principles
prevailed. Gradually, the principles of religion decreased by one part in each of the
subsequent millenniums. In other words, at present there is one part religion and
three parts irreligion. Therefore people in this age are not very happy.

Brahma's Day And Night

The duration of the material universe is limited. It is manifested in cycles of kalpas.

When a Brahma is newly born it is called mahakalpa and the end of Brahma is
called mahapralaya. A kalpa is a day of Brahma, and one day of Brahma consists of
a thousand divya yugas. One divya yuga consists of four yugas, or ages: Satya,
Treta, Dvapara and Kali. 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 (Bhagavad-gita 8.17), 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.

When Brahma goes to sleep in his night time, the three planetary systems below
Brahmaloka are all submerged in the water of devastation. In his sleeping condition,
Brahma dreams about the Garbhodakashayi Vishnu and takes instruction from the
Lord for the rehabilitation of the devastated area of space. During the daytime of
Brahma the living entities can exhibit their activities on higher and lower planets
within this material world, but at the coming of Brahma's night they are all
annihilated (Bhagavad-gita 8.19). In the day they receive various bodies for material
activities, and at night they no longer have bodies but remain compact in the body
of Vishnu. Then again they are manifest at the arrival of Brahma's day. Bhutva
bhutva prallyate (Bhagavad-gita 8.19): during the day they become manifest, and
at night they are annihilated again. Ultimately, when Brahma's life is finished, they
are all annihilated and remain unmanifest for millions and millions of years. And
when Brahma is born again in another millennium they are again manifest. In this
way they are captivated by the spell of the material world.

Manus Appearing In Brahma's Day

After the end of Brahma's night, the creation of the three worlds begins again in the
daytime of Brahma, and they continue to exist through the life durations of fourteen
consecutive Manus, or fathers of mankind. At the end of the life of each Manu there
are shorter partial dissolutions also. Each and every Manu enjoys a life of a little
more than seventy-one sets of four millenniums, as described in the Vishnu Purana.
The duration of life of one Manu is about 852,000 years in the calculation of the
demigods, or, in the calculation of human beings, 306,720,000 years. After the
dissolution of each and every Manu, the next Manu comes in order, along with his
descendants, who rule over the different planets; but the seven famous sages, and
demigods like Indra and their followers, such as the Gandharvas, all appear
simultaneously with Manu. There are fourteen Manus in one day of Brahma (14 x 71
milleniums = 1000 divya yugas = 1 Brahma's day), and each of them has different
descendants. In the creation, during Brahma's day, the three planetary systems Svarga, Martya and Patala - revolve, and the inhabitants, including the lower

animals, human beings, demigods and Pitas, appear and disappear in terms of their
fruitive activities.

Dissolution of the Three Worlds

The dissolution of the three worlds is effected by the incarnation of darkness, Rudra
represented by the fire of eternal time which blazes over the three worlds. The
innumerable living entities merge into that dissolution, which appears to be the
dropping of the curtain of the scene of the Supreme Lord's energy, and so
everything becomes silent.When the night of Brahma ensues, all the three worlds
are out of sight, and the sun and the moon are without glare, just as in the due
course of an ordinary night. It is understood that the glare of the sun and moon
disappear from the sphere of the three worlds, but the sun and the moon
themselves do not vanish. They appear in the remaining portion of the universe,
which is beyond the sphere of the three worlds. The portion in dissolution remains
without sunrays or moonglow.

The devastation takes place due to the fire emanating from the mouth of
Sankarsana, and thus great sages like Bhrgu and other inhabitants of Maharloka
transport themselves to Janaloka, being distressed by the warmth of the blazing fire
which rages through the three worlds below. At the beginning of the devastation all
the seas overflow, and hurricane winds blow very violently. Thus the waves of the
seas become ferocious, and in no time all the three worlds are full of water. It is said
that the blazing fire from the mouth of Sankarsana rages for one hundred years of
the demigods, or 36,000 human years. Then for another 36,000 years there are
torrents of rain, accompanied by violent winds and waves, and the seas and oceans
overflow.

The Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, lies down in the water on the seat of
Ananta, with His eyes closed, and the inhabitants of the Janaloka planets offer their
glorious prayers unto the Lord with folded hands. People forget all these
devastations of the worlds and think themselves happy in the material progress of
civilization. This is called maya, or "that which is not."Now one may think that "Such
a huge manifestation of the material world, it is once created and again annihilated.
Then God must be very much concerned about this creation and annihilation."
But the Lord says, "No." na ca mam tani karmani nibadhnanti dhananjaya: "My dear
Arjuna, all this world is going on automatically. There is no concern about it." Just
like a wealthy man dismantles many big houses and constructs skyscrapers through

his agents by paying them, but he himself has no concern about it. Similarly, the
material nature and many other agents of the Lord perform this creation and
annihilation automatically, parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate svabhavikl jnana-balakriyaca (Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 13.65, purport).

The duration of one hundred years in the life of Brahma has already been discussed
before. Fifty years of the life of Brahma are already over, and fifty years are yet to
be completed; then, for Brahma also, death is inevitable.We are completely under
the grip of the stringent laws of material nature, and we are repeatedly put into that
stringent laws of material nature so that we may come into our consciousness that
"Why we are suffering this repeated birth and death?" But we have become dull and
so much accustomed to this habit because it is continuing since time immemorial.
So we don't take it very seriously that why we are dying and why we are getting
body again and why we are suffering these miseries. So this is called ignorance.
Especially in this age of Kali yuga we are not very serious. We think this is the
process of life. No. This is not the process of life. If we desire, we can have our
eternal life without having to undergo the tedious cycle of birth and death.

Thus by understanding the creation and dissolution of our own universe from the
scriptures, we get a clear picture of how things came about, "not by some accident
that a bunch of flotsam and jetsam suddenly started making orbits of its own
accord. Some power put all this into orbit and keeps it there" in the words of former
astronaut John Glenn.