Kraustuki said- ‘Tell me! O lord! How were the living beings created as the period of final annihilation was approaching its end.’
Markandeya replied- ‘When the nature establishes herself in the soul of the Purusha (supreme Almighty), all the created matter gets annihilated. Prakriti and Purusha are established in the mode of parallelism. During that period, Satva and Tamas become neutrally balanced. Even the quality of Rajas establishes itself within the qualities of Satva and Tamas.’
‘The life span of Brahma consists of Dwiparardha. The day and night of Brahma are of equal duration. Brahma is the origin of this universe. He is the inconceivable soul, the supreme lord and the cause of all the events. He is beyond the reach of activities. He enters into Prakriti and Purusha- excites both of them to get unified. When Prakriti gets excited, the Supreme Lord manifests Himself in the egg as Brahma. He then commences his creation. The same Brahma attains the form of Vishnu due to the effect of his Satva guna and nurtures the whole creation. Under the influence of Tamas guna, He attains the form of Rudra and finally annihilates the whole creation. He then goes into hibernation.’
‘This way, the same Almighty God in his three different forms of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh performs his duties of creation, nurturing and annihilation respectively. The life span of Brahma consists of one hundred years. The division of time is as follows- One Kashtha consists of fifteen Nimeshas. One Kala consists of thirty Kashthas whereas thirty Kalas make one Muhurta. One day and night of this material world consists of thirty Muhurtas. Thirty days and nights are equivalent to one month or two fortnights (Pakshas).’ ‘Six months make one Ayan. Two Ayans make a year. A day and night of the deities are equivalent to one year of this material world. Similarly twelve thousand years of the deities make the four yugas. Satya Yuga consists of the four thousand years of the deities. Treta Yuga consists of three thousand years of the deities. Dwapar Yuga consists of two thousand years of the deities whereas Kali Yuga consists of one thousand years of the deities. Similarly Sandhya (evening) period of Satya Yuga consists of four hundred years and Sandhyansh (part of evening) consists of the same period that is four hundred years. Thus the total number of years that Satya Yuga has come up to 4000+400+400= 4800 years. In the same way, the Sandhya and Sandhyansh of Treta Yuga consist of 300 years each. Thus, the total number of years in Treta Yuga comes up to
3000+300+300= 3600 years. Sandhya and Sandhyansh period of Dwapar Yuga is of 200 years each. Thus the total number of years in Dwapar Yuga comes up to 2000+200+200= 2400 years. Sandhya and Sandhyansh period of Kali Yuga are of 100 years each. Thus the total number of years in Kali Yuga comes up to 1000+100+100= 1200 years.
A day of Brahma consists of thousand times of the twelve thousand years of the deities. Fourteen Manus appear in succession during the whole day of Brahma. Each Manavantar comprises of a Manu and his progenies, Indra and the other deities, Saptarishis ganas and Nripati ganas etc.
A Manavantar consists of seventy-one Chaturyugas. On the basis of the years of this material world, a Manavantar consists of 30,67,20,000 years or 8,52,000 years of the deities. A Brahma’s day consists of 4,29,40,00,000 years of this world or 1,19,28,000 years of the deities. The dissolution, which occurs at the end of the day of Brahma, is also known as causal dissolution (Naimittik Pralaya). During the time of causal dissolution, all the residents of Bhur, Bhuva and Swarga lokas temporarily go to Mahar loka. The residents of Mahar loka shift their base to Jana loka. The entire universe is submerged in the ocean during the time of causal dissolution and this is the time for Brahma to take rest i.e. at night. Brahma starts his creation at the end of the night. This way, after the completion of three hundred and sixty years of Brahma, his one-year is complete. One hundred such years of Brahma make one Para and five hundred such years make one Parardha. One Parardha of Brahma has already passed at the end of which Padram Mahakalpa occurred. The present period, which falls under the second Parardha, is also known as Varaha Kalpa.