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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 the blink of an eye.
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