The duration of the Dwapara also is two thousand years, and its
morning extends for two hundred years and its evening also for two
hundred. The duration of the Kali yuga is one thousand years, and its
morning extends for one hundred years, and its evening for one
hundred.[873] These periods always sustain the never-ending and eternal
worlds. They who are conversant with Brahma, O child, regard this as
Immutable Brahma. In the Krita age all the duties exist in their
entirety, along with Truth. No knowledge or object came to men of that
age through unrighteous or forbidden means.[874] In the other yugas,
duty, ordained in the Vedas, is seen to gradually decline by a quarter in
each. Sinfulness grows in consequence of theft, untruth, and deception.
In the Krita age, all persons are free from disease and crowned with
success in respect of all their objects, and all live for four hundred
years. In the Treta, the period of life decreases by a quarter. It has
also been heard by us that, in the succeeding yugas, the words of the
Vedas, the periods of life, the blessings (uttered by Brahmanas), 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 that decline that marks every succeeding yuga. In
the Krita, Penance occupies the foremost place. In the Treta, Knowledge
is foremost. In the Dwapara, Sacrifice has been said to be the foremost,
In the Kali yuga, only Gift is the one thing that has been laid down. The
learned say that these twelve thousand years (of the deities) constitute
what is called a yuga. A thousand such yugas compose a single day of
Brahman.[875] The same is the duration of Brahman's night. With the
commencement of Brahman's day the universe begins to start into life.
During the period of universal dissolution the Creator sleeps, having
recourse to yoga-meditation. When the period of slumber expires, He
awakes. That then which is Brahman's day extends for a thousand such
yugas. His nights also extends for a thousand similar yugas. 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 chit by causing it
to be overlaid with Avidya. He then causes Consciousness to spring up,
whence proceeds Mind which is identical with the Manifest.'"'"[876]