Word meanings
- sahasra
- one thousand
- yuga
- age
- paryantam
- until
- ahaḥ
- one day
- yat
- which
- brahmaṇaḥ
- of Brahma
- viduḥ
- know
- rātrim
- night
- yuga-sahasra-antām
- lasts one thousand yugas
- te
- they
- ahaḥ-rātra-vidaḥ
- those who know his day and night
- janāḥ
- people
Translations
Those who know the day of Brahma, which lasts a thousand Yugas, and the night, which also lasts a thousand Yugas, know day and night.
Those who understand the cosmic day and night know that one day of creation is a thousand cycles, and that the night is of equal length.
Those people who know what day and night are, know the day of Brahma which ends in a thousand yugas, and His night which also ends in a thousand yugas.
जो मनुष्य ब्रह्माके एक हज़ार चतुर्युगीवाले एक दिनको और सहस्त्र चतुर्युगीपर्यन्त एक रातको जानते हैं, वे मनुष्य ब्रह्माके दिन और रातको जाननेवाले हैं।Commentary
Day means evolution or projection or manifestation of the universe. Night means involution of the universe or Pralaya. The worlds are limited or conditioned in time. Therefore they return again. The world of Brahma (Brahmaloka or Sattyaloka) is also transient, although it lasts for a thousand ages. When the four great Yugas have gone round a thousan times, it make a daytime of Brahma and when an eal number of Yugas pass again it makes a night. Those who can see and live through the day and night of Brahma can really know what is a day and what is a night.
The Suryasiddhanta speaks of the same division of time. According to it Years-Kaliyuga (with its Sandhya and-Sandhyamsa) consists of 432-000Dvapara Yuga (do) 864-000Tretayuga (do) 1-296-000Kritayuga (do) 1-728-000Thus a Mahayuga consisting ofthese four Yugas comprises 4-320-00071 such Mahayugas with an additional-Sandhya, at the close of 1-728-000years make one Manvantara of 308-448-00014 such Manvantaras with another-Sandhya, at the close of 1-728-000years constitute one Kalpa of 4-320-000-000Two Kalpas make a day and nightof Brahma of 8-640-000-000360 such days and nights make oneyear of Brahma consisting of 3-110-400-000-000100 such years constitute.
His lifetime of 311-040-000-000-000The world is absorbed in the Avyakta or the Unmanifested or Mulaprakriti during the cosmic Pralaya (involution of the world). Just as the tree remains in a latent state in the seed, so also this whole universe remains in a latent state in a seedform in the Mulaprakriti during Pralaya. This is the night of Brahma. This is the cosmic night. Again the world is projected at the beginning of the Mahakalpa (evolution). There comes the cosmic dawn or cosmic day.
This eternal rhythm of cosmic day and night (evolution and involution) is kept up in the macrocosm. Nothing that comes under this everrevolving wheel of cosmic day and night lasts for ever. That is the reason why the seers of the Upanishads, the sages of yore, lived in the transcendental Supreme being, the imperishable Self, the indestructible Purusha, the supreme goal of life, the highest end of man, which is beyond the cosmic day and night. Just as the seeds that are fried can hardly germinate, so also those who have attained to the imperishable Brahman, the Absolute, the Eternal, cannot return to this world of sorrow, pain and misery.
They know neither day nor night. They are one with Existence Absolute. The manifested and the unmanifested dwell in Brahman. Brahman is beyond the manifested and the unmanifested. When the world and the body are destroyed Brahman is not destroyed. The waves come out and subside, but the ocean remains unaffected. So also the worlds come and subside, but Brahman the source of everything, the source of Mulaprakriti, ever remains unaffected. Just as ornaments come out of gold and then go back to gold when they are melted, so also all the worlds come out of Brahman and go back to Brahman.
Gold is in no way affected by the various forms such as earning, bracelets, anklets, etc., that have been made of it. Even so Brahman is not in the least affected by the projection and destruction (dissolution) of the worlds and the bodies of beings. It remains always as It is.