the
various rites are produced, together with the attainment of salvation
through working for that end, by means of sacrifice and generosity;
that every one does his duty and performs asceticism. The next age,
Dv[=a]para, is introduced by a dawn of two hundred years, being itself
two thousand years in duration, and it closes with a twilight of two
hundred years. Half of Virtue fails to appear in this age, that is,
the general virtue of the world is diminished by a half ('the Bull of
Justice stands on two legs'). The Veda is now subdivided into four.
Instead of every one having one Veda, four Vedas exist, but some
people know only three, or two, or one, or are even Veda-less
(_an[r.]cas_). Ceremonies become manifold, because the treatises on
duty are subdivided(!). The attribute of passion influences people,
and it is with this that they perform asceticism and are generous (not
with disinterestedness). Few (_kaccit_) are settled in truth;
ignorance of the one Veda causes a multiplication of Vedas (_i.e_., as
Veda means 'knowledge,' the Vedas result from ignorance of the
essential knowledge). Disease and sin make penance necessary. People
sacrifice only to gain heaven. After this age and its twilight
are past begins the Kali, last of the four ages, with a dawn of one
hundred, a course of one thousand, and a subsequent twilight of one
hundred years. This is the present sinful age, when there is no real
religion, when the Vedas are ignored, and the castes are confused,
when _itis_ (distresses of every form) are rife; when Virtue has only
one leg left to stand upon. The believer in Krishna as Vishnu, besides
this universal description, says that the Supreme Lord in the Krita
age is 'white' (pure); in the Tret[=a] age, 'red'; in the Dv[=a]para
age, 'yellow'; in the Kali age, 'black, _i.e_., Vishnu is Krishna,
which means 'black.'[50] This cycle of ages always repeats itself
anew. Now, since the twelve thousand years of these ages, with their
dawns and twilights, are but one of countless cycles, when the Kali
age and its twilight have brought all things into a miserable state,
the universe is re-absorbed into the Supreme Spirit. There is then a
universal (apparent) destruction, _pralaya_, of everything, first by
fire and then by a general flood. Seven suns appear in heaven, and
what they fail to burn is consumed by the great fire called Samvartaka
(really a manifestation of Vishnu), which sweeps the world and leaves
only ashe