Shloka 14
Adhyāya 302: Guṇa-vicāra, Gati-bheda, and the Imperishable State
Yājñavalkya–Janaka
युगं द्वादशसाहस्र॑ कल्पं विद्धि चतुर्युगम् दशकल्पशतावृत्तमहस्तद् ब्राह्ममुच्यते,देवताओंके बारह हजार वर्षोका एक चतुर्युग होता है। इसीको कल्प अर्थात् महायुग समझो। ऐसे एक हजार महायुगोंका ब्रह्माजीका एक दिन बताया जाता है
yugaṁ dvādaśasāhasraṁ kalpaṁ viddhi caturyugam | daśakalpaśatāvṛttam ahas tad brāhmam ucyate ||
Vasiṣṭha said: “Know that a cycle of twelve thousand (divine) years constitutes the fourfold yuga-cycle; this is to be understood as a kalpa, a great age. And a day of Brahmā is declared to be the completion of a thousand such great ages.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse defines traditional measures of cosmic time: a caturyuga is reckoned as twelve thousand (divine) years, and Brahmā’s single day is described as consisting of a thousand such great age-cycles, emphasizing the vast scale of time within dharmic cosmology.
In a didactic passage of Śānti Parva, the sage Vasiṣṭha instructs his listener by laying out the structure of yugas, kalpas, and Brahmā’s day, using cosmological time to frame moral and philosophical teaching.