Shloka 14
Adhyāya 302: Guṇa-vicāra, Gati-bheda, and the Imperishable State
Yājñavalkya–Janaka
युगं द्वादशसाहस्र॑ कल्पं विद्धि चतुर्युगम् दशकल्पशतावृत्तमहस्तद् ब्राह्ममुच्यते
yugaṁ dvādaśasāhasraṁ kalpaṁ viddhi caturyugam | daśakalpaśatāvṛttam ahas tad brāhmam ucyate ||
Vasiṣṭha dit : «Sache qu’un cycle de douze mille années (divines) constitue le cycle des quatre yuga ; il faut l’entendre comme un kalpa, un grand âge. Et l’on déclare qu’un jour de Brahmā est l’achèvement de mille grands âges de cette sorte.»
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.