world and full details of this belief will be found in Books I, IV, V and VI of the Vishnu Purana.
What is the object of Brahma in thus destroying the whole universe and recreating it? The Hindu philosophy most beautifully explains it:—
Sarva-bhutani Kaunteya
rakritam yanti mamikam |
Kalpa-kshaye punas-tani
Kalpadau visrijamy-aham ||
"I absorb the whole universe in myself at the end of the Kalpa and at its commencement I create it again," says Brahma. Volumes are written in the several Puranas about the merits and demerits of each Yuga, or age. The brief way to remember the whole subject would be to imagine Virtue to have four legs. In the Krita; or the first Yuga, Virtue walks on all her four legs. In the Treta, or the second Yuga, she walks only on three of her legs ; in the Dvapara on two, and in the last age, the Kaliyuga, on only one leg. After this brief remark about the Hindu notions of the age of the universe, its destruction and recreation, let us confine ourselves on the present occasion to the full description of the Kaliyuga, the fourth Hindu
