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In this age the 'three attributes' (or qualities) are unknown. After this age follows the dawn of the second age, called Tret[=a), lasting three hundred years, then the real age of Tret[=a], three thousand years, followed by the twilight of three hundred years. The characteristics of this age are, that men are devout; that great sacrifices begin (sattram pravartate); that Virtue decreases by one quarter; that all 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 (kaçcit) 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 reabsorbed into the Supreme Spirit. There is then a universal (apparent) destruction,
