Sastras explain the mystery of relativity of the cosmic process of creation and dissolution against the backdrop of Time. In the eighth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord explains that there is His Supreme Abode which is beyond this endless cyclic course and also beyond the limits of Time. This is the ultimate goal to be attained by each and every being including Brahma, pointed out Srimati Sunanda in a discourse. The entire creation, spanning the worlds of Brahma, Indra, and other regions right to the smallest item in earth is subject to change, that is, birth, growth and decay and death and then rebirth.
Sastras also have quantified Time in terms of the yugas. There are four yugas, the Krita, the Treta, the Dwapara and the Kali. The time duration of each of them is fixed and the total of all these figures is known as one thousand divine years. To the human mind, it is a multiple of several thousands of human years. Each Yuga is distinct in its moral character. Virtue is dominant in Krita, and in the Treta, Dwapara and Kali yugas that follow, sin and moral degradation slowly enter and the present Kali Yuga is the worst, where conflict, sin and adharma dominate. One day of Brahma of a thousand divine years is the period of cosmic manifestation and one night of Brahma of equal length of time is the period of non-manifestation.
When Brahma sleeps all beings enter into state of cosmic sleep. It does not mean we get liberated. We get back to the cycle of birth when Brahma wakes up. Then creation takes place once again and all beings, the gods, human beings, etc, come into existence. But there is another Pralaya that takes place after 100 years of Brahma. The entire universe is dissolved, including Brahma who enters the absolute.
