Chapter 8, Verse 17
सहस्रयुगपर्यन्तमहर्यद् ब्रह्मणो विदुः | रात्रिं युगसहस्रान्तां तेऽहोरात्रविदो जनाः ||८-१७||
sahasrayugaparyantamaharyad brahmaṇo viduḥ . rātriṃ yugasahasrāntāṃ te.ahorātravido janāḥ ||8-17||
Meaning
8.17 Those people who know the day of Brahma which is of a duration of a thousand Yugas (ages) and the night which is also of a thousand Yugas duration, they know day and night.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
To show how vast — yet still finite — even Brahma's world is, Krishna unveils the cosmic scale of time. A single day of Brahma lasts a thousand yugas, and his night an equal span. Those who truly grasp this measure of cosmic day and night are the ones who 'know day and night' (ahoratra-vidah).
The purpose of this staggering arithmetic is to humble our sense of permanence. Periods we cannot even imagine — billions of human years — are but a single day in the life of the creator. By stretching the mind across such immensities, Krishna loosens our attachment to the brief spans we usually treat as enduring. Against the backdrop of these cosmic cycles, the worlds that seemed everlasting in the previous verse reveal their impermanence. The lesson is one of perspective: when we see how vast and rhythmic time truly is, the urgency of seeking the timeless, that which lies beyond all days and nights, becomes clear.
💡 Key Takeaway
Set your life against the vast scale of cosmic time, and the urgency of seeking what is truly timeless becomes clear.
Related Verses
मामुपेत्य पुनर्जन्म दुःखालयमशाश्वतम् | नाप्नुवन्ति महात्मानः संसिद्धिं परमां गताः ||८-१५||
māmupetya punarjanma duḥkhālayamaśāśvatam . nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ saṃsiddhiṃ paramāṃ gatāḥ ||8-15||
8.15 Having attained Me these great souls do not again take birth (here) which is the place of pain and is non-eternal: they have reached the highest perfection (liberation).
आब्रह्मभुवनाल्लोकाः पुनरावर्तिनोऽर्जुन | मामुपेत्य तु कौन्तेय पुनर्जन्म न विद्यते ||८-१६||
ābrahmabhuvanāllokāḥ punarāvartino.arjuna . māmupetya tu kaunteya punarjanma na vidyate ||8-16||
8.16 (All) the worlds including the world of Brahma are subject to return again, O Arjuna; but he who reaches Me, O son of Kunti, has no rirth.
अव्यक्ताद् व्यक्तयः सर्वाः प्रभवन्त्यहरागमे | रात्र्यागमे प्रलीयन्ते तत्रैवाव्यक्तसंज्ञके ||८-१८||
avyaktād vyaktayaḥ sarvāḥ prabhavantyaharāgame . rātryāgame pralīyante tatraivāvyaktasaṃjñake ||8-18||
8.18 From the Unmanifested all the manifested (worlds) proceed at the coming of the 'day'; at the coming of the 'night' they dissolve verily into ï1thatï1 alone which is called the Unmanifested.