cycles, when the Kali age and its twilight have brought all things into a miserable state, the universe is re-absorbed into the Supreme Spirit.  There is then a universal (apparent) destruction, pralaya, of everything, first by fire and then by a general flood.  Seven suns appear in heaven, and what they fail to burn is consumed by the great fire called Samvartaka (really a manifestation of Vishnu), which sweeps the world and leaves only ashes; then follows a flood which completes the annihilation.  Thereafter follows a period equal to one thousand cycles (of twelve thousand years each), which is called ‘Brahm[=a]’s night,’ for during these twelve million years Brahm[=a] sleeps; and the new Krita age begins again “when Brahm[=a] wakes up” (iii. 188. 29, 69; 189. 42).[51] All the gods are destroyed in the universal destruction, that is, re-absorbed into the All-god, for there is no such thing as annihilation, either of spirit or of matter (which is illusion).  Consequently the gods’ heaven and the spirits of good men in that heaven are also re-absorbed into that Supreme, to be re-born in the new age.  This is what is meant by the constant harping on quasi-immortality.  Righteousness, sacrifice, bravery, will bring man to heaven, but, though he joins the gods, with them he is destroyed.  They and he, after millions of years, will be re-born in the new heaven and the new earth.  To escape this eventual re-birth one must desire absorption into the Supreme, not annihilation, but unity with God, so that one remains untouched by the new order at the end of Brahm[=a]’s ‘day.’  There are, of course, not lacking views of them that, taking the precept grossly, give a less dignified appearance to the teaching, and, in fact, upset its real intent.  Thus, in the very same Puranic passage from which is taken the description above (III. 188), it is said that a seer, who miraculously outlived the universal destruction of one cycle, was kindly swallowed by Vishnu, and that, on entering his stomach (the absorption idea in Puranic coarseness), he saw everything which had been destroyed, mountains, rivers, cities, the four castes engaged in their duties, etc.  In other words, only transference of locality has taken place.  But this account reads almost like a satire.

One of the most striking features of the Hindu religions, as they have been traced thus far, is the identification of right with light, and wrong with darkness.  We have referred to it several times already.  In the Vedic age the deities are luminous, while the demons and the abode of the wicked generally are of darkness.  This view, usually considered Iranian and Zoroastrian, is as radically, if not so emphatically, Indic.  It might be said, indeed, that it is more deeply implanted in the worship of the Hindus than in that of the Iranians, inasmuch as the latter religion enunciates and promulgates the doctrine, while the former assumes it.  All deeds of sin are deeds of darkness, tamas.  The devils live underground in darkness; the hells are below earth and are gloom lighted only by torture-flames.