Lifespans of the Three Divinities

The rishis asked

In units of Kala, how is lifespan reckoned? What is the greatest lifespan in those units?

Vayu answered

The basic unit of lifespan is the nimesha, and the greatest unit of time reaches to Shantyatita. A nimesha is the time of an eye's twinkle. Fifteen nimeshas make one kashtha, thirty kashthas one kala, and thirty kalas one muhurta. There are thirty muhurtas in a night and day, and thirty days and nights make a masa with two pakshas. Know that one masa, bright and dark fortnights together, is one day and night of the ancestors. Six months make an ayana, and two ayanas a year. One human year is one day and night of the devas, by the determination of the texts. For them the southern course is night and the northern course day. The divine month, like the human one, has thirty days and nights, and a divine year has twelve months. Know that three hundred and sixty human years make one divine year. The length of a yuga is counted by the divine measure. The wise know four yugas in Bharatavarsha: krita first, then treta, dvapara and kali. Krita yuga is four thousand years, with sandhya and sandhyamsha of the same number counted in hundreds. For each of the other three, the length drops by one thousand years and the sandhya and sandhyamsha by one hundred. With the excess included, twelve thousand years make a cycle of four yugas, and a thousand such cycles make a kalpa. Seventy-one cycles of four yugas are a manvantara, and there are fourteen Manus in a kalpa. In this way hundreds and thousands of manvantaras and kalpas have come and gone. It is not possible to know the whole number, nor to name them all in detail and order.

A kalpa is one day of Brahma, whose birth is not manifest. A thousand kalpas make one year of Brahma. Eight thousand of Brahma's years make one of his yugas, and eight thousand of his yugas make one savana of the lotus-born. Three thousand and three savanas are the lifespan of Brahma Parameshthi. There are fourteen Purandaras in a day of Brahma, four hundred and twenty in a month, five thousand and forty in a year, and five hundred and forty thousand in his lifespan. Brahma's lifespan is one day of Vishnu. Vishnu's lifespan is one day of Rudra. Rudra's lifespan is one day of Ishvara. Ishvara's lifespan is one day of Shiva. Shiva's lifespan is one day of Sadashiva, and Sadashiva's lifespan holds five thousand and forty Shivas. Brahmanas, thus Kala works on the orders of Shiva himself. This period of creation is called Parameshvara's day, and his night is the same length. His day is the period of creation and his night the period of dissolution. Yet in the true sense he has neither night nor day. He acts for the welfare of the worlds. Beings, Prajapatis, the three divinities, gods, asuras, the senses and their objects, the five gross elements, the subtle elements, the tanmatras, intelligence and the devas, all exist during the wise Paramesha's day. When the day ends, all of them dissolve. When the night ends, the universe is made again. His self is in the universe. His deeds, time, nature, energy and power cannot be crossed. Everything is subject to his will. I bow to the great Shankara.