Prabhupāda: When Brahmā's night comes, everything becomes devastated in water. Sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ (BG 8.17). First of all sahasra-yuga. One yuga means forty-three hundred thousands of years. Multiply it by one thousand. That is the period of manifestation. Now, what is the period? Forty-three lakhs of years, and multiply it by a thousand. How many years?
Devotee: Four billion.
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Four point three billions.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Svarūpa Dāmodara: Four point three billions.
Prabhupāda: Four point three billions of years this thing will go on. And then again, for... This is kṣaṇa-pralaya. (?) Kṣaṇa-pralaya means when Brahmā's day and night. But there is mahā-pralaya. That will stay we do not know how many millions of years. So this is called millennium. So Nārada Muni remembers this. Therefore he says, ahaṁ purā atīta-bhave. This is called bhava, bhava. Bhava means to come into existence and again finish. Just like this bhava-saṁsāra. It is called bhava-saṁsāra. Bhava-saṁsāra means I have got this body, and it will be finished. Again I shall get another body. Again it will be finished. So where is the science to understand these things? Who can explain? Where is the scientist? Purā atīta-bhave? Is there any scientist? Is there? So what is their knowledge? Very meager knowledge. Two plus two. That's all. (laughs) And they're very much proud. Who can explain this? Purā atīta-bhave. They do not know purā, they do not know atīta, bhave. And abhavam. And "I existed. And I can remember." Is that perfection possible? But this is a fact. It is a fact. One may believe or not believe. They are making research institute, big, big... Yesterday Bon Mahārāja was speaking... What is this research? Research here. And Nārada Muni says that "In my previous life I was like this." Where is, where is the research?
So comparing this or comparing that, real research is here. If actually one is research scholar, "Now, what does this Bhāgavata says? Purā atīta-bhave. What is this?" Go on researching. That is required. That is real research work. So purā atīta-bhave abhavaṁ mune. Mune. He's addressing Vyāsadeva, mune. "So I was the son of a maidservant, and I was engaged as the boy servant of yogis, and they were taking rest for four months. So I had the opportunity of serving them four months as their boy servant. Just to take, whatever they left, prasādam, I used to take. To wash their dishes or to wash their cloth. In this way he got the opportunity of serving perfect devotees for four months," and he became Nārada. This is the importance. This is the importance, that simply by rendering... Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. He became Nārada means he was saved from the mahato bhayāt, very great, fearful, dangerous position.
What is that fearful, dangerous position? They do not care. We are so fool that we are always on the brink of dangerous position... If we don't utilize this life properly, I may fall down again to the cycle of birth and death. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). I shall get another body. There is no guarantee what kind of body I am going to get. I do not know. This foolish civilization is going. Save them by this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the best welfare activity.