Brahmā said, “O brāhmaṇa, foremost among the celestial beings, you have inquired into a good matter, rendering service to the worlds and desiring their benefit. I shall explain to you the wholesome and salutary principles of Śiva, on hearing which the various sins of the people are destroyed. Neither the principles of Śiva nor His supreme wonderful forms have been understood by me or by Viṣṇu or by anyone else. At the time of Great Dissolution, when all the mobile and immobile objects of the world are dissolved, everything gets enveloped in darkness, without the sun, planets and stars. There is no moon. The day and the night are not demarcated. There is no fire, no wind, no earth and no water. There is no unmanifest primordial being. The whole firmament is one complete void, devoid of all elements. There is no Dharma or Adharma, no sound, no touch. Smell and colour are unmanifest. There is no taste. The face of the quarters is not demarcated.