The Immortal Mārkandeya described this Pralaya (Dissolution) five thousand years ago to King Yudhisthira in the presence of Krishna and the assembled sages in the Kāmyak Forest. The following is a summary of his statement: "O King! At the end the Kali Yuga (previous to this Pralaya), when the earthly days of all beings have come to an end, no rains will fall on earth for many successive years in consequence of which all beings on earth will die, owing to unbearable heat and hunger caused by drought and famine. Then will appear simultaneously in the heavens seven suns which will draw all the waters from all seas and rivers. Whether dry or wet, whatever grass or wood there is on earth, will be reduced to tinder. Then will spring up the Fire, called Samvartak, which, aided by the wind, will attack the sun-absorbed earth and, piercing its surface, will burn all there is in its bowels. Indeed, by this wind-helped Samvartak Fire all created beings from the gods to creeping things and all that now exists in the three worlds will be destroyed and transformed into one huge heap of ashes. "Then will appear in the firmament wonderful-looking, lightening-bedecked clouds, arrayed as garlanded rows of elephants. These clouds are, some of them, of the color of the blue lotus, some of the color of the Koomood flower, some of the color of the golden heart of the lotus, some yellow, some green, some speckled gray, like the color of the crow's egg, some colored like lotus leaves, some are light brown, others look like large cities, others like hordes of elephants, others like the color of eye-cosmetics, others shaped like crocodiles. These mysterious-looking, deep-sounding rain-clouds, sent by God, spreading themselves over the sky, will send down rains in a continuous stream, like watery pillars descending from above, inundating all the ash-heaped mountains and valleys, and extinguish the fearful Samvartak Fire. "O King of the Pandus! Thus, after these rains have fallen continuously for twelve years, the waters of the seas will rise in a flood and cover the earth, at which, the still solid cohesiveness of her mountains giving way, the earth will sink to the bottom of the sea. Then the clouds, driven by the powerful winds in all directions, will suddenly disappear. Then he of the Lotus-Abode and Lotus-born, the primeval god, Brahmā, drinking in the winds and the air, will fall into sleep at the close of his day." The lower three spheres—Bhur, Bhuba and Swar—are thus dissolved and there is nothing in their place but one vast expanse of water. The upper four spheres, Mahar, Jana, Tapa and Satya or Brahmā, remain intact. The dwellers of the Mahar Loka, however, unable to bear the heat of the Samvartak Fire during the earth s destruction, leave it and go up to the Jana to live there during the duration of the Pralaya.