Text 43]
Bhāgavatam is the Answer
599
TRANSLATION
Thereafter, at the end of the millennium, the Lord Himself in the form of Rudra, the destroyer, will annihilate the complete creation as the wind displaces the clouds.
PURPORT
This creation is very appropriately compared to the clouds. The clouds are created or situated in the sky, and when they are displaced they remain in the same sky without manifestation. Similarly, the whole creation is made by the Supreme Personality of God in His form of Brahmā, it is maintained by Him in the form of Viṣṇu, and it is destroyed by Him in the form of Rudra or Śiva, all in due course. This creation, maintenance and destruction are nicely explained in the  Bhagavad-gītā  as follows:
bhūta-grāmaḥ sa evāyaṁ bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate 
  rātryāgame 'vaśaḥ pārtha prabhavaty aharāgame 
  paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ 
  yaḥ sa sarveṣu bhūteṣu naśyatsu na vinaśyati  (Bg. 8.19-20)
The nature of the material world is that it is first created very nicely, develops very nicely, stays for a great number of years (even beyond the calculation of the greatest mathematician), but after that it is again destroyed during the night of Brahmā without any resistance, and again at the end of the night of Brahmā the same is again manifested as creation to follow the same principles of maintenance and destruction. The foolish conditioned soul who has taken this temporary world as a permanent settlement has to learn intelligently why such creation and destruction take place. The fruitive actors in the material world are very enthusiastic in the creation of big enterprises, big houses, big empires, big industries and so many big, big things out of the energy and ingredients supplied by the material agent of the Supreme Lord. With such resources, and at the cost of valuable energy, the conditioned soul creates, satisfies his whims, but unwillingly has to depart from all his creations and enter into another phase of life to create again and again. And to give hope to such foolish conditioned souls who waste their energy in this temporary material world, the Lord gives information that there is another nature which is eternally