Pralaya
Skandha XII. Chap. 4
Four thousand Yugas form one day of Brahmâ. This is also the period of one Kalpa, during which fourteen Manus appear. The night of Brahmâ follows for an equally long period. The three worlds — Bhûr, Bhuvar and Svar then come to an end. This is called Naimittika Pralaya. Drawing the universe within self, Nârâyana sleeps at the time over Ananta and Brahmâ sleeps too. (Nimitta is cause. Naimittika is proceeding frome some cause. This Pralaya procedes from the sleep of Brahmâ as a cause).
When two Parârddhas of years expire, the seven subdivisions of Prakriti (Mahat, Ahankâra, and the five Tanmatras) become subject to dissolution. (The life period of Brahmâ is two Parârddhas). This is called Prâkritika Pralaya. When this dissolving factor comes in, the whole combination known as the Cosmic Egg breaks up. (As the subdivisions of Prakriti as well as the Cosmic Egg which is formed by their combination become all dissolved, this Pralaya is called Prâkritika Pralaya). With the advent of this Pralaya, there will be no rains for one hundred years. Food will disappear. People will devour one another. The Sun will draw in moisture from the seas, from the body, and from the earth, but will not give it back. The fire called Samvartaka, arising from the mouth of Shankarshana, will consume the Pâtâlas. Winds will blow for one hundred years, followed by rain for another hundred years. The universe will be covered by one sheet of water. Water will draw in earth, fire will draw in water, and so on till Pradhâna in due time will devour all the Gunas. Pradhâna is not measured by time, and it does not undergo transformation. Beginningless, endless, unmanifested, eternal, the cause of all causes, without diminution, it is beyond the reach of Gunas, the rootless root, that passes comprehension, like the void.
Jnâna is the ultimate resort of Buddhi (the perceiver or knower), the Indriyas or senses (perception, knowledge or the instruments of perception and knowledge) and the objects (things perceived and known). It is Jnâna alone that appears in this threefold form. That which is subject to perception, which in its nature is not separate from its cause, and which has both beginning and end is no real substance. The lamp, the eye and the object seen are not different from light itself. So Buddhi, the senses and the objects are not separate from the one Truth (Brahmân, for they all proceed from Brahmân), but Brahmân is quite separate from all others. Wakefulness, dream and dreamless sleep are all states of Buddhi. They are all transitory, O king. The diversity appears in Pratyagâtma (the separate self). The clouds appear and disappear in space, even as the universes appear and disappear in Brahmân. Of all forms, the common element is the only reality. But the forms seem to have an existence of their own independently of the primal element. The threads that form the cloth look separate from the cloth itself. All that appears as cause and effect is unreal, for there is interdependence, and there is both beginning and end.
The transformations can not exist without the light of Âtmâ. If they are self-manifest however, they are not in any way different from Âtmâ itself.
Do not think Âtmâ is many, (as there is Âtmâ in every being). It is ignorance to think so. The space confined in a pot and the limitless space are one and the same, even so the sun and its image in water, the air inside and outside.
Men call gold by different names, according to the different ornaments it forms. So the language of the Vedas and the language of ordinary men give different names to Bhagavân.
The cloud that is generated by the sun, that appears by the light of the sun, that is in fact rays of the sun so transformed stands between the eye and the sun. Even so Ahankâra, proceeding from Brahmân, manifested by Brahmân, even a part of Brahmân, eclipses the perception of Brahmân by Jiva.
When the cloud disappears, the eye perceives the sun. When Ahankâra, the upâdhi of Âtmâ, disappears by discrimination, then the Jiva perceives “I am Brahmân.”
When by discrimination, such as this, the tie of unreal Ahankâra is cut as under, and the unfailing perception of Âtmâ becomes fixed, it is called Âtyantika Pralaya.
(Âtyantika is from Atyanta = ati+anta, the very last. After this Pralaya, which is individual and not general, one does not return to life in the universe. It is the final liberation of a man from the limitations of life in Brahmânda).
Every day all beings, from Brahmâ downwards, undergo according to some seers of subtleties states of beginning and end.
These beginnings and ends are caused by the changes in states of all beings subject to transformation, changes that follow the flow of time. (One does not grow adult or old in one day. The change must be going on constantly. The fruit does not ripen in one day. But the process of ripening day by day is not perceptible. Water flows in a continued stream but the water particles constantly change at a given space. So the lamp burns and the flame looks one and the same though the particles that ignite do constantly change. Even so our body is not the same from day to day. There is a change going on every moment of our life. Particles of the body are rejected every day and they are replaced by new particles. There is the beginning with our new particles, and an end or Pralaya with the old particles.) This is called NITYA Pralaya. (Nitya means constant).
Pralaya is thus fourfold — Nitya, Naimittika, Prakritika and Atyantika.
Such are the stories of Bhagavat as related in the Bhâgavata Purâna.
Rishi Nârâyana first related the Purâna to Nârada, Nârada related it to Vyâsa and Vyâsa to Suka. Suta heard the Purâna from Sukadeva, when he related it to Râjâ Parikshit, and he expounded it to the assembly of Rishis at Naimisha, headed by Sounaka.