Ātyantika Pralaya
Ātyantika Pralaya · ātyantika pralaya, “the final dissolution”
Grammar: masculine noun phrase; ātyantika (final, absolute, that which goes to the very end, from atyanta, “beyond the end”) with pralaya (dissolution). The Brahma Purāṇa also calls it the ātyantika laya.
Meaning: the final dissolution: the attainment of moksha by the jīva, after which there is no return to birth. It is one of the three kinds of pralaya, with the naimittika pralaya at the end of a kalpa and the prākṛta pralaya at the end of two parārdhas.
In the scriptures: in the Brahma Purāṇa, Vyāsa teaches the munis that the pratisañcara (dissolution) that comes to all beings, that is, pralaya, is of three kinds: naimittika, prākṛtika and ātyantika. The naimittika pralaya comes at the end of a kalpa, a day of Brahmā; the prākṛta pralaya comes once in two parārdhas, when the whole manifest world dissolves into the unmanifest root, Prakṛti; and the attainment of moksha by the jīva is the ātyantika pralaya (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 232).
Vyāsa gives a whole chapter to it, the exposition of the ātyantika laya. “O vipras,” he says, “the discerning jīva, recognising the suffering and the fault that come from the three kinds of tāpa (affliction), ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika and ādhidaivika, gains jñāna through vairāgya, and so attains the ātyantika laya, moksha.” He then sets out these sorrows one by one: the bodily and mental afflictions, the sorrows of the womb, of birth, of ignorance, of old age and of death, the torments of naraka, and even svarga, where the fear of falling follows those whose puṇya will be spent. Whatever is the cause of happiness in saṃsāra is itself the cause of sorrow. So, not increasing attachment to wife, sons and wealth, recognising the faults in the three tāpas and striving for mukti, is the only medicine that removes this pain. Karma and jñāna are both means to mukti, and the tattva to be reached is Bhagavān Vishṇu (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 234).
Related terms: Pralaya · Naimittika Pralaya · Prākṛta Pralaya · Moksha · Tāpatraya · Vairāgya · Jñāna
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 232, 234