Pralaya

Pralaya, “the great dissolution”

Pralaya means “dissolution”: the return, or drawing back, of the created world into its source. The Purāṇas teach that creation is not a one-time event. The universe comes forth, lasts for a time and then dissolves, over and over.

Pralaya works on more than one scale: the death of each being, the end of each day of Brahmā the creator, and the end of Brahmā’s whole life. The final freedom of the self through jñāna (true knowledge), from which there is no return, is also called a pralaya.

Per Mahābhārata

Pralaya in the Śukānupraśna

The Śukānupraśna (“Śuka‘s questions”) section of the Mokshadharma Parva of the Mahābhārata (Chapter 233) gives the order of pralaya as part of Vyāsa‘s teaching to his son Śuka on creation and dissolution. It follows the reverse order taught in Sāṃkhya and Vedānta.

The solid elements dissolve back into their subtle sources in the reverse of the order in which they were created:

• pṛthvī (earth, marked by gandha) dissolves into āpas (water)
• āpas dissolves into agni (fire)
• agni dissolves into vāyu (air)
• vāyu dissolves into ākāśa (space)
• ākāśa dissolves into ahaṃkāra (the sense of being a separate “I”)
• ahaṃkāra dissolves into mahat (cosmic intelligence)
• mahat dissolves into avyakta (the unmanifest)

Beyond the avyakta, only the purusha-ātman remains. It is never dissolved, never created and never changed. It is the witness-consciousness that stays the same through all the cycles of creation and dissolution.

This teaching is the ground for the main teaching on moksha in the Śukānupraśna. The body and the world are both made of the tattvas of prakṛti, which arise and dissolve in each cycle of the universe. So a person who identifies only with these tattvas will also go round through birth and dissolution. Liberation lies in recognising that the purusha-ātman is different from all of them. It is the one principle that was never created and can never be dissolved. In this way the teaching on pralaya directly supports viveka (discernment between the real and the passing) as the path to moksha.

Per Brahma Purāṇa

Chapters 232 to 234

The Brahma Purāṇa gives three types of pralaya. It does not include nitya pralaya and focuses on the three that work at the level of the universe, the individual, and the structure of nature.

1. Naimittika Pralaya

Naimittika pralaya comes in this order.

A drought of a hundred years strikes all three worlds, a time when no rain falls at all and all moisture is used up. Seven suns rise at once and drink up every drop of water from the oceans, the rivers and the pātālas, so that all three worlds are scorched and dried out. Then the fire of pralaya bursts from the breath of Ādi-Śesha. It is a fire unlike ordinary flame, burning not just matter but the very substance of the three worlds. When the fire’s work is done, huge thunderclouds gather from the rising heat and moisture. These clouds of pralaya rain without stopping for a hundred years, a rain so long and so vast that it fills all existence as high as Maharloka itself.

After the rain, Bhagavān Vishṇu takes the form of Rudra and draws in all the vāyu (the wind of the dissolved world). He then lies on the coils of Śesha in the ekārṇava, the single undivided ocean left when all the worlds have dissolved, and enters his divine yoganidrā. During this night of the universe, the Sanaka and other great ṛshis and the nitya-siddhas (the ever-perfect beings) offer upāsanā to Bhagavān Vishṇu as he rests. When the new day of Brahmā begins, Vishṇu wakes and creation starts again.

2. Prākṛtika Pralaya

Prākṛtika pralaya runs in the reverse order of creation. Each element’s dissolution is marked by the loss of its own sense-quality:

• Pṛthivī dissolves into jala; its own quality of gandha (smell) is gone
• Jala dissolves into agni; its own quality of rasa (taste) is gone
• Agni dissolves into vāyu; its own quality of rūpa (visible form) is gone
• Vāyu dissolves into ākāśa; its own quality of sparśa (touch) is gone
• Ākāśa dissolves into bhūtādi (ahaṃkāra in its elemental form)
• Bhūtādi dissolves into mahat (cosmic intelligence)
• Mahat dissolves into prakṛti, the state of triguṇa-sāmyāvasthā (perfect balance of the three guṇas), in which all separate existence returns to the undivided ground
• Prakṛti dissolves into avyakta (the unmanifest)
• Avyakta dissolves into the Paramātman, the only reality that remains

3. Ātyantika Pralaya

The teaching on ātyantika pralaya (Chapter 234) comes with a vivid look at saṃsāra-duḥkha, the suffering of worldly life, as the reason for seeking moksha (liberation). This makes the teaching both deep and personally urgent.

The three kinds of suffering (tāpatraya) that make moksha necessary are:

• Ādhyātmika: suffering that comes from oneself, both the illnesses of the body (daihika) and the troubles of the mind (mānasa), such as kāma (desire), krodha (anger), bhaya (fear), śoka (grief) and moha (delusion)
• Ādhibhautika: suffering caused by other beings, such as animals, hostile people and rākshasas
• Ādhidaivika: suffering from the forces of nature, such as cold, heat, lightning and drought

The Purāṇa adds a long reflection on the particular sufferings of life in a body:

• garbha-duḥkha: the great suffering of the child in the womb
• janma-duḥkha: the pain of birth
• jarā-duḥkha: the hardships of old age
• maraṇa-duḥkha: the fear and pain of death
• naraka-yātanā: the sufferings in naraka before the next birth

Against this background, freedom through jñāna, the permanent ending of the ātman’s identification with prakṛti, is presented not as a far-off idea but as the only sensible answer to the way embodied life is.

Vāsudeva, the Supreme Brahman, is described through his six aiśvaryas (divine excellences): jñāna (all-knowing), śakti (endless power), bala (strength that never runs out), aiśvarya (sovereignty), vīrya (unfailing vigour) and tejas (radiance). Because he dwells (vasati) in and as all beings (sarva), and all beings dwell (vasanti) in him, he is called Vāsudeva. Both pravṛtti-mārga (the path of action in the world) and nivṛtti-mārga (the path of renunciation that leads to moksha) have their place within his order.

Per Vishṇu Purāṇa

Prathamāṃśa, Chapter 7

The Vishṇu Purāṇa gives the four types of pralaya in Chapter 7 of its Prathamāṃśa (first book), as part of Parāśara‘s teaching to Maitreya. The four are nitya, naimittika, prākṛta and ātyantika, and it stresses the following points.

Naimittika pralaya: seven suns rise at once. Blazing heat dries up all the oceans and burns everything from the pātālas to Svarga. The Sāṃvartaka fire bursts out and burns up whatever is left. Huge clouds form, torrents of rain pour down for a hundred years, and the fourteen bhuvanas vanish into a single ocean. Brahmā draws all created beings into himself and enters yoganidrā.

Prākṛta pralaya: dissolution runs in strict reverse order of creation: earth into water, water into fire, fire into vāyu, vāyu into ākāśa, ākāśa into the tanmātras, the tanmātras into ahaṃkāra, ahaṃkāra into mahat, and mahat into avyakta (Pradhāna). Brahmā himself dissolves back into Parameśvara, Vishṇu. The bound jīvas remain hidden in the avyakta, their karmas not yet worked out, waiting for the next great cycle of creation.

Ātyantika pralaya: the Purāṇa names jñāna as the only means of ātyantika pralaya: the permanent dissolution of the ātman’s sense of being separate, which ends the meeting of Pradhāna and Purusha that produces all saṃsāra. This is Vishṇu’s highest gift to the jīva.

Shashṭhāṃśa, Chapters 3 and 4

The Shashṭhāṃśa (sixth book) of the Vishṇu Purāṇa gives the most detailed account of all three pralayas of the universe in the whole Purāṇa. It includes a vivid description of the saṃvartaka clouds, the measuring of time up to the parārdha, and the conclusion that Vishṇu is the only ground of all dissolution.

Measuring Time and the Parārdha

The Shashṭhāṃśa begins its teaching on pralaya with a careful account of time:

• The smallest unit is the nimesha (a blink)
• Fifteen nimeshas make a kāshṭhā
• Thirty kāshṭhās make a kalā
• Fifteen kalās make a nāḍikā
• Two nāḍikās make a muhūrta
• Thirty muhūrtas make one day and night (one dina)
• Thirty dinas make one month, and twelve months make one year
• One human year is one divine day
• Three hundred and sixty human years make one divine year
• Twelve hundred divine years make one catur-yuga
• One thousand catur-yugas make one kalpa, a single day of Brahmā
• Fourteen Manus preside within one kalpa

The parārdha is defined like this: count from one, multiplying by ten at each step (one, ten, one hundred and so on). The eighteenth place in this series is the parārdha. Two parārdhas make up Brahmā’s full life. The prākṛta pralaya comes at the end of this span of two parārdhas.

Naimittika Pralaya: The Order of Events and the Saṃvartaka Clouds

At the end of a kalpa there is first a fierce drought lasting a hundred years. The seven rays of the sun grow strong and become seven suns, which drink up all the moisture of the three worlds and the pātālas. Vishṇu then takes the form of Rudra, and the fire of pralaya bursts from the mouth of Śesha. When this Vishṇu-Rudra has burnt all three worlds, he breathes out the saṃvartaka clouds, the clouds of pralaya, from which the rains of dissolution pour.

The saṃvartaka clouds are described in wonderful detail and colour. They are of many colours:

• dark like the night-blooming blue water-lily (nīla-kamala)
• white like the kunda flower
• smoke-coloured
• deep green
• grey like a donkey
• red like lac
• blue like the vaidūrya gem
• white like a conch shell and like the molle flower
• the colour of a wet insect
• the colour of a peacock
• the colour of stone
• black like ink
• dark like darkness itself

They are shaped like great cities, like great mountains, like towers and like plains. They fill the sky with a terrible roar and pour a rain that also carries fire. This rain puts out all the fire still left in the three worlds. Then, pouring without a break for a hundred years, it floods the three worlds as high as Maharloka. The three worlds become one single, unbroken ocean.

After the flood, Vishṇu draws the saṃvartaka wind itself into himself, takes the form of Brahmā, and sleeps on the coils of Śesha in the great ocean for one full kalpa. Throughout this night of Brahmā, the siddhas (perfected beings) in Janaloka meditate on him. This is the naimittika pralaya.

Prākṛta Pralaya: The Order in Which the Guṇas Are Taken In

The Shashṭhāṃśa’s account of prākṛta pralaya stresses how each element dissolves by giving up its own quality to the next, subtler element:

• Water takes in earth’s quality of gandha (smell); earth dissolves and becomes only water.
• Fire takes in water’s quality of rasa (taste); water dissolves and becomes only fire.
• Vāyu takes in fire’s quality of rūpa (visible form); fire dissolves and becomes only vāyu.
• Ākāśa takes in vāyu’s quality of sparśa (touch); vāyu dissolves and becomes only ākāśa.
• Bhūtādi (ahaṃkāra in its tāmasa form) takes in ākāśa’s quality of śabda (sound); ākāśa dissolves.
• Mahat takes in ahaṃkāra; ahaṃkāra dissolves.
• Prakṛti takes in mahat; mahat dissolves.

The seven mūla-tattvas (root principles), namely Mahat, Ahaṃkāra and the five tanmātras, are called “the prakṛtis”, the first principles. The vyakta (the whole manifest world) dissolves into the avyakta (Prakṛti). Then Purusha and Prakṛti both dissolve into the Paramātman. That Paramātman, the one reality behind all coming forth and all dissolving, is Vishṇu.

Vishṇu as the Only Ground

The Shashṭhāṃśa ends its teaching on pralaya with a statement of the deepest meaning. Vishṇu is both vyakta (the manifest world) and avyakta (the unmanifest ground). He is both the Purusha and the final reality beyond the pair of Purusha and Prakṛti. For him, the coming and going of the world is only a matter of name; he has no pralaya of his own. He is the Purushottama (Supreme Person), the Paramātman, the Viśvātman (Self of the universe) and the Viśvarūpadhārī (the one who holds the form of the universe), into whom all things return and from whom all things arise.

Per Vāyu Purāṇa

The Order of Dissolution Through the Senses

The Uttarārdha of the Vāyu Purāṇa (the Śivapura-varṇana section, Chapter 6) gives the most exact account of the tattva-laya of the Mahāpralaya. Tattva-laya means the dissolving of each element by being taken into the next, subtler element. It describes each step by naming which guṇa (quality) is taken in, and teaches that dissolution happens through the taking-in of each tattva’s own sense-quality:

1. Pṛthivī (earth) is taken in by jala (water). Water takes in earth’s own quality of gandha (smell). The earth-tattva loses its special quality and dissolves into water.
2. Jala (water) is taken in by tejas (fire). Fire takes in water’s own quality of rasa (taste). All liquid dissolves into fire.
3. Tejas (fire) is taken in by vāyu (air). Air takes in fire’s own quality of rūpa (form and light). The sun stops shining and the visible universe goes dark.
4. Vāyu (air) is taken in by ākāśa (space). Ākāśa takes in air’s own quality of sparśa (touch). All movement stops.
5. Ākāśa (space) is taken in by mahat. The whole realm of śabda (sound), the special quality of ākāśa, dissolves into the mahat-tattva.
6. Mahat is taken in by avyakta (unmanifest Prakṛti). Cosmic intelligence dissolves into the first, undivided ground.
7. Avyakta, the final state: the three guṇas (sattva, rajas and tamas) return to guṇa-sāmya (perfect balance). All the karmas of individuals, both dharma and adharma, dissolve into it. Only the first darkness (tamas) remains. This is pūrṇa-pralaya, complete dissolution.

The Purāṇa also notes that during anu-kalpas (smaller kalpas) only a partial dissolution takes place, which does not go all the way to guṇa-sāmya. Only the full Mahāpralaya at the end of Brahmā‘s life is pūrṇa-pralaya.

Naming the guṇa taken in at each stage makes the logic of the order clear: each element dissolves into its cause by giving up its own special sense-quality.

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa

Skandha 12, Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of the twelfth Skandha of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa teaches pralaya from the point of view of Vedānta and jñāna. Sūta Maharshi, speaking at Naimishāraṇya, sets the teaching of pralaya within one key understanding: Bhagavān Vishṇu is the final sākshi-caitanya, the pure witness-consciousness, and what the world calls “dissolution” is really the removal of what māyā has laid over the truth. Creation and dissolution are both the never-ending work of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s māyā-śakti. The truth under both is the unchanging Parabrahman.

The teaching says that at the dissolution of the universe the elements dissolve back in reverse order: earth into water, water into fire, fire into vāyu, vāyu into ākāśa, ākāśa into ahaṃkāra, ahaṃkāra into mahat-tattva, and mahat-tattva into avyakta prakṛti. In the end, prakṛti itself dissolves into Bhagavān Vishṇu, who alone remains.

At the level of highest understanding, it is like a clay pot. When we look closely, the pot is seen to be nothing but clay. When the pot breaks back into clay, we see that only the clay was ever real. In the same way, the manifest world at every stage is nothing but Parabrahman. The world’s seeming arising and dissolving does not touch the truth of Bhagavān Vishṇu, who never changes.

This view presents pralaya not mainly as a disaster for the universe but as the natural rhythm of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s will to create and to draw back, like a single breath. The ṛshis state the deepest understanding of pralaya in the words “Brahma satyam”: Parabrahman alone is forever real, and the world’s arising and return is his own self-expression through māyā.

Per Agni Purāṇa

The Agni Purāṇa (Chapters 368 and 369) describes four kinds of pralaya. They range from the death of living beings that goes on every day, to the final freedom of the jīva (individual soul) through jñāna (true knowledge). Each kind works on a different scale and in a different way, and together they show the layered pattern by which the universe returns again and again to its source.

This teaching is spoken by Agni. He places the four pralayas within a wider account of what happens to the jīva after death, how a child lives in the womb (garbha-sthiti), and how ātyantika pralaya, the final dissolution, is moksha (liberation) itself.

The Purāṇa speaks of pralaya from its very first account. Telling Vasishṭha Maharshi of the Matsya avatāra, Agni begins: at the end of the past kalpa, the sleep of Brahmā was the occasion (nimitta) of a pralaya, and Bhūloka and all the other lokas sank in the ocean. With these words the account of the Matsya avatāra begins. Near its close, at the end of the Yama-gītā, Agni speaks of the ātyantika pralaya once more, and in the account of the Purāṇa’s own contents, the naimittika, prākṛtika and ātyantika pralayas are named among its subjects.

The Four Kinds of Pralaya (Chapter 368)

Agni teaches that pralaya is of four kinds:

1. Nitya-pralaya: the death of living beings that goes on every day, a constant dissolution at the level of each jīva. Birth and death go on without end in the stream of time. This pralaya is always present in the world and is never absent.
2. Naimittika-pralaya (also called Brāhma-laya): the complete stopping of all beings at the end of a kalpa. This is the “occasional” dissolution, brought on by the end of one of Brahmā‘s days.
3. Prākṛta-pralaya: the great dissolution at the end of Brahmā’s full life (two parārdhas). At this point the whole solid world returns into the unmanifest. In his opening list Agni gives it as the time when, after [a thousand] caturyugas have passed, the five bhūtas (great elements) merge into prakṛti.
4. Ātyantika-pralaya: the “absolute” dissolution of the individual jīva through jñāna. It is the permanent merging of the ātman (self) into the Paramātman (Supreme Self), with no return to saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death).

Naimittika Pralaya in Detail

Naimittika pralaya unfolds in a carefully described order at the end of each kalpa, a day of Brahmā made up of one thousand catur-yugas (cycles of four ages).

At the kalpānta (end of the kalpa), the earth is badly worn out. A hundred years of terrible anāvṛshṭi (drought) set in, and all living creatures die. Then Vishṇu, as the master of the universe, takes away all the water in the earth, the pātāla (lower worlds) and the oceans through the seven rays of the sun. Fed by this water, the seven rays become seven Ādityas (seven suns) and burn all three worlds, pātāla, bhū (earth) and svarga, to ash. The earth is left looking like the back of a tortoise.

From the breath of Ādiśesha arises Kālāgni-Rudra, who burns the pātālas from below. Vishṇu then burns the earth and svarga. The three worlds blaze like a furnace. The Purāṇa likens them to a blazing maṅgala, a roasting pan set on the fire. The beings of Bhuvarloka and Svargaloka, tormented by the heat, flee to Maharloka, and from there to Janaloka.

Then, from Hari’s own breath, great clouds arise, many-coloured and full of lightning. They pour rain for a hundred years and put out the fire of the universe. When the waters reach the place of the Saptarshis (the seven ṛshis), the breath that issues from Vishṇu’s mouth blows as a wind for a hundred years and scatters the clouds. Then Hari drinks up that wind. He lies down in yoganidrā (divine sleep) on Ādiśesha in the one great ocean (ekārṇava) for one kalpa. During this time the siddhas (perfected beings) and maharshis praise him as the one who has taken the form of Brahmā. Madhusūdana (Vishṇu), resting in his divine yoga-sleep (divya-yoga-nidrā), contemplates his own nature as Vāsudeva for the length of one kalpa. That yoga-nidrā is his own ātma-māyā. Then he rises, takes the form of Brahmā, and creates again.

Prākṛta Pralaya in Detail

Prākṛta pralaya comes after two parārdhas have passed, the full span of Brahmā‘s life. A parārdha is the number reached by multiplying by ten from one through eighteen places (10¹⁸). Twice this is the length of time after which prākṛta pralaya takes place.

In this dissolution, the whole solid creation dissolves back into prakṛti (nature) as each element is taken into the one before it. Fire blazes with no rain, and the pañcabhūtas (five great elements) begin to dissolve back in reverse order:

• With no rain, fire blazes up and everything becomes ash. All the effects, from the mahat-tattva down to viśesha (the particular elements), perish.
• By the will of Bhagavān Vishṇu, water takes into itself the quality of earth (gandha, smell), and the earth (pṛthivī, whose mark is gandha) dissolves into water.
• Fire drinks up water, whose quality is rasa (taste), and water dissolves into fire. The agni-tattva blazes.
• Vāyu (air) swallows fire’s quality, prakāśa (light), and fire dissolves. A great wind blows.
• Ākāśa (space) swallows vāyu’s quality of sparśa (touch), and vāyu dissolves. Only ākāśa remains, silent.
• Ahaṃkāra (the sense of “I”), the cause of the bhūtas, swallows ākāśa’s quality, śabda (sound).
• Taijasa-ahaṃkāra (the sense of “I” in its fiery form) draws the indriyas (senses) into itself.
• The mahat-tattva (cosmic intelligence) takes in ahaṃkāra.
• Finally, prakṛti takes in the mahat-tattva.

So the order is: bhūmi (earth) into jala (water), jala into agni (fire), agni into vāyu, vāyu into ākāśa, ākāśa into ahaṃkāra, ahaṃkāra into mahat-tattva, and mahat-tattva into prakṛti.

Prakṛti itself has two sides: vyakta (manifest) and avyakta (unmanifest). The vyakta dissolves into the avyakta. The one purusha who remains, the ever-pure consciousness, is nothing other than an aṃśa (portion) of the Paramātman. He is imperishable and pure in nature. In the end, prakṛti and purusha both dissolve into the Paramātman alone. That Paramātman is sat-svarūpa (of the nature of being) and jñāna-maya (made of knowledge), beyond buddhi (intellect) and all means of knowing. He is the one to be known (jñeya). In that Paramātman no names, no classes and no mental constructions remain.

Ātyantika Pralaya (Chapter 369)

Ātyantika pralaya is not an event in the universe. It is the moksha (liberation) of the individual jīva. Agni teaches that it comes through jñāna. More exactly, it comes from steadily seeing the three kinds of tāpa (suffering) that mark life in a body: ādhyātmika (from oneself), ādhibhautika (from other beings) and ādhidaivika (from the forces of nature). Seeing these gives rise to vairāgya (detachment), and vairāgya gives rise to jñāna. Ādhyātmika suffering is of two kinds: śārīra (of the body) and mānasa (of the mind). Through this inquiry the jīva realises that it is not different from the Paramātman and is freed forever, never to return to the cycle of birth and death.

The jīva that reaches ātyantika pralaya merges permanently into the Paramātman. This is final moksha.

Agni says the same at the close of the Yama-gītā (Chapter 382): when, through vedānta-jñāna, the understanding arises that all, everywhere, is Brahman, that is the ātyantika pralaya. As the space in a pot becomes one with the great space the moment the pot is broken, so the jīva that is freed becomes one with Brahman.

The Jīva’s Journey After Death (Chapter 369)

Agni sets his teaching on ātyantika pralaya within a detailed account of what happens to the jīva after death. It shows what the jīva who is not yet free goes through, in contrast to the one who reaches moksha.

The ātivāhika-deha: at the moment of death, the jīva receives the ātivāhika-deha, a subtle body that carries it onward. Only human beings have this body; other beings do not. In the ātivāhika body, the Yamadūtas (messengers of Yama) carry the jīva along the path of Yama to Yamaloka.

In Yamaloka: Yama sees the jīva. If the jīva is a dharmātmā (one who lived by dharma), Yama honours it. If it is a pāpātmā (one weighed down by pāpa, wrongdoing), Yama punishes it in his own realm. Citragupta then sets out the jīva’s śubha (good) and aśubha (bad) karmas in detail, and Yama gives it the proper yoni (kind of birth) and future experience.

Yama is the niyāmaka, the one who governs the jīvas: he gives them their yonis and their narakas according to each one’s karma, and it is he who fills the narakas. This world is the karma-bhūmi, the land where karma is done; the paraloka is the phala-bhūmi, the land where its fruits are reaped. So the jīva that has gone to Yamaloka sees svarga for a time and naraka for a time, going round like the pots on a water-wheel.

Āśauca and piṇḍa: during the time of mourning (āśauca) after death, the jīva stays in the ātivāhika body and lives on the piṇḍas (rice balls) offered by its relatives. If piṇḍa-dāna is not done for the preta (the departed soul), the jīva cannot be freed from the ātivāhika body. Then it reaches the preta-loka, takes another body for experience, and dwells there tormented by hunger and thirst, living on what is given to it in śrāddha.

Sapiṇḍīkaraṇa-śrāddha: a year after the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa-śrāddha has been done, the jīva gives up the preta-deha (the body of a departed soul) and receives the bhoga-deha (the body of experience). The bhoga-deha is of two kinds: śubha (born of puṇya, merit) and aśubha (born of pāpa). In this body the jīva lives through the results of its gathered karma.

The order of karma-phala (fruits of karma): after living through its karma-phala in the bhoga-deha, the jīva is sent into the paraloka (the world beyond). The bhoga-deha it leaves behind is eaten by niśācaras (beings who roam at night).

• If puṇya karma is left to be enjoyed, the jīva first goes to svarga. If pāpa is left, it must pass through naraka before svarga.
• When svarga, the fruit of puṇya, has been enjoyed first and the fruit of pāpa still remains to be lived through, the jīva takes another bhoga-deha.
• One who first lives through the fruit of pāpa and afterwards enjoys the happiness of svarga falls from svarga and is born in the houses of the pure and the prosperous.
• One who first lives through the fruit of pāpa while puṇya still remains takes an excellent body when that is complete.
• When its karma-bhoga (living out of karma) is nearly complete, the jīva is released from naraka and is born in a tiryag-yoni (an animal birth). After the karma left over is used up there, it is born again from a human womb.
• Those whose fruits of pāpa are used up but who still have puṇya are born, after naraka, into the homes of wealthy, virtuous householders, and enjoy their remaining puṇya. After that, they gain a higher human birth.

Entering the womb: the jīva enters the garbha (womb) as vāyu (air). Yama gives each jīva its particular yoni according to its karma.

Garbha-Sthiti: Life in the Womb (Chapter 369)

The Purāṇa gives a month-by-month account of how the child grows in the womb:

• First month: the jīva enters and exists in a half-liquid state (kalala).
• Second month: the mass becomes firm.
• Third month: the limbs (avayava) appear.
• Fourth month: bones (asthi), flesh (māṃsa) and skin (tvak) form.
• Fifth month: body hair (roma) appears.
• Sixth month: consciousness (caitanya) is established.
• Seventh month onwards: the jīva begins to feel duḥkha (suffering). The body is wrapped in the covering of the womb, with the head bent and the hands cupped above it.

The Purāṇa says the child’s place in the womb shows its sex: in the centre, the child will be napuṃsaka (neither male nor female); on the left side, a girl; on the right side, a boy. The child faces towards the back.

The jīva in the womb knows fully, without any doubt, what kind of birth it has entered. It remembers all the events of its past lives, from the very first up to this one. In that darkness it suffers greatly (pīḍā). From the seventh month, the jīva takes in the essence of whatever the mother eats. In the eighth and ninth months it is very restless. When the mother has relations, the child suffers more. If the mother exerts herself too much, the child is pained. When the mother is ill, the child suffers too. A moment in the womb feels like a hundred years.

The jīva goes through all this with many built-up desires and wishes (manorathas). At this point, even before birth, it resolves to strive for moksha-jñāna (the knowledge that brings moksha) the moment it leaves the womb.

Birth: at the time of birth, the prāsūti-vāyu (the force of birth) pushes the child downward. With its head turned down and pressed by the birth-canal (yoni-yantra), the child comes out. For one month after birth, even the touch of a hand hurts it.

The five elements make up the body:

• Ākāśa gives the tiny hollows and openings, such as the ears
• Vāyu gives breath, movement and the sense of touch
• Agni gives form, the eyes, heat, the power of digestion (jīrṇa-śakti), pitta (bile), intelligence, skin colour, strength, lustre and courage, and tejas (radiance)
• Jala gives sweat, taste, fat, rasa (body fluid), the power to feel, blood, the reproductive fluids, urine and phlegm
• Bhūmi gives hair, nails and the weight of the body

The parts of the body received from the mother are the skin (tvak), flesh (māṃsa), heart (hṛdaya), navel (nābhi), marrow (majjā), fat (medas) and the stomach (āmāśaya). The Purāṇa also names mala (the body’s waste) and kledana (moisture) among the parts born of the mother. From the father come the bones and the śukra (seed). Kāma (desire), krodha (anger), bhaya (fear), harsha (joy), dharma, bodily form, voice, complexion and the sexual organ come forth from the jīva’s own nature (svataḥ-prakaṭana).

The three guṇas (qualities of nature) each produce their own traits:

• Tamas produces ignorance, carelessness, laziness, delusion, craving and envy. It also brings hunger, thirst, want of virtue, grief and fear.
• Rajas produces desire, anger, courage, eagerness for yajña, talkativeness, pride and disrespect.
• Sattva produces the wish for dharma, longing for moksha, the highest bhakti (devotion) towards Vishṇu, compassion and hard work.

Forgetting at birth: the moment the jīva passes through the birth-canal, it loses all memory of its past lives. Only the saṃskāras (karmic tendencies) remain, hidden inside, quietly shaping the new person’s nature and path. Both the suffering of life in the womb and the resolve for moksha made before birth are forgotten. This is how the jīva is bound to saṃsāra again with each new birth.

The Body the Jīva Wears (Chapter 369)

Agni completes this teaching on the bodily suffering (śārīra santāpa) with an account of the body itself.

The three doshas:

• Vāta is strong in a man who is fickle, quick to anger, timid, talkative and fond of quarrels, and who moves through the sky in his dreams.
• Pitta is in excess in a man whose hair turns grey before its time, who is quick to anger, very intelligent and fond of battle, and who sees shining things in his dreams.
• Kapha is in excess in a man who is steady in friendship, steady in effort and firm of limb, who is wealthy, and who sees white cloth in his dreams.

The dhātus and their work: rasa gives life to the bodies of beings; blood nourishes; flesh and medas (fat) give oiliness; the bones and the marrow hold the body up; the increase of vīrya makes the body full. Ojas makes śukra and vīrya grow. It is the support of the jīva’s life and of prāṇa, and holds more essence than śukra. It lies near the heart and is slightly yellow.

The six aṅgas (main parts) of the body are the two legs, the two arms, the head and the belly.

The six layers of the skin: the outer one that is seen; the second, which holds the blood; the third, which holds kilāsa; the fourth, which holds kuṇḍa (as the text gives it); the fifth, the seat of the indriyas; and the sixth, which holds prāṇa.

The seven kalās (membranes): the first holds the flesh; the second, the blood; the third, the liver (yakṛt) and spleen (plīhā); the fourth, the medas and the bones; the fifth, the marrow, śleshma (phlegm) and waste, and lies in the pakvāśaya; the sixth, pitta; and the seventh, śukra, and lies in the śukrāśaya.

Other meanings of the word

In the Agni Purāṇa’s teaching on poetics, pralaya is also the last of the eight sāttvika bhāvas (states that arise from sattva): the senses ceasing to work through fasting and the like (Chapter 339). In śṛṅgāra (the mood of love) all the sāttvika bhāvas are present except vaivarṇya (loss of colour) and pralaya (Chapter 342). In the Purāṇa’s lexicon, saṃvarta, pralaya, kalpa, kshaya and kalpānta all mean the dissolution of the worlds (Chapter 360), and dishṭānta, pralaya, pañcatā, kāladharma and atyaya all mean death (Chapter 366).

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 2, 339, 342, 360, 366, 368–369, 382–383

Per Kūrma Purāṇa

The Uttarārdha (second part) of the Kūrma Purāṇa gives an orderly teaching on four types of pralaya that govern the universe.

The four range from the small daily dissolution of each being in sleep, to the great dissolutions that come with each day and night of Brahmā the creator, to the complete undoing of all twenty-five tattvas (principles of existence) at the end of Brahmā’s life, and finally to the ātman’s (the self’s) last dissolution through jñāna (true knowledge). Together they show Parameśvara (the Supreme Being) as both the ground from which creation comes and the ocean into which everything returns.

The Four Types

1. Nitya Pralaya: The Daily Dissolution

Nitya pralaya is the constant, small-scale dissolution that happens to each being every day. Sleep is its clearest form. Every night the senses draw back, the prāṇas (life-breaths) rest in the ātman, and the person is for a time free of the outer world. The birth and death of each jīva (individual soul) also belong here, for each life is a short arc of appearing between two dissolutions. Nitya pralaya is Parameśvara’s constant work: his saṃhāra-śakti (power of withdrawal) working not on the scale of the universe but in the close rhythm of every creature’s life.

2. Naimittika Pralaya: The Dissolution at the End of Brahmā‘s Day

At the end of each kalpa, one day of Brahmā made up of 1,000 catur-yugas (cycles of four ages), naimittika pralaya takes place. The Purāṇa describes it in vivid detail.

Seven sūryas (suns) rise in the sky at once. Their combined blazing heat dries up all the oceans, parches the earth, and burns everything from the pātālas (lower worlds) to Svarga. Then the Sāṃvartaka fire, the fire of pralaya, bursts out and burns up whatever is left. Huge clouds form from the rising heat and moisture, and torrents of rain pour down for a hundred years, flooding all the worlds. The fourteen bhuvanas (worlds) vanish into one single, unbroken ocean of water.

Brahmā draws all the beings he created back into himself, like a tortoise drawing in its limbs. He enters yoganidrā, the divine sleep. This is not unconsciousness but a state of deep inner rest. He rests for one night of the same length, another 1,000 catur-yugas. At the dawn of the new day he wakes, and creation begins again. The devas, the ṛshis, the Manus and the great beings all come forth once more to play their part in the next cycle.

3. Prākṛta Pralaya: The Dissolution at the End of Brahmā’s Life

When Brahmā’s full life of 100 Brahmā-years comes to an end, prākṛta pralaya takes place. This is the dissolution of the whole realm of prakṛti (nature). It is the most complete dissolution within time, in which even the subtle tattvas dissolve back into their causes.

The order of dissolution is the reverse of the order of creation. In creation, mahat-tattva (cosmic intelligence, buddhi) arose from the avyakta (the unmanifest). From mahat came ahaṃkāra (the sense of “I”). From ahaṃkāra came the five tanmātras (subtle elements). From these came the five mahābhūtas (great elements), and from these the solid world. In prākṛta pralaya, dissolution runs the other way:

• Pṛthivī (earth) dissolves into jala (water)
• Jala dissolves into tejas (fire, agni)
• Tejas dissolves into vāyu (air)
• Vāyu dissolves into ākāśa (space)
• Ākāśa dissolves into the five tanmātras
• The tanmātras dissolve into ahaṃkāra
• Ahaṃkāra dissolves into mahat (mahat-tattva)
• Mahat dissolves into avyakta (prakṛti, or Pradhāna)

Brahmā himself, who is the first appearance of the creative power, dissolves back into Parameśvara. The purushas, the bound jīvas, remain hidden in the avyakta with their karmas not yet worked out, waiting for the next great creation.

At this moment of complete dissolution, only Parameśvara remains: as pure nirguṇa caitanya (consciousness beyond all qualities), as the Purusha beyond Pradhāna, as the Īśvara untouched by any of the twenty-five tattvas. He dances the final tāṇḍava, the dance of dissolution, in which the whole prapañca (manifest world) is drawn back into his own nature. The Devī, as Parameśvara’s śakti, is fully present in this state too, for she is the Mūlaprakṛti (root nature) who has drawn all that was manifest back into herself.

4. Ātyantika Pralaya: Final Liberation

Ātyantika pralaya is the pralaya from which there is no return. It is the dissolution, through jñāna, of the ātman’s seeming separateness. The three dissolutions of the universe come round again and again and are followed by new creation. Ātyantika pralaya is permanent and cannot be undone for the ātman who reaches it.

The teaching of the Īśvara Gītā makes this clear: jñāna alone ends saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death). When the ātman knows itself as the twenty-fifth tattva, the pure caitanya that witnesses and stands beyond all twenty-four tattvas of prakṛti, the māyā-pāśa (the noose of māyā) falls away. Parameśvara describes the paramapada (highest state) as shining in the golden highest space, where no sūrya, candra (moon) or agni shines, because the ātman’s own light lights them up. That state is exactly ātyantika pralaya. Those who reach it do not return to saṃsāra.

This is the dissolution that the Pāśupata path aims for: the ātman’s recognition that it is one with Parameśvara, the Paśupati who cuts the pāśas (bonds). It is the mahāyoga in which the practitioner sees Parameśvara everywhere and sees everything as Parameśvara. This vision is itself the final dissolution of the separate self.

Parameśvara as the Ground of All Pralaya

In the end, the teaching on pralaya is a teaching about Parameśvara’s nature. He is Kālāgnirūpa, the very fire of time and dissolution. He is Sarvabhūtadāhaka, the one who burns up all beings. He is at once the one who creates (through Hiraṇyagarbha), who sustains (through Nārāyaṇa) and who destroys (as Rudra in the form of time). All three works happen by his ājñā (command) alone.

The four pralayas match the three tattvas taught in the third chapter of the Īśvara Gītā: Pradhāna (prakṛti), Purusha (the individual consciousness) and Īśvara (the supreme, independent principle). Naimittika and prākṛta pralaya work at the level of Pradhāna’s appearing. Ātyantika pralaya is the Purusha’s recognition of Īśvara, and the freedom that follows from the meeting of Pradhāna and Purusha that produces all saṃsāra.

Per Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa

The Seven Suns and the Saṃvartaka (Chapters 1 and 3)

The Upasaṃhāra Pāda (closing section) of the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa opens with a teaching on pralaya that gives detail on the signs and order of the dissolution of the universe.

Chapter 1, the seven Saṃvartaka suns: at the end of the kalpa, the sun’s energy grows into seven suns, called the Saṃvartaka suns. Each burns so fiercely that the sun’s usual life-giving warmth becomes a fire that burns up all moisture. The seven suns dry up all the waters of the earth and the oceans. Then the Saṃvartaka fire rises from below the earth and destroys pātāla and all the lower regions. Finally, the Saṃvartaka clouds arise, huge dark clouds that pour down destroying rain for hundreds of years. They put out the fire and flood all the worlds. All creation sinks into the Ekārṇava, the one undivided ocean, and all separate forms dissolve.

This chapter also places the pralaya within the account of the future Manvantaras (the ages of the Manus), from the eighth to the fourteenth. It describes the rulers, ṛshis and devas of each coming age, as part of its teaching on the vast sweep of time.

Chapter 3, pratisarga (dissolution of the elements): Chapter 3 gives a detailed account of pratisarga, the dissolution of the five elements in reverse order back into the unmanifest:

• Pṛthvī (earth), with its quality of gandha (smell), is taken into jala (water)
• Jala, with its quality of rasa (taste), is taken into agni (fire)
• Agni, with its quality of rūpa (form), is taken into vāyu (air)
• Vāyu, with its quality of sparśa (touch), is taken into ākāśa (space)
• Ākāśa, with its quality of śabda (sound), is taken into ahaṃkāra
• Ahaṃkāra is taken into mahat (mahat-tattva)
• Mahat is taken into the avyakta (unmanifest prakṛti)

This order is the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa‘s account of prākṛta pralaya.

Per Vāmana Purāṇa

The Vāmana Purāṇa describes the pralaya at the start of an ancient account that, Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada Maharshi, Avyakta Brahmā told in the Ādi Purāṇa: the account of how Bhagavān Śiva came to be called Kapālī.

Long ago the whole universe, moving and unmoving, became one ocean (ekārṇava). The sun, the moon, the wind and fire perished. Trees and mountains were submerged, and a blind darkness (andha-tamas), beyond thought and reasoning and wholly unknowable, spread everywhere.

In that darkness the Paramātmā (the Supreme Self) remained in sleep for a thousand years. At the end of that night he took a rājasa form and created the worlds. From that creation arose Brahmā, five-faced, in whom rajas predominates, master of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas and creator of the moving and unmoving; and likewise Rudra, made of tamas, three-eyed, trident in hand, with matted hair and a rudrāksha-mālā.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 2

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva (Mokshadharma Parva, Śukānupraśna), Chapter 233
• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 232–234
• Vishṇu Purāṇa, Prathamāṃśa (Book 1), Chapter 7
• Vishṇu Purāṇa, Shashṭhāṃśa (Book 6), Chapters 3–4
• Vāyu Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 6 (Śivapura-varṇana)
• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 4
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 2, 339, 342, 360, 366, 368–369, 382–383
• Kūrma Purāṇa, Uttarārdha
• Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Upasaṃhāra Pāda, Chapters 1 and 3
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 2