Garuda Mahā Purana - Achara Khaṇḍa
224 - Dissolution
Suta said:
1. At the end of a thousand sets of four Yugas there will be a causal dissolution of all created beings called Brahma laya or Naimittika laya. At the end of a Kalpa there will be a drought extending over a hundred years.
2. Then seven fierce suns will blaze in the sky. Drying up every drop of water they will wither up the three worlds.
3. The earth, Bhuvah, Svah and Mahar Lokas with all their inmates mobile and immobile will be completely dried up. Lord Vishnu in the form of Rudra, will burn nether worlds as well.
4. First burning up the three worlds, Lord Vishnu will begin creating clouds from his mouth. These clouds of various delusive nature will shower water for a hundred years.
5. The whole world will appear like a vast ocean of water. All mobile and immobile beings will be destroyed. Vishnu will then lie down on the back of the serpent Ananta assuming the form of the Supreme Brahman.
6. After sleeping for a thousand years he will begin creating the universe again. Now I shall explain the dissolution called Prakrutika. Pralaya (Natural dissolution), O Shaunaka, please listen.
7. When a hundred years (of Brahma) are completed, Lord Hari with his yogic powers destroys the whole universe after absorbing within himself the deity Brahma.
8. A long period of drought and blazing sun will be followed by the formation of clouds that will pour heavy showers for a hundred years and fill the cosmos with water.
9. With water within, the Anda (the Cosmic Egg) will burst when the life span of Brahma is over and dissolve in water.
10. The whole Earth sustaining the world will dissolve in water. The waters will merge in fire and the fire will merge in wind.
11. The wind will merge in Ether and the Ether in Bhutadi (the essential matter). This essential matter merges into Mahan (the Cosmic Intellect). The Mahan merges into Avyakta Prakruti (the undifferentiated Nature) which loses itself into the Purusha (the eternal subjectivity).
12. Hari sleeps for a hundred years and then creates on the onset of day in the same order manifesting finally into the world.
Summary of chapter 224 of the Garuda Mahā Purana - Achara Khaṇḍa is as follows:
The Divine Master details the Eightfold Path of Yoga: Yama, Niyama, Āsana, Prāṇāyāma, Pratyāhāra, Dhāraṇā, Dhyāna, and Samādhi. As it happens, systematic yogic practice purifies bodily channels and stills the mind for divine absorption.