Prākṛta Pralaya
Prākṛta Pralaya · prākṛta pralaya, “the dissolution into Prakṛti”
Grammar: masculine noun phrase; prākṛta (belonging to Prakṛti, from prakṛti) with pralaya (dissolution): “the dissolution into Prakṛti”. The Brahma Purāṇa also calls it the prākṛtika pralaya and the prākṛta laya.
Meaning: the dissolution that comes once in two parārdhas, when the whole manifest world, with its cause, dissolves into the unmanifest Prakṛti, and Prakṛti and Purusha dissolve into the Paramātmā. It is one of the three kinds of pralaya, with the naimittika pralaya at the end of a kalpa and the ātyantika pralaya, the jīva’s moksha.
In the scriptures: in the Brahma Purāṇa, Vyāsa teaches the munis that the pratisañcara (dissolution) that comes to all beings, pralaya, is of three kinds: naimittika, prākṛtika and ātyantika. The pralaya that happens once in two parārdhas is the prākṛta pralaya. The munis asked him the measure of a parārdha, and he told them: in counting, each place to the left is ten times the one before it, and the number in the eighteenth place, 100,000,000,000,000,000, is the parārdha. Twice that many years is a dviparārdha, and the pralaya that comes once in a dviparārdha is the prākṛta pralaya. Then this whole manifest world, with its root cause, dissolves into the unmanifest root principle, Prakṛti (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 232).
Having told the naimittika pralaya, Vyāsa says, “Now I will tell the prākṛta pralaya; listen.” First, through drought, fire and the like, all things on the surface of the lokas, Bhūloka, Pātāla and the rest, perish. Then, by the will of Bhagavān Vishṇu, all the modifications of Prakṛti beginning with Mahat perish. The order is this:
- Water takes away the gandha (smell) of earth, and earth becomes water; with a great roar and great speed the waters fill everything up to the Lokāloka mountain.
- Fire takes away the rasa (taste) of water, and water becomes fire; all is filled only with flames.
- Air takes away the rūpa (form) of fire, and fire becomes air; the whole world is only air, blowing in the ten directions.
- Ākāśa draws into itself the sparśa (touch) of air; air dissolves, and everywhere there is only ākāśa, pure emptiness.
- The principle Bhūtādi draws into itself the śabda (sound) of ākāśa.
- Bhūtādi dissolves into the Mahat-tattva, and Mahat into Prakṛti.
That is the state in which sattva, rajas and tamas stay in balance, none roused more than the others. This Prakṛti is also called Pradhāna, the cause, the supreme cause; manifest and unmanifest, it dissolves into the Avyakta, which is the Akshara, eternal and all-pervading, itself a part of the Paramātmā, the Self of all beings. In that Paramātmā, pure existence and pure knowledge, all names and distinctions dissolve; he is called Brahman, Paraṃdhāma, Paramātmā, Parameśvara and Vishṇu, and those who reach him do not come back into birth. Prakṛti and Purusha both dissolve into him. A time of two parārdhas is one day of Vishṇu, and his night is of the same measure; this too is said by comparison with the world, for the Paramātmā has no day and night. “O ṛshis, this that I have told is the form of the prākṛta laya” (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 233).
Related terms: Pralaya · Naimittika Pralaya · Ātyantika Pralaya · Parārdha · Prakṛti · Mahat · Avyakta
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 232–233