Monday, September 3, 2012

The four types of pralaya

The pralaya or dissolution is of four types.

Nitya- This is death of beings which happens every day.


Naimithhika - A kalpa consists of 1000 chaturyugas. At the end of the kalpa, there will be drought for 100 years.Sun will burn everything and evaporate all water from the oceans. The four worlds (bhu,bhuva,suva,maha) will completely burn down by a fire called samvartaka fire. Then the samvartaka clouds will unleash torrential rains and everything will be destroyed and dissolved into water. Brahma will go to sleep for a time equivalent to 1000 chaturyugas before waking up to create again. This is called naimithhika pralaya.


Praakritika pralaya - At the end of Brahma's period (lifetime), each tatva will dissolve into the higher one ie:- prithivi  together with subtle gandha tanmatra into jala and so on until only paramatma remains in a state of equilibrium. This is called prakritika pralaya.


Aatyanthika pralaya - This is when one attains liberation through spiritual knowledge and there is no rebirth.

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