Chapter 233

“Vyasa said, ‘I shall now tell thee, how, when his day is gone and hisnight comes, he withdraws all things unto himself, or how the SupremeLord, making this gross universe exceedingly subtile, merges everythinginto his Soul. When the time comes for universal dissolution, a dozenSuns, and Agni with his seven flames, begin to burn. The whole universe,wrapt by those flames, begins to blaze forth in a vast conflagration. Allthings mobile and immobile that are on the earth first disappear andmerge into the substance of which this planet is composed. After allmobile and immobile objects have thus disappeared, the earth, shorn oftrees and herbs, looks naked like a tortoise shell. Then water takes upthe attribute of earth, viz., scent. When earth becomes shorn of itsprincipal attribute, that element is on the eve of dissolution. Waterthen prevails. Surging into mighty billows and producing awful roars,only water fills this space and moves about or remains still. Then theattribute of water is taken by Heat, and losing its own attribute, waterfinds rest in that element. Dazzling flames of fire, ablaze all around,conceal the Sun that is in the centre of space. Indeed, then, spaceitself, full of those fiery flames, burns in a vast conflagration. ThenWind comes and takes the attribute, viz., form of Heat or Light, whichthereupon becomes extinguished, yielding to Wind, which, possessed ofgreat might, begins to be awfully agitated. The Wind, obtaining its ownattribute, viz., sound, begins to traverse upwards and downwards andtransversely along all the ten points. Then Space takes the attribute,viz., sound of Wind, upon which the latter becomes extinguished andenters into a phase of existence resembling that of unheard or unutteredsound. Then Space is all that remains, that element whose attribute,viz., sound dwells in all the other elements, divested of the attributesof form, and taste, and touch, and scent, and without shape of any kind,like sound in its unmanifest state of existence. Then sound, which is theattribute of space, is swallowed up by Mind which is the essence of allthings that are manifest. Thus Mind which in itself is unmanifestwithdraws all that is manifested by Mind. This withdrawal of Mind asdisplayed into Mind as undisplayed or subtile, is called the destructionof the vast external universe.[892] Then Chandrama’s having made Mind(thus) withdraw its attribute into itself, swallows it up. When Mind,ceasing to exist, thus enters into Chandramas, the other attributes thatare owned by Iswara are all that remain. This Chandramas, which is calledalso Sankalpa, is then, after a very long time, brought under Iswara’ssway, then reason being that that Sankalpa has to perform a verydifficult act, viz., the destruction of Chitta or the faculties that areemployed in the process called judgment. When this has been effected, thecondition reached is said to be of high Knowledge. Then Time swallows upthis Knowledge, and as the Sruti declares, Time itself, in its turn, isswallowed up by Might, or Energy. Might or energy, however, is (again)swallowed up by Time, which last is then brought under her sway by Vidya.Possessed of Vidya, Iswara then swallows up non-existence itself into hisSoul. That is Unmanifest and Supreme Brahma. That is Eternal, and that isthe Highest of the High. Thus all existent creatures are withdrawn intoBrahma. Truly hath this, which should be conceived (with the aid of thescriptures) and which is a topic of Science, been thus declared by Yoginspossessed of Supreme Souls, after actual experience. Even thus doth theUnmanifest Brahma repeatedly undergo the processes of Elaboration andWithdrawal (i.e., Creation and Destruction), and even thus Brahman’s Dayand Night each consist of a thousand yugas.'”[893]