Hare Krishna, 

In the case of Naimittika pralaya, after Brahma's daytime, a dreadful drought occurs for 100 years. Then the sun changes into 7 suns and burns the lower realms, bhuloka, and also the upper realms till mahar loka. Then rain pours down for 100 years and completely floods the lower, middle and upper realms. In short, the whole universe is filled with water.

In the case of Prakrtika pralaya, after Brahma's death, the destruction that follows is similar to the Naimittika pralaya. First there would be a drought for 100 years. Then the sun with its heat would burn all the lokas of the universe. The next 100 years winds would turn the skies gray with dust. Then for the next 100 years rain will pour down and fill the universe with water.

Correct me if i'm wrong but here i don't see any major difference between the two types of pralayas. The only difference i see is that, in the first case, the destruction happens at the end of a kalpa. And in the second case, the destruction happens after the death of Brahma. But the nature of destruction in both the case is similar.

 

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  • E-Counselor

    Hare KRsna Prabhuji,

    PAMHO.

    In short, the end of a day of Brahma - the pralaya is upto earth and couple more upper planetary systems. All 14 planetary systems are not destroyed, whereas at the end of life of Brahma, even Brahmaloka is destroyed. Everything that is there in 14 lokas is destroyed.

    Haribol,

    Your servant,

    Radha Rasamayi DD

     

    • Thank you Radha ji and Hare Krishna :-)

  • Hare Krishna,

    No there is difference between the different types of pralayas. There are not only 2 types but totally 4 types of pralayas. 1. Nitya

    2.Naimitttika. 3. Prakritika. 4. Atyantika.

    Nitya pralaya as you are aware how there is death of life forms from time to time which happens everyday.

    Naimittika Pralaya-  every thousand cycles of chaturyugas. ie, 1000X 4 yugas =one Kalpa. At the end of every kalpa there is dissolution ( all the three worlds dissolve.. bhu, bhuvar,suva). Brahms life cycle is 100 years. It is divided into two phases.. each half is called Parardha. So there are 2 halves in braham's life of 100 yrs. in 100 years of life time...every night of brahma there is dissolution and every day begins with a new creation.  So Brahma sleeps for 1000Xchaturyugas and dissolves everything created. When he wakes up he starts creating again. But here you must notice that the during the dissolution of Naimittika Pralaya everything is dissolved except.. Mahat, Panchabhutas, Pancha Tanamantras and ahamkara. Prakriti is intact but in avyakta form. 

    Avyakta form means=unmanifested form.  Like for example.. when you dissolve all the gold ornaments ...the molten gold still remains to make new oraments right????? Molten gold form is the unmanifested form. 

    Let me go into more detail.--

    When there is a creation happening.. First one to develop from Prakirti is Mahat. This is the first primodial manifestion developed from Prakriti and Purusha. 

    Mahat= Buddhi, reason and judging capacity. It is first product developed from avyakta prakriti when prakriti is glanced upon by the purusha it become active and starts to become Vyakta from Avyakta..( Vyakta- manifested form)... in Mahat stage...there is no differentiation .. no discrimination.

    From Mahat when starts to attach itself to "I" then it develops Ahankara or ego. When differentiation and discrimination comes into picture. There is seperation of you and me. 

    from Mahat==> Ahamkara==> 3 gunas develop.( satva, Rajas, Tamo)

    by the combination of Satva+ Rajas=> the 5 sense organs develop. ( eyes, nose, tongue, ears, skin), 5 motor organs (Mouth, hands, legs, genitals, Anus) , Mind.

    By Tamo guna=> there develps the 5 great elements ( panchabhutas) and Panchatanmantras..{shabda( sound), sparsha( touch),vision ( roopa), taste( rasa), smell( gandha) }

    tanmantras are related to sense organs.

    But how is sound produced and travels.. it requires a medium.. that is space. Ether ( is the medium) that is how the pancha bhoota Ether or space forms

    Air is another panchabhoota which is essential for producing a feeling or touch sensation. air and ether are both essential for sound and sensation to travel a medium. without vibration there is no sound produced.. without the medium called air there is no trasfer of sound to produce movement or sensation of touch.

    then next panchabhoota is.. Fire...when somethings travel at a speed it produces friction and heat is generated.. heat is essential for light production and thus vison or roopa.

    then next panchabhoota is water. water is essential for sensing taste. If you there is dryness there is no taste. everything mixes in your saliva then only you are able to see the taste. So water is created.

    earth is essential for sense of smell. earth is even essential to from the gross outer covering of the body.

    When there is pralaya.. the reverse is happening.

    DEATH--air in the body mixes with the air outside, body is mixes with earth and becoming dust to dust, the senall senses all are going back mixing with their respective panchabhootas.

    all tanmantras and mind everything going back in reverse order mixing back into gunas..

    gunas mixing into ahamkara.

    ahamkara going back mixing into Mahat. Mahat.remains intact.storing all information. its like molten gold state.  This alone happens till Mahat stage... every night of dissolution of Brahma.

    But when Brahma life cycle of 2 parardhas... 100 years is over.

    Prakritika Pralaya happens. .. where in the Tanmantras, Mahat everything is lost. Mahat also mixes back into Prakriti and Prakriti becomes achetana ( inert) and goes back into garbha ( tummy ) of Lord Sri Maha Vishnu. Only that remains in this Pralaya is Parmatma.

    During this dissolution those who attain liberation thru spiritual knowledge become dissolved into Brahman and they existence is not there anymore for them there is no rebirth  ( sayujya Mukti). This dissolution is the 4 th type of dissolution this is called Atyantika Pralaya.

    So...there is a difference between Naimittika and Prakritika pralaya.

    Hope it helps.

     

    Hare Krishna.

    • Hare Krishna Gayatri ji. Thanks for the elaborate explanation. You said in your comment that during creation, the first thing that develops from Prakirti is Mahat, which is buddhi, reason or judging capacity. May i know whose mahat/buddhi we're speaking of here? Is it the cosmic intelligence or is it the intelligence of the jivatma?

      In my opinion, it can't be the jivatma, since during creation, jivatmas are not manifested first. It is Mahat that is manifested first. So, im guessing this mahat is the cosmic intelligence and not jivatma's intelligence. Am i right?

      Then from mahat, ahamkara forms. Again the same question arises. Whose ahamkara are we speaking of here? It can't be the jivatma's ahamkara in my opinion. It's got to be the cosmic ahamkara. 

      Now i don't have much knowledge about cosmic intelligence and cosmic ahamkara, so can you throw some light into this matter and explain them in detail ... Like when we say mahat or ahamkara, do we mean Ishwara's intelligence or Ishwara's ahamkara?

      • :-) aah yes. you are right. You know everything and still ask... testing me if I know or not is it??

        what do you understand when we say ... cells are the structural and functional unit of life. cells are the building blocks of life?

        I must say I don't have much inteligence to explain the Virat Purusha whom even vedas have failed to explain perfectly. 

        tiny sparks of the fire are we.  sparks also have the same light and same heat within but they are too tiny just the quantity is small but qualitatively we are same 

        tiny sparks all join can make a fire. 

        okay you explain whatever you know I will try to understand and then add comments. I will wait for you response. 

        • No No Gayatri ji, i am not testing you. hehe. I seriously have little knowledge on cosmic intelligence and cosmic ahamkara. Whatever i have written above is just my assumption and nothing more.

          Yes i am aware of the fact that we are just tiny sparks of fire and the fire whole is Krishna. We are qualitatively same with the lord but not quantitatively. I learned about this almost 2 years ago. Its the achintya bheda abheda philosophy. :-)

          All i know about the Virat Purusha is that the whole universe is His body. The sun and the moon (if im not wrong) are His eyes, the human beings form His legs and the devas form His head or maybe upper torso, or something like that.

          Also while i was going thru the Bhagavad Gita (As it is), i don't remember which chapter but there Srila Prabhupada commented that Virat Purusha is the universal form. Is this true?

          • yes, Bhagwad Gita As from 11.4 onwards there is description of the cosmic form or universal form. Hmm.. space is the one that creates differences.

            one cell can divide in to many if there is spaces between them. Concept of Advaita will go thru seive and divided and further divided and becomes duality( dwaita) and then it is further more divided into achintya bheda abheda philosophy. hope it makes sense.

             

            Mahat contains all individual buddhis and all potential matter of the gross universe in its cosmic extent as the first manifest principle, Mahat in turn produces Ahamkara the ego principle.

            just like information is carried in the computers is stored in the cloud. individual computers also have memory chips to store information.

            there is invidual consciousness and there is super consciousness.

            within the individual there is a parmatma and atma residing. soul and supersoul. and we all the inviduals are residing in the cosmic man. cosmic man ( virata purusha) has everything which is made of matter from devatas to water, from clouds to rain from seeds to heaven from heaven to netherworlds. but cosmic man is universal form only has everything that is made up of Matter or Maya.

            Prakriti or shakti is the mother of all maayik things that is material things and Purusha the cosmic form the Universal form is the ishvara who is proginitor of all material things.

            even Universal form and prakriti are present in Brhaman the Sat chit ananda or you can say the unmanifested. 

            Brahman are the effulgent rays emanating from the Supreme Lord.

             

             

  • This reply was deleted.
    • I noted all this information down on a piece of paper almost 2 years ago from an article which doesn't exist anymore. Yes, the content of that article were taken from SB Canto 12 ... The language used there was lucid and was easily comprehensible.

      Now another article exists with the same content (from SB canto 12) but it doesn't explain things in full detail, for example, it doesn't tell us in detail what happens in Naimittika pralaya. It only speaks of Prakrttika pralaya. Here's the link, if you're interested - SB Canto 12

      Srimad Bhagavatam: Canto 12 - Chapter 4
This reply was deleted.